Warbird Information Exchange

I have to watch this video every once in a while to remind me how much I love 1. warbirds and 2. Corsairs...air through the oil coolers, wingtip vortices, and a R2800 at full song...that's what it's all about in my book. If you haven't seen it before, enjoy. It's one of the best I've found.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp-YrzjdExs

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I'm looking for that buried Corsair(s) that I can dig up, pressure wash, and fly!

there was a tiny tsunami in my water glass when I watched that thing!

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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."

All I can say is WOW!

I've never witnessed a display like this before. The Corsair routines I've seen have usually consisted of a dive into a zoom climb repeated several times...not that there's anything wrong with that!...but this video seems so close to the crowd. I know it's all about safety and preserving valuable pieces of history, but it's also nice to see a skilled pilot "wringing out" an old fighter every once in a while...like this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK6uNQoBAGY

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I'm looking for that buried Corsair(s) that I can dig up, pressure wash, and fly!

I think all of us looking at the same time is messing with Youtube!
It won't play and I WANNA SEE IT!

It's Keith Skilling in New Zealand at Classic Fighters. I was there. Excellent display. Keith's a highly experienced display, warbird and aerobatic pilot.

Despite appearances, it's not actually too 'close' to the crowd, as the display setup enables a safe display in front of a 'bulged' crowdline.

Great venue. Next one's this Easter. Be there, or be a U tube groupie.

http://www.classicfighters.co.nz/

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James K

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

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

Wow! I can hardly believe how low he was doing those loops though! No room for error or recovery if anything went wonky!

Assuming you're talking about Keith in the Corsair, actually the lower segment of the loops and dives had a bit of 'push' to make it more impressive, as the normal loop would have been completed significantly higher.

A classic example of something that's a bit safer looking more impressive, rather than something that's impressively risky.

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James K

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

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

Great flying and perfect piloting skills done to perfection. My only issue is, yes, I understand it was at a public airshow so perhaps the cameraman should have gone to show central and gotten a press pass or whatever to allow him to be at the very front of, or away from the great unwashed.
Listening to the chatter, shreeking munchkins, and blather from the announcer sort of ruins the effect and takes some edge off the display.

The Red Bull SA-16 footage from last week never fails to attract people to my cubicle, and all the guys my age end up with a sort of wistful half smile and damp eyes because the sound is so pure and unadulerated by the reasons I quit going to movie theatres.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Here is the maestro...............



............and his instrument.

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Wow, has it really been that long since I last visited?

OK I finally saw it. Well worth the wait!

You gets what ya pays for with U tube.

There are professional videos without the wobbly camerawork (my pet peeve) and annoying noises off.

At Omaka the press enclosure was in a good spot, on the airshow side of the giant screen for the public, so masked to some degree. I doubt this person would've been eligible to go there.

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James K

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

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

My guess is that the FAA in the US dictates more setback from the display to the crowd. That does look close compared to what you see in the US these days.

I also suspect that the show is a lot tighter than you typically see in the US, although some of that might be compression effect from the camera lens (or the photog is using two lens doublers in series!). The one show I was at in Duxford, I did notice that the pilots flew a lot lower and tighter. I found it almost scary to see planes seemingly about to drop out of the sky at the top of a loop compared to the warp 6 speeds normally seen over the top at US shows.

I've not seen enough US airshow displays to comment, but I've often been told that UK displays seem closer, faster and tighter - the minima in the UK are published as one of the CAP items by the CAA, if I recall correctly.

In New Zealand, again, I don't know the details or minima, but the show looked very similar to the UK - but friendlier.

Regards,

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James K

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

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

Most airshow acts work on a 1000 foot show line from the crowd and often works further than that. Tora works on multiple show lines to clear the airplanes, pyro, and other activity. The only time anyone goes inside the show line is the helicopters during the Korea & Vietnam segments to pick up the "downed" airman.