C-17 Stunt Slammed as Stupid and Dangerous

[Hans Tucker]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6263277/Terrifying-moment-C-17-plane-flies-buildings-stunt-called-stupid-dangerous.html


Bit over the top reaction to an event that has been well advertised. But being ex-RAAF maybe I am biased. Plus Airlift Group...yawn..Fighters do it better.

[LewisM]

Soon, they will deem all air force activity dangerous and stupid...

[clive milne]

I need more cotton wool in my life...

[LewisM]

Yeah, me too. Seeing I live next to an airport with frequent C-17 visits, I am scared chicken-less.

[AndrewJ]

Just lucky 'Tex' Johnston wasnt flying it :-)
Andrew

[julianh72]

The two EA-18G "Growlers" that followed were much faster and louder - and just as low!

It's interesting that it's taken two full weeks for all of the "outrage" to surface. (The practice fly-overs were done on Friday 28 September, with the main event on Saturday 29 September.)

This is what passes as "news" in the modern mainstream media!

[LewisM]

They'll ban kite flying in parks next

[AndyG]

Lucky Arthur "Bud" Holland wasn't flying it...

This is lame news. The rags are so desperate for stuffing, they'll take any knee jerk utterance as fact.

Clive, do me a solid, and pass over some of that cotton wool eh :P

[LewisM]

How about bubble wrap? I have a couple metres :)

[Wavytone]

IMHO Tex Johnston doing a barrel roll in a 707 takes the prize...

[LewisM]

If you mean stupid and irresponsible, why? A barrel roll is a 1g manoeuvre, and all airliners can perform 1g manoeuvres - in fact, you experience more in approaches and landings.

Poor decision maybe, but perfectly safe. Definitely not routine. (BTW, it was a Dash-80 - the 707 prototype, but that is pedantic :))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaA7kPfC5Hk

[LewisM]

Would've been more interesting if he had :P

[Outcast]

As a Navy Veteran of 28yrs service I am compelled by custom to declare that everything the Raafies do is STOOOPID......:eyepop::rofl::rofl:: hi::hi::eyepop:
However, clearly none of these moron's whingeing have ever flown into old Hong Kong Airport....

Check this out from about 1:05..... now that's something to be worried about & this used to happen umpteen times a friggin day, every day of the week...

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2rb35p

[AndrewJ]

I read that ( anecdotally ), when being dressed down by the head of Boeing re the stunt, he replied with something like
"I hear lots of people are placing orders"
Not sure that would wash in the RAAF ( these days ) :-)
Andrew

[AndyG]

Kai Tak appears only half a notch down from PNG Highland airstrips...

[LewisM]

Some of the simpleton whingers should have seen what the Caribous used to get up to, both in the scrub and up in PNG.

I have HUNDREDS of slides of the old man flying the DC-3 in PNG - should look into the cost of transferring them to CD/USB flashdrives.

[AndrewJ]

Gday Lewis

That reminds me of a documentary i saw a few years back re the design and evolution of the DC3.
The bit i found really interesting was when Donald Douglas was asked about it and how it progressed, he commented that in the early days, when designing the precursor units, he had a handshake agreement with the boss of TWA and the meetings were full of engineers and designers.
When he retired, the contracts were immense tomes and all meetings were full of lawyers and PR people.
I guess nothing has changed since, other than the "lawyers" are now
overlayed by people with a smartphone camera and a perceived idea of whats bad.


Andrew

[Outcast]

Yeah but, haven't seen a 747 land in the PNG Highlands yet though... :D

I will grant that the Caribou pilots had humongous balls when it came down to where they could & would land...

They were fun to get on the booze with... unlike the self absorbed fighter flyboys....

[silv]

were they playing a war game and needed data from a staged terrorist attack to use in intelligence and defense tactics' manuals?

[LewisM]

Seeing we are on an aviation roll...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4hYU79-3Sg

Look at the tarmac fly after the Vampire! WOW!


And speaking of weird landings etc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ivH7tLiFLY

Not often you see an Il-62 land on a German grass field (deliberately done as an open air exhibit)

[LewisM]

No, it's called Riverfire - an annual fireworks etc event. The RAAF used to dump and burn with the F-111's, but since we no longer have them, no similarly spectacular shows, so the RAAF has to do SOMETHING I guess :)

[Lee]

From the Daily Mail..... a definite centre of journalistic excellence? :lol:

[GrahamL]

Sadly I was with my dad at Mt Olivant pallitive care last year looking out over the river where the plane first comes into view , the hospital grounds and all the land around there is actually quite high above the river on the kangaroo point side and make things look a little differant to reality height wise .



On a side note my grandfathers father was the first fireman at Kangaroo point .

[Shano592]

No, you'll just need a CASA licence to go above 3m... :lol:

[Dennis]

Hi Annette

Here is a composite I grabbed on the day, showing how safe the event really is.:)

The reverberations of the engines in my chest cavity didn't even cause me to skip one shot.;)

Cheers

Dennis

PS - a single C-17, 10 frames combined in PS

[Shano592]

That's a great stack, Dennis!

Gee, it's not like they were trying for a rooster tail off the water!

[Dennis]

That was his 2nd run and I estimate he was at least twice that height above ground on his 1st run.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[leon]

Gees i wish i could have been there, excellent stuff, maybe I'm stupid now :shrug:
I love that plane and have many images taken from the end of the Darwin runway

Leon :thumbsup:

[Dennis]

Nah, Leon - you're just exhibiting the classical red-blooded male characteristics that respond to all things related to aviation.:)

I think it is deep in our male psyche - either hormonal or genetically based, so I don't try to resist it.;)

Cheers

Dennis

[silv]

cool image, Dennis! How many flats and darks?
From this viewpoint it looks not frightening at all. The video in #1 pictured the colossus from a right angle and the sky scraper background make the scene eerily war-like.
I remember this accident in Ramstein 1988. https://youtu.be/zL4Fz57Wg1o?t=91 , begins at 1:32 . But that choreography involved 10 planes not only 1. And from 1 of the crashed ones, the audience was doused in 800l kerosene before the exploding plane ignited them.

[Dennis]

Thanks Annette, sadly I saw the Ramstein accident whilst I was still in the UK and it was truly a shocking, tragic event.:(

Cheers

Dennis

[doppler]

In 1989 (I think) the Federal gov wouldn't approve a request for a RAAF flyover during the Adelaide Grand Prix so one of the Adelaide MP's asked a mate in the US airforce in Singapore if they would come down and do some flyovers. Of course the yanks said hell yea we'll send a couple of the boys down. This was just before the Gulf War, the F/A 18 flyovers looked like they were doing simulated bombing runs over the city, low and fast from the hills banking between the buildings very cool to watch.

The MP got roasted for going around the Feds budget restrictions, but didn't do anything illegal LOL.