How Low Can You Go??

[motormouse]

I tried to find the thread but wasn't successful. IIRC, there was some debate over whether or not the photo was genuine. I remember some of the story behind it but not all.

BR,

Laurie.

St Athan Phantom photo definitely genuine,
I used to work in the shed behind......we used to have one of the troops climb up on the roof and take a shot from above

ttfn

[Propstrike]

Beaufort (RAAF) about to drop a torpedo;-low.

[vultee35]

I don't think these have made an appearance yet. This was quite low.

Steve

[DazDaMan]

Jeeez! My palms went all prickly when I first saw that! Obviously a large-scale model, and by the look of it it's the one that was crashed at the start of Memphis Belle??

[vultee35]

Jeeez! My palms went all prickly when I first saw that! Obviously a large-scale model, and by the look of it it's the one that was crashed at the start of Memphis Belle??

Actually it's the real thing being flown for the 1968 film "1000 Plane Raid"

Steve

[DazDaMan]

You're pulling my chain.

[vultee35]

You're pulling my chain.

I've just transfered the video onto DVD. IT IS REAL, believe me. Even more stunning when you see the dive and pullout in motion.

Steve

[DazDaMan]

Any chance of a copy of said DVD then?

[320psi]

Has got to be the best one yet
Staggering

[wessex boy]

The aim must be to train as you intend to fight otherwise the mortality rate on going against the bad guys will be astronomic. The only problem is that the nationality of the bad guys has altered in the last 15 years as has the nature of the threat. PGM's now mean the proverbial accuracy of that ascribed to the Norden bombsight in the early days of WW2 can now be achieved without going in at suicidally low level. We found that out the hard way in Gulf war 1 in losing far too many fine Tornado GR1 crews. Why then do we persist in ultra low level training that costs lives and p***es off the UK population...??? I would be grateful for some responses.
Cheers,
Trapper 69

Back in my short spell on Wessex in the late '80s, the minimum height for fixed wing in a Low Flying Area was 250', so we tended to transit at 1500', then drop to 100', unless we were on Pre-Ireland training where we operated at 50' (scary, expecially doing formation!).
We used to listen out keenly for radio calls of fixed wing entering & leaving the LFA. Jags, Tornados & Harriers, didn't concern us too much, we would keep a general eye out, what scared us was A10s and Herks.
If we heard 'Alpha one zero' in an american accent we immediately went to high alert and flew a zig-zag pattern with me hanging out the door watching the rear.

The Herks didn't bother rising to follow contours & obstacles so much as they should have done, they just ploughed on regardless, but we tended to see them sooner, and they were a little slower....

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Think they still do! When i was in a T-6 enjoying a few aeros a while back I remember looking UP to see three herks transiting BELOW us at about 500ft!

[laviticus]

I don't think these have made an appearance yet. This was quite low.

Steve

Was the ball gunner picking daisys ,thats one of the best lows yet....

[adrian_gray]

Was the ball gunner picking daisys ,thats one of the best lows yet....

I guess that explains where the Paul Mantz belly landing from "Twelve O'Clock High" was fitted in then... :diablo:

While 1000plane gets a little kudos from me for being the only movie I can think of to mention Ridgewell (Essex's only 8thAF B-17 base), I can't think of any other film with so much footage from other movies spliced in to it - especially, of course, Memphis Belle...

Adrian

[The Blue Max]

Think they still do! When i was in a T-6 enjoying a few aeros a while back I remember looking UP to see three herks transiting BELOW us at about 500ft!

"I was in a T6 enjoying a few aeros"!!!!!!! you name dropper you!!! are you sure that was enjoying!?

[GASML]

I don't think these have made an appearance yet. This was quite low.

Steve

I think this was shot at Bovingdon. Was the same footage used in the movie "The War Lover" too?

Awesome!!

[vultee35]

I think this was shot at Bovingdon. Was the same footage used in the movie "The War Lover" too?

Awesome!!

No, judging by the rest of the film, it was shot in the USA. The Bovingdon Buzz Job by John Crewdson is different to this footage.

Steve

[vultee35]

Here's a few more. Look at the shadow of the Fort on the tree it is passing over.

Steve

[markp451a]

I found these somewhere

[Pen Pusher]

1,000 plane raid. Is that the one where at the start of the film there is a Spitfire following a B-17, I think, but in the close ups the cockpit canopy is from a Corsair?. I first saw this film in a cinema and was gob smacked to watch the B-17 low flying on the big screen.

Brian

[DazDaMan]

Here's a few more. Look at the shadow of the Fort on the tree it is passing over.

Steve

Jeeez! I take it back!

[Pete Truman]

Back in my short spell on Wessex in the late '80s, the minimum height for fixed wing in a Low Flying Area was 250', so we tended to transit at 1500', then drop to 100', unless we were on Pre-Ireland training where we operated at 50' (scary, expecially doing formation!).
We used to listen out keenly for radio calls of fixed wing entering & leaving the LFA. Jags, Tornados & Harriers, didn't concern us too much, we would keep a general eye out, what scared us was A10s and Herks.
If we heard 'Alpha one zero' in an american accent we immediately went to high alert and flew a zig-zag pattern with me hanging out the door watching the rear.

The Herks didn't bother rising to follow contours & obstacles so much as they should have done, they just ploughed on regardless, but we tended to see them sooner, and they were a little slower....

I once saw 12 Hercs travelling in line astern near Bovingdon in Dorset so low that they kept disapearing behind the trees, I assumed that the idea was for the poor troops inside to step on to the ground rather than risk their parachutes.
One year I decided to go for a quiet farm caravan holiday near Lampeter in Wales.
Unfortunately, well, not really, the caravan was situated at the junction of 2 valleys, the USAF tended to fly east to west and the RAF north to south, I got the impression that communication between them was not all it should have been, particularly when a Tornado shot across the tail of an F111 at about 100ft, that was the only time that I saw the F-5 Agressors in action by the way.
It didn't surprise me when a few years later it was reported that a Harrier? had collided with a light aircraft near the same spot, I recall that the Cessna? disintegrated but can't remember what happened to the RAF crew.

[wessex boy]

I once saw 12 Hercs travelling in line astern near Bovingdon in Dorset so low that they kept disapearing behind the trees, I assumed that the idea was for the poor troops inside to step on to the ground rather than risk their parachutes.
One year I decided to go for a quiet farm caravan holiday near Lampeter in Wales.
Unfortunately, well, not really, the caravan was situated at the junction of 2 valleys, the USAF tended to fly east to west and the RAF north to south, I got the impression that communication between them was not all it should have been, particularly when a Tornado shot across the tail of an F111 at about 100ft, that was the only time that I saw the F-5 Agressors in action by the way.
It didn't surprise me when a few years later it was reported that a Harrier? had collided with a light aircraft near the same spot, I recall that the Cessna? disintegrated but can't remember what happened to the RAF crew.

A Cessna from my old Flying club (Anglian Flight Training) was hit by an A10 in '85, I did my Flying Scholarship in '86. Apparently the Cessna pilot was under Radar Advisory, but dropped 1000' without saying, and then the A10 was vectored under him.....The A10 pilot looked down to change his radio frequency, heard a bang and assumed he had hit a bird, he returned to base to find his Leading edge dented....the tail had been taken off of the Cessna and the pilot died.
When I did my Qual Cross country (Norwich-Cambridge-Ipswich-Norwich) the radar guys were very cautious, and Bentwaters approach were aboslutely paranoid....

[Cking]

Not thta low but still pretty impresive
(Found on Airliners.net)

Rgds Cking

[Steve Bond]

I was once in the back seat of a Hawk flying low-level up a Welsh valley, and we passed 2 Jaguars going the other way! It went very quiet in the cockpit after that....

[wessex boy]

I was once in the back seat of a Hawk flying low-level up a Welsh valley, and we passed 2 Jaguars going the other way! It went very quiet in the cockpit after that....

I bet his flying suit was checked back into Safety Flight for 'Maintenance'!

I was in the back of a Jetstream returning from Newcastle to Finningley (first Land-away as a Loadie), and we came back low-level over the dales, which was an eye-openner, and then we crossed the Humber parallel & level to the Humber Bridge....and then dropped a little, so we could no longer see the cars on it......

[GlynRamsden]

I would have loved to have been on that beach when the B-36A or B? flew by

Glyn

[Skyraider3D]

Nice one I just found in "US Army Air Forces in the Pacific". It's a Black Widow of the 421 NFS buzzing Puerto Princess, Philippine Islands.

[The Blue Max]

Looking through some old pics and found this one of the Forums very own Skybolt at the Sywell Airshow of 1993 in Tiger Moth G-AIXD

[DazDaMan]

That looks dodgy! Obviously isn't, though.

[Cking]

I would have loved to have been on that beach when the B-36A or B? flew by

Glyn

If you go to this website
http://www.air-and-space.com/peacemkr.htm
You can hear what it might have sounded like!!!!

Rgds Cking