Jumbo jet pilot sacked for ‘fly-by’ at 28 feet (B 777-300 ER)

Times of London ^ | February 25, 2008 | NA

[Bird85]

No one in their right mind (unless they have a death wish) wants to be upside down at 500’ AGL unless they are Blue Angel #5 or #6.

I can’t believe I missed this yesterday. Your comment is absurd.

[MindBender26]

I have a friend. He is sixty five. He flies F-104s at airshows, 10 feet AGL, inverted.

[1rudeboy]

http://www.jkairys.com/

Enjoy. (He flies out of an airport north of Chicago once a summer--come on out, I'll introduce you).

[IonImplantGuru]

I found the following in your linked Air Force report/commentary on the B-52 crash (in the Methodology section). The report was a pretty exceptional critique.

Senior leadership actions (or lack thereof) will be addressed using a chronological approach and the Leader--Follower--Situation framework outlined by Hughes, Ginnett, and Curphy in "Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience", a textbook used at the Untied States Air Force Academy.

I just found it an interesting example of 'Spell-check is no substitute for careful proofing'! [My emphasis added]

[ovrtaxt]

lol COOL!

[Hop A Long Cassidy]

Thanks for the link. One startling thing at the site was the still photo of all the people gathered around that bridge to watch him perform his inverted dash under the bridge!

[raygun]

No. His Commander, and co-pilot ejected (black dot).

The pilot of that bird didn't understand that his last opportunity to stop being a bad person was several lifetimes prior to the instance that photo was shot.

At the instance the photo was taken, the pilot was well into his personal allotment of "borrowed-time" for several lifetimes yet to come (and had probably leveraged several other's "borrowed-time with out their knowlege).

However, all you fly boys you listen up, and whatnot, this virtual F-16 jock is going to teach you something that will prove useful one of these days:

Rule #1: NEVER, EVER allow a stall to progress to the degree evident in the photo.

There is only one series of control inputs that would've garnered a "well-done" from his superior:

1) flaps set to zero

2) Stand on the left pedal until the foot goes through the floor.

3) Push the #1, #2 engine throttle's passed the firewall and into tomorrow.

4) immediately apply opposite ailerons

5) hold breath until the aircraft's longitudinal axis is perpendicular to the ground plane

6) not one nanosecond later than a perpedicular longitudinatl axis, apply opposite aileron to counteract any induced roll

7) push #3, #4 engine throttles passed the firewall and into tomorrow (finesse #1, #2 throttles to mitigate thrust induced torque)

8) pull the yoke back to about 3.5 cm behind pilot's kidneys.

Nevertheless, and all that notwithstanding, the pilot's Commmander (and co-pilot), did not take a wait-and-see attitude...

Now, I know all of will posh, this and that, and what not, but I posit that the prevailing and conventional maximtruis:

There are bold pilots, and there are old pilots, and there are some old bold pilots, but the bold old pilot's seat rarely will seat the same hooker twice.

This is most undoubtedly the case with respect to the ejector, in that some guys are just uncomfortable with that kind of stuff, know what I mean?

Hookers in the cockpit - who cares if it was a birthday gift - what the hell is up with that?

[raygun]

The following is a hapless (1000 hours logged) F-4 pilot's "no-bag-full" & absolutely true story:

The mission was "contact" and the subject "aerobatics". As is usual for the split-S, the instructor began by stating, "o.k., roll the plane inverted."

As an experienced F-4 pilot, rolling inverted was a "no-brainer". So "normal" stick pressure was applied to roll inverted, and voila the F-16 rolled 720^o

Woah! Lets step back here for a second, o.k.?

[Fabozz]

"Uh, how exactly is flying low off the runway impressive? Just because the wheels were up?"

"Low" is easy. It's the "off" part that's impressive. And the difference between the wheels being up or down is about $200 million if he'd misjudged his altitude.

[raygun]

I have only one thing to say 'bout that:

1) I don't know what its like being in the company of the rarefied atmossphere's being indicated.

2) That a pretty standard maneuver for me when I'm on approach and I stall out.

3) I immediately retract speed brake & landing gear

4) Depending on ground proximity, I may not have time to deal with the landing gear.

5) Push throttle to firewall

6) Ease the nose down

7) counteract roll

8) get get up

9) pull back on stick

10) try not to crash

Oh, yes, I made that "water" for the Falcon 4.0 sim. Its just that the politics and "drama" inherent to the sim has sent me into a higher and slower orbit for now.

Anyways, somewhere in this universe is an image is similar resolution of me flying inverted passed the tower at about 50' above the centerline of the runway.

I took this picture when I first was able to pretty much land with impunity. Hah.

Ah, to experience those halcyion days of summer again...

Those were days, man...

And as should be obvious, they were a long, long time ago.

[jaydubya2]

I have to keep your post handy in case I ever find myself in that attitude. And those who punched out in that photo, did not have enough altitude to survive.

[jaydubya2]

What’s your favorite sim? Falcon 4.0? I’ve been out of the loop for quite a while, but some of my favs were USNF, ATF, Combat Flight Sim, Falcon 3, and some aerobatic sims. I need to get back into it. Can you recommend a good but not too complex jet sim?

[dashing doofus]

Oh?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/02/27/fly.by.firing.ap/index.html

[GOP_1900AD]

Hughes Air West - the flying banana. That was right up there with polyester disco shirts.

[raygun]

"Favrite" Sim? Dunno.

800 ponies on a 1200# car is pretty kick-assed. Dunno.

I DO like to fly though...

Maybe I'd have to vote for tht SSN-681 LA Flt-II, but then I'd have to qwexion WHY ARE YOU GIVING ME ALL THESE PROLLEMS?

Does Civ-III count? What 'bout OoO3?

O.k., what's the correct answer?