Red Arrows back at Waddington
The Red Arrows are back at their home base after five weeks on the Maple Hawk Tour to celebrate the Royal Canadian Air Force’s centenary.
Engineers and team support staff – known as the Blues and travelling on RAF Atlas transport aircraft – were also reunited with families as they returned to the Lincolnshire base.
The 37-day campaign spanned a series of airshows and high-profile flypasts in major cities, including Ottawa and Toronto, and at landmark locations such as Niagara Falls, as well as completing a packed ground engagement programme.
Group Captain Robbie Lees, Commander Display Air Wing and Maple Hawk’s Detachment Commander, said: “Maple Hawk has shown the strength of our partnership with our RCAF colleagues as we helped to celebrate their centenary.
“But it also showed the wider strategic use of the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team (RAFAT) to support wider British strategic objectives internationally.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the way that RAFAT, in their 60th display season, have worked in perfect partnership with the British High Commission in Canada, and other partners, to deliver an outstanding Maple Hawk. Eclat!”
Squadron Leader Jon Bond, Red 1 and Team Leader, said: “My proudest moments were seeing how the whole team came together to produce an epic five-week tour of Canada – whether that be the Reds and Blues here at the RAFAT, or those skilled people that joined from across the Royal Air Force to support.
“Even on the one occasion the weather wasn’t fit to perform a flypast, the team did brilliantly to re-plan and re-schedule to make it happen before the end of the tour.
“It takes a huge amount of effort to get a 1980s aeroplane across the North Atlantic and to arrive back on time – it’s a very special achievement.
“This is a fantastic job by the engineers to keep the jets going over the last couple of days, as we crossed the Atlantic and some reasonably inhospitable land and austere bases.”
Having completed a final flypast over St John’s, in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Red Arrows began the long journey home from Canada, but as their Hawk jets are unable to refuel in the air and have a flying range of approximately 1,000 nautical miles, the Atlantic crossing had to be done in stages.
First, there was a stop at Goose Bay before leaving Canada and heading to Narsarsuaq in Greenland, then Keflavik in Iceland, Stornoway in Scotland and finally RAF Waddington where families were waiting.
Sqn Ldr Bond added: “It’s great to return to our families, they’ll be very pleased to have us all back.
“They give us so much support over a long season – sometimes with big periods away.”
Top picture - Partners: The Red Arrows and CF-18 perform the Commonwealth Pass.
The Red Arrows are welcomed by families after returning to RAF Waddington from Canada.
The Red Arrows with the Canadian Forces' Snowbirds over Ottawa.
Squadron Leader Jon Bond meeting people at Airshow Atlantic in Canada.
The Red Arrows with a Lancaster bomber heading to Niagara Falls - one of the high-profile flypasts of Maple Hawk.
Displaying with Toronto as a backdrop.
Red Arrows engineers working on a jet during Maple Hawk.
Teamwork: RAF Atlas and Poseidon aircraft alongside the Red Arrows' Hawk jets in Iceland on the journey home.