Aerobatic Teams- G Suits
 

Just caught an episode of 'How Do They Do It?' on Channel 5. One article concerned the US Navy Blue Angels. I was surprised to see that they fly without g suits because the operation of the suit during close formation flying may cause unwanted control inputs. Are they unique in this approach, what do the European teams do?

I always thought the Reds did not wear g-suits for displays however the photo here (if the associated caption is to be believed - it is from the 'wiki' family after all;)) would suggest otherwise.

Synchro pair, perhaps?

CG

RAFAT do wear G suits in all positions within the formation.

I believe the Blue Angel approach is due to the control column being spring loaded and stiffer than standard F18s. Bearing in mind that the recent death of one of the team members was put down to GLOC, it would be interesting to hear if the USN has changed its mind in this area.

RAFAT do not wear g-pants in all the slots - at least not when KMB01 was there.

At the time, synchro was mandatory, everyone else had the option.
(ex Harrier pukes had short hoses anyway).

Anyone nabbing a back seat - sit there and take it (including the Scottish Gp Capt!)

KMB01

Surely max G in the reds, synchro aside, is quite low anyway?
Max 4ish?

In the Blue Angel display i saw at Oceana they just pootled about, albeit in very close formation. They didn't seem to pull the G that the Reds appear to do. Rather a tame display I thought. Enjoyed it nontheless. :D

You don't tend to wear a 'g' suit for the level of 'g' - more the frequency and duration... and for somewhere to store all your junk ;)

Aerobatic GA types tend to pull more 'g', more often, but it is very short duration.

NoD

Was lucky enough to get a back seat ride, without G suit (him up front had one though). The normal display was comparatively gentle but the rolling one (used for displays with a low cloudbase) was hard work, lots of sustained pulling & max about 7G, quite tough I found without the help of inflating pants. But then I'm used to a steady 1G otherwise I spill my cup of tea.

You surprise me, fair enough I stand corrected.

Seriously though 7? In a hawk? I seem to remember a lower max when I flew them.

Can confirm no back seat inflatable pants and several 6 G pulls on the Red's low level routine. 7 though? Must have been a bad day, or synchro!

Hawk has always been 8 or 8.5 g limit (never remember which LOL)!
The 2 CAM Hawks are cleared to 8.99 g for high g training /trials !

Ron

Not always, there was definately a 5.8 or 6.8 or something like that for a while. I remember because the boscombe one with the Typhoon suit gubbins was allowed a lot moreto do trials.

All of the pilots wear G suits and it is not optional. Perhaps times have changed since KMB01 was there.

The back seaters do have to go without in most of the airframes however, the none aircrew pax trips are normally put into a jet with working gear in the back. I don't know anyone at Scampton who had a trip without the G suit. That said, the engineers did fly without them but they held aircrew med cats.

Synchro go up to and past 7G. The RAFAT break is above 6 which involves the whole team.

I stand corrected.
Out of interest, what is the highest in formation?

7-7.5 I believe. They rotate the frames around the formation every season to share the stress across the fleet. Healthier jets going to synchro etc. Sounds like a complete balls ache for the engineers but hey, they could be servicing Wokkas in the stan...

Tourist
Maybe they imposed a temp limit before the rewing/fuselage programme when the airframes were getting a little tired ?
The CAM Hawks I mentioned earlier are the 2 RAF Hawks at Boscombe Dn

rgds LR

Thanks for that, any idea what the French and Italians do? Do the Germans have a team?

I think in the RAFAT the front seaters always wear G suits, the rear seaters never do and the Synchros pull up to 9G. But what do I know? I'm only a pongo!

Something we had all suspected anyway. :hmm: