How low can you go?

[PR19_Kit]

Not super low, but low enough. Prototype Shackleton, Farnborough, 1951.

He did it again next time around, but on only one engine. 

[NARSES2]

That prototype Shackleton is the nicest looking of a pretty ungainly bunch IMHO

[Weaver]

From here: https://twitter.com/villani_e/status/655490214413115392

[PR19_Kit]

Considering the poster's name is 'Enrico Villani' I guess it's an Italian Tonka. If he was in RAF he wouldn't have been for much longer! 

[Captain Canada]

Woah ! That was close !

[kerick]

Reminds me of stories from Davis Monthan AFB in Arizona were an A-10 came back from the range with the fiberglass wing tip missing

[Weaver]

Vintage Wings of Canada low flying stories page, with lots of photos:

http://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php/topic,26682.msg394031.html#msg394031

[Rheged]

Perhaps someone else here can confirm that during some earlier Red Flag exercises, Buccaneers returned  to base with sundry items of desert foliage appended, and that at least one Vulcan did something reprehensible to a power/phone line

[Mossie]

Something different, but I've got a book on water bombers that shows a DC-6? (from memory, I'll have to dig out the book) with a bit of tree embedded in the wing and the engine stuffed full of pine needles.

The tree was a seed tree that had been left to reseed a clearing and was the only one for tens of miles. 

[Weaver]

Perhaps someone else here can confirm that during some earlier Red Flag exercises, Buccaneers returned  to base with sundry items of desert foliage appended, and that at least one Vulcan did something reprehensible to a power/phone line

I know that one Vulcan on the way to Red Flag flew down the Grand Canyon for a laugh, then when they walked into the briefing room at Nellis, the first thing they saw was a giant map on the wall with the whole of the Grand Canyon boxed off in red as a no-fly zone... 

My friend John got a bollocking for low flying as he was walking away from his Vampire, and when he tried to deny it, the Squadron Leader walked past him and pulled a chunk of shrubbery out of his nose gear bay... 

[PR19_Kit]

I know that one Vulcan on the way to Red Flag flew down the Grand Canyon for a laugh, then when they walked into the briefing room at Nellis, the first thing they saw was a giant map on the wall with the whole of the Grand Canyon boxed off in red as a no-fly zone... 

IIRC that was Martin Withers flying the aircraft, him of 'Black Buck' fame and the main pilot of '558 in recent years. 

[Mossie]

Something different, but I've got a book on water bombers that shows a DC-6? (from memory, I'll have to dig out the book) with a bit of tree embedded in the wing and the engine stuffed full of pine needles.

The tree was a seed tree that had been left to reseed a clearing and was the only one for tens of miles. 

I tried to find a pic online of that incident.  I didn't, but found a story about a transfer flight of T-28's from Morocco to Honduras where they got a little low while sightseeing and took a bit of Canadian shrubbery with them.  Nice story of bush flying, battered old aircraft with scabbed on tanks from a Vampire and Meteor with what looks suspiciously like duct tape, an old Renault being used a target took, engine fire on a DH Dove:
http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=71565

[Captain Canada]

What a great article the photos are phenomenal ! Thanks !

[Mossie]

Your welcome, lucky find.  I think they'd make great models, it'd be fun explaining the Meteor and Vampire tanks to headscratching at a show.

[reddfoxx]

Great shots and stories in this thread!

Reminded me of some pix on the webpage of a pilot whose A-1 I did a model of.  Flew in the Armee de l'Air and the Gabonese Air Force.