Flying them young

[foxmoth]

Perhaps after her comments on the dH Moth crash Mary M might like to comment on this story!.

BBC News - Wing-walking schoolgirls fly over Gloucestershire for record

[mary meagher]

The difference is that these children are family. A family of generations of wing walkers. So puts me in mind of the Flying Wallendas, a circus family dating back to the 18th century, and most known for performing highwire acts without a safety net.

The parents and grandparents know the risks. The grandfather is a well known professional stunt performer.

What upsets me is that OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN whose parents do NOT understand the risk are blithely flown by relatively inexperienced pilots who have an exaggerated idea of their own competence. And in the tragedies two years ago at least one of the ATC instructors was unfit to fly, let alone do aerobatics with other people's children. The competence of the two instructors who had the previous midair over Wales is not certain.

Come on, guys. Be realistic about your abilities. Compare your hours of experience flying aircraft with your hours of experience driving a car. When you are a qualified instructor with a current medical as certified by an AME, then you can fly with consenting adults. Taking other people's children up for a jolly because you've got a PPL and 200 hours ..... and then not resisting the impulse to show off is absolutely horrifying.

But I'm just an old granny glider pilot, retired instructor with 1,800 hours in gliders, 3 diamonds, and 1,400 hours in light aircraft, IR, etc., and 18 grandchildren. I took my own grandchildren for a ride, and being up in the air was quite sufficient for their delight.

[Sallyann1234]

Slight diversion, but it's a bit of a stretch to call those girls 'wing walkers'.
They were securely strapped into seats fixed above the wings. It seems they couldn't even reach the wing with their feet, let alone walk on it.

[Dave Gittins]

Splittin' hairs a bit ... Helen Tempest was probably the best known "wing walker" and she didn't exactly go for a stroll either.

Wish Vic Norman had been my grandad.

[2 sheds]

Splittin' hairs a bit ...

Really quite factual, I would have thought. They were actually passengers with external seating arrangements - might give a certain LoCo carrier an idea. Never have seen the attraction in this static wing "walking" as a spectator attraction - what is the point?

2 s

[mary meagher]

Can anybody dig up a still from that film Flying Down to Rio or whatever it was called, with all the lovelies sitting on the wings of a DC3?

And also, that advert showing where you had to sit (on the wing) if you wanted to smoke in flight.....

[Thoughtful_Flyer]

Come on, guys. Be realistic about your abilities. Compare your hours of experience flying aircraft with your hours of experience driving a car. When you are a qualified instructor with a current medical as certified by an AME, then you can fly with consenting adults. Taking other people's children up for a jolly because you've got a PPL and 200 hours ..... and then not resisting the impulse to show off is absolutely horrifying.

But I'm just an old granny glider pilot, retired instructor with 1,800 hours in gliders, 3 diamonds, and 1,400 hours in light aircraft, IR, etc., and 18 grandchildren. I took my own grandchildren for a ride, and being up in the air was quite sufficient for their delight.

OK, so where do you draw the line? Are you really suggesting that the experience you claim to have should be the minimum?

As a former glider pilot a frequent gripe I heard was the lack of a formal licence made it unclear whether you had the "right" to take somebody for a ride. Our club had its own passenger carrying rating (I had one) but I get the impression you would consider that to be woefully inadequate.

Equally is somebody with an ATPL and thousands of hours in 747s but only minimal hours in a Cessna really any safer taking their friend's kid for a joyride from the local farm strip?

[mary meagher]

Thoughtful Flyer, good to hear from you again. I've had a look through the thread you started earlier this year, and wondered if any progress has been made since then?

[funfly]

still from that film Flying Down to Rio

I remember that film but, sad to say, the only bit I recall is that the girls on the wing were braless and for a young man in those days that was some thing else

edited to say, sorry for that in this forum but I am used to Jetblast where such subjects are paramount.