Seems that they have lost one of the Red Arrow planes today
Pilot ejected and has a shoulder injury and broken legs.

Seems to have made contact with another Red Arrow in mid air......


Will it turn out to be the female pilot ????

 

...

 

Ahh but did he crash due to avoiding the woman pilot

No offence intended to Female aviators,...if there happens to be any on here

 

i seen them training in lincoln two weeks ago i could watch them all day.

i'm Glad he's ok

 

No it wasn't Kirsty, both men have been named

Lucky escape as Red Arrows collide - Yahoo! News UK

 

Good stuff. No broken legs either. Glad both pilots are safe and well.
I hope they will be able to move on from the accident and not cause the Red Arrows to disband

 

The Red's have crashed before and it has never been an issue, so it shouldn't be now.

It is just a feeble excuse to get out of running the London Marathon

 

Good news that no one died.

 

Time to upgrade them to Eurofighters

(glad they are going to be ok)

 

**** me,that would blow ya ears,having 9 euros doin a display like that..glad the arrow pilots are safe,just hope the do gooders dont make a meal out of it with HEALTH n SAFETY.

 

Its about time imo to start and think about an upgrade program to Eurofighters. In the states they have the Blue Angels that use retired F-18s. Hopefully in a few years time we can have the same.

Just the added benefit of having planes that have afterburners would make their displays have so much more impact. This is not a complaint, they are just the finest display team in the world, and it would be nice for them to have the kit to show off their skills a little more.

 

I dare say that a full team of Typhoons for Red Arrows use would be prohibitively expensive, especially if they drop the odd one in the Med every now and then.

Having said that, the Hawks have been around for ever (late '70s I think). I remember the little Folland Gnats that they used to fly: somewhere I have a fully-signed/framed official in-flight photo of them in action in their Gnats: I won it in a Department store colouring competition as a nipper (+ a flight in a Cessna over Leicester ). The Hawk was considered quite a powerful improvement over the Gnat at that time.

However, such is the glacial pace of aircraft development these days, there's still nothing else about to replace the Hawks with as a 2 seat fast jet trainer suited to an aerobatic team, unless you look abroad.

 

I had a ride with them once, while they were doing the Plymouth air display. I was offered the seat by the pilot who did the CFS instructor course with me. I found out later he was one of the two singletons who did the seperate aerobatics from the other 7.
What a thrilling seat to have that was!

They did a similar manouevre to the one those two were doing, It was a head on pass quite close to each other and as they passed they did a max rate roll towards each other! I was not expecting that and it made me jump alright. It was done at 70 ft above ground and they calculated that they would lose 26 feet doing that roll. I think what they were doing now was a bit different in style but essentially the same. Certainly a manouevre which left little room for error!

I believe the only other bad accident was where one bloke managed to hit a boat mast in Plymouth Sound during another display. The aircraft did go in off that one.

When you consider that the Reds have been going for so many years now and the Black Arrows before them with no other accidents that I know of, you have to accept that their record is pretty oustanding.

Les

 

The Hawk is a good aircraft but in all round performance the Folland Gnat was better. The Hawk is a comparatively "soft" aircraft and when the Gnat was replaced by the Hawk it did take something away from the overall display. The aircraft sound was not so impressive, and the Gnat's max rate of roll with the aileron stops out was so fast the you had to do a complete roll by mentally timing the stop with wings level rather than visually. When you completed the roll your eyes continue to flick for a second or so!

I heard that some "Nebby" high up RAF chap had it in for Follands for some reason and that is why the Gnat was dropped after the Hawk appeared. The Hawk is a good aircraft as a trainer but it feels like a computer designed machine with little character and it is the only aircraft I have walked back to the hangar from after a flight without looking back at it!

Les