Blue Eagles

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Blue Eagles Team News Archive

Archived 4 September 2001

1997 – The Displays

The first public display was, much to the teams delight, in the south of France at the French Army’s helicopter training base at Le Luc, just up the road from St Tropez! The weather was outstanding and the team were hosted superbly by the French. The 2 day show was well attended and the Blue Eagles and the Patrouille de France displays were regarded as the highlights of the show. The Gazelle manoevres were particularly applauded by the French army as they operate Gazelles and know a thing or two about flying them, however they hadn’t seen the Gazelle being flown with such panache and precision at the extremes of the flight envelope.

Southend was blessed with glorious weather and so a crowd of 300,000 on the first day swelled to 600,000 on the second as people made for the seaside. Displaying over a still sea poses great problems for the pilots as height judging becomes very difficult. The pilots can’t rely on their instruments in these situations as the display is so dynamic that gyros topple and render them inoperable and the proximity of the other aircraft mean that the Mark 1 eyeball is the best equipment available. A nearby boat provided the pilots with a much needed reference point.

Whilst the Gazelle’s went off in search of yet more sunshine to display in Cyprus, the Lynx went to RAF Cottesmore to display at their open day. The solo Lynx display provided a refreshing contrast to the Tornado displays! The display organiser had done a splendid job and the team members thoroughly enjoyed Cottesmore. The enjoyment factor is important to the Blue Eagles because as I mentioned earlier, the team display in their own time.

Cyprus. One of the most unfortunate bids for our services came from the Garrison stationed out in Cyprus. Lead, Capt Steg Williams and his no.2, W02 Troff Troughear were despatched with a specially devised Gazelle pairs display to show to the expectant crowd. Aclimatising being extremely important, they enjoyed a few days in the sun and then displayed on the Saturday and Sunday. Much to their dismay their returning aircraft went unserviceable, forcing them to stay for a few extra days. Despite the fun, this turned out to be one of the more difficult displays to complete. Aircraft performance was severely degraded by high the temperatures, and the display axis was centred next to three sets of electricity pylons. Aside from which on their return no one would speak to them for a few days because of their suntans. We know they had a good time!

The Woodford show is always well attended and this year was our biggest disappointment. It rained and rained and rained. Although this didn’t put off a lot of individuals who braved the increasingly muddy airfield. The problem here was the low cloud. We managed to do a flypast but there was no way a full display would be possible. The ever abiding memory was seeing the B-1 (just!) as made its overshoot from the ILS!

Waddington saw us do 2 displays over the weekend. Although the weather was not suitable for a number of the display participants to do their full display, it was good enough for us!

Windsor race course was our next (unlikely) venue and if you were at home you might have caught us live on Sky Sports 3.

Off to the continent again in July where we displayed at Gilze-Rijen in Holland and Koksidje in Belgium. Both are premier airshows and besides, it allowed our dedicated band of Dutch followers to see us on their homeground!

The British Grand Prix at Silverstone saw us displaying on the Saturday and with the prime slot just before the start of the race on Sunday. Although the TV coverage was centred on activities on the starting grid at the time it was interesting to watch just how many drivers and pit crews stopped what they were doing to watch the display overhead! A fairly major distraction I would guess since most of the drivers have their own helicopters. One of our major sponsors is Vauxhall who provide us with the excellent Vauxhall Frontera 4WD as our ground transport and as a tow vehicle for our ground display caravan. Not many Frontera’s have lapped the Grand Prix circuit on the day of the British Grand Prix I’ll bet! I know of one that has! In what has now become tradition, Eddie Jordan of Jordan racing, holds a party after the Grand Prix. Joining him on stage was Damon Hill (on guitar) Chris de Burgh (vocals and guitar) and Sergeant Andrew Wood (tambourine). The crowd went wild! Much to everyone’s relief Woody promised to stick to flying the Lynx for the rest of the season.

The Blue Eagles, with Sponsors Cotswold Camping, at a UK Airshow

Fairford. It’s the biggest and the best. If you haven’t been – leave home now to beat the queues for next year and if you went in July and you are home now – you did well! Alternatively you can travel in by helicopter and be staggered at the traffic queues but not at all bothered by them! We displayed on both days and provided a refreshing contrast by not using afterburners and not raising and lowering the undercarriage as a highlight of the display!

Middle Wallop. A weekend at home for the team. "Music in the Air" is a unique and distinctly British affair. The idea is that you turn up with a picnic and some wine and listen to a philharmonic orchestra playing in a specially constructed sound stage whilst aircraft perform overhead to the music. Aahh. It’s simply magic. The grace of a glider performing aerobatics to a viennese waltz and the stirring tones of Walton merging with the unique sound that only the Merlin of a Spitfire can produce produce sheer emotion. If you haven’t been – you are missing a wonderful show. The Blue Eagles display in the gloom of sunset with landing lights blazing through the orange smoke added to the atmosphere created by the resounding music of the orchestra and will be remembered by many as the highlight of the show.

The Wallop challenge on the following day was characterised by simply superb flying conditions. The challenge, issued by the Army Air Corps to the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force is a competition of flying skill in a number of events- hot air ballooning, aerobatics, gliding, precision helicopter flying and parachuting. Suffice to say that the Army won! Mind you, we do have the odd national champion to call on from our ranks!

Shoreham. This charming airfield is a firm favourite of the team as the variety of aircraft at the display is a refreshing change from the "jetnoise" displays that are becoming all too common. After all, there is a limit to the number of times you can watch a fast jet flyby with wheels down, wheels up, afterburners on, afterburners off, with 2 minutes of silence between each flyby!

We displayed on both days with the weather, particularly on the Sunday, being especially kind.

Shepway (Folkestone) is unusual in that not only is it one of the few free displays in the UK but the spectators have a unique clifftop veiwpoint 150′ up! It therefore allows excellent photographic opportunities with the aircraft appearing 150′ lower. It also was what turned out to be the last display commentary by our Manager, Major John Davis, who left us on posting to Germany after two very successful years with the team. We shall miss him and the wisdom that over 8000 hours helicopter flying experience brings with it. We wish him and Lynn all the very best for the future. (and hope that it’s a mild winter in Bosnia!) Folkestone also proved to be a very handy venue for our ubiqutous Dutch following to visit. Great to be reunited with them again and catch up with all the gossip!

Leuchars. This was the only show where our display sequence fell foul of the wind which is a tribute to the design of the display and a reflection of the generally good weather we experienced throughout this season. Sadly when the wind did drop and we were able to display there wasn’t a slot available. It did mean however that we were able to meet a lot more of our Scottish followers personally.

Silverstone again! This time it was the British Touring Car championships and we flew two displays.

Helitech at Redhill. This is the premier helicopter trade exhibition in Europe and of course we were invited to display. It was a shame but flying training committments at Middle Wallop meant that we couldn’t display throughout the week but only on the first two days. The displays were very well received and when you consider that the audience were generally helicopter professionals you knew you did well when you heard the crowd gasp and break into spontaneous applause.

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