Pro race car drivers Vs Professional pilots. or why aircraft are better than race cars.

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Jul 12, 2012
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I think watching aircraft especially airliners take off and land get moved around the airport and going into the maintenance facilities and flying over head much more exciting than watching motor vehicle racers[ though car , motorcycle and boat races is entertaining]. Pilots impress me more than racers. Yes weird thoughts enter the my mind when getting up in the middle of the night. Does any one else have interesting thought come to mind in the middle of the night.
 
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Just type Svetlana Kapanina in YT and hang on….
The guy that lives up the street is a crop duster and when he flys over my house and sees me out side he shows off his flying abilities that are just like that. Pilots are cool ! The Blue Angels are beyond awesome.
 
Could do both!

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I think watching aircraft especially airliners take off and land get moved around the airport and going into the maintenance facilities and flying over head much more exciting than watching motor vehicle racers[ though car , motorcycle and boat races is entertaining]. Pilots impress me more than racers. Yes weird thoughts enter the my mind when getting up in the middle of the night. Does any one else have interesting thought come to mind in the middle of the night.
Yes. I want to go into the forest and disappear.
 
Airplanes fly in 3 dimensions. Cars perform in only 2. In that regard airplanes are much more exciting to watch. I like watching auto racing, but it's nowhere near as exciting as watching a good air show. Either in person, or on a monitor or TV.
 
There's some saying about old and bold pilots? I do like air shows for sure, and air racing kind of reminds me of Isle of man TT motorcycle racing, although I think the motorcycle guys are more talented and I think anyone of them would air racing a bit simple... Car racing always has the 3rd dimension involved too, which helps separate the fast drivers, and especially WRC rally cars, the amount of grip varies hugely on compressions or over hill tops.
 
I haven't seen a good entertaining professional race since the two C7Rs at the 2016 24h of rolex when they finished first and second. Now you just wait for the guy in front of you get points deducted. Grassroots and "amateur" racing is more fun to watch IMO. Watching two spec miata or two different cars of the same class duel it out is way more entertaining. Nothing compared to Isle of Man TT races or airshows though, those guys are nuts; I can watch IoM TT races on youtube all day.
 
I’m gonna watch this discussion with interest… 😎
You used to race motocross I believe? Which was more challenging? Trying to make up a couple seconds and pass a guy of equal fitness near the end of a mx race? or dogfighting another fighter or landing it on a carrier in poor weather?
Supercross now on a 450 seems insanely risky to me, airplane stuff no so much as I don't think aviators ever willingly operate under such small margins for error like a pro mx racer? Maybe in low runs over varied ground to avoid detection?
 
I don't know...

A person driving a car to it's 99.999 percent possible speed and 100 percent means you wreck it.... And that person does not have a ejection seat... Nor a fair amount of distance to fall back to a hard surface aka Earth.... Makes driving a race car much harder in it's own way. And yes I believe there is a level of talent to race driver's. Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon and Cale Yarborough, David Pearson, Tim Richmond, Bobby Allison and some others had certainly more takent than many other drivers in Nascar. Same is true in drag racing and F-1. Senna, Jackie Stewart and others had more talent than other drivers.

I believe the same is definitely true with pilots in the air too. Zero doubt about that. Especially back in time even back to WWI and WW II, and the Korean war. I wonder how many of the pilots in the last 10- 20 years could fly extremely well in old analog war planes?? The fly by wire controls which increased as time went forward beginning in the 1960s into the 1970s had to be brought into being because of such great jet airplane capability. That technology had to have made it that easier in a way to fly much newer aircraft.

Need to say though... Pilots who fly to certain airports with either short runways and or high amount of crosswinds.. .. Those circumstances can be extremely tough and doing just the wrong action... Will lead to a crash. Obviously having a number of passengers on board only adds to the difficulty. I saw a special on TV where a pilot who jumbo jet had dumped out almost all of it's fuel and he had to glide that plane from over 30 thousand feet and I think over 100 or more miles to a island in the Azores... With a airport that didn't have the longest runway either. The pilot did it perfectly with no huge problems. Exceptionally impressive.

Still even today there has to be a difference in talent in pilots flying modern airplanes. Whether it be sports, flying driving.. . And if human beings are at the controls or driving or playing... There will be more talented people vs others not quite as talented.
 
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Especially back in time even back to WWI and WW II, and the Korean war. I wonder how many of the pilots in the last 10- 20 years could fly extremely well in old analog war planes?? The fly by wire controls which increased as time went forward beginning in the 1960s into the 1970s had to be brought into being because of such great jet airplane capability. That technology had to have made it that easier in a way to fly much newer aircraft.



I‘ve always wondered how a 20-21 year old pilot in WW2 could fly a very low tech P-38, P-47, P51 in bad weather and get home without all the modern navigation of today’s aircraft.

Very impressive of what they did back then all by themselves and no navigator to help. (y)
 
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