Moggy C,
How about a camera in the cockpit looking at the instruments ?
Digby,
Having seen a fatal airshow accident & a non fatal one I do not wish to see any others. I don’t know if our ramblings here will have any influence but maybe, just maybe someone who is more deeply involved would get wind of an idea expressed & prevent an accident. There are members of the warbird fraternity who do post here. The whole philosophy of aviation safety relys on frankness of opinion & not ignoring the smallest detail. The airlines use CHIRPS (Confidential Human Incident Reporting System) to allow crews to anonomously report their **** ups. One safety poster I saw in a hangar said “break the chain”, i.e. all accidents tend to be the sum of events, remove one event to break the chain & the accident won’t happen. Having found myself nearly doing something I saw an experienced display pilot do at the Paris airshow I believe there is a good reason to discuss these things as long as they are done sensitively.
I certainly think currency on type is a major problem. I have only ever flown a couple of types of aircraft (gliders) solo so I can’t comment on the difference from a fast jet & a performance warbird from experience. However, I do mess about with cars & one of mine in particular I treat with caution if I haven’t driven it for a while. It’s not that difficult, but it needs the correct handling near the limit & if you’ve lost the “touch” because you have been away from it for a while it could get messy. I certainly wouldn’t be throwing it around at the limit with only 5 hours in 12 months practice. Think about the bit in the BofB film where the CO looks appalled when he asks how much time the new pilots have on spits. They answer 10 & 12 hours respectively, double what is mentioned here, but thought of as way low at the time. Only a film, but representitive of a real situation where time on type counts. OK, so airshow pilots won’t be facing hordes of malicious cabbage crates coming over the horizon, but I hope it makes my point. I suppose more practice is what I’m angling for, though this will mean an increase in prices. However, currency isn’t always a guarantee, I assume the RAF Phantom display crew that were lost at Abingdon in the late eighties were very experienced on type.
What needs to be looked at is accidents per hours flown for warbirds. I remember at the end of the eighties being told that on average the RAF expected to lose seven pilots/aircrew a year. I know that display flying warbirds is not the same as hacking it down a Welsh valley at 500 knots in a downpour, but shouldn’t we understand that all aircraft are unforgiving of errors at low level.
Random thoughts,
Do warbird operators/airshow display teams have get togethers to discuss this sort of thing other than pre show briefings? If not, should they ?
Should there be a minimum level of hours on type set regardless of overall experience ?
How much practice do the BBMF (only one aircraft “broken”, as a result of a camshaft failure, in 30 years) get compared to other outfits ?
At least if the routines are made simpler/slower I might get some better pics.
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