b2 – inspired no doubt by yesterday’s tale of flying the Sierras – sends along the link to a Swiss Hunter surfing the Alps.
Now, in the past I have have the opportunity to grovel in the dust myself, but this feller gets valorous in places that discretion might have served him better. During low level flight in a mountainous region one of the most important things a pilot can have – given sufficient thrust-to-weight to maintain vertical airspeed, of course – is visual differentiation of the terrain in front of him. When pretty much everything is snow-covered, as it is in the video, a hillock right in front of you can blend invisibly in with a mountain a mile away. Something a mile away is something that eventually you’ll get around to worrying about, but that hillock can still kill you stone dead whether you see it or not, earth being notoriously resistant to conducting aircraft.
Other things that struck me: He seems pretty durn slow for the work he’s doing here – in his climb up the Matterhorn in fact, it almost seems like he runs out of Q and has to do a wingover recovery. The camera is also offset from centerline, which makes sense in a two seat, side-by-side arrangement, but gave this old single seat guy a strange feeling of flying sideways a bit, especially in turns.
Yeah, Lex, looked like he was pretty near out of two of the big Three. Did a bit of wing rock right there at the top, where before wings were nice and smooth. I also heard just a bit of ICS chatter as they went over the crest, probably the Swiss version of “OH SH!T”.
Wonder if their aviators wear brown shoes…
If they weren’t brown before they are now. I am just a bugsmasher type pilot but I make it a point never to fly with anyone that would say “Watch this!”
Death wish!
NAFOD – No Apparent Fear Of Death. Made me pick my feet up off the floor once or twice. I spent many hours down at 200′ but that was over water not mountains.
Shipmates,
Yeah, that was some disconcerting video. I could care less if he kills himself, but that’s a vintage jet he is flying, and not too many left around.
Respects,
On the other hand, if this is how they train, let alone the risks they’d take in combat, perhaps that can be explained by the fact that he’s flying a vintage jet and his best defense is that terrain he can approach so close as to be lost in.
Realistic training might get you killed. Unrealistic training will get you killed later.
– Max
So it’s not just me with sweaty hands on viewing that?
Lex,
It’s about 2am CST and I am awake to thank you for the nightmare from this video. Dreamed I was the busdriver and ran out of stick (airspeed), power and luck while trying to avoid the tip of the matterhorn. (It did matter BTW!)
Clearly this guy has been there many times but still !!!! SHEESH!
What a bunch of pussys! That must have been a AWESOME ride! I fly a lot of skydivers and after dropping my meat bombs if the clouds are built up nice I spend an extra few minutes playing dodge the “mountain” on my way down. Great fun! Of course “my” mountains are soft.
I love cloud busting as much as any man. It’s when they’re cumulo granitus clouds that I get concerned. Sounds to me like you’re a bold pilot, Scary.
Me? I’m an old pilot.
You don’t get to be both.