Blue Angels stood down / grounded?
 

I hear that the Blue Angels have been stood down / grounded after an incident at an airshow in VA where they exited out of loop too low. CO called knock it off and rest of demo flight was terminated. Debriefed and returned to FL.Anybody know specifics? Altitude that was busted? Video / audio ?Thanks

Correction: Blue Angels-Stand-down - seattlepi.com

"Correction: Blue Angels-Stand-down"
"PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — In a May 23 story about The Blue Angels flight team canceling a practice and show, The Associated Press reported that four fighter jets flew below an 8,000-foot ceiling established for the show. The entire show was performed below the 8,000-foot ceiling and four of six jets violated a lower, minimum altitude that has not been made public."
Published 02:11 a.m., Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Video here.
First half from the Saturday show. Maneuver flown correctly, starting at 11:30. Second half was from the Sunday show. Incident maneuver starts at 23:27. VERY close.

Looks like the Boss got things a bit Pete Tong, can any experienced display team pilot give the finer details.
Thanks for the link iskyfly

Always remember listening in on the Blue Angels at Lossie in the 60s. From the cockpit of the Sea Prince. Think they were Grumman Tigers??? Maam i have 6 Turkeys in CCT, Drumsticks down and Feathers ruffled:cool:

As a result of this incident they also cancelled todays display at the Naval Academy graduation. Dissapointing, but understandable. :sad:

Bob C

If the boss had got it really wrong, would they have followed him all the way in, like the Thunderbirds 'Diamond Crash' in '82? One would have thought Bitching Betty would have gone into overdrive, or is she unplugged for the duration?

Snowbirds - I think!

Worried about litigation perhaps? The great American disease - blame some one else and get paid for it.








Golly gee. I feel traumatised watching that video. There was no warning, can I claim? :eek:

@ David Parry
I saw them at Yeovilton in the early 1960's and they had Tigers then

Were the No's 3 & 4's pulling up and out near the bottom of the loop part of the show or had they already realised it was all turning pear shaped?

Darwinism / Navy_Adversary

I've done a fair bit of this sort of stuff. To be honest, it's difficult to comment with much more confidence than anyone else viewing, however it all looks reactive at the bottom there. The fact that the 2 wingmen exit the formation asymmetrically crowd front, the guy in the stem turns his smoke off and the leader leaves his on tends to suggest that they had an OMG moment.

I would guess that the 2 wingmen escaped. Depending on their experience in that position, they may have had pretty low awareness that it was going to be lower than normal until very late indeed. In your peripheral vision, a 500' pull out is not going to look much different to a 50' pull out until very late. Given the aircraft excess performance available, it's surprising that the leader didn't rescue it a bit more aggressively - should have been clues in the 3rd and 4th quarters.

Hope that helps

Doesn't the commentator say that they are each going to do 'break turns' in separate directions?

Ah - didn't really listen to commentary. Still doesn't look very symmetrical, although it could be the camera angle. The other thing which didn't seem to stack up was that there wasn't any obvious attempt to rejoin.

Like I said, difficult to have too much confidence even in my own analysis based on the video...

If you watch the (presumably) 'correct' version, at around the 12 minute mark the commentator makes that comment, the formation stays intact along the front of the crowd, and having passed the crowd they then break in different directions. Now watch the less than perfect version, the commentator makes the same comment, 3 and 4 pull up and away before the formation pass in front of crowd. I'd suggest that's not the 'break turn' that was planned, but as a mere ex-dcs muncher I have no idea what the individual pilots were thinking or intending otherwise.

Dave

I am curious to know what, if any, procedures exist for a formation flight situation where an aircraft in the formation has to exit because of problems but to do so without causing problems for others in the formation. Ie- if you are in the front right, you pull up and turn right?

"Ie- if you are in the front right, you pull up and turn right? "

Saw the Red Arrows do exactly that once at Douglas IOM. They were performing over the bay during TT Week
At the top of a diamond - four loop the right hand man developed turbine surge and broke right and headed to Ronaldsway. The left-hand man of the four also broke formation left did a 180 turn and then followed rapidly. Most viewing didn't realise anything was wrong - the two Hawks broke away as if it was a planned move. Only obvious sign of a problem was the "wrong" engine noise

The escape is pre-briefed. If there are two or three of you, it's pretty straightforward (I hope - left or right as appropriate). The more aeroplanes, the more complicated. For example, a thirty degree bank right and up, a sixty degree bank right and up, a thirty degree bank and down, etc. Your mate may follow, especially if you're in the middle!

The most I ever did was a fourteen-ship (required a bit of thought)!! :eek:

Point of order. The Thunderbird's Lead didn't get it wrong - he had an elevator control linkage mechanical failure on the pullout.

Escape manoeuvres:

Blokes at the front = up
Blokes at the back = fall off the back
Bloke in the middle = pull up through boss' slipstream (you're going backwards anyway)

(Could be a blokess of course)

Line astern took a bit more bottle in that you had to hold your depth as you fell off the back and theoretically not take the fins off the boys behind you.

Seemed to work on the odd time we needed it in my day.

KMB01