Edinburgh military tattoo flypasts 2024

[Vandal]

Hopefully the weather & light holds out for this one.

Edit - just noticed the photo on the twitter / x feed is a German (Luftwaffe) example.

https://x.com/RAFinScotland/status/1823315869700694429

[Unknown74]

Trying to work out the callsign is it Roulette 38?

[Unknown74]

Yipee saw him - totally pleased......

[Mattius]

Anyone know what frequency they are on?

[Dex P]

Caught him heading Westbound over airport and right overhead myself and back over the Forth. Also an emergency at Edinburgh airport, fire engines rushed to the East end of the airport, heard something on the scanner but was focused on the A400M.

[Mattius]

Yeah I kept getting all the chatter about the fire when I was hunting for it.

[109sqn]

Hopefully the weather & light holds out for this one.

Edit - just noticed the photo on the twitter / x feed is a German (Luftwaffe) example.

https://x.com/RAFinScotland/status/1823315869700694429

And they've now said:

Ok - hands up… we made a mistake and grabbed the wrong picture!

[109sqn]

Trying to work out the callsign is it Roulette 38?

It was. RLTE38

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/airc ... 5#369ed841

Flew to Gullane and midway between North Berwick and East Fortune before heading back southwards.

[109sqn]

Although I had no hiccups this time, I'm not sure I'll be bothering to try capturing any more flypasts this year. The sky was clear enough but it's simply too dark to get anything acceptable at that time of night from Arthur's Seat. I ended up with most shots being at 12800 ISO and I generally don't bother using anything above 6400 for most of my photography with the Canon R6. Add in the gusting wind tonight and my hit rate was even lower.

[Vandal]

Only 2 more to go. I'm a bit nervous about the P8-A on the 23rd though.

I understand these aircraft & their crews have a job to do, & that takes priority, - IIRC - even Nimrod, back in the day had to come off of patrol briefly to perform flypasts at Leuchars Airshows so we could see them, so the RAF have always made the effort. That aside, the sun will have gone down a good hour before the flypast slot so it'll almost certainly be dark, & nigh on impossible to see. Is it even worth it, or safe sending a heavy through under those circumstances? Why 9.30pm is beyond me.

If the good people of the RAF read this - Thank You again for the hard work & effort you've put into organising & carrying out this years flypasts. Much appreciated.

[Nighthawke]

Of course it's safe - it's what they do. Is it worth it? Well that's for you to decide.

[Vandal]

Of course it's safe - it's what they do. Is it worth it? Well that's for you to decide.

Yes, under operational circumstances, I'm not questioning their skill or professionalism, but a flypast over Edinburgh Castle in the dark? Whether or not it's worth it sadly isn't up to me, but it makes no sense to launch the aircraft (assuming it's the P8-A) or have it come off patrol to carry out a flypast in the dark. I hate to say it, but if I was in charge, tomorrow night would be the last for the year, sunset tomorrow is 20:48. Losing 2 - 3 minutes of light every night means sunset on the 23rd (last Tattoo flypast) would be around 20:29. Factor in all the lights at the Esplanade (Tattoo venue) & no one's eyes will be accustomed to the dark anyway. Whatever way we look at it, the aircraft will be nigh on impossible to see.

[Nighthawke]

Sorry I thought you meant was it worth your turning up to watch. There seems to be a difference of opinions between the locals on these threads. Some complaining that the council want to stop the flights and others saying why bother because it's too dark.

[Vandal]

Sorry I thought you meant was it worth your turning up to watch. There seems to be a difference of opinions between the locals on these threads. Some complaining that the council want to stop the flights and others saying why bother because it's too dark.

It's really one & the same thing - I've long suspected the 9.30pm slot is to the Council's advantage, as detailed above, it's dark & also if a fast jet is booked, afterburner would be the preferred option so it can at least be seen, but that generates exceptional noise, which in turn generates complaints which the Council use to justify their reason(s) for pushing for cancelling.

I'm all for the flypasts - but 9pm was by far the better time. Even if they only did the Saturday's as they are at 6.15 / 6.30pm or there about, I'd be happy enough with that. As I've said, the further into August we get, the less light we have. Although I love military aircraft, after dark really isn't the best time to witness them flying. Could anyone imagine if Buckingham Palace had a flypast at 9.30pm any night in August? Half of the aircraft wouldn't launch for reasons of safety & those that did would be hard to see. Unrealistic I know, but it gives an example of what we're reduced to in Edinburgh, & the Tattoo seems to be the only regular event that gets flypasts.

This is all my personal opinion - I'd welcome other's views on this too.

[109sqn]

The first point we need to factor in is that the flypasts aren't for us, the people viewing, photographing and videoing them from outside the castle esplanade. As such, our complaints regarding how dark it is are (regretfully) irrelevant, much as I'm very much one of those complaining.

I've only been to the Tattoo once, maybe twice, as a small child and don't remember if there was a flypast (but I think I would have remembered). I would think, however, that the light from the esplanade likely lights up the aircraft to some degree, plus the noise is likely as much part of the experience as the sight of it.

Second, I imagine the flypasts are simply considered part of the crews' regular training schedule. C-17s and A400Ms fly up this way without landing fairly often. Night flying is an essential skill to keep on top of, as is flying to a schedule, something they get to do on flypast visits. I don't think safety factors into the flypasts any more than other flights.

Should there be late performance flights? Well, most/all of us on here would prefer they were all closer to 6pm than 10pm, but we're not the official audience. The Tattoo and RAF don't put the flypasts on for us. Selling tickets isn't a problem for the event, but although you don't know if there'll be a flypast on the night you've booked tickets for, I could see the organisation fielding complaints that the late performances never get a flypast if they were were all put on for the 6:15pm show, despite the fact they are simply a bonus for lucky attendees.

Summing up, my selfish wish is that every flypast was at 6:15 and there'd be at least 7 per year with different aircraft each time. But I don't have a Tattoo ticket in my hand (on my phone?) so I don't get a say. Unfortunately, the anti-flypast moaners seemingly do. But, like I said to a fellow viewer on Saturday, why would you choose to live in a city (especially one with multiple festivals like Edinburgh) if you are so averse to noise?

[Mike]

I lived in Edinburgh from 1961 until 1975 in a house on the Southside of the city with a fantastic elevated view of the castle and Arthur's Seat. There were no Tattoo flypasts in those days but the many military movements into and out of Turnhouse (Edinburgh airport) were fantastic.

The best flypast I ever saw over Edinburgh was during the 20th anniversary of the end of WW2 in 1965. It took place over The Meadows (where the RAF Exhibition Flight, plus the Army & Navy equivalents were also doing there thing all week). It took place at around noon (in broad daylight) and happened on 3 consecutive days I think - the first 2 days being practices.

It consisted of :-

16 Chipmunks
4 Lightnings (or was it 8?)
4 Javelins
4 Shackletons
I'm sure there were other aircraft involved but can't remember just now, my log is buried in a cupboard upstairs somewhere. They were at around 1,000 feet and many of the the Lightning serials were read-off with the naked eye (they had their serials underneath their wings).

Now THAT is a flypast, I can't believe why so many people get so excited about ONE Typhoon or ONE A400M in the sodding dark!

[Vandal]

I can't believe why so many people get so excited about ONE Typhoon or ONE A400M in the sodding dark!

Sadly, that's because it's pretty much all we up here in Scotland get nowadays.

The best flypast I've seen over Edinburgh surprisingly isn't Tattoo related either - it was Concorde in formation with the Red Arrows in 1999 for the opening of the Scottish Parliament.

109sqn - re the 6pm flypasts on Saturdays, up until this year, on the Saturday that got the Reds on the first performance, there was always a flypast for the later Saturday show too. Not this year though.

The last Tattoo that we attended, we were lucky enough to get a 3 ship of Tornado F3's, it was a 9pm flypast & all were on afterburner, pretty sure they used a Scimitar callsign.

[Mike]

I've just realised that the flypast in 1965 was for the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

[Vandal]

The good people of RAF Brize Norton have the honours again tonight. A400 'Atlas' for the flypast.

https://x.com/RAFinScotland/status/1824075765362672004

[109sqn]

Interesting both planned C-17 Flypasts have been replaced by A400Ms. Maybe nothing in it, but I wonder if the Globemasters have been tasked elsewhere?