With the Waddington International Air Show on the horizon, watch Lincolnshire Today’s Angela Cooper take to the air with the world-class Blades flying team.
After years watching in awe at the Air Show, our reporter Angela was thrilled to finally get the opportunity to fly with the Blades, during one of the events they hold at Sywell Aerodrome.
The Blades pilots are all highly experienced former RAF pilots and have flown with the Red Arrows. In fact, the Blades are the only full time civilian aerobatic team in the UK and have flown over four hundred public displays since 2006. The exciting part is that, unlike the Red Arrows, civilians are allowed to join their flights.
Angela joined Tom and Mike to make up Team Hawk, and were led by Mark Cutmore who saw active service over the Balkans and displayed the RAF’s Jaguar, as well as serving as deputy team leader in the Red Arrows. Early missions were aimed to get them working together as a team and planning a mission and explain safety, followed by a fabulous lunch. Angela opted for a small glass of Chablis to steady the nerves, which she may have come to regret later.
Originally Angela thought she’d misheard when she was told her second mission was to fly a helicopter. But no, despite minimal experience she was expected to take the skies in a rather fun-sized chopper. Yet the pilot told Angela that her horse riding experience should stand her in good stead as she’d have good hands. After they’d zipped across the aerodrome and took flight across the countryside, she cautiously took the joystick and had a go, and indeed the controls were light and simple. As for the attempt at landing... well, let’s just say her hands weren’t as impressive as they thought.
Then it was the moment of truth – the flight. The Blades take off in formation and Angela was in the cockpit of the front plane. Angela says this was the moment where she started to wonder what on earth she was doing – it was something of a step up from the Corkscrew at Alton Towers, her previous loop-the-loop experience. Fortunately, she was partnered with Dave Stow who offered words of encouragement and told her that he’d stop if she went from feeling 100% up for it.
Nevertheless it was a smooth climb into the skies, and they started to climb and fall, climb and fall, to let everyone experience some lower gravity. Then came the full loop-the-loop... for Angie it felt like she was heading into the heavens – straight up, then over and over. What an experience it must have been. The barrel rolls – slowly to start with, then flip, flip and flip - were fantastic fun, and then came the drop. They headed straight up for what seemed like forever, then stalled the plane and dropped with elegance, grace and control. Buzz Lightyear eat your heart out!
After the event, the Blades gave those attending a fantastic show, where they appreciated their talents even more as they knew the kind of moves they were doing. OK, so they hadn’t been quite as fast when the civilians were in the planes but what’s a few G between friends? Angela's day with the Blades had been fantastic fun and they'd highly recommend it if you’re looking for a special event to do as a team – if only just so you can say, “I’ve done that!”. For more information on how to take part, call 01604 671309 or visit www.2excelaviation.com.
If you'd like to experience even more of The Blades in action, Lincolnshire Today had a camera on board while Angela was flying high - take your seat in the cockpit below!
