For nearly half an hour this afternoon, Qatar residents looked to the sky to watch a thundering air show performance by the Red Arrows.
The British aerobatic group, comprised of nine British Royal Air Force pilots, appeared to wow crowds with daring maneuvers, and were trailed by red, white and blue plumes of smoke.
On Twitter, reaction ranged from delight, to confusion, to patient boredom:
@StuartEvans79 @dohanews I was in my room and I thought the country was under attack when I heard the noise!
— مغرد (@ASaeedAlKaabi) November 7, 2013
@dohanews Red Arrows were totally awesome. Good free event. Well done Qatar for getting them. pic.twitter.com/0bPjrTgZPG
— Pip in Doha (@ExpatPip) November 7, 2013
@damianradcliffe From the shrieks and ahhhhs in our offices you would think something else was going on lol.
— Tracy (@tracyglennYVR) November 7, 2013
Red Arrows over Doha Corniche pic.twitter.com/HzmzF457Ar
— Adrian Finighan (@afinighan) November 7, 2013
@acepilotkhan @dohanews FYI Doha airport is closed! All flights on hold until you guys finish having fun. Tweet from the #Dubai runway!
— Uche (@UcheUdeozo) November 7, 2013
Did you catch the show? Thoughts?
Awesome show by the Red Arrows as usual!
Brilliant!
It was awesome. Pity it wasn’t on the weekend!
nobody does it better… !
It was fantastic, and I watched the entire while show stuck in traffic
Splendid show!
For those spectators, ‘Savour it’!
Hardly a UK Defence Review goes by, when the ‘Red’s’ financial credibility isn’t questioned.
Every show may be the last you will ever see? I hope not?
Was a fantastic show for the limited space they had! Also great to see what they can do when not restricted by the incredibly strict UK airshow regulations!
Best of all it started on time 🙂
The show is rehearsed, and practised, meticulously, on a set platform, not customised for every event.
They do not throw out the rule book because they are in a country outside the UK.
Without wanting to start an argument!
I know what I’m talking about, actually there are 3 different displays they can perform. The “Full Display”, “Rolling Display” & “Flat Display”. So yes the display can be customised for each show, for instance they may switch from the “Rolling Display” to the “Full Display” if the weather improves during the display or vice versa!
The regulations I was talking about were to do with the crowd line. The Reds are only allowed to fly over the Crowd line on their arrival & departure manoeuvre (Even more they are the ONLY display team allowed to do this in the UK). Even though the designated crowd line was parallel to the Sheraton due to the shape of the corniche they flew over the “crowd” after most passes I’m not sure if they would of got away with that in the UK.
I have worked on a ‘Display Team’, I really have! With BAE Hawk Mk 65! With Tricolour smoke pods, with ‘Red Ones’. I really have!
Please ingratiate me with your superior knowledge? I have a ‘Belt-fed’ response waiting for you!
Well if you worked for the Reds then please enlighten me. I am happy to be corrected!
Every display is subject to local conditions at that time, hence the reds spend winter in Cyprus – lots of clear blue sky – + duty free – well it was in my day.
All Reds’ displays rely on a datum line – airstrip, coastline etc. for air/crowd safety, for that reason the display is standard. It is practised for months.
The idea that the ‘Rogers’ suddenly decide to go renegade because they are outside of the clutches of UK H&S law is preposterous, to say the least!
Well I apologise if my post implied that they went renegade as you say. Nor did I mean to imply that I thought the display was in anyway unsafe.
Lets just say I do a similar job and as such have nothing but respect and admiration for the Red’s past or present and know very well that they wouldn’t go renegade as you say. If you were part of the Team before then hats off to you!
My dig was at the regulations in the UK, which have seen the minimum crowd line distance etc get greater most years, compared to the rest of Europe and to the detriment of Airshows in the UK.
I will happily edit my first post if you think it reads that they were unprofessional in anyway as that was not my intention.
Not a problem Turbo!
I’m still in the same industry, and you must agree that safety is paramount?
Safety regulations can be a real pain in the @rse sometimes, but I would accept them over death, wouldn’t you?
The Reds were great, again, let us be happy!
🙂
Yes I agree safety is paramount.
Indeed they were and they always have been every time I’ve seen them!
I love the smell of agreement in the morning!.
Bugger – it’s still evening – but you know what I mean
made me proud to be British today…
Indeed the Red’s always perform!
Shame our overpaid useless footballers can’t do the same!
agreed, but most of them are foreign imports anyway… useless all the same though.