The lowest low flying you will ever see! This video is INSANE!!!!

Heres french mirages flying low... and i mean the lowest i have ever seen an aircraft fly if its not landing...this is an awesome insane video!

Media player 10 needed to view!

www.yourdailymedia.com...

Oh the French just went up 100 % in my estimation for this video!

Try this then www.alexisparkinn.com...

Nah thats a runway...those French dudes were over the ocean...and they were as low...the skills over the sea not immobile concrete... but nice clip cheers for that

dont have any videos for you but i seen the RAF boys out at sea performing stuff like that. amazing too watch gotta take some balls

That French video is incredible...........

really smooth!!
But I always thought such low alt flying over water by fighters would leave a 'wash'/'wake' along its flaight path..

It's a neat video! I like the close ups of the aircraft. However, it's nothing "insane"(as you put it). What you are seeing is a basic tactical flying exercise. Any fighter pilot can do what you were watching in the video. It's a tactic known as "Surface Skimming" or "Nap of the Earth Flying". It allows non-stealth aircraft to hide from long range search radars.
Nice Video though!

Tim

watch the video again Ghost, and pause it as the video plane hits the spray from the top of a wave.... The plane gets thrown around a bit then resumes smooth flight..That is insane... Its a plane not a damn surf board!

I agree with the tactical flying part that combat planes do fly low, but just look at the shadows and the angle of the sun. At times these planes cannot be no more than 5/6 feet off the deck... Total respect to those who fly that fast at that hight, as it would scare me stupid

Originally posted by MadGreebo
watch the video again Ghost, and pause it as the video plane hits the spray from the top of a wave....

Hence the term "Surface Skimming"! They litterly skim the surface. It looks even scarier when they do it over land. I've also seen footage of fighter in Iraq stiring up the sand and dust of the desert! I know it is shocking the first time you see it. I was 8 the first time I saw this done. I remeber sitting on the couch and pointing to TV and saying, "mom, Look! That plane is crashing!"

It's alarming the first time you see it done, But I assure you it is a normal flight tactic! There is nothing to be alarmed about. Trust me, it's normal!

Tim

Originally posted by MadGreebo
watch the video again Ghost, and pause it as the video plane hits the spray from the top of a wave.... The plane gets thrown around a bit then resumes smooth flight..That is insane... Its a plane not a damn surf board!

That was insane... I didn't know that was possible... I've seen this video before, but I can't remember that part... What about the engines...?? if water get into them, is it good bye...

[edit on 27-2-2006 by Figher Master FIN]

They are flying fantasticly low, cool. But just a note re shadows, chances are that the they give an inaccurate perception of hieght above the surface - the angle of the sun etc means that the aircraft are probably flying slightly higher than it may look.

Also, something that hasn't been mentioned - many of the low flying aircraft featured in that film are Jaguars and Mirage F1s.

The first clip takes too long for my dial-up, but the second clip was interesting.
Thanks for posting.

That said - and aside from the brave-enough-to-do-it factor - it may not be that difficult.

Once a plane is trimmed out and power settings remain unchanged it will remain at the trimmed altitude.

If you're trimmed for say 3000' with auto-pilot disengaged stick the nose down a touch via the stick or yoke the plane gains speed which equals increased lift.
Release the stick/yoke and the plane will level out then start a gentle climb.
It will gain altitude until it passes through the originally trimmed 3000'.
Then (still hands-off the controls) it returns to level and due to lack of power for the new altitude - say 3100' - the nose goes down and you get a gentle up and down ride until the plane settles out at 3000' once again.

Ground effect enters into very low flight.
Ground effect maximum altitude is roughly equal to the wingspan.
In fact, low wing private plane pilots have been heard to comment - just about every time - that making a wheels up landing, the last few feet seemed to take forever since ground effect is strongest at the extreme low altitude prior to belly touching the runway.

Ground effect occurs - the way I understand it - due to the down-wash of air is unable to escape downward and compresses which adds lift.
At altitude this compression of air or increased lift is absent.

So it looks to me like the pilots of these low flying aircraft are setting the plane up for level flight and using the trim control to bring it down into close proximity with ground or ocean.
It looks to be a fairly predictable process and there's a balance attained between very slight nose-down trim and the added lift from ground effect.
And once trimmed, the plane stays pretty much where it is height-wise due to the self-correcting that goes on between trim and ground effect.

Sounds simple and it is, but it still requires a pair of brass ones to fly like that.

As a small aside, flying extremely low over an open dirt field as shown in the short second clip I would imagine the pilot is keeping a close eye out for thermals.
Hitting one may not hurt, but there's probably some downward air flow on the outside of thermals.
Air going up has to come from somewhere.

It would be advantageous flying over the ocean waters, no thermals there due to the constant temperature of the water.
Same thing over ice fields.
Alaskan flying in the winter (on non-stormy days) is reputed to be about as smooth as it ever gets.

Originally posted by planeman
They are flying fantasticly low, cool. But just a note re shadows, chances are that the they give an inaccurate perception of hieght above the surface - the angle of the sun etc means that the aircraft are probably flying slightly higher than it may look.

Also, something that hasn't been mentioned - many of the low flying aircraft featured in that film are Jaguars and Mirage F1s.

Looks about 30-50 feet.

Cool videos, i really liked the French one.

Also it always helps to have a bit of Nirvana playing in the background, the French have gone up one notch in my book.

Yup.. The one from which the video is being taken is definitely a Jaguar.
You can make out from the air intakes.

MadGreebo,

And the Israeli pilot said...

"There I was tooling along towards a CAS mission on the Golan when, I /swear/ I see this officer guy and he sees me and he lifts his pistol and then I'm past him and...ten seconds later my hydraulics read zero."

_The Pentagon Paradox_

Or you look up and see the Sparrows/Super 530/Phoenix/R-27EM come arching down and... Boom. 'Way to far away' as their warheads prox det and yet, as you fly through a shower of continuous rod fragments seemingly in slow motion, you and your assorted body parts are now flying formation with the equivalent scrapyard junk that used to be your ride.

Or you just get tired or saturated trying to work the weapons system for a second and a half too long... and then it's over.

Flying rugburner heights doesn't work except at night and at night you have to do it under automation because whatever limited 'testicular TFR' you have on your side means all of denadda zero zip squat.

What's truly sad is that it also keeps you from being an effective offensive platform as you are screaming your approach to whoever can listen for the Radalt scatter or TFR pencil and you probably don't have the multi-mode /time/ to do more than an occasional air search.

While your grazing angle is so damn low (half the length of a 47ft Mirage above the ocean is still only about 14-15 miles effective LOS horizon) that you can't do diddly with the radar to truly map out targets from range and are left 'following the yellow brick road' with offset RSP/waypoint maps through the target area so that you end up even further tactically compressed into preplanned lanes which are so incredibly predictable it's not even worth the effort to laugh.

Forget guns, rapid acting barrage balloon/rocket LAM can cut a jet in two.

All because some /idiot/ thought he had the need fer speed.

If you want to go low. Do so. There are some real gains to be had in terms of where the enemy first sees you versus 'what I'm really doing' control of the first day initiative.

But do it with a CM that has a tenth the visual area a thousand times faster computation of four or five simultaneous sensor inputs. And the purely mechanical reaction time and repeated precision to make the average pilot look like a two day drunk fresh out of the holding cell.

Watch that video again and see what happens whenever junior moron is not absolutely level to the horizon. The jet loses and gains altitude, lurches and dips with directional variances and generally _blows_ it's "I know', lets do a roll!" his altitude hold altogether. As indeed he cannot help /but/ do since he is losing lift dramatically every time he dips that 30ft wing half the distance down to the water.

Wars Are Won By Those Who Can Most Afford To Lose Individual Battles.


KPl.

www.alexisparkinn.com...


Go the bit that says low pass times three and watch that video of three very very low fighters...I laughed when the third goes past...hes lower than the camera man stood on the roof of his car!!!

Any one identify the planes involved?

Originally posted by MadGreebo
Any one identify the planes involved?

Sepacat Jaguar! The three planes are French Jaguar fighters. It's a nice clip. If you want a good look at the planes, pause the clip just as the shot transferrs to a side view. It blurry, but you can still make out the plane.

Tim

No they're not tim, the three planes in the link posted by Greebo above your reply are Belgian Alpha Jets.

Posted this in another thread but you may not have caught it, all the others are flying very low but at least have the luxury of the possibility of an ejection seat in the event of an engine failure. Not this guy !

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