Landing Light

By Robert Mark on January 10th, 2009

After just digging out from under 10 inches of lake effect snow in Chicago, I walked in to find these great shots from a Jetwhine reader. Thanks Alan J.

They reminded me of a time when an instructor once encouraged me to try landing a Cessna 150 so softly that we would not even know we’d touched down. It’s much tougher than it looks. But in a T-6? I mean, you have to be kidding me, right? T-6 1 jetwhine Are you guys at Gauntlet Warbirds watching this?

Can you imagine being the insurance agent on these airplanes and having someone e-mail this to your office one bright Monday morning?

The text that came with them reads just this way … “Early morning anglers are treated to the spectacle of four T-6 ‘HARVARDS’ (to the Brits) or ‘TEXANS’ (to the U.S.) Aircraft (former WWII Flight Trainers) from The Flying Lions Aerobatic Team water-skiing across the Klipdrift Dam near Johannesburg, South Africa.

Arnie Meneghelli from Academy Brushware, owner of the aircraft, had this to say, ‘What we did today I believe is a world first. It illustrates that South African air show pilots are amongst the best in the world.’  This unusual act, approved by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), and supported by Castrol Aviation, was meticulously planned and took place under the watchful eye of divers and paramedics that were on site.T-6 2 jetwhine

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 10th, 2009 at 2:35 pm and is filed under The Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “Landing Light”

  1. Eric Says:
    January 11th, 2009 at 12:38 pm

    This is pretty cool. I’ve done this in MS Flight Simulator before. its pretty damn hard there too!

  2. Falcon124 Says:
    January 11th, 2009 at 4:39 pm

    If you think these guys are nuts, I have a photo on a machine somewhere of a crop duster doing this on a lake in Australia – no paramedics, no emergency services, etc. Just went down and ran it lightly over the water. Bloody mad bugger :)

  3. Max Flight Says:
    January 11th, 2009 at 5:51 pm

    Wow. I’m impressed! Imagine some big fish choosing that moment to jump out of the water…

  4. Jack Hodgson Says:
    January 11th, 2009 at 7:30 pm

    I’m not positive, but I think I’ve heard that the water in this situation is firmer than you’d think. The tires actually “roll” along the surface, resisting settling deeper into the drink.

    I saw a video of a bush pilot who landed on a sandbar by actually touching down on the water before “rolling out” onto the sand.

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