"Morgans" wrote in message
...

"Dave" wrote

He was awful close to a prop strike - at the very least. Perhaps it was
intentional - note that he did a roll right after the near miss. I
don't think that anyone who had just had an unintentional near miss
could regain his composure so quickly.

Although he was way too close, there is a possibility that he was not as
close as you think. I saw another performer that looked like he was way
too low, even below the runway.

Is it possible that there is a dip, and the runway is lower than the
surrounding ground?

Still, no loss, no claim, no foul.
--
Jim in NC

No, that was close Jim. In fact, you don't get closer than that and fly out
of it. In any low altitude vertical recovery, you only have X amount of
radial g to play against Y amount of remaining air under the airplane. At
the top gate apex, you need the exact airspeed through the gate that has
been predermined against the gate altitude AGL to produce the downline
within that available radial g. If you are slow inverted through the gate at
your apex, you can generate nose rate which puts you mushing through with a
vertical component you definitely don't want. If you are fast through the
gate, you get an extended arc on your downline pull that can easily kill you
at the bottom.
This guy looked slow through the apex pull which was real bad. He added to
the problem with a quarter roll on his downline to his exit heading. Going
through a vertical downline in a low altitude vertical recovery will nail
you every time. As he finished the quarter roll, he was running out of air
and radial g at the same time. Past a certain point, you enter mush as you
climb the angle of attack curve.
This guy was one lucky SOB! In the Yak, as in the Mustang, when you get it
THAT low during a pull, you have a forward ground visual cue that is far
enough ahead of the aircraft you can easily miss exactly how low you
actually are to the ground.
I'd be willing to bet two things on this one with a real good chance of
winning. First, that during the pull through his low apex he didn't actually
realize how low he was, and secondly, that had he been checking his
peripheral cues at the lower corners of the windshield through the low apex,
he would have soiled his drawers :-)
I'm glad he made it. You don't get many second chances in the low altitude
acro business!
Dudley Henriques