Pilot grounded for barrel roll at Fenway – Air Force News, news from Iraq – Air Force Times — Pretty funny, especially the bureaucratic response. What I like is the BS concept that the pilot being “grounded” is an “opportunity” not a punishment. Cripes, what a weasel.
Fans at Fenway Park on Tuesday were treated to a once-in-a-lifetime performance when an F-16 flyover took an unplanned twist.
Three Falcons from the Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing flew in formation over the Boston stadium at the conclusion of the national anthem on opening day at the park. Then, a fourth F-16 came up from behind the formation, swooping underneath and then barrel-rolling over the top of the trio.
The crowd cheered, but the maneuver got the pilot grounded.
The roll is a normal move used to slow down a jet, but is only approved for altitudes over 5,000 feet, Goodrow said. The jets were flying at 1,100 feet for the flyover.
The grounding was handed out “not as a punishment, but as an opportunity to sit back and reflect and re-engage in proper procedures and the ways to do what he did,” Goodrow said.
#0–Mustard, yes I am a better man, but not for that reason. I’ve been trained. As they told us at flight school, we could train monkeys to fly these planes, but it would take too many bananas, so we got you. I felt very “American” that day.
Actually you can do barrel rolls “blind folded.” All it takes is an entry attitude and airspeed and then a steady one g pull with slight aileron. Very simple. The manuever is to slow down while going forward which is why usually a barrel starts by gaining airspeed so you maintain flying speed thoughout.
Now Bubba says it may take up to 1.6 G’s but in my aircraft pulling more than one g means you did something wrong, so I don’t know (but wouldn’t think) that different aircraft require different g forces—maybe so if aircraft can’t get going fast enough or has too much drag? Not the case in a fighter.
>>As they told us at flight school, we could
>>train monkeys to fly these planes
I have no doubt about that, Bobster, but could you train them to do barrel rolls around 3 other planes? I have yet to find a source that says a true barrel roll (not just twiddling around on the longitudinal axis) is “easy”. If you find one, please pass it on, won’t you?
>>Mustard, yes I am a better man.
Heh heh. Hehehehehehe! And you’re modest to boot. Wow. You’re like Einstein, Charlize Theron, and Mother Teresa all rolled into one!
I’m an F-16 pilot and a barrel roll is not a difficult maneuver. The pilot actually did what is known as a “lag” roll which is a maneuver that reduces overtake. Unfortunately, the lag roll requires the pilot to go inverted and we have regulations against that sort of thing below 5,000. The lag roll is not a difficult maneuver, but the overtake that pilot had was pretty heinous. He should have never allowed himself to get in the situation in the first place, but for being there, he did some of that “pilot shit” and took care of business
Guys got balls and it looked cool, but in our fear drenched society he’ll get spanked, just like the guy at Cathy Airlines who made the low pass at Everett. The last pilot that got away with a high profile roll like that was the one (forgot the name) that rolled the 707 prototype at Everett many years ago. Question you gotta ask yourself: Comes time to go one on one with a bad guy, do we want a safe, by the book pilot, or one who’ll bend the rules and maybe the airframe going after the determined whacko in a big Bear bomber that’s zeroed in on one of our cities?
A shame bobbo will never read this, but the final seconds of a barrel roll will lead to a 1.3 – 1.6 G pull, if you’re going to pull in at exactly the same heading and level off at exactly the entry altitude. In other words, the perfect barrel roll.
Hey, it’s just a wood and fabric plane, not a jet fighter.
I have no references to cite, just a few thousand hours in a plane with a G-meter.