PART A: SUMMARY OF INFORMATION REPORTED TO UKAB
THE TORNADO GR4 PILOT reports transiting at low-level as number 2 of a pair. The formation was
operating autonomously under VFR in VMC, communicating on an inter-formation frequency and
listening out on the low level common frequency [278.000MHz]. The grey camouflaged ac had the
SSR transponder selected on with Modes A, C and S. The ac was not fitted with an ACAS. Whilst
transiting along the W side of the River Spey valley, heading 045° at 420kt and 250ft AGL and
keeping clear of the Highland Wildlife Park to the W, he saw a glider at an estimated range of 500m,
slightly above and to the L, which had been hidden behind the canopy arch. He bunted and passed
100ft below it. The pilot noted that he had seen the glider at ‘the very last moment’.
He assessed the risk of collision as ‘Very High’.
THE DG-808C PILOT reports conducting a long flight with a reasonably high workload due to
deteriorating soaring conditions. He was operating autonomously under VFR in VMC, listening out
on the glider common frequency [129.975MHz]. The white self-launch glider was not fitted with
lighting or an ACAS. The SSR transponder was selected off due to the high power drain over the
extended flight and his location ‘in class G airspace’. Whilst in level flight, heading 065° at 70kt, he
saw a Tornado ‘very late’ in his R 3 o’clock at a range of 800m, passing R to L. He achieved a
‘limited pull up’ due to his low energy and passed an estimated 300ft directly over the top of the
Tornado.
He assessed the risk of collision as ‘High’.
PART B: AND NOW THE DAILY MAIL VERSION
A hero Tornado pilot going 500mph ‘back-flipped’ his fighter jet at 250ft above the ground to avoid an inevitably fatal crash with a glider, it was revealed today.
The daredevil’s lightning reflexes allowed him to force his own plane downwards and miss the other aircraft by ‘a quarter of a second’ – or 100ft, an air investigation has found.
His RAF jet was tearing through a valley in the Highlands on a training exercise when he saw the tiny glider coming towards him.
To avoid collision at terrifying speed the fighter pilot ‘bunted’, an aerobatic move where a plane is forced into an inverted loop and speeds away upside down.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]219202[/ATTACH]
You may notice one or two small variations 😀
Moggy
By: charliehunt - 13th August 2013 at 13:31
People still read newspapers?
Sometimes, but not for news. I read on-line more and more, I must say. But I still enjoy the Sunday stroll through a “real” paper rather in the way that I can never see myself giving up “real” books for the tablet.
By: Slipstream - 13th August 2013 at 13:06
Apparently both the Telegraph, and then The Times, propagated the same story about an outside half loop at 250ft in the following days.
Perhaps the pilot was a rugby player as well :highly_amused:
By: Flying_Pencil - 3rd August 2013 at 02:07
[ATTACH=CONFIG]219202[/ATTACH]
You may notice one or two small variations 😀
Moggy
Yes, the loadout on the Tornado is wrong!
Rest (un)assured, media in US gets it wrong, occasionally with “death defying” results too.
Thanks for the groaning humor post, Moggy!
By: Edgar Brooks - 29th July 2013 at 11:38
The DM also failed to mention how much the pilots house was worth. Poor research all round.
Made even worse by omitting the age of the pilots.
By: Arabella-Cox - 29th July 2013 at 11:05
The newspapers only take this ultra right-wing Fox News approach to facts because that is what the British public like to read.
All fighter pilots must be ‘heroes’ and ‘daredevils’ because those words play to the WWII-obessed nation that we are. Good British gentlemen fighting against those who do not conform to our ideal… In WWII, it was Nazi Germany (with good reason); now it is East Europeans, the working classes or anyone else who does not conform to white, middle-class coupledom. In the Daily Mail’s world, there always has to be some bogeyman.
I mean no disrespect to any actual servicepeople when I say this, nor do I intend to downgrade the wonderful work they do – it is simply the rather tiresome image that the right-wing press likes to propagate.
By: hampden98 - 29th July 2013 at 08:18
It’s bollox like that above that has stopped people reading them.
Apparently both the Telegraph, and then The Times, propagated the same story about an outside half loop at 250ft in the following days. We can guess where their ‘journalists’ researched the story, can’t we?
Rob P
I can’t be bothered with newspapers and getting increasingly frustrated with the news on TV.
When there is a disaster either natural or man made the first 24 hours seems to be who can dream up a higher death toll than the next.
Up to 100 feared dead when it turns out to be two.
Take the sun we have been having. If you listened to the news we would have been using wheel barrows to remove the deluge of dead caused by the heat.
Old people and children must have been dropping like flies.
By: spitfireman - 28th July 2013 at 13:15
…”There I was, upside-down, nothing on the clock!”
By: Moggy C - 28th July 2013 at 10:25
People still read newspapers?
It’s bollox like that above that has stopped people reading them.
Apparently both the Telegraph, and then The Times, propagated the same story about an outside half loop at 250ft in the following days. We can guess where their ‘journalists’ researched the story, can’t we?
Rob P
By: Stuart H - 27th July 2013 at 13:10
The DM also failed to mention how much the pilots house was worth. Poor research all round.
By: hampden98 - 27th July 2013 at 11:10
People still read newspapers?
By: AlanR - 27th July 2013 at 09:06
Ah, yes…..but would the Tornado have crashed on a primary-school for blind orphans?
What occurs to me is that when you read in a newspaper (no, a newspaper; not the Daily Mail) about something that you have a better-than-average understanding and the journalist gets it so wrong…
…do you accept as true something in a newspaper that you have a less-than-average understanding?
I used to, but not so much nowadays. It depends on the story though.
By: Creaking Door - 27th July 2013 at 01:20
Ah, yes…..but would the Tornado have crashed on a primary-school for blind orphans?
What occurs to me is that when you read in a newspaper (no, a newspaper; not the Daily Mail) about something that you have a better-than-average understanding and the journalist gets it so wrong…
…do you accept as true something in a newspaper that you have a less-than-average understanding?
By: paul178 - 26th July 2013 at 21:23
What we still have airworthy Tornado’s? Don’t tell smarmy Dave or he will scrap them!
By: trumper - 26th July 2013 at 20:11
I am surprised the Daily Fail didn’t say the dare devil pilot was opening a bottle of champers and polishing his medals at the same time .
By: Moggy C - 26th July 2013 at 16:48
You have to be a daredevil to do half an outside loop from 250 ft
And less than halfway through you’d be a dead dare devil.
Moggy
By: AlanR - 26th July 2013 at 16:06
Sounds about right. For the Mail that is.
Daredevil pilots flying Tornadoes ? 🙂
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July 26, 2013 at 2:08 pm