Dutch F-16 Friday Rehearsal

[skyking_comms]

Does anyone have any pics or video of the Dutch F-16 before the display got cancelled? Would be interested to see how the pilot misjudged his height..

[RickIngham]

He wasn't a happy chap wandering around the static today!

[DDM10]

What happened? Same pilot as Yeovilton airday 2010 was it? (Practice 2010- http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=25847) Doesn't inspire you with confidence does it?

[boff180]

Was a prat basically is what happened.

Commenced a tight turn at Eastern end of the airfield to bring him parallel to the display line.

Problem was, he did this extremely low, at one point being lower than some aircraft had been on approach at the same distance to the runway threshold!

Result: immediate red card.

Andy

[DamienB]

Eastern end? Why the UKAR tweet regarding Rhymes viewers needing new pants then - that's at the Western end?

[boff180]

His take off was also a little low, as was his recovery from said turn at the eastern end.

In general it was a very dodgy display.

[XL189]

I was at the "east end" watching from the car and thought he'd lost it at the "west end".

He seemed to pull up into a loop and disappeared into low cloud.
I know viewing angles can give a false impression but he seemed to be very, very low and pulling hard to recover from the loop, loads of power etc.

When he then appeared to pull into another turn I said "He's lost it!" but he recovered and very gingerly landed!

Didn't see what happened at the "east end"!

[Captain Skyhawk]

Are we all talking about Friday's rehearsal display? Did he cut short his Saturday show? I wasn't paying attention to that one but on Friday I was at Rhymes Farm and on about his second manoeuvre he went up into a low cloud and came down out of a lower one at a very funny angle. I wasn't sure what I was looking at for a moment. He pulled up hard over the pond on the farm and I have a photo of him climbing in burner but there's no ground or trees in it so it doesn't really illustrate how low he might have got. In fact it was just the direction he was pointing when he emerged that alarmed me, not the height. Someone may have a better picture or video from the crowd side.

The Demo Team posted this on Saturday morning on Twitter:

Luchtmacht ‏@Kon_Luchtmacht
#F16demo New day, new show! Yesterday weather and a misjudgement by Stitch let to a rehearsal-stop. Lessons learned! 2day: REBOUND!

(As long as it's not in the sense of "bounce off the ground", that sounds good.)

CS

[Agg]

What happened? Same pilot as Yeovilton airday 2010 was it? (Practice 2010- http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=25847) Doesn't inspire you with confidence does it?

No, not the same guy. This is Stitch's first year as a display pilot.

[Oxfordconstruction]

We have a video of the incident from rhymes farm which and will post in due course. Why did he take off the go back for a simulated take off?. Must say though he did look very happy from his gestures after displaying today lol what do you think mr Green?

[Bunga]

I was also at Rhymes farm on Friday during the Dutch F16 rehearsal display and when he came out of the cloud on his second manoeuvre i actually thought he was going to belly flop into the pond he seemed to falling with very little forward speed, fortunately he recovered with loads of power but it appeared to be a close one.

[SCOUSEFOWLER]

hi

i was travelling up the lane to rhymes farm when this incident occurred. imagine my suprise when the van was nearly blown off the road, the windscreen smashed out and my ears were ringing!! looked out the window and saw the rear end of a dutch F16 in full afterburner!! IT WAS AWESOME!!!

[skyking_comms]

I look forward to seeing the pics / video! (Any chance it can be uploaded to youtube??)

[BoneB]

Saw the practice from Totterdown. He pulled out of the loop extremely low in full burner. Awesome to see but i reckon a change of uderpants for the pilot on his return to terra firma.

[DDM10]

imagine my suprise when the van was nearly blown off the road, the windscreen smashed out and my ears were ringing!!

Although I fear that maybe a little over exaggerated, it sounds pretty cool!

[parabola50]

Has anyone been able to upload a video of this yet?

[Agg]

Ive been looking for videos of the incident as well, but have'nt been able to find aything yet.

[Screechy]

Saw it from the FRIAT stand and immediately turned to my friend who quite often goes over to Rhymes and said 'that would have been interesting in Rhymes'

It's hard to estimate heights with any accuracy but i'd guess he was at about 150ft over Rhymes with his burner cranked up. It looked a little spicy but nothing like the Typhoon incident from a fair few years ago.

[aviodromefriend]

What happened? Same pilot as Yeovilton airday 2010 was it? (Practice 2010- http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=25847) Doesn't inspire you with confidence does it?

No, not the same guy. This is Stitch's first year as a display pilot.

Yeovilton was Hitec (who already left the Air Force even before Stitch was appointed as demopilot. That is also the reason why Sheik was put up as a coach for this year's team, to get a bit of experience onboard).

[capercaillie]

As usual some drivel spouted.

The opening manouevre this year is a big barrel roll after take off onto the display line. After the aircraft took off he went up to do a check on the cloud height before returning back on a low approach simulating the take off into display, which he then performed the barrel roll straight into a very low and dark cloud which was now sitting right over the middle of the airfield. His exit was certainly lower than it should have been and undoubtedly below the box permitted by the display safety committee, so ATC immediately called stop stop stop and requested him to land and speak to the committee.

The most baffling thing this year with practices is why Friday was used so much. The Dutch Vipers arrived Wednesday he had a rehearsal slot booked that day which was not used and he could have gone up any time Thursday morning when we had clear skies and no movements along with Al Fursan, Black Eagles and Polish MiG29 but nothing happened. It also looked crazy the Black Eagles in a big 8 ship flying half in the clouds on Friday afternoon.

And I thought all displays need to be validated, yet many items never practiced at all? All very strange.

[Thermal]

No, not the same guy. This is Stitch's first year as a display pilot.

Indeed his first year, 'Stitch' has only been in the RNLAF for 5 years has some 800 hours on the F-16. Many were a bit suprised that they selected a relatively inexperienced pilot as the Dutch display pilot this year. But let's not forget he did a fine job during the actual airshow.

[scermat]

Stitch is also an awesome character with the enthusiasts. The whole dutch crew are really, which is probably why I really like them.

[Tom]

looking forward to this video!

[Eireair]

I Watched this from Trotterdown, One of the best bits of Action all weekend, Made a change from the normal distant flying.

G

[Timc]

I've got about 3 frames of the "incident" taken from Kempsford but haven't got round to processing them yet.
IIRC, he shot up from a foreground gazebo, so I reckon he was a lot lower than 150ft!

They are pretty much grab shots but I'll post 'em up in the morning.

Cheers
Tim