Following a successful grant application we recently received a £5,000 from the Red Arrows Trust and an invitation to visit them at their base, RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire. So early on Thursday May 30th Glen and I set off on our road trip. After four hours we arrived at RAF Waddington and were welcomed by Gary Waterfall and Neil Fraser, chair and trustee respectively of the Red Arrows Trust.
After the relevant security checks and being issued with passes we were escorted to the Red Arrows Offices and made to feel very welcome. We were given a presentation on the Red Arrows covering the history behind their formation, what it takes to become a Red Arrow and the training that it involves and an insight in to just how many different support staff make up the team.
We then had lunch where we met some of the other charities that had also benefitted from the generosity of the Red Arrows Trust and been invited for the day.
Following lunch, we then met the Red Arrow pilots and sat in on a pre sortie briefing - I witnessed a very different way of giving feedback. They went back over their last display step by step highlighting any areas where they could have done better – this could have been from an execution or safety perspective – and how they would correct it. No names were used only their Red Arrow position number, they moved straight from the mistake to how they would address it and focussed on the solution. Stating publicly what they would do differently, a verbal commitment. They moved at a steady pace through the whole display, meaning errors were not mulled over for a great length of time. No one blamed, it was all about preparation for the next time. To the outsider this sounded like a group of people all talking at the same time with nothing really being able to be heard. But we were reliably informed that Red 1 already knew what he was listening for and so long as he heard it from the relevant pilot then that was all that mattered. The current weather conditions were also discussed - sadly for us it was more like an October/November day rather than late May - it was cold, wet and windy with a lot of cloud.
Briefing complete, the pilots went off to get ready to fly as despite the weather they were able to put on a display for us. They have three types of displays to cover different weather scenarios – a flat display consisting of a series of flypasts and steep turns when cloud base is below 2,500ft, a rolling display where loops are substituted with wing-overs and rolls if the cloud base is less than 5,500ft but more than 2,500ft –, a full display for days when the cloud is above 5,500ft to avoid the aircraft entering the cloud at the top of the loop. We were going to be treated to a rolling display.
Well, what came next was amazing it started with the aircraft taxiing out – wow what an experience to be that close. The display itself was incredible despite the rather inclement weather conditions. Plenty of wing-overs, rolls, the trademark red, white and blue smoke trails and even a red heart with an arrow was drawn in the sky. It was clearly visible why they are one of the world’s premier aerobatic display teams.
Following the display came the photo shoot with both pilots and jets.
We then sat in on the sortie de-brief, including watching a recording of the display where feedback was given in exactly the same manner as the pre-sortie briefing.
Certain words like deep and shallow will never have the same meaning to me again.
Article written by Sarah Harold - Office Co-ordinator at Hounds for Heroes
