Red Arrows at the Dartmouth Airshow today (kind of) ...

[ColytonJohn]

Having already been to the Dawlish Airshow last Saturday and watched the Red Arrows here in Torbay on Wednesday I thought it best for domestic harmony to miss the Red Arrows at Dartmouth this evening. Dartmouth is a mere six miles away as the Hawk T1 flies so there was scope to watch a bit of the display using binoculars which is what I did. At that distance, though, photographing them was out of the question so the 7D stayed safely tucked up inside.

After a few passes in diamond formation they turned away from Dartmouth and, still in perfect formation, headed towards me... they flew right over the top of my house so low I thought the chimneys were in jeopardy and, just as they did so, the rearmost group of aircraft made smoke. And with no camera to hand I could only stand and watch!

I have no idea why their display was cut short, maybe just low cloud, but in future I think I'll listen to the saying: keep calm and carry cameras!

Cheers,
John

[Tigger]

Re: Red Arrows at the Dartmouth Airshow today (kind of) ...

ummm forget something

[Parsen66]

Re: Red Arrows at the Dartmouth Airshow today (kind of) ...

Left the gas on

[pelliott1954]

Re: Red Arrows at the Dartmouth Airshow today (kind of) ...

The decision was made by the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) for Flypasts only rather than a Full Display, see below.

The Red Arrows Team News
27 August 2015

News articles by date

Red Arrows at Dartmouth Royal Regatta 2015

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is undertaking a comprehensive review of civilian air displays in the UK.

As part of this, in the last 48 hours, the CAA has amended the display permissions for the Dartmouth Royal Regatta. This affects all participants including the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows - scheduled to perform at the event tomorrow (Friday, August 28) at 1815.

It has been assessed that the required changes to display heights and positioning would have reduced the visual quality of the display for the public to an unacceptable level and therefore, with regret, the Red Arrows’ will not be conducting a full display at Dartmouth this year.

The Red Arrows recognise many people will have made plans and are looking forward to seeing the team perform. Not wanting to disappoint the public, the team will, instead, conduct two flypasts – not involving aerobatics – at the Dartmouth Royal Regatta, weather-permitting.

Regards Paul

[ColytonJohn]

Re: Red Arrows at the Dartmouth Airshow today (kind of) ...

I knew heritage planes (pre sixties I think it was) had been limited but the RAF? Such a shame as Dartmouth is rightly very popular and thousands descend on the town and hills along the river valley; looking down on the planes as they perform their cross-overs is possibly unique to Dartmouth. The perfection of their formation was impeccable but not what most had come to see

Last night I watched the Typhoon display through bins from home and even at that distance the sound came through loud and clear but also with a side-on view it's possible to appreciate the amazingly rapid rate of ascent it's capable of - something I'd never been able to see clearly while watching from below.

Cheers,
John

[jk224]

Re: Red Arrows at the Dartmouth Airshow today (kind of) ...

The Red Arrows have been limited? That's ludicrous. I thought the CAA had handled post-Shoreham quite sensibly up 'til now, but that sounds like some jobs worth has got mind numbingly creative and made a hash of it. On another forum some of the posters did wonder about the Red Arrow Hawks being quite old now, but they couldn't be better maintained or flown by better pilots.