Display Flying

[Dupre]

Does anyone know what it takes to become a display pilot?

Is it only for CPL's or would a sufficiently experienced PPL do? How would you start it? I can't say I've ever seen a C152 at an airshow doing a high speed pass!! Is there a big difference between displaying aero's and non-aero's?

At what level do you start having the plane (maybe even yourself) paid for you efforts? Who would do the paying? (sponsor or organiser of the airshow)

And now the ultimate - flying warbirds! Is there a way in without being a multi-millionaire and/or ex-Mil?

If anyone can put anything useful in (esp. if you know something about it in NZ) then please do!!

Cheers, Dupre.
:cool:

[Tiger_ Moth]

I was fortunate to meet someone at my club who flies all sorts of magnificent flying machines including a spitfire, mustang and soon a hurricane and he flies them at airshows sometimes. I asked him loads of questions about it and how to get into it cropped up:

I understand that you can be a display pilot as a PPL but you obviously couldnt be professional because you can't be paid and you would probably only be able to do the occassional airshow. You would also be likely to be limited in what you flew ( to cheaper planes) because apparently a spitfire costs about £1500 (!) per hour to run and thats just for fuel, oil etc.

I dont think you become an aero or non aero pilot, you just do a bit of both, or whatever you want, but it would be good to practice formation flying which is often used in airshows. Of course, if you are not doing aeros and you're not in formation you have to be flying an interesting plane because, as you said, no one wants to see some spam can tamely flying along.

So: how do you get to fly warbirds?
Bottom line is you have to have a fair amount of money because you have to make yourself valuable to organisations that own these planes so that they will want you to fly them at airshows. The way to do this is to gain experience on something like a harvard which is similar to many WW2 warbirds in many ways. This costs about £200-500 per hour, depending on where you go.
If you then go to the owners of an old plane and say you've got 100 hours on harvards, 100 hour on Tiger Moths etc etc then your flying experience will make you more suitable to fly warbirds than someone with 5000 hours on cessnas , even if you only have about 1000 hours total or whatever.

Its also good to try to get involved with rebuilds because this will give you a good knowledge of the planes and build up contacts in the airshow world so that eventually you know a few people who own a warbird, they know you know all about the plane and have a lot of experience on vintage planes and you also know a few people on the airshow circuit (you could help to organise them to get to know the way things work) and eventually you might be picked to fly someones spitfire at an airshow because they know you have the knowledge, experience and reliability. After that you would then find it easier and easier to fly at displays as you would have experience which very few people had, but by this stage you would probably have to be a CPL because if you werent getting paid for it I dont see how you'd support yourself.

[The Mad Russian]

In the UK display pilots must hold a display authorisation issued by the CAA. This allows you to fly public displays down to your limit heights, exemptions are issues by the CAA with regards to low flying rules (Rule 5 and 18 etc) which are only in force during the time of the display. Worth noting that the low level (below 500 feet) beat ups you see at airfields occasionally are illegal, unless that pilot holds a DA and there is an exemption in force at that time… beware!

This authorisation must be revalidated by test annually (oral and sequence demonstration). Each display authorised pilot will be restricted to various categories for example flypast, aerobatic or both and formation (this is further categorised) etc. These are further broken down in terms of types of aerobatics (i.e. standard level thru unlimited) and minimum display heights for flypasts and aerobatics. As well as the types of aircraft he/she can display. These limits are lowered progressively at revalidation as a display pilot gains experience, season on season. If you wished you could be assessed and obtain a flypast DA for you and your C150…. Although I’m not sure how many bookings you’ll get!!

As far as flying warbirds, these display pilots are normally highly experienced. Either they have a well proven competition or display (normally ‘unlimited’) background or are ex-military and as such have extensive formation experience…. As with everything there are normally a few exceptions! Many of these pilots, through natural career progression are also involved in some form of professional flying (like airlines etc). For a display pilot to earn a living from display flying it’s my understanding that he must hold a CPL or higher and the aircraft must be on a public (airwork?) C of A.

Hope this helps.