Morgans wrote:
"Dudley Henriques" wrote

In this particular film clip involving the Air Bus, had this aircraft
caught his left tip while initiating a left bank at the airspeed he was
maintaining through the pass, the best guess I'm getting from those I know
who have seen the clip is an immediate nose down moment resulting in
ground impact of the aircraft.
In short, it had all the potential of being a real mess.
After viewing the clip myself, I totally agree with this assessment. It
was an EXTREMELY dangerous moment!
Naturally, there is no way to be absolutely certain of any reaction of the
aircraft, but my money says it was a very bad moment.

A few years back, they were landing on 18 at OSH, and had everyone doing big
180 degree turns from downwind, to final. It was quite windy, and gusty,
and there was a pretty sizeable crosswind component.

The EAA B-17 came in, and right near the last part of his turn, he was a
little lower than he wanted to be. A particularly big series of gust came
up, and he ended up with his wingtip VERY near the ground.

The end result nearly had me soiling my pants. I thought for an instant
that I was going to witness a very bad event. As I recall, he actually hit
a runway (or taxiway) light with his wing tip. You can believe that was an
anxious moment for the pilot, and for everyone watching it.

I'm glad the outcome was just a dinged up wing, and no more. It could have
been very bad, indeed.


Catching a tip can go many different ways with the physics. Sometimes
all you get is a scrape, but even then the angle would have to be fairly
flat and the ground flat as well; but most of the time when a sudden
ground contact catches a tip, especially in a turn, the low wing is
descending into the contact rather than glancing flat into it and the
result in that case can be VERY bad!
D

--
Dudley Henriques