Pilot grounded after Fenway flyover; National Guard deems maneuver improper

[Eugene]

Source: Boston Globe

Pilot grounded after Fenway flyover
National Guard deems maneuver improper

By James Vaznis
Globe Staff / April 11, 2008

Three F-16s roared toward Fenway Park, flying wingtip to
wingtip. Suddenly a fourth F-16, trailing behind the formation,
caught up, flew under the three F-16s, then looped up and over
the formation to take its rightful spot for a perfect V formation.

The maneuver, performed during the Red Sox Opening Day game
Tuesday, came just as the Boston Symphony Orchestra finished
playing the national anthem. It elicited roaring applause and
cheers from the full-capacity crowd, which clearly appreciated
what it thought to be great showmanship. But as it turns out,
the maneuver was improper and the Vermont Air National Guard
grounded the pilot this week.

"I understand the crowd liked it, but you won't see it again,"
said Lieutenant Colonel Lloyd Goodrow, a Guard spokesman.

The pilot, whose name was not released, conducted the maneuver
to slow down after he raced to catch up with the formation
already in progress, Goodrow said. But the pilot, he said, was
flying at an altitude too low for such a maneuver: about 1,100
feet, rather than the sanctioned 5,000 feet or higher.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/04/11/pilot_grounded_after_fenway_flyover

[Mika]

1. How is any USAF/ANG flyover at a ball game proper?

Don't ball team and stadia owners get enough kick backs, tax cuts, and subsidies? Enough already.

:puke:

[arendt]

3. They claimed it was a "training exercise", with precision timing to arrive at the end of

the national anthem.

Cost of the fuel for this "exercise" was $100,000 of your tax dollars.

:puke:

arendt

[Sweet Pea]

6. Naw...

they would have been out on some training evolution somewhere anyhow, so that gas would have been burned in any event.

[Newsjock]

2. Not the Yeager loop!

What would Wesley Crusher say?

[DemoTex]

4. Video here .. looks like he cut across the formation's bow (NOT GOOD!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGsHszYnYMI

[Poll_Blind]

5. I thought out of 300mln people we could find a few thousand who ALWAYS followed....

..the orders. I mean, is that really too much to ask? Or are they all tied up in Cheyanne Mountain?

  I thought that was the price you paid to fly a multi-million dollar aircraft which carried vulcan cannon, missiles, bombs and on the rare festive occasion, nuclear weapons.

  And, of course, had the pilot clipped the wing of one of the formation planes or otherwise caused a disaster and tens of thousands of people are covered in jet fuel and writing together in their death agonies in mass of liquid skin...well, wouldn't that make a grand finale to the Star-Spangled Banner?

  Reminds me of that B-52 pilot, I'm sure you know who I'm talking about, who liked to pull of the "unauthorized" stunts.

PB

[bdab1973]

7. Airplanes aren't ships...

The front of aircraft aren't referred to as a "bow". Regardless, I'm sure the flight lead wasn't really impressed with the maneuver, because even after they passed over the stadium, he was still out of position.