What are you doing to stay current on the Extra 300 and display flying: Fortunately there is rarely a time when currency becomes an issue for us. Obviously the display season is very busy in itself, but when you add in the display work-up training, out of season overseas tours and year-long corporate activity, we generally find ourselves struggling to schedule days off rather than having to consider currency. We have a computer program that monitors it but in reality we would not allow ourselves to get anywhere near the legal currency minimums. What are your initial impressions of the Extra 300, especially in the role of a dedicated display aircraft: After nearly 18 years of fast-jet flying I was concerned that I would miss such flying on leaving the military. I needn't have worried; after 6 months and a little over 150 hours on the Extra 300 I can safely say that it is a fantastically agile and responsive aircraft, ideally suited to the display role and I love flying it. The added bonus for our operation is that the CAA certifies the Extra 300 for passenger flying, unlike many other aircraft with similar performance. Could you please explain us how new display moves are born and how they are implemented, tested and used in the team. And what are the general rules to follow: A new manoeuvre generally starts life as a 'what do you think this would look like?' idea from one of the Team, normally during the work-up for the coming season. The feasibility of such a manoeuvre will then be discussed by the Team in terms of: is it safe; is it achievable; is the end result worth the extra training and what manoeuvre will we lose to fit it in? If given the go-ahead we would normally apply a classic 'building block' approach to making the idea a reality. A briefing for all participants would lay down the Standard Operating Procedures covering RT calls, emergency escape paths and actions in the event of aircraft malfunction. Then , starting at height the lead aircraft would practice until confident that his aircraft is a safe platform; successive aircraft are then added using gradually reducing separation until the whole formation are flying the manoeuvre consistently and safely. Only then will the manoeuvre be slowly worked down to display heights. The golden rules that we apply to any new manoeuvre are to ensure that limitations are not exceeded (pilot or aircraft), that the manoeuvre is briefed in great detail and that the work-up is not rushed in any way. How do you prepare yourself and the team on a display season, and on each separate display. Do you need to make for example practice flights, etc: Our preparation for a display season depends on our situation; as mentioned earlier, although the main display season in Europe is during the summer, we continue display flying and therefore maintain currency throughout the year. This means that we only need a period of intense training before the season if we change the pilot line-up or are changing the show in any way. We are fortunate in that our display team pilots are all ex Red Arrows pilots so it is more a case of adapting existing skills to the Extra 300 than learning how to be a formation aerobatic pilot from scratch. What are the main briefing points before flying a display: Apart from home displays, we brief at one of the aircraft 30 minutes before take-off. This has two advantages; firstly there is little opportunity to be distracted if the brief is designed to lead straight into strap-in and secondly, we do not have to worry about being delayed en-route to the aircraft after the brief. The first part of the brief covers items known as 'domestics', consisting of: weather; diversions; required fuels; timings; NOTAMs; royal flights; avoids; frequencies; route; take-off formation; recovery; local procedures; etc etc. We would then concentrate on the show in terms of display site orientation, the effect of the reported wind and cloud and finally we run through the show itself. This can vary based on which of the weather dependant shows we expect to fly, but it is a good way to become focussed on the task in hand, bringing up points to improve on from last time at appropriate times. We always end the brief with an emergency situation, working through the individuals' immediate actions and following that with the impact on the rest of the formation and the remainder of the display once the emergency aircraft is on the ground. Please guide us along your walk around before you get into the cockpit. What specific points are checked and followed during a walk-around: I will not go into specifics as the Pilots Operating Handbook covers that, but a good walk around is imperative to getting into the cockpit knowing everything is correct with the aircraft. Those few minutes before start are best spent running through the sequence rather than dealing with a nagging doubt about your walk around… I consider the handbook checks as the absolute minimum and ensure that I look out for other show-stoppers such as: is the front seat 'strapped'; is the previous passengers' headset in the foot-well; is the seat on the correct setting and are there maps on the floor that will distract me when inverted. Such items seem blindingly obvious but can be easily missed. Which display manoeuvres produces the highest G-load, and how do you "pull" yourself true such a manoeuvres: The 'Blade Break' produces the most G, normally about 9.5G. It is relatively easy to pull such an amount in this manoeuvre in that once it starts, you have to max perform the aircraft at the right time or the whole break looks bad. In terms of preparing yourself for high G-forces there is no substitute for being fit and the good old anti-G-straining manoeuvre does the rest before, during and after the G. What is the hardest, and easiest thing about flying the Extra 300: At my level of experience - and completely down to me and not the aircraft - I find it very difficult to achieve the perfect vertical with wings level. It is easy to get close, but if you are not spot on, some of the more advanced gyroscopic manoeuvres will just not work properly At the opposite end of the scale it is easy to make passengers love flying aerobatics in the Extra 300. Flying the Extra 300 within the "Blades", requires three main points during training; Aerobatics, Formation and Building the show. Could please explain each point, and what these three main points individually learn you while flying display: As in all stages of my flying training, basic aerobatic flight is a necessary skill in terms of knowing how the aircraft flies near its limit. Whereas in the military this would have a direct read across to Air Combat, for a Display Team it is pertinent to high energy rejoins, formation breaks, splits and emergency escapes from formation. Obviously the Extra 300 can perform amazing aerobatics way beyond the basics; for most of us these are a completely new skill and the initial training balance reflects this. In pure flying terms, the formation stage of training is adapting a previously learnt skill to the Extra 300 and the final stage is where we put it all together, slowly building the sequence and reducing to display height. What is your favourite manoeuvre, and please motivate/explain why: I love all the display manoeuvres but funnily enough one of my favourite parts of the show is the rejoin to the leader after the 2v2 split. The crowd don't see it but it is a test of geometry, G, speed & power to rejoin efficiently and is very satisfying to achieve consistently. Almost all pilots are former Red Arrows pilots. Can you compare the Red Arrows and The Blades with each other, and what have you learned with the Red Arrows, and is now used with flying the Blades: Well in very basic terms the main differences are that the Red Arrows are military, whereas we are civilian, they fly jets compared to our propeller aircraft and they fly a trademark 9 aircraft formation to our 4. Apart from that though - and perhaps unsurprisingly considering that our display Team is made up wholly of former Red Arrows pilots - the two teams are similar; the techniques, team ethos & attention to detail are all common to both. From a spectators point of view I think the speed and noise of jet aircraft is fantastic, whilst the 'Blades' variety of manoeuvres and proximity to the crowd is similarly unbeatable. Pretty much every technique that we all learnt during at least 3 years on the Red Arrows is equally applicable to the Blades and our show would not be the same without that experience. If I'm correct (Please correct me if I'm wrong) is the Extra 300 equipped with a Lycoming 300 hp 6 Cylinder AEIO - 540 L1B5 engine. How is the performance of this engine during all the manoeuvres, and the power ratio compared to the weight of almost 1000 KG when loaded: It is very difficult to prescribe an exact power to weight ratio with a propeller aircraft, but I would imagine it to be around 0.8:1 for the Extra 300 LP. Suffice to say that apart from actually hanging on the prop, there is not a lack of power during singleton aerobatics. Extra power available during formation flight however is of course relative to the leader, and careful management is required to avoid 'dropping off the back', especially on the outside of turns. Could you describe the feeling of flying with The Blades in your own personal words, and what makes it so great to fly with this team: Flying with the Blades is a great way to adjust to life as a commercial pilot! The aircraft is fantastic, the display is demanding, exciting and rewarding and the camaraderie amongst the Blades and 2Excel Aviation staff is second to none. And last but not least, please guide us and/or visualize us along a typical display flight, with relation to crowd distance, distance to each other, radio contact, display moves, etc: To go into detail on every point would take a little longer than I have available, so I will be brief. We typically fly 7-8ft separation at heights down to 100ft, with individual display authority to 30ft, although we work to the air show limits if higher. Apart from our arrival, where we are authorised to overfly the crowd, we work to 150m separation from the crowd-line. All display moves are called on the radio and for this reason we require our own discrete frequency to avoid potential confusion from other aircraft. The author would like to thank Kat Nicoll, Public Relations Officer for her endless help, assistance and effort in arranging this interview. And Marc Cutmore, Blade #4 for his much appreciated time in his busy shedule. This interview was taken at 18-11-2008.