[Barry]

I know we have a few pilots/ex-pilots/USAF members on board here.

Thought you might enjoy this, it was sent to me today.

What do the guys who know, think about it?


The first 30 seconds shows a clip from the Top Gun movie when Tom Cruise does a fly-by of the control tower. The rest shows actual LOW PASS FLY-BYS. total time: 3:29. Pay attention to the last one. It is numbered (#1) and it happened during a Blue Angels event over San Francisco. It was the pilots' last show and he had nothing to lose (except his nerve?).

Many of the boats near the flight-path lost windows to the sonic blast.
Some of these planes were probably no more than 10 feet off the ground.

Allegedly.

http://biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=19448

[a1exander]

goose bump time

which leads me to the next question.....so what do you do for kicks now Terry?

[tazandjan]

Pete- Just drive the 575M, I guess, and cast for trout with a dry fly. I have done multiple low passes, some authorized, some not. Been mach 1.1 at 100' AGL multiple times, too. That is actually not as scary as flying at 200' AGL at night with people shooting at you. Pretty, but hoping nobody just fired the Golden BB.

[champagne612]

[QUOTE=Barry;172789]I know we have a few pilots/ex-pilots/USAF members on board here.

Thought you might enjoy this, it was sent to me today.

What do the guys who know, think about it?


The first 30 seconds shows a clip from the Top Gun movie when Tom Cruise does a fly-by of the control tower. The rest shows actual LOW PASS FLY-BYS. total time: 3:29. Pay attention to the last one. It is numbered (#1) and it happened during a Blue Angels event over San Francisco. It was the pilots' last show and he had nothing to lose (except his nerve?).

Many of the boats near the flight-path lost windows to the sonic blast.
Some of these planes were probably no more than 10 feet off the ground.


LOL - those boys know how to have a good ole time.

Those are nuts!!!

I have a feeling those window owners weren't amused.

[Killer58]

Thanks for the video, those clips brought back some very fond memories.

When Top Gun was still at Miramar in San Diego, cracked windows happened fairly frequently, although claims probably outnumbered actual events by a wide margin.

Nothing focuses the mind quite like skimming the surface (or as Taz says, when someone is shooting at you). Lowest pass I ever did was 15'. Not sure I'd do it again but back then I wasn't scared - too young and brash...

Out in east Texas, there is some kind of bug that only flies below 25' or so. When you came back with them on your windscreen, the Maintenance Chief KNEW you had been out zorching. Harder to explain was the tree branch stuck in my wheel well....

Boy, what I wouldn't give to relive those days!

[tazandjan]

David- They retired my airplane right after I retired, so no way I am going back. Was at the boneyard (D-M) early this year and all the F-111s were either going to museums/on a stick, or were going to be turned into beer cans.

Still have fond memories and still dream about flying when I am asleep. Only get killed once in a while in the dreams, but they are never that traumatic. About the time she is ready to auger in, the mind says "Good thing this is only a dream."

[550JM]

Nice clip, Barry! The onevthat's flying over the guys head is somthing else....bet he soiled his underwear....

[Killer58]

Taz, you are a Zen Master. I typically think about flying three or four times an hour. Maybe someday the thoughts will fade, given 40 or 50 years...

Two of my very own birds are museum pieces on the USS Midway, itself a ship I landed on.

[champagne612]

Originally Posted by 550JM

Nice clip, Barry! The onevthat's flying over the guys head is somthing else....bet he soiled his underwear....

depends

[tazandjan]

David- Two F-111s I flew, one an F-111F (70-2448) and one an F-111A (067-67 easy to remember) were in the National Museum of the USAF at one point. Last time I was there, the A model had disappeared.

It will take you a while to stop hyperventilating. My last sortie was in September 1991.

We had the first super-cruise aircraft in F-111F 70-2400 at the 431st Test and Evaluation Squadron at McClellan AFB. She would cruise at mach 1.05- 1.10 in mil. Lost a case of beer demonstrating that one night down the Sacramento Valley and tried it several times later. Got a few noise complaints. She would easily have done 1.3 on the deck and 2.8 at altitude. Never got a chance to prove it.

[a1exander]

Originally Posted by Killer58

Two of my very own birds are museum pieces on the USS Midway, itself a ship I landed on.

The birds being?
By implication a naval aviator?

[tazandjan]

Peter- Yup. David is a Navy pilot and I am an AF naivgator who flew fighters for 20 years or so.

[Magnum6464]

Damn Taz.....the F111 is a big plane....you flew at 200 while being shot at....god damn....you got balls....and 730 mph at 100....good thing you didn't tap that stick forward or it would have been the last thing you did....



~

Mario

[Magnum6464]

Killer, what did you fly at 15 feet??????? DAMN...


~

Mario

[a1exander]

Difficult to imagine the sensation of landing and going to full power........on a heaving deck the size of a postage stamp....no matter how much Discovery I watch I still cannot fully understand/appreciate the skill required.
The launch must be a blast followed by the landing that must be shear terror.

[Boxer]

A childhood friend of mine became a Naval avaitor and flew fighters off of carriers. Even at 14, he had nerves of steel.

[Killer58]

Originally Posted by Magnum6464

Killer, what did you fly at 15 feet??????? DAMN...

An A-4, a British Tornado, and a slew of helicopters.

The helicopter is harder to fly that low as it bounces more on it's own cushion of air.

The two birds on Midway are a Sikorsky H-3 and a Kaman H-2. I'm pretty sure I flew their H-46 too, but haven't checked the tail number yet.

[550JM]

Originally Posted by champagne612

depends

LOL

[redtrman]

Originally Posted by tazandjan

David- Two F-111s I flew, one an F-111F (70-2448) and one an F-111A (067-67 easy to remember) were in the National Museum of the USAF at one point.

Terry, I spent 4yrs in the AF and after training, spent my entire tour at Pease AFB and saw many shows and aircraft (my favorite was watching an F-15 take off, go vertical, and disappear faster than lightning). I did not work on the flightline, but spent my time in the munitions area with the nukes. Funny thing about the F-15, I was standing outside and heard, but did not see it when it was taking off and I knew by the sound that is was an aircraft that I did not recognize. Thus, i stood there looking at the tree line waiting for it to appear and sure enough, he cleared the tree line and I immediately knew it was an F-15, my favorite since childhood, once above the tree line, he went vertical and nailed it, what a sight to watch that aircraft just shoot up like a rocket and within seconds it was out of sight.

With respect to shows, I saw the Thunderbirds and Angels many times, but the one stunt that i loved the most was when 1 aircraft would be about 25 to 30 feet off the ground and following the runway, it would flip 180 and fly upside down so close to the ground, truly a phenomenal stunt and sight to see.

I sure miss seeing those planes every morning as you know, you get use to it and once you are no longer there, you then realize how much pleasure they bring to your life and yes, I still miss them today and I left the AF over 20 yrs ago.

[tazandjan]

Red- I was lucky and got to fly multiple aircraft because I was on the USAFE IG team and the NATO Tec Eval team. That included sorties in the F-4G, RF-4C, F-16D, and F-15D. Of those, my favorite was the F-15, which felt like an F-111 with all the mass taken out. Probably almost exactly like an F/A-18, also made by Mickey D. Got to do several ACT (air combat training) missions in the F-15, something rare in the F-111, and that was a lot of fun. On one my 1Lt pilot and I kicked the crap out of two FAIP (first assignment ATC IPs) captains in a 2 v 1. They did not even want to go to the debrief. Incidentally, I taught nukes for years and was a voting member on the Nuclear Weapon System Safety Group (NWSSG). Actually dropped a couple of real ones with the physics package removed.

David- At night we cheated and used terrain following radar (TFR). Normal altitude was 400' and we stepped down to 200' for lines of communication and built-up areas. The F-111 was ideal for flying at low level. Wing loading way over 100 meant she rode like a Cadillac through turbulence that would make an F-15E crew very uncomfortable. Corner velocity was 540 knots, once, but nothing would out-accelerate an F-111 (except maybe a Super Tomcat), especially the hot rod F-111F, through the mach. At high mach and aft wing sweeps at low level, the spoilers locked out at 45-47 degrees wing sweep, and the feel changed with only the slabs providing roll. Not a big deal, but something we had to teach the newbies so they did not kill themselves racking it around close to the ground.