You ever try to find the exact Red Arrows schedule? It’s like trying to pin down a greased-up cloud. The official RAF website is usually a list of “TBC” or “Display – Location TBD” until about 48 hours before they scream over your house.
And if you look on Twitter (or X, whatever it is now that Elon broke it), you’ll find warring tribes of aviation geeks. One guy in Cornwall will post a blurry photo of a hawk at 10,000 feet and declare it the “confirmed westerly route.” Meanwhile, I just want to know if my afternoon barbecue is getting buzzed or not.
The truth? Today’s specific route is usually a tightly guarded secret until the morning of. They don’t want a million people parking under their flight path, right? But we all know the dirty little secret: it’s usually blatantly obvious if you know what to look for.
How to Actually Find Today’s Path (Without a Sat Phone)
First, forget the generic search. You need the RAFAT Live app or the ARCO (Aeronautical Resupply Coordination Ops) map on the fighterscontrol website. Seriously, bookmark it now. These show you live tracking data for military aircraft that squawk a certain code.
Second, stalk the local airshow Facebook groups. Look for the post titled “Flight Ops NOTAM”. A NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) is the legal document that says “Hey, we’re closing this chunk of sky from 2:00 PM to 2:15 PM.” If you see a NOTAM for “RAFA” or “HAWK T.1” over a zig-zagging patch of the countryside, that’s your path.
Or, you can do what I did yesterday: just look up when the Telegraph Hill Spotters Group posted their “Estimated Routing” thread. Those guys are psychic. They predicted that a flypast for a school opening in Kent would loop over Essex, purely because the wind was westerly. And they were bang on.
