Originally Posted by
evil7
That might be.
But I highly doubt that this actually happend in that picture.
none of the public below even looks up and to me it seems that the pilots are looking straight ahead as if in level flight. I have done loops / backflip (how ever you want to call it) myself. And if the aircraft would be in that position I think the pilot would look through the roof window by then.
But as said - it could be real. I just doubt this picture was taken during a real event.
Have you done a back flip in a Lynx? It's not a loop and it starts from 1000' OGE hover. You pull fully back and slightly left on the cyclic (the left is to counter a pitch roll couple) and it is only when you get past the 90 degrees nose up position that you can think about looking for the horizon.
The fact that people aren't looking up means nothing, this wasn't at an airshow and immediately before the manoeuvre the only thing to see would have been two aircraft in a high hover - you used to see a lot of helicopters around Stonehenge as it was on a low level route to Salisbury Plain.