What it’s really like to be a Red Arrows pilot
Flying across the world, living out childhood dreams and coming to terms with tragedy. Bethany Gavaghan reports
BEING a Red Arrows pilot is no easy feat by any means. One person who knows this better than anyone is Michael Bowden, from Cardi , who was a fast jet combat pilot and then a Red Arrows display pilot, spanning 17 years of service within the RAF.
From ying around the Statue of Liberty, displaying below the heights of skyscrapers in Chicago to zooming over polar ice caps in Greenland, Michael has seen it all.
It all started with a childhood dream that was 30 years in the making – and he has now tried to harness the determination he developed during that time into his daily life after retiring from the Reds.
He left the military in 2019, but still carries the excitement he got to experience with them which has shaped his obvious zest for life.
“Some of the positions you’d nd yourself in and some of the moments, you really did have to pinch yourself and go, ‘How am I doing this?’, trying to savour every moment of it because it truly was incredibly special,” he says.
After seeing the Red Arrows y past during an air show at St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan at a young age, Michael knew that was what he wanted to do with his life.
He says: “It was the rst time that my eyes locked on to the Red Arrows, and I was that little boy that looked up and went, ‘One day, I want to do that’. From that day, it was a dream, where I was like, ‘Whatever it takes – I want to be able to do that because it looks like the coolest, most fun thing in the world ever’ – and that was the dream until the day I put a red suit on.”
So what is it really like being a Red Arrows pilot? One of the main responsibilities that comes with the job is the training.
Michael notes: “You don’t just fall into a Red Arrows aeroplane. You need to clearly go and do all your schooling, which probably drove me a little bit more through my education.”
Michael grew up in Newport, and knowing exactly what he was aiming for, made sure he got his A-levels before pursuing a degree at Cardi in computing and maths.
And after going through a selection process with the RAF, he was sponsored through university, with a job waiting for him at the end of it. Once he had joined the air force as a pilot, he then had to prove himself as a fast jet pilot by putting in a certain amount of hours and ying di erent aircraft.
“And it was in my early twenties after nishing
my advanced fast jet training in Wales, where I was told I’d done really well and that they’d like to keep me there for a few years before joining the frontline to train other people,” he says.
“I made the grades at each of those stages to move on to the next course, ying a faster aeroplane at each stage, which was quite daunting because all of a sudden I was teaching peers in their early twenties how to y a supersonic multi-million-pound aeroplane.”
In the Red Arrows, no day is the same. But the time when they have more routine is in winter, where they are training for ve days a week ready for the summer shows.
When asked what moments stood out to him during his time in the team, Michael replies: “e
rst time you put that red suit on and realise you’ve achieved it. I guess it’s a bit like a Formula 1 driver going on the starting line and going and doing what they need to do.
“But there has been some incredible moments. We were the rst military unit to be invited to Zhuhai in China to go to display. We’ve displayed all around the Far East, Middle East and the Monaco Yacht Show was an incredible backdrop in Europe, ying across to America, across Iceland and Greenland and seeing all the polar ice caps, and making it over there, displaying below the heights of skyscrapers in Chicago as people were having their lunch and you’re tearing past at over 500 miles an hour was amazing.”
But their work consists of much more than just the glamour of performing to the big crowds. Michael says: “e boyhood dream was always to be a Red Arrows pilot, but it’s de nitely a doublesided coin. Being on Afghanistan operations and
supporting troops on the ground from all di erent nationalities, and knowing that you made a di erence that day and there’s times that you absolutely saved lives on the ground – there’s nothing really more rewarding than that.
And he adds: “Flying faster aeroplanes is not a paper round. You are ying machinery that is capable of going faster than the speed of sound very close to the ground and close proximity to other aeroplanes.”
It’s not for the faint-hearted, by any means. During his time as a Red Arrows pilot, Michael came face to face with loss, and has navigated all sorts of situations throughout his career.
He says: “ere are incredible amounts of safety built in but accidents clearly do and have happened, and there has been tragedy over the years in the team, and that is incredibly hard to process when it’s people you know and people you’ve worked with, but these things happen.
“ere was a tragedy where we lost one of our engineers, and nothing can replace that feeling of loss. Clearly, no-one ever wants to end up in that position but with everything the really important bit is taking the lessons learned from a tragedy and we understand what changes need to be made and put in place to make the environment safer.
He adds: “Every day you’re stepping into an aeroplane that you’re going to go and y 6ft apart from another aeroplane going upside-down around 400 miles an hour. Flying 100ft above the ground, upside-down to an opposition.
“When you pass them within 100ft of another plane doing the same speed, there is no automatic, there is no cruise control. ere is no
Some of the positions you’d nd yourself in and some of the moments, you really did have to pinch yourself and go, ‘How am I doing this?,’ trying to savour every moment of it because it truly was incredibly special
system in the aeroplane that tells us we’re going to hit someone else or how to avoid them.
“It is completely mandraulic – it is the mark one human eyeball ultimately in our hands making that aeroplane do what it does. So it is an incredible amount of training to go and put that show on and the big thing in the Reds is knowing that we’ll never be perfect because there is always room for improvement.
“You always strive to be the best that you can, knowing each time we went out that we could make it that little bit better. e debrie ng was probably the biggest part of our process and not hiding behind any mistakes.”
Now, Michael is focusing his energy on a business he runs alongside his business partner Leane – Guardian Angel Carers Cardi , which aims to provide high-quality care to older people in the city. After his grandmother passed away, su ering with dementia after deteriorating in a care home, he became intent on being able to provide care where people are looked after to the “highest standards”.
Worlds collided for Michael when a man who was also in the RAF had a parachuting accident, leaving him paralysed from the waist down and requiring 24/7 care for the rest of his life. Michael says he “remained incredibly positive but his mental health was taking a turn, largely due to the poor levels of care he was receiving”.
“I’m incredibly grateful that we got connected,” said the former pilot. “Guardian Angel Carers Cardi are now providing his care and have given him con dence, independence and the attention to detail required in the package of care that needed to be delivered – particularly for someone that has a carer with them 24/7.
“He is back to his old self, feeling more independent again, mentally stronger, and has trust and complete open dialogue with us and the team. I believe this is a really good news story and how delivering quality, compassionate care in the comfort of people’s own homes can truly make a di erence. We hold our heads high as a company in being able to do so and hope we can continue to spread the word.”
e boyhood dream was always to be a Red Arrows pilot, but it’s de nitely a double-sided coin. Being on Afghanistan operations and supporting troops on the ground from all di erent nationalities, and knowing that you made a di erence that day and there’s times that you absolutely saved lives on the ground – there’s nothing really more rewarding than that