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Red Bull Air Race Crash
- Thread starter UGA
- Start date
Talk about a lucky dood.
Skeleton humping...awesome...nice stall too...
Saw one of those where one of the racers took a bird which left a big dent in his horizontal stab, and the guy KEPT RACING. Didn't knock it off. Controllability checks? What are those? Nice safety standards they've got for small aircraft flying around large crowds, I guess.
The ASO Kool-Aid is strong with this one.
Max performing a damaged aircraft in front of crowds? Umm . . . ok. No problem there. I guess I'm just a Kool-aid chugging non-hacker then. :icon_roll
Nice skeletons. Good that he had enough control authority to get the wings level.
Nitt- Did he know he had taken a bird to the horizontal stab? The only way he could know is if it was a pretty huge bird or if someone on the ground told him.
Nitt- Did he know he had taken a bird to the horizontal stab? The only way he could know is if it was a pretty huge bird or if someone on the ground told him.
Well, if we're gonna ORM this, then let's talk about pilots pulling 10+g's at 230+ knots and skimming 50 feet over the surface of a river in front of crowds. Air Race is an inherently dangerous sport, both for pilots and spectators. Spectators ought to be coming in with that mentality. Much like a crowd at an F1 or NASCAR race, I'm sure a certain portion of the fans even come hoping to see some crash-borne carnage. I think that implies some knowledge and expectation of danger.
Now put yourself in the pilot seat. I hit a bird, okay climb up, slow flight check, RTB. Sure. I did it last week, in fact. But I'm not an Air Race pilot, grunting and straining at 50 feet, focused on hitting the pylons and missing the water. He said he knew he hit the bird, but I'm betting he probably didn't know the extent of the damage. Better safe than sorry would have been good here, but if that were his guiding philosophy, he wouldn't be an Air Race pilot in the first place.
In his mind, I see: 30 seconds left in the race, just a few turns. The plane is flying fine. Points are always tight, especially at the top. If you don't win, you don't come back; no bonus for not making the podium. If it goes bad, more than likely he'd only take himself out.
I liken it to the time-critical ORM you do when you lose some gear on a SAR mission, or ISO troops in contact and you're much more willing to risk based on the risk/benefit analysis. He opted to continue based on the mission he was executing. In practice, I'm betting his decision would probably have been different.
In the end, he pulled 3rd in the race, 2nd overall in the season. Maybe he was right on the edge of losing it and killing some people, but aren't they always? And in the end, he didn't. Their safety windows are larger than ours by the nature of their business, and I think it's disingenuous to apply our rules to them, much as it would be to apply some of the airline safety rules to USN operations.
Never said that. I just had a difference of opinion, probably borne of ignorance and youth-induced feelings of invincibility.
I see where you're coming from, but at the end of the day, it's just a game. Which is where I'm coming from. Way less important in the grand scheme of things. Football players don't risk their lives to win games; why should these guys be any different?
Ironic choice for an example, with all the concussion/'brain injury awareness' public service announcements over the last year- which really just reinforces your point:
Yup.
I guess there's not a track marshal waving a caution flag after a bird strike?
Edit: not to pick on football or air racing...