The Pilots

Since mid-1966 there have been nine Red Arrows display pilots each year, including the Team Leader.

All Red Arrows pilots are volunteers. To be eligible to apply for the Team, pilots must have completed at least one operational tour on a front line fast jet such as the Tornado, Harrier and Jaguar, and have a minimum of 1,500 flying hours. Pilots must also have been assessed in their annual reports as being above average in their operational role. These provisos mean that the volunteers are usually Flight Lieutenants in their late twenties or early thirties.

Each display pilot stays with the Team for a three-year tour of duty. The reason for this is that by changing three pilots each year the experience level within the Team is optimised. At the end of their tour of duty with The Red Arrows, pilots usually return to "front-line" RAF squadrons.

Each year, around thirty pilots apply for the Team. A short list of nine spend a week with The Red Arrows, and are put though a rigorous programme of interviews, flying tests and assessments of their personal qualities and motivation. It is vitally important that all The Red Arrows�?display pilots not only trust each other’s skills but get on well together. The current pilots make their final choices at a closed meeting chaired by the Commandant of the Central Flying School (CFS).

If one of the pilots goes sick during the display season, or for any other reason is not able to fly, the Team is able to fly an 8-ship formation. There are no reserve pilots for safety reasons; one spare pilot could not possibly learn all nine positions to the standard required. The pilots always fly in the same position within the formation and it takes an intensive six-month training programme for each pilot to become thoroughly proficient at flying in his position.

In addition to the nine display pilots, another pilot known as ‘Red 10�? the Team's Road Manager, flies another Hawk aircraft. This is sometimes called to act as a spare aircraft in the case of an engineering problem while the Team is away from base.