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Too close ...

Holmes had sent me a news article with video of the incident a day or so ago ... The Typhoon was landing after it's demo at the Waddington airshow last weekend ...

-Gregg

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Sometimes videos like that can be very misleading. One of the best examples is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvDDDKnNhuE

[edit: some nsfw language after it flies by]

The pilot was in absolute controle the entire time, knew exactly what he was supposed to do, and did it. He then pulled up into a barrel roll laughing his butt off all the way, but it was in perfect control.

On the Typhoon, it's possible he was putting on a controlled show for the people at the fence. It did seem lower than "normal" but it was still a sizable gap above everyone's head and over the fence. I think it COULD have been an accident that he came in that low (they do train people all the time, sometimes it takes a few tries, sometimes you don't get it right) but it was still within a certain safety zone is my guess. Otherwise he'd simply have put on more power and made another pass.

Edited by Mark M.
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Just read on a professional aviation forum that the UK fighter pilots are taught to aim for the numbers for most possible breaking distance, thus close in over the fence is normal. Now this might have been pushed a little, but the runway is literally feet behind the fence.

There are other pictures of others doing the same, no different really than St. Maarten if you think about it.

Cheers

H.

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Luck or Talent? he came pretty close to hitting that wall.

Talent I'd say. Having seen one or two of these kind of events at firsthand I'd also venture that it looks worse than it was.

Just for comparison if anyone's interested there are a couple of pics of very low approaches in these links from an NZ forum:

http://rnzaf.proboards.com/post/91742

http://rnzaf.proboards.com/post/91773

Edited by Mumbles
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Almost gave the guys standing there a jet exhaust haircut.

Better than a prop haircut. I've inadvertently come closer than I would have liked to getting one of those. It's remarkable how big a Harvard looks when it's only 10 feet above you :)

Edited by Mumbles
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