A former volunteer at YAM, Ollie Suckling, is one of the newest members of the Red Arrows, the RAF’s Aerobatics Team. We recently caught up with him to learn more about his path to the elite unit.

In 2002, when sixteen-year Ollie Suckling arrived at Yorkshire Air Museum to start volunteering, it was a dream come true. The York schoolboy had a passion for aircraft, and this was his chance to help maintain and preserve some legends of aviation. Little did he know that the museum at Elvington would like a spark in him that would culminate, years later, in his being part of one of the world’s most famous aerobatic display teams.

Ollie, now 37, is a Red Arrows pilot – his official designation being Red 4. With the RAF team’s display season underway, he’s looking forward to his first full year stunning crowds across the UK and abroad.

Demanding selection

If the path to becoming an RAF fast jet pilot is hard, with only the very best succeeding, then getting into the Red Arrows is even harder.

“Before you can even apply, you, need to be rated ‘above average in the air’”, Ollie told YAM. “You need at least 1500 flying hours in fast jets and have completed at least one front line operational tour.”

In Ollie’s case, the latter involved one tour in Afghanistan and three in Iraq, plus operations in Syria. He had completed over 100 operational missions as a Tornado pilot and also been an instructor on the Hawk T2 at RAF Valley in Wales and worked on the F35 Lightning simulator. He’d joined the RAF at 21, from studying at the University of Hull, where he was a member of the University Air Squadron.

Even then, he wasn’t shortlisted for the Red Arrows until his fifth time of applying, such is the competition for a place. “The process of picking new Reds is an intense as initial pilot selection,” he said.

Joining the Team

Once on the shortlist of around seven to nine people, he was flown out to Greece, where the team was conducting winter training. Then came flying tests and even an assessment of how well he could conduct media interviews (essential as the very-public face of the RAF).

“They need to see if you can function in a team, working together for three years. There can’t be personality clashes, not when you’re flying so closely together three times a day. In that kind of environment, you see people’s true character and you can’t have any toxic elements.”

In May 2022, Ollie started his Red Arrows training, which included converting to the Hawk T1, the aircraft the Reds use. At one point, flying from their base at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, he put in 38 hours flying in a single month, the most he’d ever done, even in combat.

He’s now completed his first public displays and his achievement is finally sinking in.

“It’s really exciting and surreal. When we did our first display of the year, there were 200 people at the fence afterwards and we went over to meet them. It reminded me of doing the same thing when I was a kid, getting memorabilia signed by Arrows pilots after a display at Elvington in the 90s. I’ve still got that stuff!”

And for Ollie, his time spent volunteering at the Yorkshire Air Museum is still a fond memory. He was part of the engineering team even while serving in the RAF (until moving to Lossiemouth in 2013) and has taxied some of the museum’s jets.

“Volunteering at Elvington put me in good stead for everything I’ve done since. It holds a very special place in my heart.”