Originally Posted by
JohnMac
Whilst you are aplauding the obvious pilot skill, I would just point out that this barely controlled model was flying directly towards the crowd (including me) and landed about 20 metres from flight attendants at the other side of the runways. The pilot has a duty of care at all times, towards those around him. Clearly this guy had more ego than brains. He had acres of grass to safetly dump the model in and probably with less damage too.
John
John, I absolutely agree. For some time I have been advocating UK jet fliers to fly at a reasonable distance from ALL persons, pilots, spotters, whoever. I argue that the minimum distance should be the CAA advisory distance of 50 meters at ALL events.
After Shoreham the CAA has considerably increased fly-past distances at full size air shows, but that is AFTER the disaster. I strongly advocate looking after our own safety BEFORE we spoil our safety record. If we don't we might not like what we are forced to do by regulation.
We have had our warnings, the Gripen break up, this Avanti. (or whatever it was), a canopy separating from a big Hawk, which could have taken the fin off, my near disastrous fin failure with my big Hawk, mid air collisions to name few. We need to learn from these. Keeping a safe distance is a start !
....and if anyone should doubt that things can go horribly wrong, even in the best regulated and managed organisations, be advised that Martin-Baker, the world leader in ejection seats, and who have saved 7,500 lives including mine, are being prosecuted by the HSE after the Red Arrows. uncommanded seat firing and death 5 years ago. That deeply saddens me.
David.