"Clay N4AOX" wrote in message
...
I was watching the IMAX movie on Flight at the Pensacola Museum the other
day, featuring the Blue Angels and their F-18 Hornets. One of the
on-board
cameras kept showing a gear door up close that look mangled or shredded,
or
cut in some sort of jagged pattern on one of the Hornets. This seemed
strange, since the aircraft are supposedly kept in immaculate condition.
Not knowing anything about the F18 configuration, is this gear door
condition normal?

Best regards,

--Clay
I haven't seen the on board film, but I can tell you this much. The public
only sees an extremely smooth picture from the ground when looking at the
Diamond of ANY acro team. What ACTUALLY goes on inside the formation in real
life would probably scare the pants off most people. I can tell you it gets
mighty "twitchy" in there at times. It's quite common to have minor contact
and indeed it has happened many times. Usually you just repair whatever has
"dinged" and touch it up. Sometimes however, those "dings" can get fairly
serious. I remember one time standing on the ramp with Skip Umstead of the
Blues looking at what was left of an outer wing panel on one of the F4's. As
they say, "**** happens", The name of the game in the formation acro
business is keeping all the "****" going in one direction!!.
What you saw could easily have been an in-flight ding. I would be surprised
however to learn that the Blues didn't edit it out before release to the
public.
You usually see this stuff during a training session, not on an Imax screen
for viewing by the general public. Things are constantly changing however,
and it could very well be that the Blues PA officer and the powers that be
have decided that it's ok to share this stuff with the public these days. In
the old days, in-flight damage was usually kept in house except on rare
occasions.
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/CFI Retired
For personal e-mail, use
dhenriquesATzarthlinkDOTnzt
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