SAAF "4 ship"

[TBM-Legend]

Don't try this at home!

:D

DC4 Skymaster Flight Sequence - SAAF Harvard 50 Year Anniversary - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrziTee4b2c&feature=player_embedded#at=83)

[L J R]

Not sure how much fatigue on that 'mature' airframe has (had) in the past.....
It is an impressive display - but does it pass the 'common-sense' check of airmanship - Altitude, Rolling 'G', etc..


I wasn't there, nor am I aware of the maintenance records, nor the G limits on that airframe....

Just an opinion.

[Neptunus Rex]

LJR

If you look closely, you will see that when the aircraft is rolling, it is in an attitude demanding very little (if any) g.

[Geehovah]

Massively impressive for a big aeroplane:ok:

[jamesdevice]

in the left to right pass at around 1:14 are the two starboard props really feathered or is that just a camera illusion?

[BEagle]

The no.3 and no.4 engines were both shut down and the props feathered, then restarted before the next pass.....

Sarel Ceronio was the pilot for this SAAF DC-4 display at the Harvard 50 year reunion, Central Flying School Dunnotar - he'd be red-carded for a similar performance today!

[Tourist]

BEagle.

What in particular would he be red carded for, assuming he had clearance to be that low?

[BEagle]

The answer is in your question.

A yarp mate who is very well known in the SA aviation world tells me that there's no way such a display would ever be permitted nowadays.

Impressive though the display undoubtedly was, it left little margin for error or the unexpected.

[Tourist]

I admit to having no idea how the civvy display system works, but I know that some of them have much lower height minima than we do.
As you say there is not much room for unexpected in there, however it is very smoothly flown and exhibits none of the hallmarks of a pilot on the edge of his envelope. It is controled and precise at all times, and you notice that even at very low level, when he dips his wing towards the ground and it looks momentarily like it might go wrong, in fact he is already climbing and his wingtip maintains a fairly even separation from terra firma. There is another section of the video where he appears to have a worrying rate of descent/nose down attitude, however when he pitches back to the level attitude it becomes apparent that he actually had plenty of flex and then relaxes the rate of pitch up to take it low level. As far as the double engine shut down on one side is concerned, I guess you would need to know the type to say whether that is crazy or not.

The C27 in this vid is allowed to display.....
AirPower 09 C-27J Spartan - YouTube

[BEagle]

The C-27J display was flown rather higher and further from the crowd than Sarel's gracefully flown DC-4 display was. Neither did the pilot shut down 50% of the powerplants!

Modern transport aircraft are becoming a lot more agile than those of earlier generations. As witness the first ever display flown by the A400M:

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However, the display at Farnborough last year was rather more conservative...