Originally Posted by
PiperCameron
Assuming the plan was for Viper 1 to get B-Roll footage of Viper 2 (from above moving against the sea), inverted flight is certainly an unconventional way to do it. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to operate a stabilised pro camera above your head upside down! Everyone else I know would get a CASA dispensation to temporarily fit a camera beneath the aircraft - for safety reasons, if nothing else - and fly upright.
Perhaps their budget didn't stretch far enough to cover a dedicated camera aircraft? Or was it just an overload of FIGJAM?? The risk assessment for this flight would make interesting reading - although I doubt it would take very long.
As stated above Viper 1 was the target aircraft, it had fixed cameras on board that covered the incident, as did Viper 2. However Viper 2 was the dedicated camera ship as such with the passenger being a camera operator to capture more directed footage. The original idea was that Viper 1 invert and Viper 2 pull up from behind alongside filming from an offset angle. Viper 2 attempted that in the first pass, on the second pass V2 went under V1 and unsettled V1 with the unexpected manoever. They had a conversation about going off script,
and on the third V2 conducted the underneath pass, but appears to have pitched too early and clipped V1.
From the sounds of it the risk assessment and pre-brief were very thorough and they had worked through a plan of how the flight would proceed (in the report). The problem seems to have started when V2 went off script. I've met the pilot of V1 a number of times and witnessed several of his in flight displays, all of which were elegant use of energy at safe altitudes in well coordinated patterns. I can only imagine he would have been very professional in the conduct of these shoots, and his reaction to the first off script event probably shows that concern of sticking to the plan. Beyond that the final report will unlock the mysteries behind what we don't know, there is more than enough evidence available for the ATSB to get a clear understanding.