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Red Arrows

By Ian Urie

I had a day trip to Blackpool recently.
I felt the car was due a run, so we piled onboard and drove down for a few hours.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how busy the resort was.
Last few years the resort has been really rundown and empty.

Maybe the recession is forcing people to stay closer to home, or maybe I visited on the wrong days.
Whatever, the place was thronged with folk.

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We decided to take a walk along the beach, as the weather , although slightly overcast was quite pleasant.
The beach was filled with people and all the esplanade was chocabloc.
"What's going on here"
Just then, we saw the above, and the reason for the crowds along the beach.

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Yeah, the Red Arrows were putting on a display.
Now, normally, I wouldn't have thought that the likes of this would interest me.
However, the sight of the real thing , as opposed to television footage, definitely makes all the difference.

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These guys screamed those planes all over the sky, and I loved every second!

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I'd like to apologise for the quality of the photographs.
The camera was my little Fuji F40, which is a very good point 'n' click camera.
It does have a major drawback for these types of picture, though.

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The camera takes care of exposure times, light levels, everything!
However, the Red Arrows are zooming about in a bright sky and you're trying to distinguish where the planes are, on an LCD display.
The chances are not good!
And that's with the display brightness turned up.

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I ended up simply pointing the camera in the general direction of the planes, and hoping I captured something.

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Probably more by luck, than good judgment, I managed to get the planes in most of the photos.
Not only that, but some are recognisable!

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The Red Arrows have a website as well.
Clicking on the title of this article will take you to it.

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The Red Arrows have been going for a long time now.
They were originally formed back in 1965.

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One of my personal favourites.
The planes are completing a manoeuver and appear behind the Big Wheel on one of the piers.

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The plane used by the Red Arrows is the Hawk trainer.
 It has some small modifications, like the addition of smoke generators and a more powerful engine.
The Hawk has been in service with the Arrows for some years.
It first was used by them back in in 1979!
The aircraft is capable of 1.2 mach.

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The display, or what we saw of it, lasted around 30 minutes.
The team performed their trademark "bursts", close formation flying, as always,
loops aplenty, barrel rolls.
I was gobsmacked to see this up close and personal.

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Now, it may seem, from the pictures, that the planes are always trailing vapor, or smoke.
The reality is that the smoke generators can only hold a limited quantity.
This is 5 minutes of white, one minute of red and one minute of blue smoke.

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So, there's some clever choreography, to ensure that the smoke lasts for the complete display.
Not all the aircraft will be using the smoke at the same time.
Another failure.
One of the tricks they did was to use two aircraft to draw a heart in red smoke, then one aircraft put a coloured arrow through it.
I attempted to film it on video mode and pressed the wrong button, meaning I didn't save it!

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The catch me if you can maneuver.
I'm sure it will have a different name, but that's how it looked from where I was standing.
One of the things I did notice after the display ended.
The smell!!
The smoke is made by dumping a mix of diesel and dye into the plane exhaust.
Very strong smell of fuel after the display.
It disperses fairly quickly, but its like being up close behind a fleet of juggernauts warming up.

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As you can see, they're not up very high.
As a small adjunct, in the right hand corner, you can see one of the Morecambe Bay Gas rigs,
on the horizon.
When the illuminations are on in Blackpool, you can watch them from the rigs.
Just thought I'd mention it.
Another useless piece of trivia.
That was the final maneuver from the guys and we wandered off after that.

So, have a day out somewhere, you never know what you may see!