Display Pilot Personal Rules?

[Tiger Tim]

So I have a question for all the pilots that show off airplanes in front of people: are there any general rules you have set for yourself to ensure what you do is done safely and gives the right impression to the crowd? I'll admit I haven't done a whole lot of display flying myself (I have done a bit) but I would like to do more of it and I think it would be interesting to see if others have personal guidelines.

-Tim

[RyanShort1]

The crowd can see you better at 300' than 50'... And nothing is worth an accident.

Ryan

[Tiger Tim]

Funny you should mention that, Ryan. Fly-by height is what got me thinking about this in the first place. I'm not one to go low, I figure there are two types of people that go to airshows: those who want to see airplanes fly and those who want to see airplanes crash and I know which group I want to appeal to.

-Tim

[DaveD112]

I never include ½ reverse Cubans in any high performance warbird display...

"If in doubt, don't"

3 displays a day maximum.

Displays are not the killer. Getting there and back often is.......

[Kyleb]

I never include ½ reverse Cubans in any high performance warbird display...

I'm curious. What do you see as inherently dangerous in that maneuver?

[spookythecat]

To quote one of my favorite pilots...

Make the difficult look easy!
The easy look spectacular!
and never attempt the impossible!

-Bud Granley

[mlenoch]

1/2 reverse cubans are dangerous because some pilots do not pitch high enough during the initial upward portion and then after the roll to inverted, some pilots let the nose drop due to unfamiliarity with inverted flight. This leads to a low altitude pull for the loop with insufficient altitude for completion.
VL

[Dave Hadfield]

Or, to continue Vlado's thought, when it comes to Cubans, loop away from the earth, not towards it.

Other thoughts...

Ask the photographers and well-wishers to leave you alone for :15 min before engine start. Ignore distractions.

Snap maneuvers are safer done on an up-line, not a down-line, when at low altitude.

In North America the cardinal rule is to never project your energy into the crowd.

And as was said, there's not much point in going so low that only the front rank can see you.

Dave

[Robbie Stuart]

I once had a well respected aviator tell me, "an air show pilot should be more concerned with what he or she is doing during the display, rather than how daring it looks".

[Dudley Henriques]

Or, to continue Vlado's thought, when it comes to Cubans, loop away from the earth, not towards it.

Other thoughts...

Ask the photographers and well-wishers to leave you alone for :15 min before engine start. Ignore distractions.

Snap maneuvers are safer done on an up-line, not a down-line, when at low altitude.

In North America the cardinal rule is to never project your energy into the crowd.

And as was said, there's not much point in going so low that only the front rank can see you.

Dave

The trick with doing 1/2 Cubans as repositioning maneuvers off level 1 is to know your numbers FOR THAT DAY AND DENSITY ALTITUDE, nailing the entry speed, using the first 90 degrees of pull to maximize your desired g line, then easing off the g into the second half of the vertical up line to meet SOLIDLY FIXED high gate parameters for the top transition through the maneuver into the down line. Density altitude can and will kill you quicker than anything else when it comes to low altitude vertical recoveries. It increases BOTH your TAS and your vertical radius. HIGH GATE parameters MUST be altered to compensate for density altitude. The numbers you use doing a display at sea level will kill you doing a show with high density altitude.
Reverse 1/2 Cubans are especially dangerous in this environment as there is a tendency to generate positive downline nose rate as you come through inverted doing the roll entry as opposed to concentrating on hitting the high gate numbers required.
Smart display pilots know their airplane's numbers and alter those numbers accordingly for density altitude displays. REAL smart display pilots actually will work out a high density altitude routine that differs from their normal routines both in content and execution, softening the display by changing or even omitting certain maneuvers to conserve maneuvering energy such as omitting an extra downline snap and replacing a 1/2 Cuban reversal with a position transition turn (Wifferdill)
Dudley Henriques