Is it just me or does this seem a little close to the crowd?

Gig 601XL Builder wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYfhC9ft_hk


It's not you. I received a tape on this aircraft yesterday from within
our flight safety community for air shows. He came extremely close to
catching a wingtip on both the takeoff and a later pass; both times to
the left.
In our opinion, this was a VERY close call and totally unnecessary.
Things are bad enough in the demonstration and display community this
year without a pilot like this one making it worse.
It's being investigated.

--
Dudley Henriques

Dudley Henriques wrote:
Gig 601XL Builder wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYfhC9ft_hk

It's not you. I received a tape on this aircraft yesterday from within
our flight safety community for air shows. He came extremely close to
catching a wingtip on both the takeoff and a later pass; both times to
the left.
In our opinion, this was a VERY close call and totally unnecessary.
Things are bad enough in the demonstration and display community this
year without a pilot like this one making it worse.
It's being investigated.

10 pages and growing of discussion over on
PPRuNe.

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=292517

On Sep 20, 2:31 am, Dudley Henriques wrote:

In our opinion, this was a VERY close call and totally unnecessary.
Things are bad enough in the demonstration and display community this
year without a pilot like this one making it worse.
It's being investigated.

I believe that watching the videos alone isn't givng a clear picture
here. The airfield in question I suspect has geographical aspects
that provide the spectators a different perception of risk than that
which is actually present. Ie, the other side of the runway is lower
than the rest of the airfield. The aircraft parked on the flightline
also contribute a bit to the illusion I think.

The pass was certainly low and close to the crowd, but I don't think
it was too much lower than I've seen here in New Zealand from similar
heavies (727 and 757 from the RNZAF mainly).

James Sleeman wrote:
On Sep 20, 2:31 am, Dudley Henriques wrote:

In our opinion, this was a VERY close call and totally unnecessary.
Things are bad enough in the demonstration and display community this
year without a pilot like this one making it worse.
It's being investigated.

I believe that watching the videos alone isn't givng a clear picture
here. The airfield in question I suspect has geographical aspects
that provide the spectators a different perception of risk than that
which is actually present. Ie, the other side of the runway is lower
than the rest of the airfield. The aircraft parked on the flightline
also contribute a bit to the illusion I think.

The pass was certainly low and close to the crowd, but I don't think
it was too much lower than I've seen here in New Zealand from similar
heavies (727 and 757 from the RNZAF mainly).



The problem wasn't the low pass as much as the left bank without enough
pitch input to compensate for the lift loss.
He was extremely lucky, and I'm getting this from all over the world
from the guys who were there and in the know :-)
DH

--
Dudley Henriques