European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 20, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Flying with the demonstrations a Day up to five Days a week until the fall. Every year they pick one major show circuit outside Europe. They toured the . In 1983. Although the Complete schedule is not firmed up the team is scheduled to perform at Raf Milden Alps air fete on May 24 and 25 and at Ramstein s air show on aug. 10. Squadron Leader Richard Thomas has the Job of leading the red arrows. He s in his sixth season and second assignment with the team. His proteges Call him Boss More than they Call him anything else. A Youthful Demeanour and Ever present Grin make him a look like one of the rookies. Thomas 36, is going on about 4,000 hours in jets. You can see he s having fun. He s does t like to compare his team with any similar team like the thunderbird the Blue Angels or the Canadian Snow Birds. We All have our own Hallmarks he said. Ours is that we have nine aircraft and a tight show. We always have something in front of the  Thomas has one of the hardest jobs. He is the Leader and just about everything moves and centers on him. Things like keeping a 25-Mph wind from moving the show in Progress to another City Are important to him. Besides the two Solo pilots every other red Arrow watches what he does or watches someone else who watches what he does. Sounds confusing but they say it s easy in the air. Thomas and his mates say that this Type of flying is no More dangerous than the kind they did at other units flying regular fighter jets. They just make it look that Way. A lot of the time they Are just following me. Eventually it s purely a matter of flying in formation he said. Above left. Flight if. Dan Findlay. Above right. Flight if. Tony Lunnon Wood. Above Squadron Leader Richard Thomas. The red arrows Fly Hawk Jet trainers top of Page. By Dave Diehl . Bureau Little else is the world could be better cutting through the English Mist. Cutting but rather smoothly graciously and rather swiftly and at about 400 Mph and at 350 feet. The world literally at our feet. And in what better hands to be in than those of flight it. Tony Lunnon Wood one of nine red arrows a member of a team regarded by Many As the Best acrobatic team in the world. It s an English Day misty rain not a hint of Sun. But from the Back seat of the British aerospace Hawk one of the jets used by the red arrows it still looks pretty Good. This is pretty tame flying for Lunnon Wood. The Cloud base is somewhere around 7,000 feet some 6,900 feet above the red arrows base at Raf Scampton. We spend the first 15 minutes of our flight a few Hundred feet above the Lincolnshire and Humberside Countryside. Lunnon Wood is using landmarks and a Stopwatch above his instrument panel to navigate to an imaginary target some 60 Miles North of our Takeoff Point. He finds the farm he marked off on the map we turn off the Mark and see some sights. He like most englishmen apologizes for the weather. Let s climb above these Clouds and do some aerobatics he says. We climb through some 5,500 feet of Clouds out Over the top to see a different Day in England. It even seems a Little quieter. The horizon to horizon Cloud bed provides a Pillow substitute for the ground. The Odd fighter Jet crosses our path maybe 10 or 20 Miles away. Right then he says. Ill show you a couple barrel Rolls and loops then you can take the  in the next 10 seconds a sense of fear precedes a sense of peace. Slowly the horizon makes a Graceful rolling turn to the right. What was up is now Down. Forward motion and the Speed of the Jet is give a firm push into the seat and a slow recovery brings the world Back to Normal. An effortless tug and the Gravity doubles then triples and begins to induce a feeling of the push of a Hundred hands. We come to the top of our Loop some 5,000 feet above our starting Point and weightlessness precedes the Gravity s tension. After a few More demos i take the stick. I move it to the right a bit to get a feel. It s smooth and responsive. A few Brief instructions and i m flying like the red arrows. My first Man Uever makes me a Veteran and pomposity notwithstanding the next time i see them perform i can say. I can do  but the thrills Are mainly of the body and not of the mind. The movement of the surrounding horizons around the Jet s canopy and the physical gyrations play on senses not usually used. They get paid to do this i think to myself. Almost a sin to get paid to have this much  March 20,1986 stripes Magazine 7