The Swiss Air Farce, #97
Discussion
The Patrouille Suisse showcases the "performance capacity, precision and operational readiness of the Swiss Air Force."
Ahem: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/09/europe/swiss-ae...
Ahem: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/09/europe/swiss-ae...
(cough)
It happened to me, twice.
Wrong Church for wedding display, both times, although the first time I was hanging off the leader's wing in formation and didn't have a vote as to navigation, and I did think something was wrong as I could see the smoke from Paul Bonhomme's Sukhoi display (the main event) off to one side.
The second time the best man had an Icom at the church and was giving me positioning cues, and didn't realise there was another church directly between me and him. Took 30 seconds or so to realise I was in the wrong place, and reposition. Much extraction of the proverbial when I finally got to the reception. Lovely party though.
I think the Reds used to use a non-standard civilian GPS in the lead Hawk at one point, no idea what they use now.
It happened to me, twice.
Wrong Church for wedding display, both times, although the first time I was hanging off the leader's wing in formation and didn't have a vote as to navigation, and I did think something was wrong as I could see the smoke from Paul Bonhomme's Sukhoi display (the main event) off to one side.
The second time the best man had an Icom at the church and was giving me positioning cues, and didn't realise there was another church directly between me and him. Took 30 seconds or so to realise I was in the wrong place, and reposition. Much extraction of the proverbial when I finally got to the reception. Lovely party though.
I think the Reds used to use a non-standard civilian GPS in the lead Hawk at one point, no idea what they use now.
eharding said:
(cough)
It happened to me, twice.
Wrong Church for wedding display, both times, although the first time I was hanging off the leader's wing in formation and didn't have a vote as to navigation, and I did think something was wrong as I could see the smoke from Paul Bonhomme's Sukhoi display (the main event) off to one side.
The second time the best man had an Icom at the church and was giving me positioning cues, and didn't realise there was another church directly between me and him. Took 30 seconds or so to realise I was in the wrong place, and reposition. Much extraction of the proverbial when I finally got to the reception. Lovely party though.
I think the Reds used to use a non-standard civilian GPS in the lead Hawk at one point, no idea what they use now.
Show-off It happened to me, twice.
Wrong Church for wedding display, both times, although the first time I was hanging off the leader's wing in formation and didn't have a vote as to navigation, and I did think something was wrong as I could see the smoke from Paul Bonhomme's Sukhoi display (the main event) off to one side.
The second time the best man had an Icom at the church and was giving me positioning cues, and didn't realise there was another church directly between me and him. Took 30 seconds or so to realise I was in the wrong place, and reposition. Much extraction of the proverbial when I finally got to the reception. Lovely party though.
I think the Reds used to use a non-standard civilian GPS in the lead Hawk at one point, no idea what they use now.
What were you flying?
Elroy Blue said:
I was at Barton airshow many years ago when the F1-11 (I think) displayed over Manchester airport. Not really much difference between a grass airfield and an international airport
The septics have long had airfield (and other) identification issues, there was a famous one of the B-52 that displayed at Blackbushe instead of at the Farnborough Airshow.......
aeropilot said:
Elroy Blue said:
I was at Barton airshow many years ago when the F1-11 (I think) displayed over Manchester airport. Not really much difference between a grass airfield and an international airport
The septics have long had airfield (and other) identification issues, there was a famous one of the B-52 that displayed at Blackbushe instead of at the Farnborough Airshow.......Reading that back I've just realised - those planes probably didn't take off from the airfield where the display was happening but most likely flew in from another base so perhaps nav errors are understandable....
Countdown said:
I'm surprised that the above things can happen ^^^. I watched a programme a while ago and it seemed that the displays were so closely choreographed (in terms of where the crowd line was, what manouevres the plane would be doing, where it would aim to hit the ground if something went wrong etc) that for them to do the display at the WRONG airport seems quite surprising.
Reading that back I've just realised - those planes probably didn't take off from the airfield where the display was happening but most likely flew in from another base so perhaps nav errors are understandable....
I think the Barton jet was flying to/from Germany with a short display en route. Probably saw two dots near the motorway and chose the wrong one!Reading that back I've just realised - those planes probably didn't take off from the airfield where the display was happening but most likely flew in from another base so perhaps nav errors are understandable....
Countdown said:
Reading that back I've just realised - those planes probably didn't take off from the airfield where the display was happening but most likely flew in from another base so perhaps nav errors are understandable....
Given what a B-52 is supposed to be for, Nav errors to me are anything but understandable.......
But, the septics have always been of the 'shoot first, ask questions later' mentality......
I remember talking to a load of British D-Day vets over in Normandy 20 years ago, and to a man, they would say the same thing...
When on the rare occasions the Luftwaffe flew over, the British and Americans took cover, when the RAF flew over, the Germans took cover, but when the Americans flew over, everyone took took cover......
aeropilot said:
The septics have long had airfield (and other) identification issues, there was a famous one of the B-52 that displayed at Blackbushe instead of at the Farnborough Airshow.......
I was there ! Was tannoyed at Farnborough as the next up for a fly past. I could just about see it miles off. I think they flew something like 6500 Miles for that and missed by 12 miles !
Impressive
egomeister said:
The navigation issue I can believe but surely they would have spotted the error when they were 5 seconds late to the destination?
Confirmation bias. Even though the navigation systems would have shown them they weren't at Farnborough, I suspect the pilots were looking at a runway, a huge collection of cars parked next to it and assumed that was where the airshow was and the cars belonged to the attending crowd....and sadly they had never heard of British Car Auctions.
Gassing Station | Boats, Planes & Trains | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff