Originally Posted by
Bill Greenwood
Jeff, I don't think I have ever seen a ribbon cut by a Steaman. I have seen lots by Pitts, ect. I would think the Stearman would be hard to do an inverted cut act since it probably doesn't fly very well upside down and I assume it doesn't have inverted systems, maybe this one did?
The only way that I could see to do this act would be with lot's of speed so as to have enough lift and then roll to inverted just long enough to make the cut then back up to normal upright flight. That seems to me to take a lot of timing and skii. I never saw Eddie fly, only on Tv or video. I guess one way or the other he had this Stearman act well polished.
I only do rolls in airshows, nothing vertical and nothing really near the ground. When you are doing it at 50 or 100 feet there is just so little margin for error.
I can't think of much more to say, except I've seen this for 31 years and it hasn't gotten any easier. And most of the people lost in warbird or fun type flying have been from some sort of low altitude acro or maneuvering, where there is little time or room to correct a problem.