Really Low Flying

[Bill Greenwood]

Low flying can be dangerous, but in some cases the lower you go maybe the safer. The trick is to stay in ground affect so there is only a few inches, at most, to fall.

I am looking at the news this morning, and it is showing Bubba Watson, former Masters golf champ, and his new Hoovercraft golf cart.
It costs $16,000 and is pretty cool. It goes across the fairway, right over any water hazzards, and onto the greens.

Now, I am not into golf, it is a waste of time when you could be at the airshow. I come from a family of excellent golfers, my Brother was several times club champion, as were his two sons, and one was on the U T varsity golf team with Justin Leonard.
I tried golf as a kid and found it very hard and can be frustrating. I was a lot better at and preferred football.

But this "cart" is pretty cool. And as far as what this has to do with airplanes, it does fly, even if very low. It flies more than some new airplane designs that we have heard so much promo about..

A few years back I got to visit England and went to the former Supermarine factory site in Southhampton. Most of the original buildings are still there, and in one of them they were building large commercial hoovercraft the can go right out of the factory into the river and then across the English Channel.

[Joe LaMantia]

OK, maybe we'll get some "true confessions"regarding low flying with this thread. Way back when I was a "Loadmaster" in the USAF Reserves, I was aboard a C-119 flying over northern Wisconsin. I remember an evening flight NW of Green Bay, where we got down to the tree tops and buzzed several lakes. I can still "see" a guy fishing from a small boat in the middle of a little lake all by himself when we roared overhead! This was way off USAF regs but the pilot got away with it. This was not the only time I saw low level buzzing take place in my 6 year enlistment.

Now I used to play golf when I was young, but gave it up after I started my flying lessons. The time and money spent on flying is much more rewarding then playing "cow pasture pool"!

Joe
:cool:

[Hal Bryan]

I saw that same story, and it suddenly made golf look like a lot more fun...

Someone brought a 2-person hovercraft to our airstrip when I was a kid, and that was a lot of fun to... drive? Fly? Operate, I guess. Everyone lined up to make the joke about how it was the lowest low pass anyone had ever seen.

Speaking of hovercraft, here's an odd footnote in aviation history, thanks to some clever tinkering by Bell engineers in the '60s:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIL1GzS4e-I

[CDS]

OK, maybe we'll get some "true confessions"regarding low flying with this thread.

My lowest buzz job wasn't intended to be one at all. At my first Part 135 flying job, we flew a lot of freight. After finishing a few freight charters one day, the customer asked how much I could take back to base (in a Piper Aztec). I offered 1500 pounds and their truck showed up with 1532 pounds (per the manifest), which just worked. While I was inside ordering fuel and filing the flight plan, the driver loaded the freight.

During take off, the Aztec struggled into the air and I realized that I must be overweight, but I was out of runway. Fortunately, the trees at the end of the runway had been cut down and cruised so low over the lake that the sun bathers scattered (I'll never forget the brunette in the blue "tankini").

I slowly eked out 300 feet before risking a turn, but managed to not lose any altitude and 40 minutes later was 3,000' above the ground; by this time I was thanking Lycoming and Piper for keeping the airplane aloft and simultaneously furious at the customer for lying about the weight. Knowing that I was over maximum landing weight, I decided to fly to the destination, but to weigh the freight once there.

The total was nearly 3,400 pounds! A few minutes later, I realized that was 1532 kilograms - and strongly suspected that it was a "deliberate error" as the customer didn't use metric measurements.

I called the customer and vented my thoughts and threatened legal (criminal) action. He begged me not to do it and since he was a chum of our Director of Ops, I told him that I'd think about it overnight. The next day, I told him I wouldn't seek charges, IF we got all of their business for the next 90 days (until we were out of planes). The company was very busy for those 3 months; I think it was the only time the company was profitable (it folded about 1 1/2 years later).

[Joe LaMantia]

CDS,

Nice Job on handling the over-gross landing. I think you might have a future in some "family business"...forgetabout it"!

Joe
;)