Pictures of aircraft water-skiing? Genuine or not?
 

Harvards water-skiing .....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...yer/T6_1sm.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...yer/T6_4sm.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...T6_team7sm.jpg


Extremely skilful even looking ahead .........

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...team_crop1.jpg


......... but doing it while keeping formation!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1..._1271crop2.jpg



Not my pics. They were sent to me by a friend.

Anyone seen them display?


FL




As revealed later in this thread, the pictures are genuine.

They were taken by the renowned South African aviation photographer Frans Dely and have since been posted on various websites.

Amazing,I can't believe anyone could fly that accurately,but am obviously wrong.
Surely if they dipped the wheels in any further they would have a nose-in,
even a couple of inches would be enough?
Lister

Mixed feelings when I see pictures like that.

On the one hand, "Wow, amazing".

On the other, "What a shame they can't take such risks with a rather more 'disposable' aircraft type".

2D

But what you can't see is the submarine that they're all welded to!;)

They are brilliant pictures Tudor, they have put a big smile on my face today, thanks for posting them. :ok:

Just been talking to one of my flying pals and he has seen this happen,he reckons they are mostly crop sprayer pilots.
Lister

Many years ago I saw a documentary on the BBC about Europeans flying crop dusters in the Sudan spraying cotton fields.
They used to do this as entertainment after sitting on a remote airstrip for months.
L:} ooked scary then and looks scary now...

amazing though....

Seen them? I believe I might be well acquainted with at least one of them!:eek:

Would have thought that it would be nigh on impossible to get the wheels any deeper. The water would be like concrete at that speed.

I believe its quite a common sport round the world for tail draggers. I think there is a pic out of a DC3 doing it as well.

I would imagine though you would go from a looking dangerous and stupid but being OK. To really dangerous and stupid if you tried it in a tricycle gear aircraft.

Lister Noble They could well be.

I learnt to fly a Harvard on a farm strip in Texas many years ago, and my check pilot was a cropduster. We flew along Padre Island one day - largely uninhabited, just off the coast, stretching for miles along the Gulf of Mexico - and I took up his suggestion of doing some low flying.
After a few miles along the deserted beach, through the headset came 'D'ya want me to show ya low flying?' (I thought I was.) I discovered our ideas of 'low' were very different. Wow!
As we turned to head for home, 'D'ya wanna try it? I'll watch ya.'
'Yes, Sirreee!' :)

He took me up in a crop-duster before I left. (Single-seat, but a roomy cockpit - and many miles from any FAA eyes. ;) ) His precision and low level handling skills were absolutely phenomenal.
I'd always assumed cropdusters stayed above, or climbed over, any telephone lines/small power lines stretched across fields. Wrong!
'No way, wires can kill ya! Gotta stay under wire height in case ya don't see 'em. Anyways, if the farmers round here see daylight under your wheels they complain to the boss and won't pay.'
The first wing-over from virtually ground level when doing a 180 at the end of a field took me a little by surprise (to say the least), but it was one of the most exhilarating and exciting flights I've had yet.

I was lost in admiration for his skill, but it was just another day's work for him.
Every man to his job, as they say.

FL

You would just pray the Wasp on the inside of the windshield doesnt move :eek:
Flying Lawyer
Awesome story !!
They must know every inch of the aircrafts envelope !
EL

Fantastic pics - would be good for a Caption Competition?

I've seen this sort of thing (on vid) before and wondered if the above is true. I can well imagine that the wheel tends to ride on the surface, and it would take a really hard push to get it to dig in. The picture of the guy surfing along in the T6 while looking at his formation partner seems to confirm that moderate forward stick pressure will hold the wheels just on the surface and you don't need to be looking ahead while doing this. But that plume of water could do nasty things to the tail with some aircraft if it hit it, I'd think.:oh:

SSD

I think the pilot who used the Pawnee to do our farm was South African ,and remember his name as Noel Kimvik,based at Southend,this would be in the early 80's
He was about 50 and when I asked about risks and fatalities he said,
"You see them either very young or my age,the ones in between are dead"
He also said he does occassionally take passengers squeezed in with him,my eyes lit up,then he told me I was the wrong sex!
Lister:)

Just come to this thread. As far as reality is concerned, I watched a programme on TV where Icelandic 'dragsters' ran across the surface of a (non-frozen) lake. The complete weight of the vehicle was supported by the surface of the water (provided they kept going and kept the power on). Programme was BBC Top Gear.
Point is that the aircraft will be 'supported' by the water.

Sorry to burst the bubble, or is it surface tension on this but I think this is a good bit of photoshop magic.

Tarnished

I don't think it's photoshop... I reckon it's a bunch of pilots with foat ratings... They just forgot their floats! I mean hey, these things happen...:D

C'mon, guys.
I know it looks pretty calm but, I mean, ALL of them in contact ALL of the time ??
:sad: :rolleyes:

Here is the video of the off-road trucks DRIVING ON WATER!!!
http://www.heimska.com/video/torfaera_a%20_vatni.wmv
Landing a CUB ON water with no floats…. Kind of.
http://cubdriver749er.com/gallery.html
My money says there is no photoshop work here!

I think the pictures are fake. The reason? see below, a zoomed in portion of one of the pictures. Notice how the pixels surrounding the actual aircraft don't look smooth and feathered like the rest of the picture. :8

http://www.csharpprogrammer.com/pictures/gear.jpg

I think the aircraft have been 'pasted' over any existing picture of, say, water skiers or something similar. Could be wrong though.

Pictures of aircraft water-skiing? Genuine or not?
 

Opinions seem to be divided.
Thought it would be interesting to turn it into a Poll.


Genuine? Fake?


Please post your reasons / any comments


(Note - Over 1200 people had viewed the thread before the Poll started so the total number of votes will be low in proportion to the number of views.)





Heliport

Could have been taken with a digital camera, the wheels are probably in motion from the water friction, therefore the pixels are not smooth.
I've seen this in a BCC documentary (see post above)
I've also seen plenty of video of snow scooters racing across a non frozen lake. Works if they have enough speed when they hit the water with enough speed, if they slow down they sink.
My vote: they're real...:ok:

Although my opinion is that the photos are REAL, I'm suspicious that the backs of the wheels seem to be stationary. I wonder if the pilots are applying toe-brakes (adding to the control difficulty) as, presumably the drag would rotate the wheels? The shutter speed wasn't fast enough to freeze the props, but it IS possible that it might freeze the slower-rotating wheels, allowing the studs to be seen clearly.

Annen Gineer (and photographer).

Website:-
http://www.flyinglions.co.za

And aerial photos (pity the editor can't read 'Nissan' ! I know that 'car-line' photos are more pleasing, but ! ! ! ):-
http://www.flyinglions.co.za/team_in_action.htm

Here's another funny thing. What is this shadow doing here? as indicated by the arrow.

http://www.csharpprogrammer.com/pictures/shadow.jpg

If you look closely you can see an awful lot of touching up which has been done with a graphics package, even the company name on the side of each aircraft looks as though it's been applied this way.

I can just about accept that a single a/c could do this, but not a formation. In any case, the whole thing has a photshop look about it - it's just too perfect.

I reckon it's a fake.

Aircraft pasted over a shot of water skiing, with some clever retouching later!

Happy to be proved wrong though.

I agree with BEagle. I could buy off on a single airplane, but in formation?

I also would be happy to be proven wrong.

Well, that could be explained. There's no reason why the shadow can't be where it is. Sun would be from observer's left.

The reflection from the observer's point of view has to be where it is, though.

Physically, I'm sure that it is possible. The lack of pixillation mentioned outside of the wheel area is explained by the vertical nature of the gear edge: the image doesn't cross a pixel boundary.

On balance, a genuine shot. Thank heavens there are people out there with these skills. (But not with me on board!)

I wish I could perform either operation!:)

Ripline

Edited merely to do a U-turn or whether it was real or not!

I think they are real.

Barnes Wallis knew how it's done. You can't actually backspin the wheels but having the brakes on would have a similar effect. Brakes OFF would allow the wheels to rotate forwards and dig in.

And in Beagle's day - we would have flown underneath them - upside down, don't you know, herumph! :E

It is real, there is a thread in the avcom forum about it. It was for some commercial that was being filmed in South Africa. Had to get special permission from the SACAA to do it (low flying rules etc).

Here is the link :-

http://www.avcom.co.za/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6924

:)

Hopefully genuine. Here's another picture of a similar stunt. If 2 Jodels can do it, I'm sure 4 Harvards can too. (2Donkeys - contrary to what you may be thinking, these are not more "disposable" aircraft. They're D140's! ;) )
http://jodel.com/Images/river.jpg
(Image from www.jodel.com )

http://www.claytor.com/photographs/i...aterskiing.jpg

Found another one on Google...

And here is another one:
http://www.trip-n-tour.com/micronesia_2003/main_s33.jpg

Looking at the wakes of these aircraft, I would have to say the pictures are real! A water skiier certainly does not leave that kind of wake, either on 1 or 2 skis. Secondly in the first picture, the 2 middle aircraft wakes are not symmetrical, suggesting varying tensions as the wheels make slight deviations up and down.

Cheers, HH.:ok:

A few more for your consideration....
http://www.dubtrub.freeuk.com/image001.jpg

http://www.dubtrub.freeuk.com/image002.jpg

http://www.dubtrub.freeuk.com/image003.jpg

http://www.dubtrub.freeuk.com/image004.jpg

I was not involved in any of these (apart from the L2:cool: )

I'm staying with genuine.
Not saying I could do it, but I've flown with several exceptionally talented pilots I believe could.

FL

Once the water in my country turns back to a liquid. I may just try it.
I’m not going to ask you to admit to having done this but if you “know” anyone that could shed some light on the braking issue. To hold brakes or not?
If I ever post a photo you must be aware now that photoshop and I get along well (just for the record).

I think it'd be harder to fake it than do it, not that I'm about to try either.

Don't know about the Harvard photos but I have seen the Sudan cropdusting video of "watersking" on a big irrigation canal - and talked to one of the Sudan pilots who claimed that they also did it on the Nile under the Kosti road bridge - They received a polite note from the local Governor asking them to desist!

But if you're an Agricultural pilot you're mad by definition :sad: :ok:

I still say genuine too. And it's reminded me that I missed out on the entire display season last year! (With the exception of the practises I've seen from the tower at Duxford).

Summat doesn't look right. Back in the dark ages, Polish Spitfire pilots boasted of "dipping" their wing tips in the Severn. I saw something like it when I was very small. I don't remember what the aircraft was save that it had rondrells on it. The wing tip did not seem touch the water and the wake started a foot or so behind. This is remembered through the filter of fifty odd years so don't bash me too much.

It's real!:) :)