Good morning (from the UK)
This weekend just gone (Saturday 24th July and Sunday 25th July) the Royal Air Force’s Aerobatic team positioned down to my local airport (also the one I work at!) London Stansted Airport EGSS / STN so they could perform at this years Duxford Air Show just up the M11 motorway, 15 miles to the North.
It was such a pleasure to see them here because they hardly ever visit such major airports, even if they were only positioning here to perform elsewhere. So I thought as this was such a rare opportunity for spotting, I would absolutely visit to see them!
As well as the Red’s in their BAE Systems Hawk T1’s, a Royal Air Force Airbus KC2 Voyager (A330-243MRTT), Reg. ZZ335 which can be used for Air-Air Refuelling was also sighted. More details will be below with the photo.
The Red Arrows had already positioned to Stansted earlier in the morning on Saturday (unfortunately whilst I was in Tesco’s!), but I was there for their departure for Duxford, their flyover Stansted before landing, and of course their landing.
They certainly did not disappoint!
Please enjoy the collection!
The RAF A330 Voyager deparure
Aircraft and Flight details
Callsign: Tartn 2300 (RRR2300)
Route: London Stansted (EGSS) → RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus (LCRA)
Reg: ZZ335
Aircraft: Airbus KC2 Voyager (A330-243MRTT)
This was not part of the Duxford Airshow this year, but it was certainly nice to see. This aircraft doesn’t often visit Stansted, so it was a pleasure to be able to see this takeoff.
More info on the Voyager and it’s role can be found here…
The Red Arrow's Departure for Duxford
Description
There they go!
What a racket they make for sure! They took off around 10 minutes before they were due to wow the crowds at Duxford, grouped in three’s along the Runway.
They certainly wowed the crowds here too!
In these photos, I primarily concentrated on the first three jets.
They certainly do pick up speed pretty quickly, that’s for sure!
Landing back at Stansted
Description
Before they landed as depicted, they did perform a flypast with white smoke, before splitting up. That unfortunately caught me off guard, thus I was not able to capture that!
They did land however a few minutes later, very smooth landing!
They rolled down towards the end of the Runway, where the Airside Operations vehicles were waiting, to escort The Red Arrows back to their overnight parking.
Stansted Airport that afternoon were using Runway 04, which provided good opportunities to see them taxiing back, especially past Satellite One, and Apron Alpha, before taxiing past the Control Tower and the FedEx area and Apron Zulu.
Following Taxiway Hotel meant the fuselage of their aircraft was mostly visible, unlike when generally aircraft taxi along Juliet.
They then went behind the viewing area I was standing at, behind the trees and across to Harrods Aviation and their parking stands.
Epilogue
The next day I was on shift at Stansted, and I had a very good opportunity at the end of my shift to see them takeoff once again, from the Apron and Satellite One (Sat 1) specifically Stand A15L.
For operational reasons, I am not allowed to bring my camera or use it at work, so I took a video on my phone. I’m not sure if I am permitted to post that video because in the background it did contain voices of staff I own with who also observed their takeoff.
Once they took off and performed at Duxford one last time, they then didn’t return to Stansted and instead returned to their home base, RAF Scampton (EGXP) in Lincolnshire
What a pleasure it was to see them this weekend, especially two days in a row!
I hear the display at Duxford was a success!
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All photos were taken by myself, and edited using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC on the
2020 M1 Apple Silicon Processor MacBook Pro "13 (16GB Ram / 512GB SSD)