www.military.ie the defence forces magazine
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place across the seafront using the local RNLI lifeboat as
the vessel in distress, which proved to be popular with
the many children present.
The finale was a surprise and a welcome one at that!
From the north a strange gaggle of shapes began to
emerge at low altitude and it soon morphed into a
formation of an Aer Lingus A319 followed very closely by
six F-5E Tigers of the Patrouille Suisse. It was "Smoke on,
Go!" as they crossed the display line. The most unusual
formation seen for a long time, it was significant in that
at long last, af ter a decade, Bray had seen its very own
"First Division" national jet aerobatic team.
As the A319 broke away and climbed en route to
Dublin, the Swiss visitors did not disappoint: from the
very beginning fluidity, panache and raw noise were the
only watchwords. They performed precision formation
manoeuvres with such charming names as the Tango,
the Flirt, Synchro Rolls and lots more which involved
aircraf t inverted with extended undercarriage, opposi-
tion passes with smoke and flare discharges and noisy
af terburners. The vertical bomb-burst finale was espe-
cially well received as it involved multiple colourful flare
releases leaving pyrotechnical traces across the sky.
It was agreed generally that Bray 2015 was a great
success and entirely free thanks to the sponsorship of
the Irish Aviation Authority as part of the Bray Summer-
fest. Let us hope that we see something similar in 2016;
there's not much free in Ireland these days!
Pyrotechnics formed a large part of the Patrouille
Suisse display to the surprise and later delight of the
vast crowd, which was said to comprise about 10% of
Dublin's population.
The Irish Historical Flight was a most welcome
interlude and featured no less that four De Havilland
machines in pristine condition.
Another helicopter performer was the remarkably agile
EC135, one of two in service with the Irish Air Corps for
training and liaison duties.
