If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
I'm still crying over the beer.
I am truly sorry Wayne, that I painted such a gruesome picture and stirred such emotions for you. I would have you know that I in no way abuse alcohol in that manner, and have nothing but the greatest respect and love in all my actions toward it.
Why once, I spilled a scotch in a friends yard. I'll have you know that EVERY time I drink scotch there now I pour a small amount over the site with deep reverence. Of course I pass it through the kidney's first....
Keep the great stuff coming Victor, I know I love it!
On a different tack, as I am NOT the photographer my father is, and I know nuthing about it, I'm curious in the series, it appears to me that these are separate shots, in sequence, and you are zooming in at the same time.
Just so I can make a comment....this pic is no airshow accident....just a little water in the fuel from washing the plane....hit a tree first....then the ground, thus proving the point that the ground after all is always involved.....Oh...the gravity of the situation.....
p.s. pilot walked away with only bumps and a bruised ego......also had to pay for the walnut tree that was destroyed....
Well there's been a few airshow pilots killed lately, all of them by hitting the ground. Perhaps on thier headstones they can all put " Its ok, I had a waiver".
Tom
Airdogge already said this;
Most people in aviation die due to impact with the ground.
There is just awful big gap between lawndarting a plane at the bottom of the loop and a split-S if compared with just flying low.
In one case A FiAF Fouga Magister hit the icy sea bed when pilot miscalculated his altitude ( lost horizon due to snow cover ? )...plane hit the ice in low angle and one survived.
In other too low too fast incident a Hawk trainer hit trees at the bottom of the loop..the one who did not use parachute survived.
Anybody can flow low, from your 20 hour student pilot to your multi thousand hour airshow performer. Ever notice there's always someone with a camera to capture that amazing feat? Seen a couple of picture posts on this forum of someone in a g/a airplane doing it. IF you want to impress your friends with your super flying skills go out and "hand fly" a perfect ILS approach hold and all, or make the perfect short field landing, or fly a long xc using just a compass, clock and chart and hit all your waypoints and time estimates. Sorry, just not impressed. Low level waiver or not.
Tom
Anybody can flow low, from your 20 hour student pilot to your multi thousand hour airshow performer. Ever notice there's always someone with a camera to capture that amazing feat? Seen a couple of picture posts on this forum of someone in a g/a airplane doing it.
IF you want to impress your friends with your super flying skills go out and "hand fly" a perfect ILS approach hold and all, or make the perfect short field landing, or fly a long xc using just a compass, clock and chart and hit all your waypoints and time estimates. Sorry, just not impressed. Low level waiver or not.
Tom
True, but this discussion wasn't about "20 hour student pilots" (how did we end up there?). It was about a professional pilot making a low pass in front of a paying audience.
If you aren't a skilled high-time stunt pilot performing at an airshow, then I wouldn't recommend doing ANYTHNG foolhardy, especially just to show off to your friends or to anyone else. That's just common sense...
But on the other hand, any airshow composed of pilots doing little else but making hands-on smooth landings and navigating point-to-point, if you will pardon the term, "just won't fly". Nobody would come, and the airshows wouldn't exist as they do today.
I certainly wouldn't bother going to Reno if the pylon races were being flown 5,000 feet over our heads for safety reasons. nor would I go to a Nascar or Hydroplane event if the vehicles were limited to 80 mph "for safety reasons" (going triple-digit speeds on land or on water is extremely dangerous, and foolhardy for any amateur to attempt).
Nobody here is saying it's OK for just ANYONE to fly close to the ground. In the same breath I wouldn't recommend just anyone try to race a 300+ mph dragster, or leap a motorcycle 50 feet while hanging onto the seat with one hand.
But if a SKILLED PROFESSIONAL was involved who knew what they were doing, then that's a whole different story.
Bob Hoover use to perform amazing, low-altitude stunts all the time that I've never seen anyone else attempt before or since, and personally, I was VERY impressed. I wasn't watching some daredevil taking foolish chances. I was watching a skilled professional do something he was more than capable of doing, and doing safely.
You ever see Art Schell (and others) do his drunk / clown act on the ramp? Dont tell me that wasnt entertaining.
Or how about that last Blue Angle to take off, you know the one were he lifts the gear and hugs the runway then pulls 8 to 9 GS! vertical.
There is no differance here, except speed. Infact I would bet most of Art's act was done below what that L39s alt. and I guarantee he is alot lower for alot long time.
Comon Tin Man, get over it already. They know what they are doing, and if they have the proper waiver(s), then it is perfectly fine for them to fly thier act as they see fit.
And I am with Victor, I find it disturbing that you pick out a series of photos shot by him to make your stand on. Victor posts his work here to share with us. Not to have some advocate use them to help prove a point.
Here's his web site: http://www.firecatjet.com
Check out his credentials if he can't fly low then Air Racing should have a limit of 1000' anything else is just not safe... in fact airplanes are just not safe at all they should all be banned and people that like them should be locked up beacuse their crazy
Comment