The Red Arrows to perform flypast on Berkshire-Surrey border
The team will be honouring the Royal Australian Air Force
Last updated 31st Mar 2021
The RAF Red Arrows will perform a flypast over the Air Forces Memorial at Runnymede in Surrey later.
The team will be celebrating 100 years of the Royal Australian Air Force.
In a statement the team said they were ‘honoured to help mark the centenary of one of our great allies and partners’.
The team will fly from their base at RAF Scampton near Lincoln and flypast the Air Forces Memorial at Runnymede near to Egham at 11:08.
As they return back to Lincolnshire they'll pass over Wentworth and Wokingham as they cross Berkshire to the east of Reading.
Runnymede is situated close to Heathrow so air traffic controllers have to manage inbound and outbound flights to accommodate the team of 9 Hawk T1 fast jets as they fly just to the west of the airport at around 2000ft.
It's the team's first official outing of 2021, and operationally they remain in training. They only flew together as 9 aircraft for the first time this year six days ago.
During the winter months they introduce several new pilots to the team and practice their aerobatic routine from scratch, they're not allowed to display in public until they pass their 'public display authorisation' having been checked over by senior RAF officers.
Ceremonial flypasts are excluded from this process, hence the formation fly over on Wednesday,