Low Flying in Wales

by Volker Weber

[Thanks, Hajo]

Comments

As cool as it may be to see a fighter plane bank to 60 degrees and cut past the side of a mountain at 450kts, it does not compare to the iron anatomy necessary to take a cargo plane traveling 200kts through that same canyon having to pull that same 60 degree bank. The first has more than enough envelope for the job and the other is at the edge of its abilities with no margin for error.

The most applause I ever heard at an air show from the airshow performers themselves came when a C-47 did it's photo fly-by at 160kts and banked to 70 degrees - they all knew that plane was never meant to do that and it was built in 1943.

Glen Salmon, 2008-11-25

Ehm... anyone has any clues on the music, who it is or what album etc? :-)

Alexander Koch, 2008-11-25

Thanks for posting this. Hadn't heard of Amy MacDonald before
A quick sampling with Shazam and voila..."On heavy rotation" ;)
The entire album "This Is The Life" is awesome, btw.

Thomas Gumz, 2008-11-25

My skills at telling planes are really bad, but the Wikipedia has a nice overview of the ones seen in the movie. I'm not sure about the Tornado, though, as the tips of the wings in the movie are far more rounded off than the drawings in the Wikipedia. Do we have a special type of Tornado here?

Philipp Sury, 2008-11-25

@Philipp, I think that's just an optical effect from varying degrees of sweep on the wing. When it's fully open the wingtip looks quite pointy, when it's fully swept, it's cut back to the tail. Half way the wing tip is along the line of flight.

Kerr Rainey, 2008-11-25

Thomas, Fabchannel has a short concert from her.

Oliver Regelmann, 2008-11-25

Volker, you caught me at one of my weakest spots... aircraft...

I just remembered one snail mail from more than 20 years ago from a friend of mine in England: "Have you seen that movie, 'Top Gun'? The storyline is complete crap, but the flying scenes are superb..." I have long forgotten what else he wrote, but these lines still linger.

But... why Scottish music in a Welsh scenario? (Just kidding!)

Frank Dröge, 2008-11-25

Low flying bah! Come to Scotland. On many occasions, both in the Southern Uplands and the Highlands, I've looked down (way down) into the cockpits of passing jets. They fly even lower over the Mill, where they use the railway bridge as a bomb aiming point. Volker can confirm.

Nick Shelness, 2008-11-26

Looking down on airplanes is nothing compared to the rumble from a close encounter!

And I loved the sound track. Amy was in here Boston recently and I found out too late to see her live.

John Kingsley, 2008-11-26

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