Spanish F/A-18 demo pilot nearly wipes out beach crowd

[y_p_w]

This is crazy. Kind of reminds me of the recovery from The Final Countdown, only lower.



https://www.twz.com/air/spanish-f-a-18-hornet-seen-nearly-crashing-into-surf-during-beach-airshow

The official story is that the pilot was avoiding a bird. Can anyone translate?

 

[oilboy123]

Yep I saw the birds in the 2nd vid. Looked pretty close to the water/beach in the 2nd shot in the first vid.

 

[edyvw]

@Astro14 you flew F18 too, right?
I am bit puzzled by this explanation so low above audience to go inverted while diving.

 

[LenZee]

@Astro14 you flew F18 too, right?
I am bit puzzled by this explanation so low above audience to go inverted while diving.

He was inverted due to the bird ingestion and power loss in one turbine. It happens that quickly.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

He was inverted due to the bird ingestion and power loss in one turbine. It happens that quickly.

You sure he wasn’t just keeping up foreign relations?

 

[Astro14]

He was inverted due to the bird ingestion and power loss in one turbine. It happens that quickly.

I’m not sure that I am buying a “power loss” as explanation for the maneuver.

At relatively high airspeed, like he was, the loss of thrust in one engine causes a modest yaw, and a modest resulting proverse roll. I believe he lost an engine, because only the left engine was in AB as he pulled away - but I do not think that engine failure explains the roll.

I think there was perhaps a roll for bird avoidance, that in retrospect was inappropriate for his altitude and position, and he had to recover from that instinctive (nearly disastrous) roll, but I don’t think the airplane rolled itself - it rolled as a result of lateral stick input from the pilot.

 

[edyvw]

He was inverted due to the bird ingestion and power loss in one turbine. It happens that quickly.

He didn’t ingest anything as far as reports are going.

 

[2005jettatdi]

It looks like that should have been that pilot's last flight.

 

[y_p_w]

This might be the best quality video of the plane. The default is 360p, but the original is 1080p and can be selected in the settings.