Neat airshow tricks

[cpxxx]

Ah the Red Arrows every time, the moment when their commentator says 'Ladies and Gentlemen. The Red Arrows!' and they flash over your head from behind always sends shivers down my spine. Last saw them perform over the famous Galway bay. Even the sun came out on cue. Magic.

Other moments were a trio of F111's flashing past on a misty day with the condensation illustrating the shockwaves coming off the wings.

A trio of F15's flying past. going vertical and heading directly for an airliner pulling a contrail overhead. He thought he was under attack by the Irish Air Force. LOL  If only.

An RF4 with such a low flypast that the commentators felt the heat of his afterburner.

Most remarkable of all was seeing the British display pilot Brian Lecomber putting on a scintillating display in his Pitts Special immediately after we all watched another airshow performer crash and burn in front of us.  Amazing.

[Bodhi]

MT is correct, no momentum towards the crowd...give it a few years and that will be changed too.

[Vulcan]

When I was young... two Aussie Mirages came in low while the crowd was looking the other way, probably about twenty feet away. The must of been going damn fast because we never heard them til they were on us and they did a full AB zoom straight up til we lost visual. I can remember the crowd simulanteously jumping about 1 foot in the air

[Dnil]

watched the brazil team do a show off the USS Lexington museum a couple times, man alive those guys can fly.

The best....Bob Hoover doing the shrike commander energy management routine.

Never seen anything like that before or since, all dead stick.

[1Duke1]

Just as a heads up....this is most likely the last year for the VF-101 F-14 Demo show.  If they are appearing at an airshow near you, I would try and take the time to see it.

The F-15 show is nice, but F-14 show can't be beat  (yeah I'm a little biased)

Neat tricks I saw them do when I was there:  dirty double immelman on takeoff, the lowest low tranny I have ever seen (no more than 10 feet off the deck, prob around 6-8:eek: ), .98 Mach high speed pass,  knife edge passes while sweeping the wings aft and fwd, and hell...just doing all that in 50k pound plus aircraft!

I've also seen Sean Tucker perform some stunts that are just unbelievable....craziest....l ow low speed knife edge pass 10 feet off the deck.  

[Replicant]

Originally posted by Furball
may be a different rule in the US to UK

Planes are allowed to fly over the crowd, but as they say, no momentum towards the crowd.  In other words you won't find any aircraft doing manouvres over the crowd.

In the UK they have a very strict flight line circuit which is normally above or the other side of the main runway.

One of the best, but basic, displays I saw was a pair of F-111s way back in around 1983/84 at RAF Mildenhall.  I saw them screaming along with what looked like steam/condensation pouring out the intakes and then the next thing.... BOOM, BOOM... both had just broke the sound barrier!  They got in BIG trouble for that; they're not permitted to break the sound barrier above the mainland.

[AKWeav]

At intervals during the first half of the show, the announcer would ask for the owner of a white car lic# so and so please come to the security desk.  Your car is blocking the vendor access.

Later on a chinook comes in at about 500ft with a white car slung under neath and lets it drop right in front of the crowd, while the announcer says "well we tried to tell you it was going to get towed".

[Dowding]

One of the best, but basic, displays I saw was a pair of F-111s way back in around 1983/84 at RAF Mildenhall.

Once saw a couple of F-111s doing low alt loops in the moonlight around RAF Coningsby. I was very young - was around the time of Libya strikes IIRC.

[Furball]

ahh so its allowed to fly over the spectators, but not do aerobatics in a way so that momentum will take you towards the crowd.

got it, thanks for clearing that up