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Originally Posted by sperry
Quote:
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Originally Posted by AtomicLabMonkey
Umm, if a low-flying aircraft passed over your head within 10 feet at 200-300mph from behind you, you'd probably be a little shaken up too.  The engine/wind noise from such a close pass would probably be enough to damn near blow out your eardrums... |
(Assuming this is the video I've seen before) I'm actually surprised he wasn't pushed over by the wash from that thing! If you look closely, I think you can make an argument that the plane is actually below eye level before it gets to them. :shock:
It's good to know hot-shot pilots are still hot-shots no matter what era of plane they're flying. |
Agreed, but lets analyze a bit more...
Lighting: The sun is almost straight up, and bit behind and to the left based on the shadows on the announcer, and plane, so the planes' s shdow is in front of the plane so we need to keep that in mind when judging distances.
Wignspan of a spitfire is 36' 10".
When the wingtip is visually level with the announcer's shoulder/neck intersection, the plane is about 1/4 of the wingspan high already or about 9' and climbing hard as we see mostly the bottom of the wing. I would also guess the plane is still 100' from the announcer at this point.
When the leading edge of the wing is at the top of his head, the plane is still probably 30-50' feet out, and about 1/2 a wingspan off the ground, or about 18' up.
On to speed and thrust... Stall speed on a spitfire is 70MPH full flaps, and 85 no flaps, so it is likely he is not going much over 100-120 MPH as he passes. This is not a jet, so the thrust wash should not be that bad, espcially since the plane is already at speed, not doing a brake stand at the end of the runway... The prop is turning it's way through the air like a screw producing lift, not pushing air behind it like a jet! The sounds makes him duck, not the thrust knocking him over.
And unless the camera has automatic sound attenuation, the sound levels are not bad when you compare them to the announcers voice...
My guess is that the plane clears the announcer by at least 15 feet if not 25+. You decide if that is close or not...
