Original subtitles

These are the elite.

And go!

Fighter pilots, flying on the edge of what's possible.

They're called...the best display team in the world.

I feel the need for speed!

Now, they're flying the flag for Britain...

Stars and stripes, go!

...across the Atlantic.

The biggest tour in a generation.

It's just absolute madness what we're about to do.

Their journey takes them over skyscrapers, mountains,

and glaciers...

Icebergs at the end of the runway. Absolutely epic.

...and involves challenges never tackled before.

They'll face extreme weather...

It's very hot in here.

Very cold, it's minus 12.

...travel thousands of miles...

Pretty surreal!

Have I actually just done that?

...and entertain millions.

We're spreading the love over here in America now, it's amazing.

Fly-past colours, go!

These are the Red Arrows...

Wow!

...as they take America.

APPLAUSE

RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, the home of the Red Arrows.

The team are spending every minute preparing,

practising and repairing.

In a few clays' time, their epic journey will begin.

It's been dubbed as the biggest tour in a generation.

It's a really big deal.

There's 108 people on this tour.

So, it's huge.

It's a real mammoth task, which has taken a lot of planning.

Yeah, I'm incredibly excited, I cannot wait.

There's a real buzz around the squadron.

We just want to get there and get going.

Everyone is now just really digesting what's on the cards

for the shows we're going to, the landmarks we're going to see.

Reversing left now.

The Reds have been planning their North American tour for over a year.

It's one of the biggest

and most ambitious trips ever undertaken by the team.

Over 11 weeks, they'll travel more than 22,000 miles,

perform 30 flypasts and 21 displays.

I think there's two distinct camps in the Red Arrows

at the moment about the tour.

There's those who are just absolutely fizzing with excitement.

I think the other camp are those who are probably just focusing on the

most pressing task at hand, which is getting the jets to North America.

A monumental task on its own.

First, they'll head to Lossiemouth in Scotland, before a 3,000-mile

flight across the Atlantic, with refuelling stops

in Iceland, Greenland and Goose Bay,

before arriving in Halifax.

After that, it's show time,

with a display route that takes them across the continent.

Highlights will include Niagara Falls, Chicago, New York

and Washington.

They'll head south to St Louis, Dallas and Denver,

and then down the west coast, finishing in LA.

The schedule is action-packed,

and some of the places we're going to are truly iconic.

We've got skylines and, and cityscapes and coastlines.

So, there's some really dramatic sights.

I think the really big challenges, the unknowns, are...

going across the Atlantic,

transiting around Canada and America, and I think that is going

to be the biggest challenge, rather than the actual display flying.

Martin Pert is team leader - call sign Red 1.

He took over in 2018,

a year that saw tragedy, with the death of a colleague...

On Tuesday, one of the squadron's aircraft crashed at RAF Valley.

...and triumph, as the Red Arrows led national celebrations...

INDISTINGUISHABLE VOICE ON RADIO

...marking the centenary of the RAF.

That was amazing.

This season, their high profile flypasts have continued,

including over France, to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

Now, it's all about practising and perfecting

the routines that will be seen by their biggest ever audience.

If the weather allows us to, we're going to fly...

And it's Perty who will lead the Reds across the Atlantic,

to fly the flag for Britain.

So, details, then - we're on runway zero four.

Surface wind is three three zero six knots.

The ambassadorial role that is part and parcel of this job

back at home is just going to be magnified ten-fold when we

actually take the Red Arrows on tour to the United States and Canada.

The beauty of our display is that it is just a pocket flag,

it's red, white and blue that you can deploy anywhere in the world.

Let's just talk through reversal.

Reversal... Smoke on.

Go. Then it goes... Out.

Reversing left now...

Red 4, Gregor Ogston, is in his first year as a Red Arrows pilot.

I've always wanted to be a pilot in the Air Force,

since I was a young boy, sort of, six, seven years old,

it's all I've ever wanted to do.

As a first year pilot, massive privilege to be on the team,

it's hugely exciting, but also, er, incredibly demanding as well.

The first time you turn the smoke on, you know,

it all lights up in the cockpit and you start, you know,

doing manoeuvres and loops and aerobatics,

you look behind you and you can see yourself trailing smoke,

that's a huge moment that you don't forget.

Red 2 Damon Green, known as Damo, is also in his first year.

There's, er, a steep learning curve but, you,

you really battle through it, because you want to be the very best

erm, you want perfection when you put it on to the public.

You've got such a iconic role that you're filling into,

and the way we like to think about it is, you're just looking

after the position for the year.

So, I'm Red 2 for this year, but next year, it'll be somebody else.

But for some, 2019 hasn't gone as planned.

Great to see you.

Congratulations.

Simmo - Flight Lieutenant David Simmonds -

joined the team in 2018 ready for the 2019 season.

He's due to take over from Red Arrows veteran Mike Bowden,

known as Bogeye.

Taking one of your replacements flying, it's just not right!

I'll have to break his legs when we walk back in, it'll be fine.

But Bogeye's joking proved prophetic...

...when the Reds suddenly find themselves a pilot down,

before one of their biggest ever tours.

The Red Arrows are just clays away from their North American tour.

But for one of their new pilots, disaster has struck.

It was unfortunate.

I broke the leg playing football,

just on a seven-a-side, sort of, Wednesday night league.

When I had the X-ray and I spoke to the radiologist

and she showed me the picture, erm,

at that moment there, I probably realised that, for this year,

that wasn't going to happen.

With Simmo out of action for weeks, the Red Arrows need to find a

skilled and experienced replacement pilot, and quickly.

And they knew just who to call.

Bogeye.

I'd finished my time on the team after four years in 2018.

Back in October, on my merry way to go and be an airline pilot

flying for TUI down in Cardiff,

and was happily bussing people around on their holidays.

Red Arrows pilots usually spend three years with the team

and often return to front line roles.

Bogeye had already done an extra year, and was settling in to his new

civilian career when he was asked if he could return to the team - again.

It was a no-brainer and it took me

all of a millisecond to make my mind up.

I absolutely went and bit their arm off.

Simmo's broken leg means he missed out on vital pre-season training.

But he has recovered enough to stay on the team flying

one of the spare jets.

So my role is, er, fully a support role now for the tour.

We're planning to take 12 jets on tour.

Clearly there's nine that fly in the display, but

moving from each location, we've still got to move those jets around.

It's brilliant that he's up and running

and able to come with us on the tour and fly an aircraft with us.

And he'll be back in a red suit very soon.

I suppose the big question I need to ask myself now is,

who am I going to pick on and break their leg next year?

Yeah, I wonder.

Before the tour can kick off in Canada,

the team face a challenge like no other -

flying their jets across more than 3,000 miles of ocean.

These are 12 aircraft that are not

commercial, passenger-borne aircraft.

They're getting on a little bit.

So, to now suddenly take them

the other side of the Atlantic is a huge logistical challenge.

The Hawk jets are now more than 30 years old,

and they can't be flown long distances without stopping for fuel.

And because they only have one engine, there's no backup

if anything goes wrong.

A single engine over lots of water is, er,

is going to be quite challenging.

We're used to transiting. It's just

the hazard of going over the sea for such a long sea track,

it is a little bit different for us,

so we need to be very prepared for it.

Among those looking after the aircraft on tour will be

an elite team of 11 engineers known as the Circus.

They're selected every year and assigned to a pilot for the season.

It's a bit like a car going in for an MOT.

You land, you refuel it, quick inspection, and then

quite often we're hopping back in the jet

and flying to the next destination.

The pilots rely heavily upon these skilled engineers.

It's a really unique relationship that I've not seen

anywhere in the military or the Royal Air Force before.

They are making that aircraft absolutely airworthy

and you're placing your absolute trust in them, that it

is airworthy to fly in not only transits, but the displays.

Lissy Mason, call sign Circus 1,

is the officer leading the Circus engineers.

In the aircraft hangar, the whole team has been

working around the clock to get the jets ready for departure.

It's just...

...absolute madness, what we're about to do.

There's such a buzz downstairs.

The Red Arrows have a total of 14 Hawks.

While only nine are used in their displays,

they want to take three extra, in case anything goes wrong.

Having 12 in America is really important.

While the display is only nine aircraft,

things do go wrong.

But Senior Engineering Officer Richard Bland is

concerned about one of the aircraft.

We've got XX278 which has its wing off at the moment

because it had a bird strike,

incurred fairly substantial damage to the root of the wing,

which caused the lower part of the skin to detach and slightly rip off.

With just clays to go before they leave,

it looks like the jet could be staying at home.

We're now working both day and night shifts in order to try and do it.

We're working through the weekend.

For everyone now, it's all hands on deck.

For us, it's very busy, this period.

As you can see pretty much around the hangar,

there's something going on, on pretty much every jet.

We've got pretty much all the engineers in just now.

We know, if we don't get the jets ready, we won't be going, either.

A skilled team is required to perfect every aspect of the

Red Arrows displays, including the iconic red, white and blue smoke.

What's really beautiful about this team is that it's not

just the guys in the aircraft, it's people like the dye team.

Dye team leader Phil Wands,

known as Magic, is also working hard to prepare for the tour.

I've been in the RAF for over 11 years now

and I've never had anything like this come my way.

Several barrels of dye have already been shipped ahead to

locations across North America.

It will be minimum a barrel per display for each colour.

And that's 110 litres per barrel.

So, it really does add up.

And that's just a small part of the 36 tonnes of equipment that

has to get across the Atlantic.

Paul Llewelyn, known as Welly,

is the man who's been planning this for the last 18 months.

I do feel like I have a huge responsibility.

Almost like a parent waiting for Christmas, because obviously

you have children with their expectations,

but it's not until Christmas Day when they open their presents...

...you know you've achieved.

That's how I'm feeling.

Some equipment has already been shipped ahead to North America.

Everything else needed for the tour is being loaded on board

giant military transport aircraft.

Literally everything we need to operate needs to fit on these

12 pallets.

It's planned, and packed, with precision.

Meanwhile, in the main hangar, engineers have been working day

and night to fix the jet damaged in a bird strike.

Removing a wing is something that we rarely do here at Scampton.

We're at the point now where we think this repair is going

to come off and XX278 is going to be good to go on the tour.

And all the extra work seems to have paid off.

XX278 is finally fixed,

so 12 Hawks will be heading across the Atlantic, just as planned.

But they know there are things that could still go wrong.

Got an allocating aid, have you?

Yeah. Nice one, cheers.

What happens if an aircraft goes unserviceable in Greenland,

where we're not planning on staying overnight?

What happens if a transport aircraft doesn't get into the airport

with us?

What happens if, you know, we get to somewhere

and they don't have the correct fuel?

All these little things that sound so simple on the face of it

but are just separate spinning plates that any one of which

could bring the whole procedure to its knees.

It's departure day,

and everyone is feeling the pressure.

Morning, how are you?

Pretty good.

It's pretty real now, you know, here we are on Monday morning

and we're about to set off.

It's great to finally be at this moment,

but slightly nervous and the weather is not looking too hot just now,

but I'm assured it's going to clear up.

Hopefully we'll be in Iceland this evening.

The pilots get kitted up.

A trip like this requires full survival gear.

We're going to be flying for...

"almost at the limit of our endurance, over the North Atlantic.

Ultimately, we need to be prepared for an engine failure, for example.

So, just getting into the cockpit and, and what we wear,

is very important.

So, an immersion suit...

...it's a bit like a dry suit if you do any diving,

so it's kind of got rubber seals all around the neck and the waist.

You zip it up and the idea is it just keeps you nice and warm.

If, in the unlikely chance we had to eject anywhere,

it should help us survive in the water

until someone can come and rescue us, basically.

All set, just last minute preparations now.

Circus engineers usually travel in the back seat of the Hawk

jets between locations.

But for the risky transatlantic flight, the pilots will be

flying on their own.

It was a big decision to not take

Circus on the Transatlantic crossing,

and the reason for that is, there's just no reason to expose them to

that slightly increased risk of some of those challenges that we face.

The rest of the team set off in other aircraft.

Two A400M Atlas' transporters leave from RAF Waddington carrying

staff and equipment.

And two more military aircraft known as Voyagers

are also joining the journey.

They will play a crucial role in getting

the Red Arrows across the Atlantic.

The voyager is an airborne command and control centre.

It takes on that ultra important responsibility of looking

ahead for us, talking to the airfields that we're about to

land at, making sure that the weather is fit, and just

doing some of that communication that takes the load off my shoulders

as the leader of 12 aircraft trying to cross the Atlantic.

In typically British weather, the pilots get into their Hawk jets.

It's an emotional farewell from their family -

many won't be reunited for nearly three months.

After more than a year of planning, the moment has arrived.

Reds...rolling...now.

The Reds finally take to the skies -

the start of an epic, 3,000-mile adventure in Hawk jets

designed for journeys of a few hundred miles.

The Red Arrows are heading to North America

for their biggest tour in a generation.

It's departure day, and a total of 17 aircraft are now in the sky.

That includes a search and rescue jet from the Royal Danish Air Force.

They'll be on hand to provide emergency help over the Atlantic,

if anything goes wrong.

While the transport planes head straight for Iceland,

the first call for the 12 Red Arrows is RAF Lossiemouth.

Lossiemouth, in Scotland, will be a well-trodden path for most of us,

but then, once we get to Lossiemouth,

it's preparing for that trip across the sea.

We've all flown across the Atlantic before on front line aircraft,

but we've had the luxury of air-to-air refuelling,

a lot more fuel, and two engines in most cases.

So, it is more of a challenge in the Hawk.

We have to hop.

It's pretty much, get to the next petrol station,

fill up with gas.

The Reds touch down on schedule and make their first refuelling stop.

Stage one complete.

Next, Iceland, more than 700 miles across the North Atlantic.

To minimise risk, they'll now be splitting into two teams.

As Red 6, it's my responsibility to lead the rear section.

So, when we split down into our two sections,

it's my job to lead six aeroplanes across the Pond.

So, Red 1 will lead six aeroplanes, and so will I.

The flight across miles of open water goes without a hitch.

Less than two hours after leaving Scotland,

the jets have touched down at Keflavik airport.

The pilots head straight for the Voyager aircraft to regroup.

Actually being here in Iceland, on the way, with 12 aircraft

out there on the pan, you know,

it's real, it's great, it's fantastic.

It all sort of hits home, doesn't it, when you get going?

So, we're all certainly up, it's good to be on our way now

so that's it, the wheels are in motion.

They've travelled more than 1,200 miles today,

and they'll be spending the night here.

So far, so good, but there are bigger challenges to come.

It's morning.

The pilots are gearing themselves up for the biggest

and potentially most dangerous part of their transatlantic journey,

from Iceland to Narsarsuaq in Greenland

and then on to Goose Bay in Canada.

Having to transit via Greenland, which is a necessity

because of our fuel range, brings with it a unique set

of challenges that I've never been exposed to as a military aviator.

We have one small airfield in the southern part of Greenland,

which we've got enough fuel to get to,

but because of the limited range of these aircraft, we then

wouldn't have enough fuel to divert to an alternate airfield, which is

a reserve that we would always hold on most of our domestic flying.

Perty will have until halfway through the journey to decide

whether to carry on, or turn back.

It's just over 700 miles to Greenland -

the very edge of the Hawks' maximum range.

At the point of no return,

we have to be absolutely certain that we're going to be able to get

to the airfield that's our destination,

that we've got enough fuel to do that,

that the weather is fit to allow us to get to that airfield.

Once we cross that line, there is no turning around, we've got

nowhere else to go.

The weather is pretty bad in Iceland,

but the big concern is, things might be even worse over Greenland.

An emergency meeting is called on the tarmac to assess the options.

The check-in for three-three-five, decimal 525,

obviously that's slipped at nine o'clock -

all these timings have slipped by 30 minutes.

You can't rush decisions when you're in this game.

It needs to be thought about and it needs to be measured.

Our driving factor was,

is it sensible to launch with pretty poor weather conditions

in Iceland, knowing that we've only got one shot to get into Greenland?

And it was a really difficult decision.

But time is running out.

Perky has to make a ca“.

It is a go, with constant re-assessment.

We will just look at the weather all the way up to that

point of safe return.

Once we're beyond that, we are committed to landing at that

airport, we have no other options.

Now nearly an hour behind schedule,

he leads the first wave of Hawks into a threatening sky.

On board the Voyager is Group Captain Tony Franklin,

the most senior person on the tour.

He'll help track the Reds on their flight to Greenland.

But something is not right.

This is the aircraft captain,

one of the Reds had a slight problem after departure

and we're just assessing the problem,

I'll keep you updated as quickly as I can.

Moments after taking off,

a problem has been discovered with one of the jets.

The Voyager now has to take off,

with everyone on board still wondering what's happened.

We weren't quite aware of what was going on at the time

so we were just making best guess scenarios.

They try to catch sight of the Red Arrows.

Hopefully we'll see them

flying past with a bit of smoke on to let us know where they are.

Where are they?

At last, they come into sight.

Oh, yep, see - there we go!

Normally, I'm sat in the back seat with Perty.

So, it was quite a weird situation to be looking out the window of the

Voyager and seeing my colleagues out there, you know, on the wing.

But there are only five jets.

Red 10 is missing.

With his jet in trouble, Red 10 pilot Adam Collins has been

forced to turn back and land at Keflavik Airport.

Although we train for these things, you never expect them.

It was definitely way off-piste as far as what we'd briefed for.

And it's XX278, the jet that was badly damaged in a bird strike.

Now, it will need repairing again.

That's when it starts to be a challenge.

"Right, OK, what do we need?

"Do we need to get spares and parts to that aircraft?

"Do the team stay behind? Do we bring another team from home?"

Or something like that, depending on where it is

and how it's going to run, and you can't foresee that until it happens.

The team on the ground in Iceland need to find out

the cause of the problem, and how quickly it can be fixed.

This aircraft has come back, we're holding the rest of the team.

We're now into continuously planning of, do we delay everyone?

Is the jet going to be long-term sick for about a week?

Then we can decide how many jets to push forward,

so, there's a lot of pressure to find out what we're going to do.

Meanwhile, 30,000ft above the Atlantic Ocean,

the first wave of jets are midway between Iceland

and Greenland - it's the point of no return.

Perty and the team on the Voyager must now decide whether to continue.

It was about, is it safe to press beyond the point of no return?

Which is something I've never dealt with in my 20-year flying career.

The nerves then come, because you don't know what could happen.

We're pushing the Hawk right to the edges of its endurance limit.

Perky and the Reds fly on.

With nowhere to divert to if there's an emergency,

they're now fully committed to completing the journey to Greenland.

When I caught sight of that airfield from about 35-40 miles away,

having just descended through a very think layer of cloud,

I couldn't have felt relief.

I've never landed anywhere like that in my life.

The weather hadn't closed in, we'd got there safely

and the setting was just incredible.

They've made it.

But there's no time to celebrate.

Seven jets are still in Iceland, and one of them now needs to be fixed.

It's a really tough call

because they've got the Voyager aircraft running,

also they need to make some really focused decisions really quickly.

We might end up leaving a few engineers with that

aircraft in Iceland.

Time is running out if the second wave of Hawks are to complete

today's journey on schedule.

The delay has also meant the Danish Search and Rescue team has

had to make an unplanned landing in Greenland to refuel.

They need to get in the air and back to Iceland as fast as possible

to shepherd the second wave across.

OK, so, the options as I see it, is that you depart with

wave one at 15.45 and join in formation with us.

Our problem is that the weather, as you can see, is starting to

close in a bit here, and we're running out of time.

So, it is a bit of a race, whilst doing it safely, to make sure

that we can get those aircraft not only into here

but then thinking about the onwards delivery.

I think they've probably got about an extra two hours beyond their

planned departure time,

otherwise the window starts to really close down.

In Iceland, the remaining Reds are told they need to leave.

The broken plane won't be coming with them.

They're just going to press on with the six serviceable aircraft

we've got, and we've left an aircraft back in Iceland.

I'd like to have as many aircraft as we can, I'd really like to

try to get that 12th aircraft across to the US if we can.

The second wave of Reds depart.

Pilot Adam Collins has had to leave his ailing Hawk behind,

so is flying Simmo's spare jet instead.

I'm expecting that in about half an hour,

the other six aircraft will join us-.

Getting these 12, now 11, aircraft across to Canada is a priority.

The weather holds.

The remaining six Hawk jets touch down safely.

It's one of the few air fields I've been in where you actually

have to take in the scenery around you,

and seeing icebergs at the end of the runway, absolutely epic.

The pilots are relieved to have arrived.

But they're all too aware that one of the jets

has been left behind in Iceland.

For Red 10 pilot Adam Collins, it's been a difficult and dramatic day.

My gear didn't come out properly, so my nose wheel wasn't properly

locked up - it was an issue with the centring mechanism, so I tried it

a couple of times then had to just burn off fuel with the wheels down,

and then land about 45 minutes after I took off.

So, they had a look at the jet, unfortunately it can't be

fixed quickly, so we're going to have to rescue that one

probably in a few days once it's had the part replaced.

And then hopefully back up to 12 again ready to get to North America.

But the Reds now have to focus on the next leg of this intense

journey, from Greenland to Goose Bay in Canada.

A quick splash of fuel for the jets, then hopefully,

Goose Bay tonight and then onto Halifax tomorrow.

The engineers get to work servicing the jets.

It's a tight turnaround on this stop,

but essential checks still have to be carried out.

Just putting oxygen in the jets, so they can breath.

AIR HISSES

They've not used much, so it's not too bad.

Quick.

That's got nineteen-zero-seven from Narsarsuaq to Goose Bay.

I'll nav this.

Weather base here at Narsarsuaq is that it was a nice day.

Although the weather in Greenland is good,

they're keeping a close eye on some low cloud near Goose Bay.

The point of safe return you'll see is Wavepoint 8

and that's based on a 20 knot headwind throughout.

After a detailed briefing, once again, Perty will lead

the first wave, with Toby bringing the second wave behind him.

We're off! We need to get going and press on to Canada.

But everything looks pretty good so far,

I hope it's like this in Canada.

It doesn't sound like the forecast is too good.

But it's good enough to get in.

The first wave takes off.

Two hours later, the second wave is also airborne.

Ahead is nearly 700 miles of ocean.

Ten minutes to landing, ten minutes.

The end of day two, and an epic voyage.

With another 1,500 miles of flying under their belts,

they've finally made it to Goose Bay in Canada.

You could sense instantly the relief on every single pilot.

We're now on mainland Canada, we've done the hard bit,

and I think we really understood there,

the enormity of what we'd managed to do in just 48 hours.

After a night's rest, it's a wet start to day three.

Now, there's just a short hop from Goose Bay to Halifax in Nova Scotia.

11 Hawk jets break through the cloud to bright blue skies.

They've flown over icy waters and some of the most inhospitable

terrain on Earth - but they've made it to Halifax.

Over a year of planning has paid off.

The transatlantic flight is complete.

That was probably the most epic journey of my career to date.

It is amazing to be here in Halifax,

because this is really the first bit of the tour proper.

To get across the Atlantic on time as well, bang on time,

is a phenomenal achievement from everyone on the team, really.

I think it's hit everyone, frying pan in the face -

this is the start of it now.

So, yeah, looking forward to getting stuck in.

It's been an epic journey, but there are more challenges to come.

Before the team can perform in the USA,

they need to pass a strict validation test.

It is a nerve-racking moment.

They could say that the display is not fit

for the purpose for which we've designed it.

It's Friday morning.

The Red Arrows have been in Canada for less than 24 hours.

But they're already making quite a splash.

At half seven this morning, we were in the car driving

to a live morning TV show.

Flight lieutenant Damo Green, also known as Red 2,

is a pilot with the Red Arrows...

Damo Green and Matt Searle, Red 2 and Circus 2,

are being interviewed on live TV.

It was good experience, actually.

Every so often you'd just catch a glimpse

of the red and the blue suit,

and then you kind of get really self-conscious

about, "Where am I looking? What am I doing with my hands?"

It's just like,

"I'll just go back to talking about the team."

They've even made front page news.

Yeah, it's not ours.

It's great to just start the tour off

on this kind of footing, isn't it?

So, we're looking forward to getting flying.

The team already has permission to display in Canada.

But they now face a major hurdle before they're allowed to

perform in the USA.

They need to complete a strict validation flight,

which will be assessed by America's Federal Aviation Authority.

Without it, the team can't display in the US.

It is a nerve-racking moment because public display authority

is a bit like a driving test, and you can't get rid of those

driving test nerves, no matter how many times you've rehearsed for it.

They could say that the display is not

fit for the purpose for which we've designed it.

The Red Arrows regularly practise their display.

But the hectic preparations for the tour mean they've not had

as much practice as usual, and they need to be on top of their game.

Get this wrong, and the entire tour could be in jeopardy.

Obviously we'd just had the Atlantic crossing the week before,

so I think everyone's focus was on that.

We hadn't displayed properly, really, for a couple of weeks.

We experience skill fade, and we're always striving

to put out the best display we can,

and we always want to achieve the highest standard possible.

It's been a little while, it might just go slightly awry.

Don't forget they're used to big, one-hour-long shows.

It's my job as the leader just to calm the nerves of the pilots,

that this is just another display.

We're just going to fly it exactly the same way we always do and then,

hopefully, prove to those inspectors that it is absolutely appropriate.

Good, it's glorious out there,

I'm really looking forward to flying over this site.

Don't let any of this distract you.

The Red Arrows take off for their first major test

on North American soil.

This HAS to go well.

Putting on a good display is more important than ever,

with the Federal Aviation Authority inspecting from the ground.

Probably not one of our best, just an issue with timing on the rejoin.

It's not gone as well as hoped, and the pilots aren't happy.

That was not our best performance by any stretch of the imagination.

There was a lot of disappointment amongst the team on that

day of the validation.

Some of the manoeuvres just didn't go as planned.

It was a really good wake-up call.

But it's a pass.

While, the Reds want perfection,

the aviation authority are happy with the display.

It's our chance now to go and put that right for the rest of the tour.

And they get straight back in the jets, to do just that.

They're heading to Halifax harbour

for the first fly-past of the tour, and their first public

appearance in North America for more than a decade.

It's jam packed, really full down here at Halifax waterfront.

This is my very first time seeing them.

I'm very proud to be here and be able to experience this.

We live in Canada, we've been living here for a year

and we came down to see the Red Arrows.

It makes us feel very proud to be British

and also to be Canadian as well.

Moments later, the jets arrive, with their iconic red, white

and blue smoke trailing behind them.

We flew what's known as an enhanced fly-past,

so it's not quite a full display, but we put on a small show,

and actually, I think we were just blown away by the turnout

because even from the air you could see Halifax was absolutely packed.

APPLAUSE

Thanks very much, everyone.

What a brilliant way to kick this tour off.

And we're here to inspire and to entertain,

so hopefully we did that today.

Thank you.

APPLAUSE

But with the fly-past in the bag,

the Reds still need to up their game.

The next leg brings with it our first public display, full

show, in front of a North American audience in over a decade.

That sets it off now, we can go and display around the States

and the rest of Canada and look forward to all of those shows,

and we'll start to hit the standards that we're expected to.

Next time...

The Red Arrows! I think we blew the cobwebs away.

...the Reds take on the Windy City,

and the skyscrapers of the Big Apple.

That was pretty special.

And what happens when lightning strikes?

I wondered whether it was even worth going to the airport,

let alone think about flying a display that day.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media