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Red 6 & Synchro Leader - Flight Lieutenant Paul ‘Pablo’ O’Grady Age – 33 Pablo flew the Typhoon before joining the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team. Education – He attended St. Aidan’s High School in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and was a member of 58 (Harrogate) Squadron Air Training Corps. After being awarded a Royal Air Force Sixth Form Scholarship he went onto complete his A – Levels. Career – Joined the Royal Air Force in 1996. After completing flying training Pablo was posted to Royal Air Force Linton-on-Ouse as a qualified flying instructor where he taught students on the Tucano aircraft. Following completion of Tactical Weapons Training, he was selected to fly the Jaguar GR3A; one of the Royal Air Force’s single-seat ground attack and reconnaissance aircraft. In 2006 Pablo joined the Red Arrows, Flying as Synchro Leader for his last year in 2008. Upon completion of his three year tour with the Red Arrows, Pablo was posted to XI Squadron which is equipped with the RAF’s newest, most technologically advanced multi-role jet, the Typhoon. Due to Pablo’s exceptional skills and performance during his time on the Team he has been requested to re-join for 2010, to replace the injured Flight Lieutenant Mike Ling, and becomes the first Typhoon pilot on the Red Arrows. Background – Pablo first discovered a passion for flying in the Air Training Corps. In his spare time Pablo enjoys windsurfing, mountain biking and skiing. Pablo currently lives in Stamford with his wife Claire and dog Henry. |
Sad to hear the Reds will not be at the Southend Air Festival this year and will not be displaying until 16th june.
Hope the guys are recovering well. |
Glad to hear the Reds will still be flying a nine ship this year, albeit with a slightly delayed start to the season. :D
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Sad to hear the Reds will not be at the Southend Air Festival this year and will not be displaying until 16th june. |
The Patrouille de France lost one their aircraft yesterday in an accident close to the Plan de Dieu airfield. The pilot ejected successfully and suffered minor injuries and burns. Photos in the local press show him being treated by firefighters and medics at the edge of the crash fireball.
Vaucluse : un avion de la Patrouille de France s'est crashé | La Provence |
So Reds, Brazilians and now PAF. They say they come in 3's. Sorry the Brazilian chap didn't make it out. RIP
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Don't forget the Indians:
Indian Navy airshow crash kills two: key.Aero, Airshows Or the Kiwis: Red Checkers grounded: key.Aero, Airshows |
Interesting note in the French article.
They are mentioning the fact that the Patrouille de France have a spare pilot able to full fit any position but the leader's one. How accurate this is, I don't know. |
Zut alors! Zat will be 'Jaques of all trades'.
I suspect they may have a 'reserve' who could be trained up to fly in one of several positions, but I very much doubt he/she could 'slot' straight in. The differences between left side(un-natural) and right side(yeah!) and the various different tweaks and fudges each slot requires would take several weeks to attain. |
Nom, d'un chien! It is said that the Patrouille not only has a Mme in the team, but that she is also the leader - est c'est vrai?
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Oui, vous avez raison..
Après une année particulièrement riche en événement (tournée internationale, Salon de Dubaï,…), la PAF prépare d’ores et déjà sa série pour 2010. C’est aux ordres du leader, le commandant Virginie Guyot, première femme pilote de chasse dans le monde à prendre ce poste au sein d’une patrouille acrobatique, que la PAF sera cette année encore ambassadrice de l’armée de l’air française. Voici donc le nouveau visage de la Patrouille de France, version 2010. Athos 1 – Leader - Commandant Virginie Guyot Athos 2 – Intérieur droit - Lieutenant Jean-Noël Guy Athos 3 – Intérieur gauche - Capitaine Antoine Hauser Athos 4 – Charognard - Capitaine Cédric Tranchon Athos 5 – Extérieur gauche - Capitaine Georges-Eric Castaing Athos 6 – Extérieur droit - Capitaine Paco Wallaert Athos 7 – Leader solo - Capitaine Sylvain Pillet Athos 8 – Second solo - Capitaine Sylvain Courtot Athos 9 – Remplaçant - Capitaine Ludovic Bourgeon La Patrouille de France, ambassadrice des Ailes françaises, symbole du savoir-faire aéronautique de notre pays, effectue chaque année une cinquantaine de meetings en France et à l’étranger. |
Merci, mon brave!
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Interesting note in the French article. They are mentioning the fact that the Patrouille de France have a spare pilot able to full fit any position but the leader's one. How accurate this is, I don't know. |
They also have twelve aircraft to chose from for the eight they require. |
The injured pilot was N°2 in the syncro Pair
The Patrouille de France trained again today putting a superb display in the skies of Salon de Provence, just over the airfield and the golf course were I was training with a white ball. The spare pilot is generally a pilot in his fourth year with the Patrouille de France and has flown at least two years as one of the syncro pair. So yes he can fly any position and he trains as much as the other eight pilots. The leader Virginie Guyot was n°4 last season, and deputy leader of the Patrouille de France. Unlike the rest of the alpha jets usualy used for training at the same point than the Hawk in the RAF, the PAF alpha Jets are equiped with the Martin baker MK 10 ejection seat which probably saved the pilot from that very low level ejection. QFI's and student must contend with MK 4 ! |
Another dreary Southend Airshow in prospect However, Those Essex girls make up for the lack of aircraft entertainment !!!! Southend is the Bredbury Hall of the 21st century |
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The leader Virginie Guyot was n°4 last season, and deputy leader of the Patrouille de France. Virginie was a recce pilot on Mirage F1CR (2/33 'Savoie' Sqn at Reims) before joining the Patrouille airsound |
...the Bredbury Hall ... |
Well, I raise 'mon chapeau' to the 'spare' :ok:
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Originally Posted by Evanelpus
will not be displaying until 16th june.
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It might take Wart On to take months to fit a smoke-pod to a Hawk, but at their birthplace Dunsfold, it was rather less.
I should know, as my father Stan was in charge of fitting the originals ! I would think smoke pods, not Hawks, are the rarity. Incidentally, Reds' Hawks have a modified throttle for fine movement adjustments, I've flown in such an aircraft with an ex-Reds pilot, in very close formation with another Hawk. Later, in my day, we were asked by an African Hawk customer if it would be OK to pipe 'Genklene' - Tricoethanol, now banned - into the jetpipe. There ensued the fastest international phone calls in history, as this stuff when turned into pretty white smoke is Phosgene gas ! We had another request for green smoke, which led to a static Hawk trying various dyes in the basically diesel smoke pod. Our best result was met by a seriously ballistic phone call to Dunsfold's airfield manager; it was a calm day and we'd managed to dye this woman's hanging washing bright green ! So success can be measured by various scales... DZ |
Don't think the throttle was modified - was it not the Fuel Control Unit (FCU)?
Also, I believe the reason the smoke mod took so long was that each aircraft is different internally and so the mod needed accurate drawings and bespoke manufacture. |
Spoken like a true Northener...
No, XX154 ( the first ) had a few minor differences, otherwise believe it or not the aircaft were built on jigs, to drawings, no Whippets involved... Fitting any such kit on an aircraft is going to involve some curves etc, but any fitter worth his or her salt could handle that. You seem to be expecting an Ikea ' Red Arrows installation pack ' ! |
I did the 2 smoke conversions at Dunsfold in the mid 80's.
Cutting the 3 large holes in frame 34 took a little moral courage because the modified tailcones did not arrive until just before we delivered the a/c. There were no jigs etc at dunsfold as istr that the original smoke conversions were done at Bitteswell,so it was a case of careful measurement and home made tooling ! Luckily the tailcones lined up very well :ok: The conversion is relatively straight forward,but as others have alluded to - some of the components are 'long lead' items and do take a while to manufacture. I was not allowed to attend the engine runs on the 1st a/c,and a large cloud of smoke was followed by a van racing over to me to ask how to switch the smoke 'off' :) I laughed and said ''doesnt matter - it'll run out in a few seconds'' LOL |
Don't think the throttle was modified - was it not the Fuel Control Unit (FCU)? Also, I believe the reason the smoke mod took so long was that each aircraft is different internally and so the mod needed accurate drawings and bespoke manufacture. Edit actually the component icy on the early Hawks is very good,but there are a few little differences externally.XX154 still has quite a few 'differences' LOL |
Yes you do know me A....
I was referring specifically to drilling jigs etc for the smoke conversion,not for hawk manufacture :) |
FCU to a different mod standard, ECA standard Hawk item.
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Thanks XV...I had thought that perhaps the Reds might have managed to get hold of the mythical modded ECA to eliminate thrust pulsing ?:)
Well it may not be mythical but I cannot remember ever seeing one !! rgds B |
Mythical ECA did exist, but was turned down because of cost. How many ECAs have been replaced, Aircraft come back early because of thrust pulsing over the years?????
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I'll take that as a no, then:ugh:
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Mythical ECA did exist, but was turned down because of cost. How many ECAs have been replaced, Aircraft come back early because of thrust pulsing over the years????? BOAC...we can all learn interesting info on here,I honestly did not know the eca mod had been turned down completely !!doesnt surprise me!!MOD never seemed to want to spend any money on Hawks ! I will not mention hydraulic rig connections :rolleyes: |
Reds granted PDA yesterday a week early! They will be able to display at the Cosford Air Show this weekend. Well done team :ok:
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To the Team - Bonne chance - have a good season
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Unless you have seen this already this link will tell you much.
RAF Red Arrows - Display Pilots It seems that Mike Ling is still injured and his place is taken by Paul O'Grady in the No 6 slot. PPP |
Hate to think what Paul O'Grady's nickname might be.
Is it Lily? |
Thanks all. Well done the lads (and lassies....)
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Ramsey Sprint here at TT 2010 wasn't quite the same without the team. There was a contingency of a couple of Gnats, apparently, but the wx was so poor this morning they couldn't get here.
Maybe next year, if I haven't managed to organise a round of Red Bull Air Racing in the bay :ok: |
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