Last Updated on 17/11/2019 by Alex Squire
One of the benefits of living in Lincolnshire is seeing the RAF aerobatic display team the Red Arrows practising in the sky quite often.
The other day I got the opportunity to go and see the red arrows at their home base – RAF Scampton.
Scampton is about a 20 minute drive away from where I live.
The base also happens to be where 617 Squadron (the Dambusters) took off from on their way to destroy the German dams in World War II.
A friend of ours works with the red arrows and he was kind enough to organise for me and some of my neighbours to go and see them.
It was a nice sunny day so it was great for viewing a mini flying display.
We parked our car outside the front gate and had to get our passes from the gatehouse. Unfortunately, this was not wheelchair accessible as you had to go up a very sizeable curb to get in the door. I am guessing they don’t have many wheelchair users in the RAF.
After we had collected our passes we were then shown to where the red arrows squadron was located.
The Red Arrows fly Hawk aircraft which were waiting beside the runway. First we went into the hangar where one of the aircraft was being worked on by a mechanic.
After that we went outside where the planes were just starting to taxi onto the runway. They were going to go up to practice their flying routines.
One by one they took off and flew away into the sky. They assembled into formation and began practising some of their routines with white smoke trailing behind them.
My favourite routine was where they all fly straight up into the sky before looping backwards and heading down towards the ground, before they all split and go in different directions. It’s very impressive and it looks great with the smoke trailing behind them.
Recently it was announced that Scampton would be sold off by the Ministry of Defence to save money. It’s a shame because this would mean that the Red Arrows would be moved somewhere else.
Plus Scampton has a lot of history so it would be nice if there was some sort of memorial or a museum to commemorate that. Not just being turned into a housing estate.
Anyway, the base isn’t set to be closed until 2022 so we have a few more years yet to enjoy the Red Arrows in Lincolnshire.
