JANUARY

New Year’s Honour for Simon Meade

Wing Commander Simon Meade, until two weeks ago Leader of the Red Arrows, has been awarded the OBE in the New Year’s Honours List.

As readers of these pages will know, Simon was a Team pilot in 1991, 1992 and 1993 before being appointed Team Leader and Squadron Commander for the 1997 Season. In all he flew 551 public displays, of which 262 were as Team Leader, in 27 different countries. Simon was promoted to Wing Commander on 01 July 1999 and so became the first Red Arrows Leader to hold that rank during his tour with the Team. He will shortly be starting a Spanish language course before becoming a student on the Staff College course in Madrid.

01 January 2000

Three of the Blues have been awarded Commendations for Meritorious Service by Air Vice-Marshal Tony Stables, Air Officer Commanding Training Group Defence Agency.

SAC Lisa Bromley was awarded her commendation for her outstanding support to the Squadron over the display season and her work, in her own time, for charity. As an MT driver, she travels around the country chasing our aircraft in various modes of transport from diesel bowsers to articulated lorries. She also finds time to raise money for charity (in particular for the Guide Dogs for the Blind), and she has a particular talent for persuading her colleagues and other Station personnel to part with their cash for a worthy cause.

Cpl Steve Reece is an airframes technician ("rigger") on the Team. He has given outstanding support to the Team throughout the season. He was a regular member of the road support party during the 99 Season and he and his fellow riggers had a particularly busy season. Steve played a major part in upholding the motto of the Blues, "keeping the show on the road", through his sheer hard work and application. He is also heavily involved in the Station Families Club and works extremely hard as a committee member of the Bowl to ensure the success of the all-ranks social facility on the camp at Cranwell. Steve was somewhat surprised with his award and is trying hard to make arrangements for his dress uniform to be tailored to fit him in time for the awards ceremony later this year (so writes his Boss!).

Junior Technician Harry Harrison was a key member of the Display Support Team during the 99 Season. As a member of the Dye Replenishment Team, he was responsible for ensuring that all the aircraft were replenished with "smoke" for every display, not as straightforward a task as it may sound because there is no way of telling, other than listening for a valve operating within the underwing pod, whether the tanks are filled correctly. The Team had been using the same dye replenishment rig for a number of years and it was beginning to show its age. Harry was sent to Amsterdam (very reluctantly, no doubt!) to visit Sun Electric Systems and to draw up a specification for a new dye rig. He worked extremely hard on the project and gave up his own spare time to research and design a new rig. The new rig was delivered at the start of the 99 Season and has made a huge difference to the ease in which the aircraft are replenished with dye.

21 January 2000

In spite of what some people think, the Red Arrows are not an autonomous unit: they have to fit into the normal RAF chain of command and for that they need top cover. Two officers in that lofty position and who rarely get a mention in these pages are going to get one now.

Air Commodore Mal Prissick is Commandant of the RAF Central Flying School and he has his Headquarters here at Cranwell, which is rather nice for him because it means that he can fly with the Red Arrows, or fly solo in a Red Arrows Hawk, whenever the mood takes him (which it does whenever there is a Hawk available). He was born in Yorkshire and joined the RAF in 1966 as a technician apprentice at Locking and later Halton. He was awarded a Cranwell cadetship in 1969 and graduated with both the Sword of Honour and the Queen’s Medal. Air Cdre Prissick spent many of his early years flying the Buccaneer but he changed over to the Tornado in 1982.

The Central Flying School (CFS) is the oldest flying school in the world: it has been continuously in service since it was formed in 1912 – six years before the RAF itself was formed. The aim of CFS today remains as it has always been: to develop and maintain the highest possible standards of pure flying and flying instruction on both fixed and rotary wing aircraft throughout the RAF. CFS is also responsible for the selection and training of all flying instructors. The Red Arrows are functionally part of CFS because the Team was formed at CFS in 1965, then based at Little Rissington, and all the early Red Arrows were flying instructors on the staff of CFS.

The Commandant’s senior staff officer, since the beginning of 2000, is Wing Commander David Bolsover who has the odd and rather confusing title of Wing Commander RAFAT. One of the Wing Commander’s many tasks is to be the senior flying supervisor for the Red Arrows; he keeps a professional eye on what the Team pilots are doing and reports to the Commandant, Air Commodore Mal Prissick. Wg Cdr Bolsover is another member of the Buccaneer Mafia although he started his flying career on helicopters. As it happens Wg Cdr Bolsover and Air Cdre Prissick are old friends. The Wg Cdr was OC Operations Wing at Marham recently when Air Cdre Prissick was the Station Commander there. David has a passion for very old aeroplanes and he is currently working on an autogiro – with help and advice from Wing Commander Ken Wallis (Retired) – he who flew the autogiro for James Bond and who in the 50s and 60s was world-famous for his exploits in that type of aircraft and still lives and flies in Norfolk near RAF Marham.

21 January 2000

We have had quite a few emails bemoaning the fact that the Red Arrows are disbanding – at least, they are, according to a well-known UK aviation magazine. Thank you all for your concern but you can relax.

Let me reassure you: the Red Arrows are not being disbanded, nor are we being taken over by a well-known British Company that has just changed its name. The magazine in question ran an article in which the columnist made his own tongue-in-the-cheek predictions for 2000. I must say, having just bought the magazine and read the article, it is easy to see why some readers might have thought it was a genuine news item if they did not also read the heading at the top of the page.

As I have written often before in these pages: the latest information about the Red Arrows will always be found right here first. As a matter of fact, reports from quite a few newspapers and magazines from many countries now use these pages as the basis of their stories about the Team. I know that because they call me at Cranwell to tell me so.

I have just bought Encarta 2000 Reference Suite on DVD for my private use at home. The first thing I did after installing it was to search for “Red Arrows”. And we are there! It would make the pilots blush with pride if I told you how it describes the Team so you will have to look for yourselves. However, the hot links provided by the on-line Encarta web site will lead you – guess where? Yes, right here. Now that is fame!

22 January 2000

Congratulations to Red Arrows photographers Cpl Richie Mills (now serving in Kuwait) and SAC Colin Searle for winning first place in the Station Portfolio section of the annual RAF Photographic Competition. Further congratulations to Colin for winning joint first place for the PR photograph of the Year with a great portrait of former leader, Wing Commander Simon Meade.

This picture shows an advertising montage of the eight photographs that won the Portfolio Section. Reading clockwise from top left the photographers’ own titles are:

1. "My Lead". A young girl at RAF Akrotiri who wants to be a Red Arrow when she grows up. The photographer waited patiently until her blow-up rubber Hawk just covered Red Leader in the real formation flying past in Nine Arrow formation.
2. "The Millennium Nine". The now famous picture of the Reds over-flying the partially constructed Millennium Dome at Greenwich.
3. "Eight outa Nine". Just what it says – a pic taken from Red Nine.
4. "Simply Red".
5. "Wa-hay"
6. "Another Day in the Office"
7. "Start em Up"
8. "Six and Seven from Nine" – a very rare air-to-air picture of the Synchro Cross.

25 January 2000

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