Questions tagged [airshow]
Event where pilots in mostly sports planes come to show off their skills.
26 questions
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Do you need a commercial license to make money as an aerobatic pilot?
Is it required that you possess a commercial pilots license in order to:
a) win cash prizes at competitions
b) receive payment from sponsors when advertising on the plane wing for example
c) be paid ...
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Where do I go to enter into my first Air Show?
Where/Who do I go to in order to enter for participation in my first Air Show in the UK?
I’m sure this isn’t an easy thing to do but my initial searches haven’t been much help…
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Do the Blue Angels use their #7 aircraft for photography during rehearsal flights?
I recently had the privilege of watching the Blue Angels fly their rehearsal for an airshow performance, and I noticed that an additional aircraft would often fly a very loose formation with the ...
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Why does the Blue Angels C-130 ‘Fat Albert’ have loadmasters?
In the Blue Angels FAQ it states that Fat Albert is made up of 7 crew, two of them being loadmasters. Why would you need loadmasters for a demonstration aircraft?
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Bizarre photograph from an airshow
I ran into this picture on wikipedia, entirely by accident.
I recognise 121.5MHz as the emergency frequency, which seems apt for this particular photo.
This looks like two aircraft crashing into each ...
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Could a paramotor pilot sign a legal waiver saying that he is responsible for anyone's injuries if he crashed?
Per FAR part 103.15
No person may operate an ultralight vehicle over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons.
However something got me thinking ...
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Does the routine flown by the Thunderbirds in the F-16 feature true sustained knife-edge flight?
Does any aerobatic routine flown by the USAF Thunderbirds in the F-16 feature true sustained knife-edge flight?
By "true sustained knife edge flight" we mean that the aircraft is maintaining ...
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Whenever I hear a plane throttling down quickly, what is happening visually?
I am completely blind and have heard this several times when I was at air shows. Then my friend sent me this recording of a crop duster spraying the fields, and I heard the same type of sound.
It ...
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During airshows, how common is it to fly armed with (inert?) missiles?
I notices that these three Su-35s were armed with missiles during an airshow. At the 1-min mark, you can clearly see that jet #38 has 2 missiles under each wing as well as a bomb / (spare fuel tank?) ...
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Why can't sonic booms be heard at air shows?
At air shows with fighter jets I would expect there would be a demonstration of supersonic flight. But in this flight of a Eurofighter Typhoon, no sonic boom was heard.
What is the reason?
Is it ...
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What role does this ground crew member fulfill?
At the Miramar airshow a couple of weeks ago I noticed that in addition to the crew chief of each Blue Angel there was one additional individual standing behind the crew chiefs between aircraft #3 and ...
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What are the bars protruding from this C-130?
This C-130 was photographed on approach to Ellington Field (EFD), Texas.
What are the protruding, truss-supported bars aft of and below the wing?
There's an airshow coming up in ~3 weeks at EFD, so ...
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Why would a Blue Angels pilot leave their gear down?
In a recent Blue Angels airshow, one of the pilots had their landing gear down during the first 5 minutes of the show. What possible reasons would justify leaving the aircraft in this state?
No ...
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Why do jets with 3-D thrust vectoring never hover nose up, but instead move slowly forward?
I've seen several impressive videos of fighter aircraft moving incredibly slowly by essentially hovering on the engines, balancing using thrust vectoring. For example:
This Su-10
This Su-37
Large ...
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Do stunt jets use laser distance meters to align with one another to maintain formations?
My question is about Jets/planes performing acrobatic formations to stay well-aligned with the other jets/planes in formation. I could see a laser-distance meter coming in handy.
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How much fuel did this Boeing 787-9 have on board for this flying display?
Once I saw how an Airbus A350 did a validation flight prior to an airshow and flew back to Toulouse from London Farnborough without landing/refuelling (distance: 550.57 mi (886.06 km)).
I thought that ...
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What happens to US military demo teams following unexpected pilot turnover?
Following up on recent events involving the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds, what is the typical procedure for these teams following a unexpected turnover of a pilot (in this case, a fatal or other ...
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Could the US Air Force ever replace the Thunderbird pilots with drones? [closed]
Would it be possible or practical for the US Air Force to replace the Thunderbird pilots with drones? The drones could perform more difficult maneuvers and do them more precisely.
The University of ...
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Do Blue Angels jets have a snap-to-angle feature in their control sticks?
So, in most drafting/modelling software, we have a feature called Snap to Angle or Snap to Edge; its function is to snap the ...
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How can an airplane descend faster than a free-falling roll of toilet paper?
Watching this video, I was wondering, does the Toilet paper have this much lift, because I think the descent speed of the Airplane is not that much?
I don't think that a parachute-plane can catch up ...
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Are the aircraft used for the A380 display ready to be delivered to airlines?
For displays in international airshow, Airbus uses A380 whose livery is the one of customers. Here are some examples:
Le Bourget 2011: Korean Air
Farnborough 2012: Malaysian Airline
Le Bourget 2013: ...
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How does one learn to sky write?
It seems like skywriting would be pretty difficult to learn, since there doesn't seem to be any way to step back and see if you made a mistake. And yet people have been doing it since the early days ...
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What is the authority of the Air Boss at an airshow?
Regular ATC operates under regulations like FAA Order 7110.65 when they control traffic. At an air show, there is typically an "air boss" that manages aircraft within the air show area.
Is the air ...
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What do the Thunderbirds pilots do when they can't fly?
I went to an airshow recently, and the Thunderbirds performed. However, by the time they finished the startup and flight check ceremonies, bad weather had rolled in. However, they did still taxi into ...
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Where do airshow pilots practice?
I would assume that buzzing the tower and general hot dogging around the airport is prohibited, so how do airshow pilots get practice? Do they practice at high altitudes? If that is the case, how do ...
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