What makes a pilot do this?

Datadriver said:
Send the video to his insurance company
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Hope you didn't send it to the wrong people
Hate for this guy in the yt comments to get a interesting call from his insurance

"I purchased this plane, N8447W last month and am very disturbed by what I just watched. Very careless!"
 
Look at the guy's other videos. This is pretty tame in comparison.

Looks like he flew this low at night next to a bridge at one point :eek:
 
Why all the fuss? I'm sure it's a rental if there's ever a mistake:eek::confused:

In my area, hitting a migratory bird/duck that you scared off the water is a real possibility.
 
i could absolutely see flying a river sort of like that..more like 50 feet agl and in this..
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denverpilot said:
How many low-altitude high-speed maneuvering accidents are there in those stats?

(Answer: Not many.)

Most low altitude "buzzing" accidents happen when the pilot makes a turn to stay over their buddies, watching them die from an accelerated or non-accelerated stall/spin, from the comfort of their front porch.

This sort of flying in the video, what gets people is the power lines crossing the river... and it's slightly more helicopters than fixed wing.

In the "safety" stats, that is.
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A few years ago I practiced up an my Google Skills and tried recalling a enough of my Statistics classes to do a bit of analysis of GA Safety.
Basically was seeing how valid the phrase "The most dangerous thing about flying is driving to the airport" is.

Results. on an hour driving per hour flying basis.
Airlines, this is absolutely true.
GA, not so much.
GA, if you ride your motorcycle to the airport your odds are about the same of an accident and or Fatality while flying or riding.
GA, if you don't fly in bad weather and stay above 500 feet except for Take off and landing at an airport, driving and flying GA have about even odds.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
 
rocketflyer84 said:
Remembering that guys like this contribute to the average in GA safety stats makes one feel a bit better about such stats.
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Yeah. I look at the "stats" like that to. When I see the cause of so many accidents and they are things I just absolutely don't do, I realize that flying is probably one of the safest things I do.
 
X3 Skier said:
More fun at 600 knots on the deck on Terrain Following Radar in an Aardvark.

Cheers
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TFR, "hard-ride" in an F-111 (or even younger "buffs") is a supreme act of faith in your avionics/FCS.
 
brcase said:
A few years ago I practiced up an my Google Skills and tried recalling a enough of my Statistics classes to do a bit of analysis of GA Safety.
Basically was seeing how valid the phrase "The most dangerous thing about flying is driving to the airport" is.

Results. on an hour driving per hour flying basis.
Airlines, this is absolutely true.
GA, not so much.
GA, if you ride your motorcycle to the airport your odds are about the same of an accident and or Fatality while flying or riding.
GA, if you don't fly in bad weather and stay above 500 feet except for Take off and landing at an airport, driving and flying GA have about even odds.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
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There was a AG video about saying above 500 for non spray time, birds, wires and all that.
 
This issue is the pilot had a preconceived image of what the outcome and in this case even the video would look like.

The question is how much preparation was actually done to make sure the outcome what what he imagined. Was he Lucky or Good? Good is he has scouted the route ahead of time, perhaps from the ground and has accounted for as many unknowns as is reasonable. Most likely he was just lucky.

All to often the pre-concieved out comes are not what actually happens as shown in the following links.
These probably had the same kind of pre-conceived outcome in mind as the OP, they didn't get it.

http://deadspin.com/air-force-flyover-severs-cable-cam-nearly-downs-ski-li-1792477975
http://registerguard.com/rg/news/lo...ithout-power-in-cottage-grove-goshen.html.csp

These are just a couple but the are literally hundreds on incidents documented, where the outcome is not what the pilot expected.

On two separate occasions, I have watch aircraft make low passes down the runway before landing. Within a couple days another pilot tried the same thing. One died on the Stall Spin that occurred afterward, I had just met him the day he witnessed the low passes. There other managed to recover, but scared the crap out him. Lesson, even if you can do it safety, you might be responsible for someone else trying it that can't do it safety.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
 
For most folks here this is would be dangerous at their skill level.

When I flew the tundra in Alaska, I flew a few practice flights like this one, empty and in good weather because one day it will save my life when weather changes.

I realize there are folks here that won't fly under a 32,000 agl overcast because that is outside their comfort range, and that is Ok. Just don't call other folks stupid, dangerous and other things because they can do something. As brcase stated above, we have no idea if this was a spur of the moment flight or did this guy plan this and prepare for weeks by studying every foot of the ground and for possible wires and other objects?
 
brcase said:
A few years ago I practiced up an my Google Skills and tried recalling a enough of my Statistics classes to do a bit of analysis of GA Safety.
Basically was seeing how valid the phrase "The most dangerous thing about flying is driving to the airport" is.

Results. on an hour driving per hour flying basis.
Airlines, this is absolutely true.
GA, not so much.
GA, if you ride your motorcycle to the airport your odds are about the same of an accident and or Fatality while flying or riding.
GA, if you don't fly in bad weather and stay above 500 feet except for Take off and landing at an airport, driving and flying GA have about even odds.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
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Yup. I tell people I drive a sky motorcycle in terms of "safety". It's not a perfect analogy, but cyclists and pilots alike all eventually know someone dead from doing it. They also know people who did it their whole lives with a few close calls thrown in for good measure.

Some dude flying along low level over a riverbed? Definitely not the majority of the safety problem in GA.

Not the wisest thing to do, but not the "safety record" problem the post I was replying to was making it out to be. That's a bit sensationalist.

If you don't know you're a thermal bump and an 1/8" of stick movement from death doing that, you're not paying very much attention to how airplanes work. :)

It's like a recent backcountry video I saw where the guys were joking around about their "backcountry tips". One said, "If the rock weighs more than 65 lbs, don't land on it." :)

Different risk levels for different folks. I'm not going to be down there doing it, but I'd happily accept a back seat ride from Hoover in his heyday if he offered to do the flying at 3' AGL. Wouldn't bother me at all.
 
FlySince9 said:
Some people are just adrenalin junkies... no other reason to do this except that...
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This. You do it once and it either scares the heck out of you... or your subconscious remembers how good that felt and you will probably do it again and again.
 
Working on his mad skills.
Good on him. Until he kills himself or someone else.

As a former military pilot I would do this, in an F-4E, at 600kts, in order to STAY alive.
It's all about what you want out of life.
There's nothing wrong with going out at 120 miles an hour with your hair on fire, if that's what you want to do.
 
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I look at the OP video and can't help but think that video gives the illusion of being lower than reality.
 
flyingron said:
Had this one on a guy who stopped off to visit at our airport: https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/R...ID=20160404X31701&AKey=1&RType=Final&IType=CA

Our seaplane operators in the area have been after Duke Power to put balls on these wires for a long time. Even after they were struck by an airplane and had to be restrung they didn't put balls on them.
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Love how NTSB makes no mention that the wires should have been marked and that it likley would have prevented the accident :rolleyes:

It's common for a seaplane to do a few low level passes before landing, normally I'll start at 1k for wires etc, than a couple hundred for a better look at the water and for junk, but still, putting a few balls up seems like a common sense thing to do.
 
I don't get it either, so much negativity.
Somebody posted a video of an RV flying low over a nice river, maybe 50' AGL. Everybody loved it.
This is a Cherokee, everybody hates it. *shrug*

To the haters: when you see a pilot at an airshow do a loop (or another maneuver) and recover just a few feet AGL, do you also boo him and call him an unsafe idiot?
Or, do you call bicyclists and motorcyclists unsafe idiots because they are putting themselves into harm's way too?

We are all different. We have different tastes in food, drinks, driving, flying, women, music, whatever.
Some people are comfortable close to the edge, some aren't. (no judging here)
 

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I wouldn't do it.... in that aircraft which is similar to the one I fly and with my skill level. However, if this guy thinks he's able and his camera guy is cool with the risk then I guess that's their business.
 
BigBadLou said:
I don't get it either, so much negativity.
Somebody posted a video of an RV flying low over a nice river, maybe 50' AGL. Everybody loved it.
This is a Cherokee, everybody hates it. *shrug*

To the haters: when you see a pilot at an airshow do a loop (or another maneuver) and recover just a few feet AGL, do you also boo him and call him an unsafe idiot?
Or, do you call bicyclists and motorcyclists unsafe idiots because they are putting themselves into harm's way too?

We are all different. We have different tastes in food, drinks, driving, flying, women, music, whatever.
Some people are comfortable close to the edge, some aren't. (no judging here)
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He isn't at 50', he is at maybe 5'...

And he doesn't come up much in his turns...


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gsengle said:
He isn't at 50', he is at maybe 5'...

And he doesn't come up much in his turns...


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so where's the line between "cool" and "unsafe idiot"? is it 10 feet? 15 feet? 17 feet and 7.3 inches?
 
50 feet I could say maybe he scouted, knows it's uninhabited, knows where any wires are. I'd give him the benefit of that doubt. At 5', he can't tell me he knows every bush....


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Pretty sure the video makes it look worse than it is. Look at how far away the shadow is. Also you noted he doesn't come up much in his turns, I agree, and he's still got a "buffer" zone (There is no buffer or zone when you're under 200 agl, I guess I just mean there is some air between his wingtip and the ground). The ground always seems closer than it actually is in my experience.

edit:
Watching it again, I take that back. He is lower than I thought. That said, I would've enjoyed being in that plane.
 
He is super low. And fixed gear...


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He did good enough that the video survived. . .he wants something other people (pilots) may not; OP, you're smart enough to be put a coherent post together, so you're probably smart enough to understand motivations and risk tolerance vary across the population.

Most of the risk was to himself, and the exhilaration and thrill of that kind of flying has appeal, and it's legitimate. We are all doomed - having some fun before the curtain falls isn't stupid: "The Gods envy us. They envy us because any moment may be our last."

And I bet that's the last time I quite Brad Pitt in this lifetime. . .
 
The concern I'm sure from many of us is that he is some 18 year old kid, too young to not live long enough to know that he really didn't want to die at 19....


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Airshow pilots do some weird stuff, but they're vastly more experienced most of us, maybe orders of magnitude more experienced than this Cherokee pilot.

An accident from stuff like this just causes more public outcry against small airplanes. None of us need that. Sure, "he's only endangering himself," we can say, but he's endangering our flying privileges, too.

Low flying is at significant risk of birdstrikes. And they're not all little sparrows, either. Geese, ducks, eagles, whatever--they come through the windshield and tear your head off, or they take some chunk of the airplane's tail away. You're dead either way. Hitting one at twice approach speed has four times the impact.
 
exncsurfer said:
Is it the ones in the black line on the sectional? or somewhere else?
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Nope, you're way off. First off he took off our runway 5 and turned right (EAST) over the lake heading for Lake Norman AIrpark (14A). The ones he hit are NOT charted. He knew about the taller set that is charted, but there's another set about halfway between the ones shown on the chart and our runway.

upload_2017-4-20_18-21-16.png

The ones he hit are here: https://www.google.com/maps/@35.6531514,-80.9584052,365m/data=!3m1!1e3
They are on lower wooden towers that are hidden in the notches in the trees on both side. If they had been charted it would be about where the ) in (Pvt) on Long Island's data block is.

If you look carefully you can see three wires going from the lower left, across the "firebreak" on the island there and across the lake further. The charted ones are a little further down, here: https://www.google.com/maps/@35.6364758,-80.9432362,656m/data=!3m1!1e3
Those are larger steel towers that stand apart from the terrain and are easier to spot.
 
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I have only done this once, as a part of PoA-recommended mountain flying course -- upon an instruction by the CFI, of course. I don't have a video to upload, or it would be fun to see some heads exploding. I know mine almost did, and it changed my perspective somewhat.

I think it's obvious that proximity flying involves elevated risk when compared with other types of flying, especially for the inexperienced. The rush of the surface is so great that you may think you're going at Va, but in actual fact you're may be very close to the stall speed. It is very easy to hit an object if the route of flight is not scouted properly ahead of time. You can get distracted by a passenger and/or run a tank dry.

Nonetheless, cropdusters, military pilots, and glider pilots often fly within a wingspan distance from a surface. With proper preparation and with experience, the additional risk may be small, compared to the basic risk of attempting flight to begin with.
 
gsengle said:
The concern I'm sure from many of us is that he is some 18 year old kid...
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Well, that's the kind of thing I was doing in rented 150s when I was 18 years old... I survived, though I had a couple of run-ins with the authorities...

OTOH, this is my new plane, but the previous owner's video:

 
A few years ago (since 2012), TVA was stretching a new power line across Watts Bar Lake, and didn't have the area marked well. A bass fisherman decapitated himself on the line cruising to his fishing spot.
 
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