Low or what???

[Bronx]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/BronxNYC/B-52Fly-By.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/BronxNYC/B-52flyby.jpg

[k3k3]

A bit unfair on the crew in the lower compartment with their downward firing ejection seats.:uhoh:

[FormerFlake]

Surely it is a bit hard to release your bombs from that height. I think the carrier is safe.

[ZH875]

Is that a shadow under the B-52, or is it a Buccaneer?

[Tombstone]

A bit unfair on the crew in the lower compartment with their downward firing ejection seats.:uhoh:

Absolutely,

IMHO, it's nothing more than a foolish display putting some of the crew in a very dodgy position! :ugh:

[Always_broken_in_wilts]

Standard pilot activity:ugh:

all spelling mistakes are "df" alcohol induced

[SASless]

Low level in a Jag over the desert is impressive eh? Low level in a B-52 below flight deck level is impressive!:D :D

[chinny]

wonder if that was the same bloke that killed himself and crew at Fairchild.WA:sad:

cc
VTSP

[BEagle]

Below the flight deck level of one of those floating leviathans of the US Navy is hardly a challenge; below the deck level of one the the RN's little armoured rowing boats certainly would be though!

But this flypast was too risky to the guys in the downward firing seats, in my view. Although we did similarly stupid things many years ago with guys downstairs who didn't even have bang seats. 350 KIAS at 50ft across a certain East Anglian aerodrome's ASP springs to mind......in a Vulcan.

The Fairchild accident was the sad culmination of a pilot's career of known rule-breaking:

http://www.simradar.com/Feature/2317/B_52_Crash_in_Fairchild_AFB.html

[MechGov]

I'm not really sure about the points made about bang seats. Any aircraft, with or without, would only be a "twitch" away from disaster. I've seen B52s at very low level on Red Flag (although this one is the winner). If you absolutely have to penetrate a WEZ with little or no support, then this is the way to go. I must confess to being bemused that pictures of Jags and Buccs doing something similar inspire awe, but this does not. Well, I'm impressed

[charliegolf]

"Slightly left of centreline- confirm visual with the buccaneer ahead and below"

[Tombstone]

Low level in a Jag over the desert is impressive eh? Low level in a B-52 below flight deck level is impressive!:D :D
The difference is that the Jag mate has a chance to jump out (albeit not much of one) however, the rear crew of the B52 are at the whim of the cowboy flying it. Not clever but hey, very American...

[Bronx]

MechGov

The difference is it's American.

[MechGov]

Bronx,
I'm embarrassed by the fact that I think that you are right. Sorry.

[Wrathmonk]

With all the concern about the rear crew and downward firing bang seats at ultra low level I'd be curious to know what the drills were for a critical failure (if you can have such a thing with 8 engines) during the take off or final approach. Was it just a case of "5hit happens, it was an emergency"? Any Buff drivers out there who can comment?

[western_roo]

Yeah, it's all very well flying a BUFF below the flight deck of an AMERICAN Nimitz-class supercarrier, but let's see them try getting under the flight deck of a BRITISH carrier.

http://www.westernroo.com/buccaneers/images/now_thats_low.jpg

[SASless]

Bronx,

Bomber, Carrier, and American...reckon the Green Eyed Monster is scurrying around a bit here?

[rodthesod]

Seems to me it's not a question of 'how low can you go?' - any idiot can do that until contact is eventually made. It's more a question of 'how low can you operate?'. We all know that Buccaneers operated very effectively at ultra low level. On the other hand, I well remember competing against SAC B52s with Vulcans. The Buffs were not allowed to fly below 1000ft agl as their 'normal' low level operating height and this, surprise surprise, gave them a considerable edge with radar bombing. At least they didn't bomb blue forces that way.

[Tombstone]

Bronx,

Bomber, Carrier, and American...reckon the Green Eyed Monster is scurrying around a bit here?

No jealously here Sasless, just a little concern! There is no denying that it's a fine display of flying however, it was stupid.:=

Balls of steel though...

[ORAC]

Not the first or last time either, same Sqn from Minot on another trip....Riding the Boeing B-52 (http://patronsix.com/html/vp-6_with_b-52_crews.html)

........"When we got back to Hickam, Pete and I exchanged notes. At the time, I had thought that OUR low-level fly bys were exciting; Pete's crew apparently had no problem "getting down in the weeds" and had flown their "BUF" past the carrier at or below FLIGHT DECK LEVEL. Pete told me that when he looked out the window, he had to look UP in order to see the island and the masts! P-3 operating procedures only allowed us to fly at a minimum of 200-300 feet, but apparently the Air Force guys had no such minimum altitude limitations.........

[MEON VALLEY FLYER]

Surely that's a model / drone.

Looks far to small compaired to whats on the flight deck in the second pic...

and dont the wings look to 'rigid' for a real B52

[con-pilot]

No, it is real, but at least no one here has claimed that the aircraft in the picture was a TU-95 like someone in another fourm.:p

[rodthesod]

MEON VALLEY FLYER

I think you could be right, even the 1st pic looks wrong now. Not being too familiar with the B52, does anyone know how fast it would have to fly to achieve that deck angle? (unless it's a model)
If it is a fake, it was a good spoof, and I like the artwork in the 3rd pic - well done western_roo.

rts

[SASless]

The writer of this e-mail is a Naval Aviator and S-3 Viking Pilot who witnessed the event.


This picture is real because I witnessed this flyby personally.

This picture was taken in the spring of 1990 as we started our deployment to the Persian Gulf.

I was up in the "tower" with the air boss as the Viking squadron rep for the launch/recovery and these Buff drivers (2 of them) called that they were at 8 miles for a flyby.

They had been 'orange air' for a big war - at - sea exercise we were doing When they called 5 miles the boss said "we don't see you" and we heard back "look low".

Out on the water we saw this smoke trail first, (the planes merged with the color of the water) at about a 1-2 miles we could break them out and the two buffs came by at 20-30 feet off the water splitting the ship at about 350kts. Then they pulled up and did a big plan form 180 and said "do you want to see that again" - The air boss said "hell yea" so they went back out an did it again.

It was the only time in my 20 year career that I have seen any services jets purposely flying below flight deck level.

One of my reserve buddies showed me this picture this weekend and I got all excited about it. It was always one of those moments at sea that I had talked about.

[phil gollin]

The view from the ship has a relatively small B-52, whereas the reverse shot has a B-52 relatively near to the ship, the relative sizes don't look correct.

Associated with that the nose down attitude is roughly the same in both shots, what are the odds that a shipborne photographer and someone in a helicopter (?) would take a photo at the same time ?

I doubt it

[EnginEars]

That's not really a nose-down attitude for a B-52.
Have you seen one take off... :rolleyes:

[Tourist]

Phil, they did two flypasts.

B52s fly nose down.

Also, they are not that low, it just seems that way because they are so large. I reckon 80ft?

[MEON VALLEY FLYER]

Sorry my money is on a cold war model drone or something.

OK so I have never flown or been involved with the B52, only been in a C5 once for the 'pleasure':8 of a ferry trip e/s/e of here. other than that the biggest high wing i have flown is an islander.
But surely at that level in a real size B52, there would some obvious flex in the wing and the signature 8 trails of black smoke from a B52 under thrust.

As for sworn statement:yuk:

[Tourist]

What are you talking about flex for.....????
Altitude has no effect on flex.
On exercise, no bombs, lightweight, no G being pulled = minimum flex

A drone B52 the size of a B52. So this is more likely than a lowish pass:rolleyes:

[Zoom]

Not bad going in that beast - and he's still descending, I reckon. He's obviously not bothered about his career - or his life!!

The ejection thing - up, down or sideways - is all a bit academic. If you have a mechanical problem you pull up (flight controls permitting). If you hit the sea......fini!

[Green Flash]

B-52 flight profile.

Take a look at the Buff at RIAT this year. When he does his fast pass you will see all the way along the upper fuselage. Going slow it exhibits a fairly level attitude but at speed the damn thing looks wierd. Oh, and the wings stick out sideways in a very straight and conventional manner too! (Mind you, the Lancer will probably set off all the car alarms again!:)

[MEON VALLEY FLYER]

Flexing as anything that big with fuel onboard would when you pull up after having passed the carrier after your stupid stunt.

No when i said model, i meant a smaller one obviously :ugh:

Like something from the stories I was told about cold war 'bear toys':oh:

[western_roo]

It was the only time in my 20 year career that I have seen any services jets purposely flying below flight deck level.

Haven't been around the Buccaneer fleet much then, I'd presume. The Bucc is the only aircraft (the only one that I know of, anyway) that has sustained a wire strike whilst climbing to clear some telephone wires ("Red Flag" 1979).:eek:

[EC Does It]

I have a photograph (given to me by my father) of a Bucc flying with its wingtip between the tails? of an F15 taken at Nellis in '79. Don't ask, Don't tell. Will post it when I get home.

And yes, I still think that the jockeys were the dogs b@ll@@cks.

And yes, I still wish I could have been good enough to have done it for a living too......

[Roadster280]

Below the flight deck level of one of those floating leviathans of the US Navy is hardly a challenge; below the deck level of one the the RN's little armoured rowing boats certainly would be though!


Not wishing to pick on BEagle, but, being bored tonight, I looked into the flight deck height of USS Ranger (CV-61) in the photo, and for comparison, the same measurement of an Invincible class boat.

Ranger is a Forrestal class boat, and has a flight deck height above the waterline of 61 feet. After 15 minutes of Googling various combinations of "Invincible, flight deck, and height", I got zip. However, I don't see it being much less than 50 feet, if that low. I vaguely remember as a boy on a boat trip round Pompey harbour, seeing the then new Invincible, and it seemed very tall, even in comparison with the Bulwark moored out in the harbour.

Google also revealed that the BUFF is 40ft 8 inches in height. Minus say 8 ft for undercarriage, and that makes it just over 30 ft tall in flight. With a wingspan of 185 feet, that flyby seems dodgy as hell!

Note to self: get out more!

[western_roo]

For entertainment purposes, you might want to check out the following link... there's some interesting "low level" footage, taken from the back seat of a Tonka, about 2:54 into the video.

Screengrabs:
http://www.westernroo.com/buccaneers/images/lowlevel.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJV-3Pto0Kg

[buttrick]

:confused: The photos are definitely showing that aura of the faked image. Don't be taken in by these jealous Yanks that can't hack it at less than 1000 ft,let alone less than 50. I've had a trip in a jag, our rejoin to circuit was carried out as less than 50 ft( I was poling it a 400 Hr glider pilot), all the way from star wars canyon, bitching betty got turned off well before that. We had to pull up to do the run in and break. As an aside,as we were turning finals my driver kept telling me to pull back harder, which confused me as the stick was definitely in danger of crushing my b***s. It turned out that the t-birds have a much further forward c.g (still within limits) and should be landed with less than full flap.:rolleyes:

[brickhistory]

:confused: The photos are definitely showing that aura of the faked image. Don't be taken in by these jealous Yanks that can't hack it at less than 1000 ft,let alone less than 50. I've had a trip in a jag,

Well, that settles the issue for me. Can't possibly impeach such an impeccable source...........

[Tourist]

http://www.alexisparkinn.com/photogallery/Videos/B52%20bomber%202.wmv

About two thirds through you see the idiot that crashed going really low.

Probably a model as well:rolleyes: