T-6's with BIG kahunas!

[jsherblon]

Would they log the flight time, "Water landing and takeoff - airplane, single engine, land"?

[AlexPeterson]

Those are amazing stunts. I wonder how much one needs to increase the power to compensate for the large drag the tires in the water create?

Alex Peterson

[jsherblon]

Yesterday, I was talking to an elderly gentleman who has a long history in aviation. He worked for North American before and during WWII. He joined the Army Air Corps and was a B-29 flight engineer and gunner. After the war he worked on everything from P-51's to F-117 until retirement.
He said that for gunnery training they flew AT-6's. I told him about the pictures of the water skiing AT-6's and he told me they never tried that in training. Instead they would touch their WING TIP to the water while making a low skidding turn - yikes!
He also told me that on several occasions flying as flight engineer on the B-29, they would fly in a three ship formation with the two outside planes' wingtips touching the underside of the lead plane's wingtips. I asked him why they did that and he said it was a rite of passage for new pilots (gulp).
He also told me about a B-29 crew that attempted to do a roll. The plane did a split-S once it was inverted, oversped, and did a high G pull-out with significant damage to several systems. The pilot and co-pilot were demoted to non-flying status and transferred.

[osxuser]

Obviously they didn't do it right...

[Brian130]

For anyone that wasn't convinced it was real...

http://www.flightzone.co.za/media/harvards.wmv

[RudiGreyling]

Originally Posted by Janekom

Hi Guys,
I am fortunate enough to know these pilots - some of them for over 20 years now. They perform at all the airshows here in South Africa. They CAN fly and this is NOT a photo trick! Proudly South African!

Ditto, Proudly South African

Regards,
Rudi

[Brian Denk]

These guys are for real...and VERY good.

http://www.wimp.com/harvards/