The insane spitfire video clip

Good God. I just can't imagine who would do that.

It really IS insane, isn't it?

That's what makes it so incredible.

Big John -- or VLenoch -- you reading this? Care to comment on this crazy
Spitfire driver's pass?

Whew. For awhile there, reading the thread, I thought I must have posted to
comp.video.geeks and not rec.aviation...

:

Anybody know about that flyby? Did he take off and retract his gear or did
he actually get down that low with his gear up?

-c

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message What
airplane was it?

Judging from the radiators, it's a Spitfire Mk IX.

That's what I guessed. It matches the painting on my living room wall.

That reporter got one hell of a haircut!

-c

"Corky Scott" wrote in message

I read an explanation in another group.

Alright! Thanks for the info, Mr. Scott!

Here's an additional detail: the pilot of the Spitfire is a guy who
flies it in shows a lot and has the reputation for flying extremely
low. If you watch the approach carefully, you'll notice that the guy
is so low, he actually has to climb a bit to clear the camera crew.
His prop disc, at one point, appears to be only about four feet above
the turf.

Yeah....I was looking at it frame by frame and looking at a Spit model I
had, and comparing wingspan dimensions and stuff to try to determine the
prop diameter and, thus, his "altitude."
Turns out it's difficult to find the prop diameter of a Spit if you don't
have immediate access to a bookstore.

It was a pass in which the Spitfire circles out of camera view, and
dives down to begin the approach. He isn't taking off and climbing
out right over the crew.

Crazycrazy. That's Bob Hoover crazy, except Bob Hoover isn't actually
crazy.

-c

"gatt" wrote in message
...

Good God. I just can't imagine who would do that.

It really IS insane, isn't it?

That's what makes it so incredible.

Big John -- or VLenoch -- you reading this? Care to comment on this
crazy
Spitfire driver's pass?

Whew. For awhile there, reading the thread, I thought I must have posted
to
comp.video.geeks and not rec.aviation...

:

Anybody know about that flyby? Did he take off and retract his gear or
did
he actually get down that low with his gear up?

-c



Someone that seemed to know said that he took off and circled back around,
and that he is very practiced at low passes.
--
Jim in NC

Good God. I just can't imagine who would do that.

It really IS insane, isn't it?

That's what makes it so incredible.

Big John -- or VLenoch -- you reading this? Care to comment on this
crazy
Spitfire driver's pass?

Whew. For awhile there, reading the thread, I thought I must have
posted
to
comp.video.geeks and not rec.aviation...

:

Anybody know about that flyby? Did he take off and retract his gear or
did
he actually get down that low with his gear up?

-c



Someone that seemed to know said that he took off and circled back around,
and that he is very practiced at low passes.
--

He would have had to get permission from the CAA to fly like that as he is
clearly breaking the 500 foot rule. Generally permission is give to only a
select number (a handful) of pilots most of whom also fly the planes for the
movies.

These planes are too valuable to let any cowboy fly them. The pilots would
have to be CPLs at the least with a class 1 medical. There is no way a PPL
could do this legally. Insurance would also be extremely expensive.

Make no mistake, this stunt would have to have set up in meticulous detail
and agreed with the authorities.

Sort of spoils the fun.

Make no mistake, this stunt would have to have set up in meticulous detail
and agreed with the authorities.

Sort of spoils the fun.

True, except the fun comes from the unexpected reaction of the host! :-)

I don't think any advance prep work could prepare a guy for a close
encounter with death like *that*...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:y26pb.83950$HS4.686079@attbi_s01...
Make no mistake, this stunt would have to have set up in meticulous
detail
and agreed with the authorities.

Sort of spoils the fun.

True, except the fun comes from the unexpected reaction of the host! :-)

I don't think any advance prep work could prepare a guy for a close
encounter with death like *that*...
--

Perception of death more than the reality.

If it had been that close the cameraman and sound crew would also have been
out of sight rather than keeping the cameras and sound rolling in such a
controlled manner.

I suspect that the presenter was under prepared for what was going to
happen. The crew would have set up their marks in the absence of the
presenter and had a couple of run throughs with the pilot. This would have
enabled the pilot to identify his marks so that he could fly an accurate
line too both for height and direction.

Without that there would have been a big chance of the Spitfire going out of
shot. As the Spitfire stayed in shot with very little adjustment of the
camera crew it shows that the stunt had been meticulously planned and
executed. The only problem it seems would have been the unpreparedness of
the presenter.

Sorry to be such a kill joy but the near death nature was a perception not a
reality. Otherwise there would have been a pilot prosecuted and there was
not. An official from the CAA would have likely been there to observe that
the stunts were being done in line with the dispensation.

Dave

Dave wrote:

If it had been that close the cameraman and sound crew would also have been
out of sight rather than keeping the cameras and sound rolling in such a
controlled manner.

Perhaps it was the sight of the cameraman diving for cover that prompted the
narrator to turn around?

George Patterson
You can dress a hog in a tuxedo, but he still wants to roll in the mud.

On Sun, 2 Nov 2003, Jay Honeck wrote:

Make no mistake, this stunt would have to have set up in meticulous detail
and agreed with the authorities.

Sort of spoils the fun.

True, except the fun comes from the unexpected reaction of the host! :-)

I can just imagine that, after the pilot & camera guys had worked out the
stunt, the host arrived to do his bit and was told, "Stand here, and the
plane will be doing a low pass from behind your left shoulder toward the
camera."

Mr. Host figures that means ten feet alt. or so, and thus his reaction to
the lawnmower pass!

I don't think any advance prep work could prepare a guy for a close
encounter with death like *that*...

I'd say he knew the plane would be doing the pass from behind him toward
the camera, but not how insanely low the Spit was going to be!

Cool clip, regardless!

Brian.

On Thu, 30 Oct 2003 01:26:03 -0800, Jeff wrote:
snippage: patents

Patents are becoming a real problem in the technology field. So many
patents with very little merit are being allowed to pass.

The intent of the patent system is to encourage innovation by granting
temporary monopolies. But the invention must be novel, and not obvious
to someone ordinary skilled in the art amongst other things.

The trouble is many software patents don't meet this test. This Acacia
one is just one of hundreds that are making software developers sigh
all over the world (well, all over the USA at least). Amazon, for
example, have a patent on buying stuff with one click - something
that is so obvious that many many web developers have simultaneously
and independently 'invented' it. Just Amazon patented it first, and
the patent examiners aren't sufficiently skilled (and don't have
sufficient time) to see that it's obvious to someone ordinarily
skilled in the art - or that it has prior art. Unfortunately once
a patent has been granted, it is so expensive to get it thrown out
that most companies choose to roll over like giant twinkies and
cough up the licensing money. Patents in the software world, far
from encouraging innovation, are stifling innovation. Not because
the patent laws are bad, but because the USPTO are more or less
rubber stamping obvious 'inventions'. It's virtually impossible
to write a program - even a simple shell script - without infringing
a meritless software patent.

At least the issue seems to be getting a bit of airtime outside the
software world now - and maybe some pressure will be forthcoming
to make it easier to throw out bad patents and raise the bar on
what can be patented.

Now European countries are headed down the same insane route. Let's
hope that patent offices in Europe hire people who can see obvious
things and throw them out, but I hold out very little hope indeed.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"