I fully agree! This was something which was unique. Most stunts have been done before. Well done, great pics and video.

SC

Must agree.....my good friend Stephen Hawking says the physics of that stunt just doesn't make sense.....I'm not even going to mention what my buddy Chuck Yeager said about that..............ha, ha, ha - you crack me up!!

Guys and girls, what makes a professional pilot? What is flight safety? Can it be chopped and boxed into little pieces, today its okay but tomorrow it is not? Or today I will only look at this aspect of flight safety? What about the image you are portraying? Its okay to break to rules as long as you are sanctioned?

My hat of to the guys not agreeing with the stunt. Most pilots I have spoken to condemn it, and they are noteworthy beyond my meagre standing indeed. I am however, irrevocably of the opinion that it was a stunt of silly twits.

You make the decision every day to be responsible, or not. Your choice. Don't even try and tell me this stunt was responsible behaviour. Medical teams were on standby, as well as divers. Big deal, so much more witnesses to the prang that was never far off.

The point is, was and for ever still be: why take an aircraft so close to disaster? Why set this example? Why condone it? Why indeed, stop at one rule overboard? Why not all the rules while we are at it? And why, shoot down guys (gun me, I don't mind) that support sensible aviation and flight safety? Guys, why are insurance so high?

Currawrong - A comparison to the Red Arrows and Blue Angels? Are you nuts? Those are selected, trained methodically in phases to perform those aerobatics, with safety gates in abundance. Its their living! Don't even try to mud the name of professionals with a stunt like dragging wheels in the water!

Silly Twits Who Know Nothing
 

and the likes of Scully Levin and Arnie Melhanghelli who make South Africa proud at every air show they display thier skill are not?
These guys have been proffesionals in aviation, since you were sh:mad: ting in your hands and wiping it on your face.
Do any of you doomsayers even remotely know what the hell you are talking about, the mind boggles at the "so called" inteligence in the cockpit these days, most of the readers on this forum, are so called professional pilots who have studied long and hard, well then prove to the rest of us that you are not just a bunch of over trained idiots and put that soft gel upstairs to work:
As for "Dragging wheels in the water" nothing could be further from the truth, have any of you ever come off a set of skis behnd a boat doing 40kts? Ever whatched some poor sod come off and bounce along the water for 100m??
Its like hitting f:mad: king concrete, so geniuses, whip out those dust covered calculators and do the math, the "hardness" of the water goes up by the square of the speed, if the water is akin to concrete at 40kts, what chance do you think there is of putting a wheel in at 90kts???
Not as long as you got a hole up your ass.
At 90kts, you will most certainly experience oleo compression and a bounce off the water, no diffirent to what you do on a tar runway every day.
What you see is no diffirent to doing a wheeler down Rwy 29 at Rand / 06 at Lanseria / 11 at Wonderboom, you choose, hear me....NO DIFFIRENT.
Same dymanics that let you skip stones over water.
Granted, engine failure would spoil your day, but anyone that flys over water were they are not able to glide to shore is facing the exact same outcome, even if they are at 500ft, dithing.
And the loss of an engine and a NORMAL ditching is the worst case senario for these guys.
And when you loose the motor on your puddle jumper over the vaal on your scenic flight, I don't see any of you with standby divers just in case.
You can never grow as a pilot if you do not push it ever so slightly now and again.
Grow up and maybe you might just grow some balls, you nanny nusemaids make me sick:yuk:

i may be wrong p41.....but i recall a certain pointer doing a low level flypast in a van, with the prop feathered, during the SAAF 80 airshow . Can't recall too much of an outcry over that. High risk, high profile (and at that time against the LMU).

If you brief, train, and stick to the plan, the level of danger is lower - simple equation. This doesn't mean a 40hr ppl will get away with it.

But then again, 40hr ppl's should be concentrating on tricky stuff - like radio work.

So the civvies are one up.....get over it. :E

tee hee:}

Ok pointer41, valid points.

But consider this. 80% of the time in my logbook is in ground effect. Day after day, night after night. Yes, night, moon or no moon.

So perhaps I have a different perspective to you. No drama, just a job.

As for "selected, trained, safety gates". Does your licensing not provide this?

To answer any of these questions, you have to subscribe to the theory that this is a very dangerous stunt. Owning various T-shirts, I don't.

A picture is worth a thousand words, ...
 

... but at 25fps, this video is worth 3 200 000!

For the unfortunate souls who either don't have access to DStv, or those who missed it, herewith an edited version of the insert broadcast on SuperSport's "Aviation Action"

(The clip has been edited down to 2 minutes, from its original 15 minutes, so basically all the commentary has been edited out.)

Copyright

Video: Supersport & Blue Sky Productions
Audio: FreePlayMusic

Harvard waterskiing
 

I hope this isn't a repost. A colleague emailed me these photos and text below; thought I'd share them with you.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40...er/DSC1327.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40...er/DSC1304.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40...er/DSC1271.jpg

Early morning anglers are treated to the spectacle of four T6 Harvard
Aircraft from The Flying Lions Aerobatic Team waterskiing across the
Klipdrift Dam near Johannesburg South Africa.

Lead by Scully Levin, with wingmen Arnie Meneghelli, Stewart Lithgow and
Ellis Levin, this renowned airshow display team rehearse a sequence
for the newly launched "Aviation Action" television program on Supersport.
Arnie Meneghelli from Academy Brushware, owner of the aircraft, had this to
say, "What we did today I believe is a world first. It illustrates that
South African airshow pilots are amongst the best in the world".

This unusual act, approved by the South African Civil Aviation Authority
(CAA), and supported by Castrol Aviation, was meticulously planned and
took place under the watchfull eye of divers and paramedics that were on
site.

Awesome
 

Yep, Quite awesome, see thread "Silly Twits! Flying Tiger Harvards" elsewhere in this forum and you can see the nannies moaning and groaning:yuk:

Ah ok.

4HP/JD, close this if you wish.

I saw a photo of the ag-pilots from Agricair in Harare doing this stunt with the Thrush Commander crop sprayers on the Mazoe dam but that was many years ago!

Re the wet runway used by our chums at Klipdrift dam please see:

http://www.flightzone.co.za/media/harvards.wmv

NC43

I could have sworn that's what I said above! :}

Probably did...just did't see your post...sorry to steal you thunder.

NC43

No worries NC43. The more people excited about stunts like this one, the better! :)

Well done guys! :ok:

Fantastic! Well Done:cool: :cool:

Looks like a very precise job by these folks. However, continual testing of the surely bonds of earth will no doubt lead to someone also being tested on their swimming abilities.

[reptile]i may be wrong p41.....but i recall a certain pointer doing a low level flypast in a van, with the prop feathered, during the SAAF 80 airshow . Can't recall too much of an outcry over that. High risk, high profile (and at that time against the LMU).

Feathering a C-208 prop is relative low risk and within the old and new rules of the LMU and ASM. At no stage is the engine shut down, get your facts straight. This is also done with sufficient runway ahead to land back if something should happen.

Furthermore, "stunts" like barnstorming is NOT airshows, it is stunts. Airshows dispays aircraft capability and pilot training. Stunts displays braveness and has nothing to do with the aircraft capability nor the pilots ability.

I have to agree with P-41, this was just silly and proves nothing. I don't even want to think what the next big thing is going to be - how about the smirnoff mirror with the bottom aircraft on the same dam?:oh: