British formation aerobatic team promise to 'surprise' the crowd at Costa del Sol air show

Gerald Williams, Simon ‘Sid’ Shirley and Barry Gwynnett are three of the six members of Team Raven formation aerobatic team, the British representation at this year’s International Torre del Mar Air Show. They took time out of preparations for their display to chat with SUR in English ahead of the International Torre del Mar Air Show taking place in the eastern Costa del Sol town on Sunday 8 September.

“This is great,” says Gerald, relaxing at the hotel they are staying in and describing where they’d been for lunch and the stroll they’d enjoyed along the long promenade in the warm, late summer sunshine. “We live in South Wales. It’s non-stop rain. It’s pouring down right now”. (I interject: well send some this way please!)

"This is just wonderful for us," they say, although they do reveal that they had a very bumpy landing into the Axarquía airfield in Trapiche, north of Vélez-Málaga, on Thursday (5 September). “The weather is something we can never do anything about,” Sid points out, while explaining the factors and logistics that need to be considered for their 14-minute star turn.

But despite the relaxed atmosphere, there’s tension – they’re a man and a plane down as said man and plane are currently stuck in San Sebastian waiting for a part to be couriered from the UK via Cologne to fix the plane. Fortunately, there’s good news by the end of the interview and it looks like the part is about to be delivered and the plane should be on its way on Saturday morning in time for the practice session in the afternoon.

This is the team’s eleventh year together and Sid, 53, Gerald, 55, and Barry, 75, are three of the four original members. They say that they all knew each other before they formed Team Raven through flying and decided to form a display team to take part in air shows.

“We’re basically a group of real enthusiasts in aviation, it’s not a job for anyone, we all have jobs so this is a bit of fun really,” Gerald admits. Between them they clock up thousands of flying hours and are a mix of airline pilots, RAF fighter pilots and businesspeople with a particular interest in flying machines. In fact, Gerald was a professional rugby player in Wales, New Zealand and South Africa. Sid explains that he was flying jets at 19 and always knew that’s what he wanted to do.

The six aircraft are all the same model; the RV8, which is where the team gets the name 'RaVen'. The planes can reach a top speed of 230 miles per hour and they can do 700 miles in one go, meaning the team flies the planes to whichever air show they are doing. To get to Torre del Mar they flew from Wales to the French Pyrenees, then to Santander from there down to the Axarquía airfield in Trapiche, north of Vélez-Málaga.

This is their second festival in Spain and the team have regularly done shows across Europe, from Denmark (their second ever show where they even won an award), to France, Portugal (which is where they are heading next) and as far as Croatia. Back at home they are regulars at the famous Duxford air show among others.

Sid leads the team, so is known as ‘Raven 1’. The pilots explain that it’s not just the technical side but the creative choreography, as well as “a lot of coordination and logistics that go into the 14 minutes” that the display actually lasts for. “We fly over mountains, water and in bad weather to get to where we’re performing, so the actual performance is the element with the least surprise,” they admit.

They say that they won’t have much time to explore the area while they’re here as they return to the UK on Monday, although they will have covered a fair bit of ground from the skies above. “If anyone thinks that being a display pilot is always glamorous, it’s not. It’s about sitting around in cold hangers all for 14 minutes of madness. It’s long days – some days it’s hours and you can go off the boil and have to warm up again, but you get in the plane and get a real sense of euphoria,” they say, explaining that the waiting around is all worth it when they’re performing to the crowds.

Having assessed the conditions for Sunday’s display the team are pleased that Torre del Mar offers a long, straight beach. “Sometimes it’s really small and you have to adapt the display so that it will fit the space you’ve got,” they explain. In terms of what to expect, they say, “There are six planes, and loads of smoke. We’re all white and we fly really low. We’re hoping to surprise the crowd”.

Sid confesses that he’s a bit worried about thanking the crowd in Spanish as one of the elements of the show is being able to hear the teams communicate with each other over loudspeakers along the beach. He’s not sure he’ll get to grips with rolling the R's in Torre del Mar in time. “Have you ever tried that on a radio in an aeroplane upside down at 200 feet? No? It’s a first for me too” he laughs.

They warn me that the relaxed, friendly personas change to serious, focused, ‘in the zone’ before a display as they prepare themselves for the challenge ahead. That’s ok, I say, I’ll be watching from the beach anyway. Team Raven will be practising at approximately 1.45pm on Saturday and their slot at Sunday’s air show is 2.38 to 2.52pm.

Click here for a full air show programme.

Click here for more information about Team Raven.