It was Saturday afternoon and my co-pilot ("R-man") and I ("Chicken") were in our usual mad rush - this time to see the Red Arrows do their legendary flying display at the Royal Air Force (RAF) base at Leuchars, near St Andrews as part of the annual Air Show. We were driving from Crail with our sunglasses on, roof down and wind whipping our hair ("Revvin' up your engine, listen to her howlin' roar..."). In a somewhat maverick style we realised en route that parking at the airfield itself is only for pre-booked cars and the park and ride option wouldn't get us there in time. Local farmers are wise to this though and open their fields as car parks. So we were able to divert our course and alight in a field on the other side of the Eden Estuary from Leuchars. We joined some other cars who had paid to park and watch the displays from there (£10).
We came to a halt just as the RAF Red Arrows took to the skies in all their glory. Watching them in awe (I suspect I had my mouth open), we quickly ran down to a scenic beach, located immediately opposite the RAF Leuchars Airfield.
How I wished I could be a Red Arrows pilot! Swooping, spinning, diving, flying in perfect formations, leaving trails of coloured smoke in my wake. How amazing would that be?
In reality however I would almost certainly have become re-acquainted with my breakfast had I even been a passenger in one of those planes for a few seconds! What's more, the ear-shatteringly loud noise that the first flypast made, as three Arrows passed over my head, scared the absolute living daylights out of me!
Thankfully the real pilots are made of more macho stuff and put on a crowd-pleasing, fearlessly perfect show of fancy flying, over the scenic expanse of the Eden Estuary.
It was stupendous.
Occasionally the sunlight hit them beautifully...
And here is the wider scene...
Whenever the Arrows disappeared for a moment some birds would appear, seemingly trying to emulate their flying formations. "We were doing this first", the birds seemed to say. However the crowds were far more interested in their big, noisy metal cousins.
What are the Red Arrows? They are the RAF Aerobatic Team, one of the best in the world and the public (and popular) face of the RAF. They are the Air Force's showcase, renowned throughout the world and assisting with diplomacy and RAF recruitment.
Sadly all good things must come to an end ("She's lost that loving feeling..."). What goes up must come down. After a good half hour of amazing flying (which felt like five minutes) the Red Arrows came in to land. We stayed to watch some more of the flying displays. The noise some of the planes made was incredibly loud, making the Arrows seem quiet in comparison. Another plane did the most amazing, death-defying dives and spins...
As good as they were however once you've seen the Reds the rest is never going to be quite as good.
So we left to refuel our rumbling tums at nearby Balgove Larder, farm shop and tea room / steak barn extraordinaire (just outside St Andrews, on the road to Leuchars). I highly recommend it.
Sadly it seems this was the last year of the RAF Leuchars Air Show (though didn't they say that last year?). If so this will be a very sad loss from the St Andrews area's events calendar and I'm glad I got the chance to see some of it this year. If you haven't seen the Red Arrows yet then you definitely should. Right, I'm off to buy a leather jacket and some aviators!
www.airshow.co.uk
www.raf.mod.uk/reds/ or Twitter: @rafredarrows
www.balgove.com
Text and images copyright Sara Scott 2013
