Warbird Information Exchange

For those having trouble viewing the image, try this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72992847@N06/7644303356/

wtf? Must be a problem with Chrome. I'll have to look into this.

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

Thanks so much!

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

[quote="51fixer"]The majority of car crashes happen close to your starting point, usually your home. But there are drivers that can drive close to 200 mph for hundreds of miles often within inches of another car, within a few feet of the walls and usually with someone tailgating and do it consistently a couple times a week for months out of a year. Which driver do you want to be next to, the driver who knows that in a few minutes they will be buying chips and salsa so they put no focus into the short drive or the driver that knows they are operating in an environment where there is no room for error and they are focused and in their zone relying on years of training and experience? quote]

The one buying chips and salsa. I am sure the race car driver is involved in alot more accidents than the average driver.

Shouldn't you never fly in a manner where a mechanical problem means "you're dead"? (Excepting of course the occasional unavoidable critical bits of take-off, etc).

It seems a lot of warbirds and pilot (and passengers) have been lost ignoriong that rule.

Example, in the UK a well-known rare warbird was lost during a display when its engine failed. If it had been at a decent height it would have had room to recover. But during a low-level show, there wasn't.
So my friends, is ANY display worth killing two people and wrecking a very rare aircraft?

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.
Note political free signature.
I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

I assume you're referring to the crash of RR299 - Very tragic indeed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag5ut3tP3ZM

The telephoto effect doesn't compress the height off the ground in this image. I'm not critiquing the event, but that's an observation of getting the camera's effects right.

I'm sure the RARA team would like to share your certainty. The airshow organisers in Germany probably thought they were good up to the Frecce Trecolori accident at Ramstein. The future of Reno remains unknown, and depends on the gate this year. I certainly hope it's good; it should be. Any incident this year - especially one involving the public might be too much -

- which leads to the fact there have been a number of accidents over the years, warbird and otherwise and the big 'no-no' is injuries to the crowed or bystanders. We don't know that one more incident of the wrong kind might be a tipping point.

Thirdly, I'm sure no-one here would advocate that there aren't consequences ergo we don't need to take care - which is how one can read your comment - I'm sure that's not your suggestion.

There are two kinds of chances we can't afford to take - unnecessary risks to pilots and aircraft and unnecessary risks to the airshow and warbird industry out of that. What 'unnecessary' might be is debated - which is as it should be, and there are elements of appropriate debate that can occur on the web (as well as the surrounding 95% junk).

Regards,

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

I suspect John was referring to the crash of the RNHF Firefly at Duxford (single engine, two crew, both killed). Either way, the best that can come out of these unfortunate, tragic accidents is they are learned from. The issue is some persist in assuring themselves the lessons don't apply in their country or don't apply to them. Again, there are good conclusions to draw from both accidents in terms of technical checks, display and pilot validation and re-checks. I'm not commenting further.

Regards,

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com