Originally Posted by
HAS59
Hmm, all that ‘400 foot, 1/4 mile, 3 passes’ stuff and the oddly named ‘Run of Three’ was an agreement between some of NATO and the Navy of the Soviet Union to avoid unnecessary hassle to the ships of both navies.
It was only a ‘rule’ in 18 Group, no one else bothered, 1 Group, 38 Group, RAFG etc had never heard of it and we just did what we liked, within reason. The Russians certainly never stuck to it, ‘lifting a wing to clear a mast’ happened a lot back then.
As for the Kriegsmarine F-104 guys in the Baltic – anything was fair game for a high speed pass. The Danish Draakens were just as robust and they got close enough for some very good photos.
This is just another video straight to internet ‘oh look at that!’ moment.
All good crab stuff, but off the carriers we'd get nosebleeds if we had to climb to 400ft.
Good old terminology was a 'lowsee' and 50' would be considered average. I have some old photos somewhere of the usual sight of a couple of Buccs passing at my level whilst in a 40' hover whilst on CASEX.