Red Arrows over Lincolnshire

Flying from Amsterdam to Manchester on Monday morning, I observed several parallel plumes of smoke rising vertically up towards our aircraft. What looked like a battery of surface-to-air missiles turned out to be the Red Arrows aerobatic team practising over their home airfield of RAF Scampton. This must be a rare photo - looking down from 32,000 ft over the Reds practising their manoeuvres! The picture was taken with the lens extended to 200mm, equivalent to 300mm for a 35mm film camera; this gives an indication of how far down from our aircraft the team was.

The map of the area that comes with Microsoft Flight Simulator (excerpt below), shows a Restricted Area around RAF Scampton extending to 9,500 ft. So although the flightpath (marked with a yellow line) crosses into the area, we're cruising well above it.