The pilot of a brand new Cathay Pacific Airways Boeing 777-300ER was fired this week for a stunt he performed reminiscent of the movie Top Gun. Captain Ian Wilkinson flew the 250 million dollar jet just 30 feet off the runway with its landing gear up on its maiden flight with an apparently oblivious Cathay Pacific chairman Chris Pratt on board.
The airline denied forehand knowledge of the stunt and stated that they did not give the pilot permission to attempt it.
More on this story here.
There was a video of this incident on YouTube but it mysteriously disappeared. Har!
Update: Video in comments section.
Zoom zoom zoom, da dee dee dumb!
Waaaaay to go, Maverick!
And the Oscar for ‘Most Creative Resignation’ goes to…
I really enjoyed that, Mav,
thanks a lot. Holy shit.
Maybe I could be a truck driver. You got
the number of that truck-driving school?
-Goose
Back in the late 80’s, I saw a B1-B Lancer perform a delivery fly-by like this in Palmdale only the young jock pilot flew it even lower,with the wings swept, and twice as fast. Now THAT was impressive.
I estimate that the engine nacelles on that B1-B fly-by were only about fifteen to twenty feet off the ground. It would have left some impressive titanium sparks if he had dragged all four GE F101 nozzles on the concrete.
I would hire him on the spot if I could afford a pilot.
Did they let Shrub fly a plane again???
My dad worked in aerosapce and we used to regularly attend air shows — some before our current litigious ear.
At least once I remember a low buzz over by a passenger jet. Pretty cool. The coolest, though, was a fly-by of of a + mach 1 plane. Wow.
Speaking of low passes, check this out:
Ha….a fine tradition for Boeing aircraft!
For those who don’t know, it was a stunt like this that started the modern jet travel industry. Boeing built the first jet airliner without any customers. They demoed it at the 1955 Seattle Hydroplane races at Lake Washington. The president of PanAm was there as a guest of the president of Boeing.
Unplanned and unannounced, the pilot performed a low altitude double barrel roll with the aircraft right in front of the grand stands. The president of Boeing was furious. The president of PanAm was impressed enough to place an order for 20 of them.
Here is a link to the story.
Here’s that barrel roll:
At least he had the good sense to not do it inverted!
Cheers
Actually, I think Tex’s roll is technically a 2g maneuver. You start in a slight climb, roll over keeping 1g positive while inverted but it requires a 2g pullout at the bottom of the roll once the aircraft is righted.
Of course, there isn’t an certified commercial aircraft flying anywhere that isn’t capable of well in excess of two g’s so it is perfectly safe, if you know how to do it right.
I just did a quick search and apparently 2.5g is standard design criteria for jetliners. With a 1.50 safety factor, the wings wouldn’t start to deform until about 3.75g. No problem, eh, Tex?
Still, it was ballsy.
Isn’t this ridiculous? Tex Johnson rolled the first 707 in its demo flight and kept his job. This guy pulls the gear up a bit early and gets canned. Go figure.
And no, I have no idea about who barrel rolled that King Air with Mexican registration over Addison Airport in 1984.
If you do the maneuver correctly, you shouldn’t pull more than 1.6 g at roll bottom. I usually peg about 1.5 on the g-meter, and that’s while doing a 360 turn, 1 barrel roll per 90 degrees of turn, altitude within +/- 50 ft. at roll bottom. Some slip required.
But you’re correct about commercial aircraft g limits. Although not published (flight manuals say “unknown” for g-limits on the 7×7 series) I can’t imagine the limits to be less than 3.0+, 1.5-.
Normal operations turbulence would otherwise surely bend the craft.
#1, njk, I doubt that’s the flyby that got ’em in trouble. The article mentioned 322 kts. as the flyby speed. That looks like a max of 175 kts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTABOp_bExI
THIS IS NOT THE ORIGINAL VIDEO THAT POSTED TO YOUTUBE. That video was pulled. This is just a different version of the same event to show what transpired.
That he is more than capable of driving that bus quite well is never doubted, so what’s the uproar about except his attitude in doing such an irreverent thing? I think the kind of nerve it takes to pull that stunt is the same kind that keeps an in-flight emergency from becoming a disaster.
I’d like to shake ol’ Ian’s hand. I’d fly with him any time.
MAVERICK!!!
Here’s something interesting that was posted on the ‘Ace of Spades HQ’ comments…
“”The pilot blogs says the pilot had permission to do the fly by and that it is often done, BUT there appears to be more to this story, here’s a quote from the blog.
“I am a CX pilot and can tell you all right now that myself and none of the other CX pilots are sorry to see Wilko go. He was a total prick and anyone would think he owned CX the way he used to carry on.
We have been trying to find a reason to get rid of him for a long time and the youtube video was too good an opportunity to pass up….”
Sounds like the long knives were out for the pilot and they found their mark. ”
So assuming this is true, (and it does seem plauseible) while not something unusual, this guy didn’t have friends when he needed them, it would appear.
#20
That sure would explain a lot. The pilot unions are very powerful. It takes something really noteworthy (i.e. derisive to the company brand or flagrant disregard for safety) to can someone these days. No union rep will fight to keep someone that pulls stuff like this if the company wants him gone.
Woot Boeing!!
#20, Thinker,
That rings hollow. The news report said he did not have permission to do a low fly past with gear up. The ubiquitous comment that he was a prick will not be enough to get him fired, if he is covered by a contract.