On Feb 11, 12:09 am, Marc Ramsey wrote:
Of course, this still leaves me with the question of why so many of
these pilots felt the need to fly quite that low that in the first
place? Maybe I'm lacking in competitive spirit, but I try to give
humans and vehicles in my path a wide berth. They have this odd habit of
doing unexpected things.

The accident report does mention that it was "improbable" that all of
these pilots were doing it for a photo opportunity. I can't imagine
there was any real competitive advantage, and they certainly had plenty
of energy to make the finish line. Perhaps it was just the "fun" of
watching people take a dive?

Marc

The report states that pilots did it to reduce induced drag by ground
effect, even though at high speeds profile drag is dominant, not
induced.

But I have the suspicion that some pilots were doing it as they enjoy
the rush of flying so low. Others were probably attempting to showing
off. And remember this was the Juniors - no doubt many of these young
people wanted to imitate their peers, and felt peer pressure upon
themselves to do so.


Dan