Red Arrows News Page

NOVEMBER

Blue Angels Accident

All ranks of the Red Arrows send their condolences to the US Navy’s Demonstration Team The Blue Angels following the tragic accident to one of their aircraft on 28 October in which Lt Cdr Keiron O’Connor and Lt Kevin Colling were killed.

Press releases relating to the accident can be found at: www.blueangels.navy.mil/press-current.htm

01 November 1999

1999 Team meets The Queen Mother

The 1999 Team were honoured to be invited to Clarence House in London on 29 October to meet the Team’s Honorary Commandant-in-Chief, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Her Majesty, a long-time fan of the Red Arrows and who has a remarkable memory of the Team’s members and activities, graciously posed for a picture outside her home. Later the Team members were presented to the Queen Mother and were served light refreshments. The Team Leader presented her with copy number 100 of the Red Arrows Limited Edition Calendar for the year 2000.

The photograph was taken by Sgt Jack Pritchard the MOD(RAF) official photographer.

By the way! Do not write and ask for a copy of that calendar. Limited Edition it is and they have all been allocated to their designated recipients.

04 November 1999

Red Arrows Escape the November Gloom

The Red Arrows leave Cranwell at 9.30am on Saturday morning (6 November) en route to the prestigious Dubai 2000 aviation exhibition.

The 4 pilots of the 1999 Display Team who thought that they would have ended their 3-year tour of duty with the Team by now, Simon Meade, Gary Waterfall, Andy Cubin and Ian Smith, have had their tour extended so that they can jet off to the Middle East. After staging through bases in France, Italy, Crete, Jordan and Riyadh, the Red Arrows reach Dhahran in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday where they will give a display watched keenly by the recently formed Saudi Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Green Falcons, who also fly the same British Aerospace Hawk jet trainer used by the Red Arrows.

There will be a display in Doha, capital of Qatar, the following day and the Reds eventually reach their destination, Dubai, on 11 November. They will then display every day at the Dubai 2000 show until 18 November when the Prince of Wales, who will be on a private visit to the United Arab Emirates, is expected to watch the show.

The Red Arrows then fly on for further displays in the Far East and are not expected to return to Cranwell until the week before Christmas.

Watch these pages for further details.

05 November 1999

Red Arrows wow the Emirates… again!

The Red Arrows are wowing air show enthusiasts at Dubai 2000 this week, the 6th International Aerospace Exhibition and now claimed by the organisers to be the 3rd largest aviation exhibition in the world, ranking alongside the Singapore show and beaten only by the long established Paris and Farnborough air shows. That is the Dubai 2000 organiser’s claim not mine.

The Team left Cranwell on Saturday November 6. No sooner had the 11 Hawks entered French airspace than back at base we got a message from London Military ATC that the French had refused entry and the Hawks were returning to base. Gary Martin, our Senior Engineering Officer, set about recalling the ground crew to receive the aircraft. A few minutes later London Military reported that they could see the Hawks in the vicinity of Dieppe turning 180 degrees once more and heading south. It transpires that the French controllers had refused to accept the Hawks because of a mix-up over radio frequencies; French military controllers, however, were happy to conduct the flight in accordance with good old fashioned OAT (operational air traffic) and the Red Arrows proceeded to Marseilles with only a few minutes delay. As a gesture of goodwill, we sent the French civil controllers a side of best British beef.

En route to the United Arab Emirates the Red Arrows gave displays in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and Doha, capital of Qatar. In both places the Teams displays were watched by the Royal Families and the Red Arrows pilots and ground crew were introduced to them. Additionally in Doha, HRH Prince Andrew watched the display in company with Sir Geoff Hurst, both in Qatar for British Week.

For the display in Dharan, five of the Hawks back seats were occupied by our good friends the pilots of the fledgling Saudi Air Force Hawk Aerobatic Team who went along for the ride and to see how the Red Arrows do it. Former Red Arrows team pilot, Spike Jepson, now on secondment to the Saudi Air Force, has been helping to train the Saudi pilots.

The 27 British companies represent by far the largest number of exhibitors at Dubai 2000. Since the 1997 show, at which the Red Arrows were the star attraction, a brand-new dedicated exhibition site has been constructed at one end of the international airport at an undisclosed cost, The site covers over half a million square metres of land and is accessed from a new motorway built especially for exhibition traffic. The Dubai Show is unusual in that ordinary members of the public are not admitted. The only visitors are professionals from the aviation industries. This has the advantage of giving the lucky ones who do get admittance, freedom to roam in complete comfort around the extensive static display of over 80 aircraft from all around the world, and to admire and wonder at the high tech displays in the huge air-conditioned exhibition halls.

For the duration of Dubai 2000 the Red Arrows are based at Emirates Air Base Minhad where they share an apron with the Patrouille de France. The two teams are taking it in turns to open and close the show. The new pilots of the Red Arrows 2000 Team, ably assisted by one or two of the 1999 Team, are flying practice missions at Minhad to keep their hands in and to try and alleviate the effects of a shortened winter training session. This means that the Blues are working extremely hard in high temperatures with high humidity. While the 2000 Team FNGs are practising overhead Minhad, the Patrouille pilots are able to sit outside and watch. Talk about pressure!

The daily flying programme lasts 2 hours and during it all civilian scheduled services at the airport, one of the busiest crossroads in the Middle East, have to keep well clear or stay on the ground except during a 10 minute break in the middle when scheduled services of Emirates Airlines are permitted to take off.

The final show of Dubai 2000 will be on Thursday 18 November when HRH The Prince of Wales is expected to attend. His programme is being arranged specifically so that HRH can watch the Red Arrows in action.

On Sunday 21 November the Red Arrows set off again, this time heading for Malaysia to take part in LIMA 99.

On the day before Dubai 2000 opened, the Emirates Airline, voted 1999 Airline of the Year, took delivery of a brand-new and beautiful B777-300 and placed it centre-stage in the static park directly in front of the Royal Pavilion. I caught this picture of the Red Arrows five-four break on my digital camera.

It is not easy catching rapid movements with a digicam but I am quite pleased with this pic of the Vixen Break at the end of the display – if you look carefully you can see one of the Synchro Pair crossing from right to left in front. Don’t ask where the other one is!

In Dhahran one of the most enthusiastic watchers was HRH Prince Mohammed, Governor of Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, caught here by Red Arrows photographer Colin Searle studying the Red Arrows’ brochure.

Red 10, Russ Jones, is pictured here, looking rather bemused, standing in front of a really stunning satellite picture of Dubai International Airport in the display pilots briefing room.

The display line runs parallel to the double runways 12/30 and has its centre near the eastern end of the runway. This means that the Synchro Pair have an interesting run-in from east to west (right to left in the pic) over a heavily built up area, across a complicated motorway intersection and down the hill to runway level. Regulations required the Red Arrows to fly their ‘high show’ with the Synchro aircraft flying not below 200 feet over the ground.

Heading up the British delegation to Dubai 2000 is the Right Honourable Baroness Symmonds of Vernham Dean, Minister of State for Defence Procurement, here pictured accepting a gift from Simon Meade in front of an Emiri Air Force Hawk on the static display. The Red Arrows participation in Dubai 2000 has been jointly funded by contributions from British Aerospace, Rolls Royce, and the Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO). Sadly the Head of DESO, Tony Edwards, was prevented at the last minute by illness from travelling to the UAE but without all his hard work the Red Arrows could not have taken part on this tour. We wish him a speedy recovery to full health.

I could not resist taking this picture.

The entire Red Arrows detachment stayed in the splendid 5-star Al Bustan Hotel in central Dubai, with all expenses paid by the UAE Department of Civil Aviation, to whom we offer our sincere thanks. The hotel staff, as they did in 1997, had made a model Hawk which they then suspended from the imposing Rotunda – part of the entrance lobby of the hotel. This picture was taken from the top floor of the hotel looking down into the lobby. This is a really splendid advertisement for the Red Arrows. During the week of Dubai 2000 many Royal princes of various nations, ambassadors and government ministers passed under this rotunda and they all looked up to see a Red Arrows. Grateful thanks to the hotel staff for making us all feel so welcome. This has to be one of the finest hotels in the whole world – and I did not get paid for writing that!

17 November 1999

Prince Charles meets the Red Arrows in the Emirates

On the final day of Dubai 2000, Thursday 18 November, HRH The Prince of Wales paid a visit to the static aircraft park where one of the Red Arrows’ Hawks had been positioned alongside the other British Aerospace exhibits. The Prince was greeted by Air Commodore Mal Prissick, Commandant of the RAF Central Flying School. In the centre of the picture is Mr Navin Patel from the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi/Dubai.

Prince Charles then moved along the line to greet Squadron Leader Ginge Paige, the Team Manager, and Flight Lieutenant Russ Jones, Red 10.

Finally Prince Charles shook hands and chatted with Cpl Andy Nott, Red 10’s back-seater. Andy is the Tour video man and as if it was not enough having to endure Red 10’s flying whenever they fly away from base, Andy has the arduous job at Dubai 2000 of standing out in the blazing sun, directly in front of the Royal Pavilion, filming the Red Arrows’ show ready for the Team debriefing.

18 November 1999

Becky Pannett

One of two young ladies travelling with the Team on tour is Cpl Becky Pannett, an Air Traffic Control Assistant, seen here working in the flight line hut at Minhad which the Red Arrows share with the Patrouille de France.

Becky comes from Henfield, near Brighton, and spent her first 4 years in the RAF working at RAF Lossiemouth in the north of Scotland. "I split my time there between the Air Traffic Control Tower and the Operations Centre," said Becky. "When I passed out from recruit training at RAF Swinderby near Lincoln in 1993, it was the final graduation before the station closed down. The Red Arrows came over and did a flypast in our honour. Everyone tells me it looked great but of course we were on parade and werent allowed to look up. All we got was the noise!"

Becky is keen on many sporting activities. "I did a parachuting course at Weston-on-the-Green near Oxford with the RAF but I landed heavily after one jump and damaged my back. I didnt do any more parachuting after that but now I’ve taken up rowing and I keep fit by general training in the Gym most days. There are two of us working in the Red Arrows flight planning office. It’s a very responsible job. It’s great that I have been able to get away from base to travel with the Team on this tour."

18 November 1999

Red Arrows Experts alive and well in Lincolnshire

Because our local radio station, BBC Radio Lincolnshire, is so enthusiastic about the Red Arrows, and their listeners are so keen on hearing anything to do with the Team and the RAF in general (Lincolnshire is still fondly known as ‘Bomber County’ to many residents in recognition of the large number of bomber stations located within the county during World War 2), I donated one of our limited edition calendars for use as a prize for a phone-in competition.

The question was: "The Red Arrows usually send copy number one of their limited edition calendar to a certain person who is a life-long fan of the Team. This year they sent instead copy number 100 to that person. Who is the person and why a different number this year?"

Readers to these pages know the answers of course. The competition ran in the mid-morning programme while I was away in Dubai with the Team. I have just heard from the Presenter, William Wright, that several hundred people phoned-in with the correct answer. Amazing that so many mid-morning listeners should know the answers because this aspect of the story had not been mentioned on the station. The winner of the competition was a lady who lives in Binbrook, close to the former Lightning base of that name in the north of the county.

19 November 1999

Red Arrows in Delhi

Two years ago when both Pakistan and India were celebrating the 50th anniversary of their independence, the Red Arrows were planned to give celebratory displays in Islamabad and Delhi en route to the Malaysian air show. In 1997 we did fly a display in Islamabad but the Delhi show had to be cancelled because of very poor visibility. We told the disappointed Indians that if we ever went that way again we would display for them.

Yesterday, 22 November, we did just that although once again the visibility was very poor in heat haze. Simon Meade led his team through the first half of the show but it proved impossible to fly the second half.

Today, 23 November, the Reds continue their eastward trek, refuelling in Calcutta before reaching Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, for a night stop.

23 November 1999

End of Journey in Sight

At the time of writing (0532 UTC on 24 November) the Red Arrows have just taken off from Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand en route to Bangkok where they will refuel before launching on the final leg of their transit to Malaysia. The 11 Hawks are due to arrive at Butterworth at 0918 UTC, the farthest point east on the present tour. RAF aircrew of my vintage (and older) will remember that Butterworth, just across the bridge from the beautiful island of Penang, was once the Royal Australian Air Force’s largest overseas base. You can find out all about Penang at http://www.cs.usm.my/penang_island/tourist.html

Tomorrow, 25 November, it is time for some of the 2000 Team to brush the cobwebs off. For three days they will be practising over Butterworth airfield. Those 1999 pilots who are reaching the end of their tour will be able to sit back and watch – unless they can find something more productive to do. For the ground crew there is no rest. Our Hercules support aircraft is due to land at Butterworth at 0925 UTC today – just 7 minutes behind the Hawks.

Another journey has ended. Congratulations to our Junior Engineering Officer, Flight Lieutenant Al McNeil, and his wife Lucy, on the arrival of Isla who checked in at 5lb 12 oz on Monday 22 November. Al just managed to fly back from Dubai in time for this event, which was not timed as accurately as most Red Arrows operations. That gave a not-to-be missed opportunity for Flight Lieutenant Gary Martin, our Senior Engineering Officer, to hot foot it out to Dubai to run the engineering operations for the rest of the tour.

24 November 1999

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