Great F-15 video, how is this legal?

[Richard W.]

I don't begrudge fighter pilots showing off, but I always think about what happened to poor Don Gentile whenever I see them doing it.

[Chicoartist]

I realize it was in a different era, but if you want "close to the crowd", how about the old F-100 days of the Thunderbirds? Heh heh ... one hiccup and they'd be F-100 and people parts spread out over miles ...

As big a fan I am of Gentile, he screwed up, royally. According to Jim Goodson, Gentile asked 'Goody' how he (Goody) flew so low during airfield attacks ... Goody replied, "Fly as low as you dare, then go one foot lower." Gentile took him a little bit too literally. The rolling landscape of Debden (surprisingly hilly), I suspect, had a lot to do with his "misjudgment" of his altitude.

I've been to Debden, and I also was taken out to the field where Shangri-La struck the ground and slid to a stop. In short, due to the distance from "ground strike" to hitting the field (nearly a mile), Gentile was darn lucky to come out of it with minor scrapes only.

The man who took me out to the field was none other than the son of the owner of the field back in the days when the RAF "appropriated" the land. This gentleman, a teenager back in WW2, still lives on the edge of the airfield! Much detail, including "Then and Now" pics of my visit, on my site.

By the way, Shangri-La was NOT "dumped in a pond" ... the gentleman in question laughed when I asked, and showed me the only pond around that it could have been ... as he says, "It ain't here - and never was".

Wade

[wendovertom]

impressive YES!! As a show coordinator - I'd be stressed about incurring the wrath of the FAA. Randy has given the military view of it a great explaination.

That said, a few years back our show had a Marine F/A-18 come out. he did a departure and a few passes to close the show. On his last pass he asked to do a knife edge and a departure. The FAA observer said yes as long as he did not exceed a 45 degree bank and no more than a 45 degree departure.

Well, the knife edge pass as obviously more than 45 degrees and the full afterburner departure was CERTAINLY more like 90 degrees. As the FAA guy watched the climb out along with the rest of us (we were all waiting for the other shoe to drop) the airboss said, Did you see that? The FAA guy never looked down and said, "see what?" WHEW - thank heaven for an aviation enthusiast that day!

Tom P.