Tony Cunnane's RAF Years

On the first day of the show 27 Chiefs of Air Staff were present, including our own, Sir Michael Graydon. In the following three days the Team displayed five more times. According to official estimates, over half a million people attended the air days at Waterkloof and countless thousands throughout the Republic watched the extensive live TV coverage.

‘I have never displayed in front of such enthusiastic and friendly people as those we found at Waterkloof,’ John Rands said afterwards. ‘Displaying hot and high was a new and fascinating experience.’

One of the little things that kept Red Arrows’ personnel amused was estimating how long it would take any South African citizen to introduce the subject of the Rugby World Cup into any conversation. 75 seconds was about average. You could easily wind up patriotic South Africans by innocently asking them which World Cup they were referring to. Whilst the official reason for the Red Arrows’ presence at Waterkloof was to help the SAAF celebrate its 75th birthday, high level representatives of the British companies funding the tour were much in evidence in their companies’ display areas and they were delighted with the Red Arrows’ presence and performances. Having the Team appear in their bright red flying suits on the display stands of the companies that had contributed to the Pot of Gold acted as a magnet, so much so that companies occupying adjacent stands eventually became a little peeved that we were taking attention away from their products.

From Pretoria the detachment moved south west for a few days in Cape Town and everyone immediately fell in love with this delightful city and its friendly people. On arrival the Red Arrows and the support Hercules made a spectacular and rare joint flypast through Kloof Nek, the gap between Table Mountain and Signal Hill, and then over the city itself. John Rands reported that as they passed through the gap he could see thousands of people waving. The display over the historic waterfront area with Table Mountain looming dramatically in the background was received ecstatically and traffic in large parts of the city came to a complete standstill. During the display a large cargo ship started majestically steaming its way out of the harbour. The Cape Argus reported what happened thus:

‘Over the Team Manager’s radio came the warning, “large ship in the mouth of the harbour”. Seconds later Reds 6 and 7 passed the ship, flying so low it appeared the captain on the bridge could have looked into their cockpits. Asked later whether the ship had posed any problems, Squadron Leader Rands said that although it had been in the way of the Synchro Pair it had not posed a major threat. “If you hit a big ship like that, you shouldn’t be doing the job,” he said. And then he added as an afterthought: “And you’d better see an optician straight away.”’

We knew what he meant!

A surprise arrival at Cape Town was the British Airways ‘City of Lincoln’ Boeing 747-400 G-BNLT on a scheduled service bearing the Scampton Station Commander, Group Captain Chris Burwell. After Cape Town everyone started to relax knowing that they were, in effect, starting the long journey home. First there was a low level transit around the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas en route to Durban. Hands up all those who, like me, thought that the Cape of Good Hope, not Cape Agulhas, was the southernmost point of the continent.

Advance to the final part of this story