Ernie painted the sky red (From Thisisdorset)

Ernie painted the sky red

7:10pm Friday 3rd July 2009

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WHEN the two Red Arrow Hawks make that final turn to start rocketing towards each other at 700 mph for a double roll over Bournemouth Pier, one of their devoted spectators will know exactly how it feels.

Wing Commander Ernie Jones has been those pilots. He has also flown Lightnings, Gnats and the Spitfires and Lancaster bomber in the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. He’s ejected from one plane and walked out of the wreckage of another and what he doesn’t know about the art of flying isn’t worth bothering with.

So, sitting in his Highcliffe lounge, there’s only one question to ask. And that is this: what’s it like to hurtle through the skies towards another plane, knowing that one false move means the end of it all?

He laughs. “Fantastic! Best feeling in the world.”

RAF chaps always say that but he’s not joking. He used to perform the manoeuvre with Henry Prince in the nifty Red Arrow Gnat. “In synchro flying one of you takes the line and the other avoids,” he explains. “Henry didn’t move and I had to avoid him.”

How dangerous is it? “Well, I’d rather be flying in a nine formation with the Red Arrows or at 700 mph towards Henry than I would be on the M27,” he says, going on to describe the good old days, when manoeuvres could take place at a hair-raising 100ft above the ground. And he has flown lower.

He started off along the coast in Southampton as an RAF air training cadet and learned his trade on Hunters and Javelins. He’s flown Meteors and Lightnings, and was the first RAF pilot to display with three separate RAF teams; The Firebirds, the Red Arrows in 1966, and the Battle of Britain Memorial flight, work which won him an Air Force Cross.

Lightnings were his favourite. “The sheer power, 36,000lbs and the noise were wonderful,” he enthuses. He adored his time with the Arrows; watching him watch footage of one of his flights, you can see him twitching to do the manoeuvres.

His explanations of how the Arrows formate would fill a manual but the general idea is that it’s all done with the eyes. The leader will be ahead and the pilots will usually be looking sideways, aligning, say, with the RAF logo and the pilot’s helmet. “You do get a very sore neck from all that sideways looking.”

During a display no one talks save the leader, unless a hazard is spotted, such as a dozy light aircraft pilot. “But we have such good peripheral vision that these things are usually seen well before anything can go wrong,” he says.

One hazard he did overcome was the day in 1958 when a flock of magpies disappeared into the engine of his Hunter on take-off, killing the engine and the birds. “You couldn’t use ejection seats below 1,000ft in those days so I had to stay in the aircraft and glide and force land in the fields below.” Which he did, but only after crashing through several fields, trees and fences.

Twenty years later he was in a similar situation when his Gnat “a pilot’s sports car” failed due to fuel starvation. Within a few seconds – 11 to be precise – the following happened.

“I realised it was going wrong but I had to keep going up. There are two ejectors you can pull, (One above for emergencies and one between the legs for dire emergencies.) I had to pull the second handle. I remember going up through the canopy (which is punctured by a pointy bit on the back of the seat) and tumbling around in the air.

“All I could see was green but that was because of the parachute round my face. I got glimpses of red and then went up as the parachute came open and only had time to get into the landing position before I fell.”

Was he afraid?

“No, of course not!” He retains the ejector handle as a souvenir, along with his large collection of flight memorabilia.

That memorabilia naturally includes images of the Spitfire. Like all fighter pilots he bears enormous affection and respect for these iconic aircraft and felt privileged to present them.

Flying the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, was, he says, “a great honour”. Whenever you are flying it, and I have also flown Spitfires that fought in the Battle of Britain, you get a deep sense of what they meant. They saved this country.”

He knows he is fortunate to have had the flying experiences that have come his way but you can tell he misses it all.

“It’s like rugby, you never want to hang up your boots,” he says. “I could still do it with Henry, I think, but there comes a time when you realise you aren’t quite as quick and that you should move on and let someone else take over.”

Those who have taken over will be there in August and he’ll be there to watch them because once a Red Arrow always a Red Arrow.

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