Red 4 - Flight Lieutenant Dave Davies

Tuesday 2 March 2010

Rain, snow, ice, wind, fog but today we’ve finally had some sunshine! The weather hasn’t been the kindest for our 2010 winter work-up but the team is still cracking on nicely and the spirit on the squadron, as always, remains high.

Without giving too much away, the show for 2010 has changed a fair bit giving me some new challenges in the 4 slot. As ‘Uncle Enid’ the Boss has given me the task of coaching the new pilots, Reds 2 and 3, as well as helping Red 5 adapt to his new position on the outside of the formation. Reds 4 and 5 sit on the outside of the formation in Diamond and at the back of the formation in Blackbird as well as changing through various positions throughout the first half, this requiring earlier and bigger inputs in both power, roll and pitch to keep in plane with the Boss' aircraft.

Enid has now flown the second half of the display to completion but still has a bit of work to do to get the hardest second half manoeuvre, the roll backs, to a good symmetrical consistency. We are progressing nicely with a new manoeuvre, the Slalom and look forward to displaying it in a few months time.

Last week was the first time the Team flew with Reds 6 and 7 as part of the 2010 formation. The Team are still only flying as a 7-ship but are still expecting the first 9-ship to be flown on the 9^th March. This will keep us on track nicely for our Out of Season Practices (OSPs) before heading off to Cyprus on the 20^th March.

On a personal note I feel as though time is quickly running out. Quite literally! The time I’ve spent carrying out DIY at home should have been time spent training for the London Marathon. I’m managing 2 to 3 runs a week but I feel I need to up my game a lot so that I don’t embarrass myself on the side of some road in London! If you’d like to sponsor us then please do via this link.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy watching the Reds display this summer.