L-39 Albatross in the news(and not in a good way)

[hews500d]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-flyby8-2009nov08,0,7365252.story


Be sure and click the link on the left side of the page to watch the video. Probably a lot of unwanted attention from the FAA on the jet warbird community as a result.

Darrell

 

[Txmmy83]

video is interesting stuff



BR
Tom

 

[hews500d]

video is interesting stuff



BR
Tom

I have to wonder from the angle a couple of them are filmed from if the plane is as close to the pier as the camera makes it look. It doesn't look like any energy was directed at the crowd on the pier but still, seems like several FAR's were busted.

Here's a link to an interesting discussion over at the Warbirds Information Exchange forum
http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=32946

Darrell

 

[Francois]

ROFL..... we did that in a Cessna a few weeks ago, flying low (20 feet)over the sea off the English coast. NOT over the people of course.... but I am pretty sure peeps in this continent would not go running off in a frenzy like that......

 

[Prowler1111]

..If i was there..i would be clapping and whoing so loud, people would run away from me, c´mon!....and watching those people running and yelling "OMG!", i bet it was a stampede effect, you know, someone ran, and the rest followed without really knowing why...God, in the 80´s that would´ve been some great afternoon at the pier!
Anyway...i´m censoring myself

Prowler

 

[hews500d]

eh.. Unfortunately in our post 9/11 world and with most of the "general population" thinking airplanes are annoying, noisy things, and most of them probably never having seen an L-39 they were probably thinking we were under attack, especially the 1st caller that was referring to them as "military jets"


I agree Prowler, I would have been on cloud 9 seeing that!

Darrell

 

[sandar]

There is an L-39 for sale on eBay.uk for around £15,000 if anyone is interested, not airworthy though.


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/JET-FIGHTER-P...emQQptZUK_CPV_Aviation_SM?hash=item25572366f3

 

[sandar]

ROFL..... we did that in a Cessna a few weeks ago, flying low (20 feet)over the sea off the English coast. NOT over the people of course.... but I am pretty sure peeps in this continent would not go running off in a frenzy like that......

A couple of us did a similar stunt years ago over the Welsh coast with an Auster and a Linnet (British, licence built Emmeraude), except we flew parallel to the beach and wave height. Great fun it was too, no one seemed to mind.

 

[Dain Arns]

..If i was there..i would be clapping and whoing so loud, people would run away from me, c´mon!....and watching those people running and yelling "OMG!", i bet it was a stampede effect, you know, someone ran, and the rest followed without really knowing why...God, in the 80´s that would´ve been some great afternoon at the pier!
Anyway...i´m censoring myself

Prowler

Free airshow! YAY! I would have right there next to you doing the same thing.

Seriously, what is it with some of the people in the Los Angeles area? There is a hatred of anything aviation that permeates from that area it seems. Maybe Howard Hughes crashing into those house started it? I dunno.

 

[Lotus]

I couldn't agree more with Prowler, this kind of response to someone out having some fun just makes my blood boil. The pursuit of "safety" is the quickest way to never experience anything in life, which begs the question... what's the point in living then exactly?

I'd heard about this incident but had never seen video of it. The 'outcry' from an aviation illiterate public that fears their own shadows these days aside, I thought it was a masterful bit of flying, well done.

I know Riggs, met him last August, sat in his jet and flew formation with him in another L-39, months before this occurred. At no time did he do anything that I would consider crazy, a very competent pilot. As for the FAA being worried about the mechanical state of his L-39, that's hogwash. That thing is immaculate. It gets worked hard and well taken care of. It was perfectly maintained by its previous owner as well, whom I also know (and who helped me immensely during development).

This incident reminds me of a drive I took in my mom's porsche as a teenager, reaching speeds well over 100 mph in the pre-dawn hours on a deserted road. The next week she got a letter from the police advising that her car was seen "moving at an unsafe velocity" on that particular date. That letter is still taped to my fridge 15 years later. I consider it trophy. "On this date at 4am your son was *living*".

-Mike

 

[dswo]

but I am pretty sure peeps in this continent would not go running off in a frenzy like that...

Maybe on your continent. On my continent, peeps are more spirited:

[YOUTUBE]22P9vx3o7Y4[/YOUTUBE]

 

[dswo]

This incident reminds me of a drive I took in my mom's porsche as a teenager, reaching speeds well over 100 mph in the pre-dawn hours on a deserted road.

Mike, I love your model. But what you're describing is a little different, don't you think? When you were driving that car, there was a risk, but it was limited to one person. If you weren't as good as you thought you were -- and fortunately you were -- the only person you would have maimed, killed, or discomfited was yourself.

The people out on the pier that day were having fun their own way; maybe it wasn't ours, but they were entitled to it, on the same condition as we are: namely, that what they do doesn't endanger other people. I'm sure your friend is a skilled pilot and all, but the folks on the pier didn't know that -- shouldn't have to know that, frankly. If you want to buzz the onlookers, invite them to an airshow. When you do that, everyone gets what he signed up for: the spectators as well as the pilot.

If you want to be free -- and I really do -- you have to respect other people's freedom too. The pilots that I saw in the video weren't doing that.

 

[falcon409]

I was unable to pull up the video, my player doesn't seem to want to work right now, but aside from that I have mixed feelings about this. From simply an Aviation standpoint and how the general public reacts to these things I think there's a lot of "Post 911" anxiety that drives how some people react and especially those who don't have any interaction whatsoever with aviation. A lot of folks still see it as unsafe and an accident waiting to happen and any chance they get they'll fight against it and I'm very sure the local airports and FAA office were getting an earfull about this little display over the Pier.

Then, there's the FAA. . . .sometimes I see those guys as a necessary evil. We need an agency that can setup standards to maintain safety across the board in aviation from Commercial aircraft all the way down to Light Sport and Ultralight. But sometimes I wonder if they have kept up with the aviation industry and really have a grasp of what's actually going on out there. . . .like a little common sense would go a long way!!

I don't know this guy Riggs, but apparently Mike does and has no problem with his aircraft, but the FAA, for whatever that's worth, does have a problem with him and it seems to be an ongoing problem since they keep pulling his license. He also seems to be a guy who either constantly finds himself surrounded by the wrong people who take advantage of him, or he's as crooked as the day is long and can't stay out of trouble, sorry Mike.

Bottom line here tells me that until he squares himself with the FAA, he needs to stay out of the cockpit. But if he wants to continue to fly despite the FAA, then he needs to exercise a lot more common sense than he has up til now or he may find himself banned for life. He may have thought the stunt he pulled over the Pier was cool and great advertisement, but apparently the public on the Pier didn't think so.

 

[Lotus]

Hey David. I guess I should clarify my statement a bit, because you're right, it was a dangerous stunt that they pulled, I won't debate that. My greater issue is with the fact that as a society we've become afraid of just about anything we don't understand. That bothers me to the core, so I enjoy seeing people break the rules sometimes, to grab their freedom and run with it even though they know they're going to get in trouble for it. As for Dave specifically, he isn't my friend, but I have met him and talked to him a few times.

As for airshows, they don't cut it for me much anymore, the risk and excitement factors are nil now. I feel like I might as well just park at the end of the runway at any airport and watch airliners land. Here in Canada the planes aren't allowed to fly over the crowd at airshows at all these days. Back when I was a kid they used to start each airshow here in Vancouver with a transonic pass by an F-5 over the crowd at 100 feet AGL directly from behind. You could literally see 400,000 people duck at once. It was exciting and excellent. Nowadays that sense of adventure is gone from airshows, except maybe at Axalp in Switzerland. Again, all in the name of "safety". I don't want safe, I want to be thrilled and lit up, to be impressed by the power of the planes and skill of the pilots.

A Canadian F-18 pilot pulled a similar stunt in the early 90s over downtown Vancouver, buzzing houses at 200 feet off the deck, simply because he wanted to show his parents (who live here) what he really did for a living. That entire night every parent was talking about how dangerous that stunt was and every kid was talking about how cool it was! Long story short, I like to see people bend the rules just for the heck of it, provided nobody gets hurt. To me the public and FAA are just "fun police". What Dave did was silly yeah, but part of me applauds him for it.

-Mike

 

[Dexdoggy]

Thank goodness they can't stop us having this sort of fun in the sim! (Well, not yet anyway!) I'm pretty certain there are a few virtual homes in my sim with the roof paint missing! I just set the radar alt in the '39 and try and keep the warning light on the whole time!

 

[centuryseries]

I couldn't agree more with Prowler, this kind of response to someone out having some fun just makes my blood boil. The pursuit of "safety" is the quickest way to never experience anything in life, which begs the question... what's the point in living then exactly?

I'd heard about this incident but had never seen video of it. The 'outcry' from an aviation illiterate public that fears their own shadows these days aside, I thought it was a masterful bit of flying, well done.

I know Riggs, met him last August, sat in his jet and flew formation with him in another L-39, months before this occurred. At no time did he do anything that I would consider crazy, a very competent pilot. As for the FAA being worried about the mechanical state of his L-39, that's hogwash. That thing is immaculate. It gets worked hard and well taken care of. It was perfectly maintained by its previous owner as well, whom I also know (and who helped me immensely during development).

This incident reminds me of a drive I took in my mom's porsche as a teenager, reaching speeds well over 100 mph in the pre-dawn hours on a deserted road. The next week she got a letter from the police advising that her car was seen "moving at an unsafe velocity" on that particular date. That letter is still taped to my fridge 15 years later. I consider it trophy. "On this date at 4am your son was *living*".

-Mike

You might find that 'fun' Mike but for those of us who lost a dear school friend late at night on a deserted road caused by a careless speeding driver going the opposite way, it's actually not that fun - especially 14 years later when I drive by the exact spot marked with a cross everyday to get to work. Please consider that not everyone makes it out the other side like you did that day.

 

[Navy Chief]

I am reminded of the movie 1941, with John Belushi, when the Jap sub fires at the ferris wheel..............

[youtube]GL3X_txAkgI&feature=youtube_gdata[/youtube]

NC

 

[dhl1986]

He may have thought the stunt he pulled over the Pier was cool and great advertisement, but apparently the public on the Pier didn't think so.

I have to side with falcon409 on this one. A military jet is quite a spectacle even to us, people who have an interest and likely know quite a bit about them. Your average Joe on the pier knows military jets exist, but that is about the extent of his knowledge, and now there is one flying right over his head in a seemingly aggressive style (to him)

I think any one of us would have immediately known that it was an aerobatic display, and I for one would have felt like I had just won the lottery if I witnessed an unexpected display from the L-39, but these people had no idea what was going on, they were there with their families.... I can definitely see why some were worried.

 

[Lotus]

You might find that 'fun' Mike but for those of us who lost a dear school friend by a careless speeding driver, it's not actually not that fun. Please consider that not everyone makes it out the other side like you did that day.

I agree, which is why I save my speed for the racetrack these days (where everyone signs up for the risk), and if not there, then it's somewhere way out in the boonies where the only person I'm going to hurt is myself. I don't see speed as the problem as much as seriously bad judgment and lack of training. I also think 70% of drivers shouldn't even have licenses to start with, most simply don't understand the essential physics of car control and friction at all, and they're never taught these things during their driver training.

Granted my opinions on such things tend to be extreme because I believe in common sense, good training, strict evaluation and licensing, calculated risks, and loathe blanket rules that hinder those with skill by trying to make up for the yahoos that slip through the system.

Again I'm not really defending Dave's actions as much as commenting on a trend of fear, ignorance, and ever increasing regulation concerning aviation that worries me. Sometimes I think the FAA would prefer that everyone fly perfectly straight and level at 30000 feet all the time, or just not fly at all. If that's ultimately where we're headed I'll just tear up my PPL right now.

-Mike

 

[mfitch]

Thank goodness they can't stop us having this sort of fun in the sim! (Well, not yet anyway!) I'm pretty certain there are a few virtual homes in my sim with the roof paint missing! I just set the radar alt in the '39 and try and keep the warning light on the whole time!

Amen to that. I love flying low (100' AGL) and fast (up to supersonic) over open water in ways the FAA strictly forbids for good reason in real life.

For those who are not adrenaline junkies, stunts are scary for good reason. My wife will never attend an airshow, because at her last (as a child) she watched a pilot die.