CADETS and staff from 1123 Hooton Park air training corps spent a day behind-the-scenes with the Red Arrows.

They were invited to the squad's headquartes at RAF Scampton and met the pilots, who have thrilled audiences with their aerobatic displays for years and are currently in pre-season training.

Squadron Leader David Montenegro, the team's leader, then invited the cadets to sit in with the pilots during their pre-flight briefing.

The squad took to the air to give the cadets their own private display, followed by a post-flight brief with all the pilots.

Throughout the day the cadets also had an engineering tour around the hangers, where they could get up close with the Hawk aircraft and get a develop a thorough understanding of what the different roles of the engineers are.

The cadets were able to talk to the dye-team about how they make the smoke coloured, the engineers and CIRCUS team, who are privileged enough to get to fly in the back of the aircraft between displays.

Mr J Dillon, an instructor at 1123 Squadron, said: "All cadets thoroughly enjoyed the day and were proud to be part of this unique experience.

"All members of the RAFAT were very hospitable and took the time to talk to all of our cadets during their breaks about their own experience and offer a few words of advice for the future.

"I would like to thank all members of the team and the staff who I had been in contact with for several months prior in order to arrange the trip."