Monday 15th June 2009

It was the Isle of Wight Festival this last weekend. And what an amazing event that is! Amongst the acts that were playing, the organisers had booked the Red Arrows for a display on Saturday 13th June.

Reds 1 to 9 took part in the Queen’s Birthday Flypast over Buckingham Palace, a particularly proud moment for them. For me, though, I went ahead from RAF Scampton in my aircraft to Bournemouth and then by helicopter to Newport in the Isle of Wight. Donny Gamble, a former Royal Navy helicopter pilot, flew us over, and he, Junior Technician Shayne Humphrey (Circus 10) and I became engulfed by the festival’s atmosphere. The weather was beautiful and those who were there seemed to be having a fantastic time.

The display was at 6pm, so I had plenty of time to get nervous. And then I had my rock star moment! The commentary was from the main stage in front of 60,000 people directly after Paolo Nutini. Shayne filmed the display from there too, and Donny was at the back of the stage wide-eyed like me. I did not expect the crowd to be quite so fantastic – at airshows you are guaranteed aircraft fans, but it’s not quite so certain at a music festival. They cheered and applauded at every pass by the Team, and I was knocked out by the experience! Very quickly I realised I am not cool enough to be on a stage like that, but I pressed on all the same. While I commentated, White Lies completed their (very loud) sound check on the stage behind me which was an unexpected distraction that, at the time, I was not aware could not be heard at all by the crowd. Clearly I am not cut out to be a sound engineer or a rock star… For me, it was an utterly gobsmacking experience and I’ll take the time here to thank the festival goers for their overwhelmingly enthusiastic support for the Red Arrows at their festival.

Yesterday (Sunday 14th June) was the Royal Air Force Cosford Airshow. This is a favourite of the Reds; it’s one of the bigger airshows at an RAF base, and as it’s the home of the RAF Museum it is all the more special. The weather was spectacular, and the show was very busy. I’m not sure I have seen so many cars parked (so well) on an airfield. We displayed amongst a great line-up of air displays which included, amongst others, the The Blades (all former Red Arrows pilots), Scott Loughran’s Typhoon, Matt Barker’s Hawk, the Blackcats and the Blue Eagles. For the first time this year, we were able to get all of the display pilots into the show to meet the crowd. The guys were mobbed, and we all had aching arms after some ardent signing of prints and brochures! The students of the University of Birmingham Air Squadron (Red 2’s old unit) looked after us excellently throughout the day – thanks to you all – and it was a great, if busy, day for us. In particular, our Public Relations team were working especially hard herding Red Arrows pilots and looking after the crowd at the Red Arrows tent. Both of these tasks can be extremely hard work!

It’s time now for me to catch up on some work back at Scampton. There is still the rest of the display season to coordinate and a background hum of other work that I must keep up on.

So, for another little while, the fun is over and it’s back to the grindstone. Busy week coming up with the British Grand Prix display on Sunday. Better make sure I’m properly prepared!

Until next time,

Baggers