Sounds like Bob Pardo's little "adventure" in Viet Nam. He lives out in
Colorado today.
Bob literally "pushed" Earl Aman's damaged F4 most of the way home with his
own F4's windshield by getting Earl to lower the tailhook and snagging it on
the base of his own windshield.
Truly a magnificent feat.
I think Aman still lives out near San Antonio last I heard.
Don't know about Korea. There was a story that came out of Korea involving
two pilots flying F9F's when one talked the other back to the carrier.
Mitchner did a story on it. "Men of the Fighting Lady" with Van Johnson and
Dewy Martin as the two pilots involved.
Dudley


"Jim Macklin" wrote in message
news:BNBUf.452$t22.204@dukeread08...
I read somewhere that during the Korean war, a wounded
plane/ pilot was kept on course to a water bail-out by
bumping the wing to keep the wings level. Any truth to
that?



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"Dudley Henriques" wrote in
message
ink.net...
| Yes, they do "bump" once in a while in the formation.
There have been
| numerous sheet metal "benders" through the years.
Naturally, these are
| wingtip hits laterally rather than nose hits :-) I
remember one of these
| occasions quite vividly during the 73 season.
| The flow patterns in the diamond are unique to close
proximity similar
| aircraft. I say similar because in a close Diamond of
dis-similar aircraft,
| the flow patterns would not be as predictable.
| Tip vortices on the left and right wing positions in close
tend to cause a
| roll away from the opposite aircraft and have to be
countered. You can
| really feel this as you get in close.
| Lead and the slot position have their trim affected as the
slot sticks his
| nose in where it should be. Lead can actually "feel" the
slot in position
| and knows by his trim change if the slot slides out too
far. The trim change
| is nose down for the lead and nose up for the slot, again
caused by the flow
| patterns.
| It's not nearly as smooth in the Diamond as it looks to
you from the ground.
| There is a lot of movement going on in the formation,
especially through
| rough air. It takes intense concentration to hold
position.
| On the cross over question. They use pre-selected hack and
checkpoints
| briefed by photo recon before the show as well as radio
calls when visual.
| Timing on the high show bomb burst is a hack call down
from lead to the
| split S pull on his cadence. There is a visual call by
each opposing
| aircraft (lead/slot) (left/right wings) and adjustments
made during the
| downside recovery for altitude and airspeed to seek
co-cross at show center.
| Naturally, both sides of the runway are used. It saves a
hell of a lot of
| sheet metal work after the show :-)
| Hope this helps a bit.
| Dudley Henriques
|
|
|
| "three-eight-hotel" wrote in
message
|
ups.com...
| Our family went to the airshow in northern California
last weekend. It
| was a blast, to say the least. It blows me away to
think about the
| things people can do with planes and that they can have
the
| where-with-all to pull off some of the manuvers they do,
and under the
| G's they are pulling at times!
|
| The Blue Angels were incredible, as were the rest of the
performers,
| but I left the show, as I'm sure others did, scratching
my head
| wondering how they do some of the things they do without
tragic
| results.
|
| I heard that in some of the tight formation flying, they
get as close
| as 18 inches to each other. If this is true, and I have
no reason to
| believe it isn't, I have to wonder if they ever bump
into one another?
| If they were to bump into one another, would that be
catastrophic, or
| would they merely make contact and separate back into
position? They
| are all flying in the same direction, and at the same
speed, so it's
| conceivable that contact could be farily incidental.
|
| Another question I had was regarding two Angels flying
in opposite
| directions and crossing by each other at a combined
speed of 800 mph.
| Do they have equipment on board that gives them precise
situational
| awareness, or do they use ground references? My thought
was that one
| of them could be lined up to fly right down the runway
center-line, and
| the other could line up just outside the runway which
should guarantee
| separation??? Their timing, so that they cross right at
midfield is
| amazing!
|
| They put on an incredible show, and I'm glad my kids got
a chance to
| see them. I hadn't seen them in about 20 years, so I
forgot how much
| fun they were to watch.
|
| Best Regards,
| Todd
|
|
|