Tedious

These RAFAT threads can be tedious, founded on rumour and hear say.
Can we stick to the facts?
ALL Reds pilots go through a STRICT regime to ensure suitability, regardless of gender, race, sexuality etc. There will be inevitably some “firsts”, as with Kirsty.
The team manager (Red 10) is chosen for his managerial qualities and lots of other abilities, not on his formation piloting skills.
The team moving to a seven ship seems to make sense based on the criteria and time it takes to choose and train the pilots…who normally complete a 3 year tour. This isn’t the end of the Red Arrows before the naysayers jump on the bandwagon.

I’m tired, goodnight.

C6

Merlins.

Is that a new scheme on the 504? I’ve not been to OW since 2006…

Whisky Golf

BBMF, that’s fantastic! Now can we have Whiskey Golf in the red, white and grey as used by most RAF trainers in the 70’s to 90’s please?

The Leopard Moth looks stunning, what I’d do for a flight in that….

Stencilling on the Spitfire 24

The team working the Vampire at the moment are doing so well, I wonder if they’ll get around to putting some stencilling on the Spit 22/24? It looks like an enlarged model at the moment…

I spent a bit of time at Biggin in 2005 talking with Ray, him on the wing of MH434 me sitting on the tip of Hurricane LF363. He was perfectly pleasant and very warm. He then did his routine, and taxied back into his slot between hurricane and another spit, swinging the tail with only 6-8 inches of clearance, and parked perfectly. After he performed a mag check, he shut down though the noise didn’t stop…..the rapturous applause and cheering from the Biggin crowd was intense, proper spine tingling. Ray merely waved a gloved hand to wave and carried on with his business. He was (in my few recollections) a gent and extremely skilful pilot.

To counter any arguments about display flying dropping off, less than a year after Rays passing, Lee Proudfoot and John Romain performed an evening display at Goodwood Revival (you MUST go at least once in your life), in ‘434 and Ferocious Frankie, and it was extremely impressive, though it seemed both were afraid of too much altitude (!) and the low dusk lighting made the nav lamps and blue exhaust flames all the more impressive. Ray would have approved….

Kurt