Does anyone remember?
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 15
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Does anyone remember?
Hi all,
Does anyone remember an Australian Aerobatic pilot that landed his aircraft, a Pitts, inverted at night some time back? He was warming up for a inverted ribbon cut (at night), and went a little too low. He made the best possible result of it though - holding level in lateral and pitch axis, and simply scraped along on his canopy. The video could only show the sparks as they flew off his vertical fin I guess. I had just been & seen the same pilot at Australia's first pylon racing at Launceston.
Does anyone remember an Australian Aerobatic pilot that landed his aircraft, a Pitts, inverted at night some time back? He was warming up for a inverted ribbon cut (at night), and went a little too low. He made the best possible result of it though - holding level in lateral and pitch axis, and simply scraped along on his canopy. The video could only show the sparks as they flew off his vertical fin I guess. I had just been & seen the same pilot at Australia's first pylon racing at Launceston.
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Sarnia, ON
Posts: 89
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 15
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Yes, correct
Yes, Chris Sperou. The fact left me amazed at his skill. You know, a lot of pilots take stuff like that as a downer, that it was an incident or whatever. But I have always looked upon it as, if you stay in aviation long enough, something is bound to happen. Chris made probably the most unbelievable recovery (both laterally & longitudinally stable while 'rolling out' inverted) from a situation which was that testy, that it puts him up there with the best in aviation, in my books anyway. 
Who in the world has ever done this, and managed to do it so perfectly that they got away with basically just scratches on the top if the canopy? It rates up there with the British aerobatic pilot (Neil Williams - PCBDESIGN007 Timing is Everything in Controlled Impedance Fabrication) that had a wing start to detach and recovered to fly inverted to the field, 1/2 snap roll at last second in flare to survive. Do you remember seeing it? Chris Sperou's experience that is.
Who in the world has ever done this, and managed to do it so perfectly that they got away with basically just scratches on the top if the canopy? It rates up there with the British aerobatic pilot (Neil Williams - PCBDESIGN007 Timing is Everything in Controlled Impedance Fabrication) that had a wing start to detach and recovered to fly inverted to the field, 1/2 snap roll at last second in flare to survive. Do you remember seeing it? Chris Sperou's experience that is.
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Sarnia, ON
Posts: 89
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I saw him at Valleyfield the year he parked it inverted there - but I wasn't watching at the time - turned around to see the dust settle.
IIRC, he got into another plane that same day to try again.
IIRC, he got into another plane that same day to try again.
Chris made probably the most unbelievable recovery (both laterally & longitudinally stable while 'rolling out' inverted
Last edited by Centaurus; 4th Feb 2013 at 11:01.
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 15
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I only saw the news article, but was fairly stunned that he was able to 'keep it steady' so to speak on top of the canopy. The aileron and elevator control of Pitts aircraft is something to behold, so he could keep his composure and get such a good end result. Thanks for relating these stories you blokes. 
