How low can you go?

[Spey_Phantom]

how is this for low, Belgian Air Force style again 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36vUUyUg2o0

[ChernayaAkula]

Kenya Air Force F-5E Tiger at the 1997 Nairobi Air Show at Wilson Airport.



Pic was taken with a cheap 35mm film jobbie and the prints have suffered somewhat over the years.

No zoom on this one. It was that low and near! 

[GTX]

[Jschmus]

Greg,

That's almost aluminum undercast!

[rickshaw]

Be _very_ noisy, particularly after its past.  Six big radials (must be an early B-36 - note, no jets).

[Mossie]

L-29 Delfin.  Very gutsy (reckless???) or he's just about to pancake!
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Aero-L-29-Delfin/1887338/L/

[rallymodeller]

Until recently, the A-10 squadron out of Selfridge ANGB used the St. Clair River as the transit route to get to the range over Lake Huron. They used to fly at very, very low level right down the river until some busybodies on our side of the border complained to our MP about "American armed overflights" and such nonsense. The MI ANG had to change their route further west.

Another occasion (unfortunately I forgot my camera): every year my sports-car club hosts a charity autoslalom as part of the "Cruizin' for CF" cystic-fibrosis benefit. Generally that event is held at the General Motors Electromotive factory parking lot (the erecting shops where EMD assembles their locomotives -- it's right next to General Dynamics Land Systems' LAV factory). The '09 event happened to coincide with the St. Thomas, Ontario air show. St. Thomas has an airport but it is pretty small -- it's an ex-BCATP airfield -- and not all of the aircraft invited could land there, so London Airport was used as the staging area for a lot of the participants. As London Airport is pretty close to EMD, we were treated to an impromptu airshow as the participants returned for fuel and whatnot. For about ten minutes a quartet of Strike Eagles did formation breaks right over us; we were amazed that you could hear the landing-gear and speed-brake actuators from the ground. Then, after about five or six passes by the F-15s, a USAF C-17 came in low, low, low (>1000 feet, maybe? Less?) and did a break right over our heads, about as low as one could get over a populated area. It was my first time seeing a Globemaster that close, and watching it do 80° banks was amazing to say the least. He did about four passes before landing.

[The Big Gimper]

>My brother told me these aircraft came so close to the ground you could almost touch them, so what you are seeing in the photos more than likely happened.  The lake shoreline is probably just out of view.<

Ya Got Me! Here is the next photo in the Mars sequence. Just because it is near the water takes NOTHING away from the expert flying needed to come in this low and fast in such a large airplane. Seriously, the Mars is still probably 20+ feet above the land/water, but it LOOKS closer because of the sheer size of the aircraft.

PS-- my uncle flew the Mars for the US Navy back in early '50's.

A good pool for the pilots and the FEs were ex-Argus fight crew. The Argus and Mars uses the same engines albeit the the Argus were turbo-super charged. I was able to talk to flightcrew when I was posted a CFB Comox which is about 1 hour east of Port Alberni.

[Mossie]

Holy thread ressurections:

Greek A-7's
Lightning   Puffs the afterburner just as you think he's going to splat
Red Arrow Gnats:  Looks like a training flight as they're flying lower than normal

[PR19_Kit]

Red Arrow Gnats:  Looks like a training flight as they're flying lower than normal

That brings back another good memory  

In 1970, when I was working for Track and Structures Dept. of BR's Research Division I found myself working on the Britannia Tubular Bridge over the Menai Staits between N Wales and Angelsey. The bridge had just suffered a catastrophic fire and was eventually written off and re-bult using only the three stone towers from the original structure, but we'd tested the bridge only the previous winter and were asked to come back and re-test it to determine how badly it was damaged.

The bridge stood over 130 ft above the water level, and the three stone towers were a LOT taller than that at their peak. In order to check the stresses on the wrought iron tubes that formed the main bridge structure we had to loosen off the massive bolts that held them down to the towers, and the bolts were on the TOP of the towers. It was very strenuous work and we took numerous breaks to restore ourselves (read as 'knocking back a pint of beer or two'....) and during one of these breaks one of my colleagues said 'Cor, look at that, it's the Red Arrows!'

We all looked up of course but could see nothing, and he shouted 'Not up there, down there!' so we looked down from our lofty perch to see the nine Gnats barrelling past parallel with the bridge, presumably heading for RAF Valley on Anglesey, but about 100 ft LOWER than us!

[Mossie]

Excellent!

[Rheged]

I have heard it said that the ultimate low level record is held jointly by an RAF Buccaneer   and an Israeli Phantom. At the time that  the gentlemen in light blue were aviating through the streets of Beruit, a Bucc pilot  swung round over Jordan and went down the length of the Dead Sea (Jordanian side) about 10 feet above the water. The Phantom  was sent up to find out who was playing silly games, and  managed to get down to 50 feet above the water.  Not many pilots can claim to have flown 1300 feet below sea level.

This might be one of those shaggy dog stories that  has no basis in fact but given the behaviour of some  brick outhouse drivers, I'd not be surprised if it was accurate.

[Weaver]

I remember reading a piece by a Bucaneer pilot who said one of the most pleasurable moments of his life was sitting in the back of a USAF F-4, watching a Bucc leave it for dead at low level during a Red Flag exercise....

[kitnut617]

It was very strenuous work and we took numerous breaks to restore ourselves (read as 'knocking back a pint of beer or two'....) and during one of these breaks one of my colleagues said 'Cor, look at that, it's the Red Arrows!'

We all looked up of course but could see nothing, and he shouted 'Not up there, down there!' so we looked down from our lofty perch to see the nine Gnats barrelling past parallel with the bridge, presumably heading for RAF Valley on Anglesey, but about 100 ft LOWER than us!

Back in the 70's before I moved to Canada, the Red Arrows would perform their display just off Bournemouth's beaches. Instead of paying ridiculously high prices for standing in the main area, us locals would go either side of the designated area and stand on top of the cliff edges, and look down into the cockpits as they flew by while lining up for the next manouvuer. As the cliffs are about 100 ft high there, the Arrows frequently flew in at about 50 feet.

[lancer]

I used to do a lot of water sports at Hawley Lake near Yately and backing onto Gibralter barracks, when I was a cadet many many moons ago and reading this brought back the memory of one fine day out on the lake in a canoe having the Red's practice just over the lake, and I mean just over the lake sometimes as high as 10 or 20 ft above it. Still it's intersting to have a Red Arrows hawk, scream over you at about 50ft. This was very early '80's and they'd just converted from the Gnat.