. Its been said before on Rotorheads (most recently in the comments following the tragic loss of Guenter Zimmer last August in Belarus) but it might be worth saying again .. that we'd rather see display pilots perform a fraction higher and live-on to tell the tale than to be 'thrilled' by a few feet of extra proximity to the ground which ends in disaster.
The boys from the SAAF in this year's Durban Airshow a few days ago got away with it (see clip below) but .. only just. Another half second (perhaps less) and the story may have been different.
An extra 20 feet
really doesn't make that much difference to the crowd but it can to those onboard the display aircraft.
Herewith are the driver's comments on his performance:
Please allow me to inform all critics what actually happened on my second to last wing-over where several members seem to think that we "crapped" our pants. Firstly, to those who have no Oryx flying experience, this is an extremely powerful machine, at the day of the airshow we were light on fuel due to the opening para drop and flypast which was not part of my planning. The whole sequance was flown at approx 60%(11-13CP) torque to keep it nice and tight. The airframe has limitations and to remain within these limitations one has to sacrifice power available(CP) to perform steep turns and tight manoeuvres.
If you look at the clip on YouTube, you will notice once I went level the nose yawed left, this was the first time I felt the need to increase power.
Yes, I did not intend to recover so low as this was not how we practised, but please rest assured, at no stage was any member of the crew "crapping" their pants.
Certain manoeuvres like the wingover are meant to be entered from a downwind position, there are obvious reasons for this, to please the crowd and to put on a show to be enjoyed by all members present, we pilots take calculated risks to achieve our objectives.
My humble request to display pilots is .. please give yourselves ample height for your performances. If you can't do it for the Rotorheads community then do it for your families.