some L39 guys buzzed the Santa Monica Pier

What an idiot. Doesn't the L39 have a higher rate of pilot death than other private aircraft in the US? I think some tried to blame the equipment, but it looks like it may be more with the pilot in both maintenance and piloting...wow.

 

Liberals and cellular phones..............what a combination.

 

Riggs must be a three fingered idiot. Why would any sane person do that?
Amateurs.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

I'm old and a bit slow, I guess, but I'm trying to figure out how "liberals and cellular phones" are connected to this incident.
Switches

 

German Caller: Uhhhmmm I'd like to report low flying jets.......

RCAF Zweibrucken: Were they silver with red stars ?

German Caller: Uhhhmmmmmm no.

RCAF Zweibrucken: OK.......everything is fine then, call us back next time, but only if they do.

 

Kds- The last RCAF unit at Zweibrucken left in 1969. It was a USAF RF-4C base until closing in 1991. Flew an RF-4C there myself during a USAFE ORI in 1983. The old wive's tale you mention was actually going around in the 80s at RAF bases. In the early 90s, the Germans put severe route, altitude and airspeed restrictions on all military aircraft. The Brits have followed suit.

Anybody flying an aircraft unannounced and low enough to scare civililians needs to be grounded, which is what happened.

Taz
TerryPhillips

 

Yeah I know that.........just telling the tale from when I was a kid in Germany during the 60's and our zip splats flew low level sorties out of Zwei (amongst other bases). I imagine every NATO air force has their generic version of that story, don't you think ? Just used it to make a point.

I was driving down I-5 in Seattle 2 years ago........listening to the radio and heard the Blue Angels were in town for a demonstration the next day. Apparently they were parked at Boeing Field, so I drove over and parked at Military Road then walked the half a click or so to watch them take off and practice. There was probably 500 people standing there at the fence to check them out. On the way over all I heard on the radio show was numerous callers whining about "low flying jets"........"sound waves damaging the marine ecosystem of rare seaweed present in the bay"........"oh what happens if one crashes"......."these are weapons of war and shouldn't be allowed in Seattle"........etc........

Not saying that any guy who breaks FAA reg's shouldn't suffer the consequences, but when the typical bunch of California grape nuts call 911 to complain you gotta wonder. Like the cops are gonna show up and pull them over........LOL..........get the fin # and call the FAA.

If it was me I'd just stand there and go "cool !!!!!"

 

When my son was about 3 or 4, we were riding in the car as the Thunderbirds were practicing and they went right over our car at about 200 ft and fast..

My son was startled and asked "WHAT's THAT DAD???"

I told him that was the sound of freedom, and he should always enjoy it....

 

Right on ! I can remember when that was a Rolls Merlin or an R2800 on the fighters and an R1820 or R1830 on the bombers. Still a great sound !

 

Kds- Good points. What do you expect from folks who live on the left coast?

The Brits had a sense of humor about it for a long time, until the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain fell. No perceived threat equals no tolerance. The left coast is the same. They are not too worried about Texas and New Mexico invading. Not that it would be much of a fight if we did. Plus, who wants to baby-sit all those folks?

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

You should have heard the outcry when a B1 bomber made an unannounced low pass over Boulder a few years ago. You would think we would have all been rendered useless from the post traumatic stress by now.

 

Total amateur here, but enjoyed this posting and all comments for sure. L-39 Albatross owned and piloted by Mr. Bob Lutz (and his quite beautiful personal assistant) have been nice enough to come in for guest appearances and aircraft showing at two recent air/aircraft shows that I have worked security at here in Michigan. What a thrill! Complain??? Yea.... right - loved all your comments about the left coast/etc! Edit - he also owns/flies an Alpha Jet, which he showed.
It is a major thrill just to observe a high-performance aircraft such as this, no matter how old I may become. Last aircraft display I enjoyed, a MIG 16 (from metro Chicago - maybe Dekalb or Executive?) showed.... seeing that bad boy coming and going, much less getting photos of my *insignificant* sports car beside it on the tarmac, is/was one of my personal highlights! Edit - MIG was a two-seater, may not have been a 16...
Oh, and the B1 Bomber? Saw one do fly-bys (3) at Willow Run (MI) Thunder Over America airshow last August. A truly religious experience, I say. Breathtaking. I was certain that I owned (vis-a-vie USA tax money paid) a milligram of it and proud to do so.

 

The 911 calls made in the first link.
Something to do with the cross-section of the populous and the expected control of this by the Government.

 

I enjoy a buzz job as much as the next guy but most pilots know not to fly into a crowd, towards the beach or towards structures. Any malfunction of the airplane would have been a disaster.
The guy deserved to have his ticket pulled.

That's why a "Show Line" is established and the demonstrators fly parallel to the crowd.

With that said, I wish I was there to see it.

 

At Andrews AFB this past May, the Thunderbirds flew right over us several times (from behind us as to catch us off guard). However, they are highly trained pilots in equipment that is well taken care of so I wasn't too worried. I do recall that other Thunderbird F16 crashing at an airshow out west...hmm...

 

I also recall the Blue Angles at NAS Whidbey that did a 5 way convergence from outer radial locations to a common crossover at the station compass point at 1,000 ft.. I was on that point. Astounding!

 

Slightly O.T. but at the UGA home game week before last (T.Tech) the fly over was the lowest and most impressive I've ever see. The jet (A.F. transport C130, I think) appeared to fly lower than the press box and upper deck, flying between the two, and as it exited the rear of the stadium rolled over to about 45 degrees after clearing the flag poles. We were sitting in the rear of the stadium and actually became a little nervous as it kept dropping altitude on approach. It was nothing short of awesome. By the way, the guy next to me was a A.F. jet mech and he even was a little suprised. I loved it and so did my son!

 

C-130's have 4 props.........C-131's have 4 jets..........FWIW.

Speaking of Hercs.....I've got a pic at home somewhere, this was before safety lines and all that BS......at the Springbank Airshow here in Calgary in 1976 a Canadian Herc flew low and slow at about 100' right in front of the crowd, so close you could touch it, and then the pilot hit the throttles and lit the JATO bottles attached to the fuselage.........

Daaaayyyyyuuuuummmmm !!!!! Zeus himself set foot on earth at that moment. The bloody plane almost went straight up with the tail on fire and smoke blowing everywhere.

 

Yeah it was dumb, but I gotta say I would've been really excited to be on that pier.
-Colin

 

In that case it was a C-131 and it looked brand spank'n new. I've tried to find photos or video but so far no luck.

 

Cool buzz job..........WOW. Thats not Skip....why he wouldnt do such a thing.

 

Kds- Reports of jet engines on the C-131 are greatly exaggerated. I have 200 or so hours in the T-29/C-131, and they have two P&W R2800s. The first production jet transport in the USAF was the (K)C-135.

Photo of C-131D Samaritan.

Taz
Terry Phillips
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C-141 is likely what we're looking for here.
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Did not intend to start an international thread of mystery regarding a fly over. I'm not a pilot, although very interested in aviation and considering obtaing a private a lic. in a few years. Anyway, a buddy took some pics and will be forwarding them so that I may properly identify the bird. I was to busy trying to read the pilots name through the cockpit window...I kid. Regardless, it was low, big, and awesome.

Way O.T. but the HD series on the History Channel has had some amazing original color film featuring flights/bombings over Germany and one or to great P51 shots. Check it out.