Ummm, are the REALLY supposed to do that???

Posted on by July 6, 2013

Apparently the answer is yes… WOW!!!

He’s flying a Swift S-1, details HERE.

The only gliders “I” was familiar with would have come apart LONG before he’d finished that routine!!! And note the glide ratio, 30:1 That ain’t bad!

h/t JP

Comments

Ummm, are the REALLY supposed to do that??? — 16 Comments

  2. Damn is right. And the glide ratio is much better than that of an F-4 Phantom II.

    Course, I think a brick has a better glide ratio than a Phantom.

  3. Don’t try this at home.

    I never thought that you’d need a g-suit for a glider…

  4. Wow indeed. What came first, the attempt to fly a glider like that? Or building one stout enough to do it, before trying it? If the former, how did he ever survive?

  6. Late 60’s had a part time job towing gliders (sailplanes)near Colorado Springs. Those guys and gals were sharp pilots and just slightly less crazy than skydivers.

  7. Instinct- Sorry, missed your comment, and yeah, 1:2 is just ‘slightly’ worse… Which is what the Phantom had… 😀

    WSF- THAT doesn’t make for a warm fuzzy… 😀

  8. Most of what he was doing is what I would be doing if I were flying a real plane. And not on purpose.

  12. I soloed in a glider in 1972. Gliders were the only way I could fly. I have no debt perception and couldn’t pass the eye test for a regular pilots license. I’ve never figured out why you had to be able to judge distance in a powered plane but not a sail plane.

  13. I’ve often thought that many 60’s and 70’s era military jets were nothing more than an exercise in demonstrating that if you put big enough engines on it you could make a refrigerator fly.

    But my original thought when watching the video: He’s not wearing a helmet. If he crashes while doing those crazy stunts he might bump his head.

  14. Tommy- THAT I didn’t know, and doesn’t make a lot of sense does it???

    SailorCurt- True… And I’ve never seen a glider type wear a helment…

  15. @Sailorcurt: That’s still the case. Have you seen the engines they’re putting into the F22 and F35? 40+ thousand lbs thrust. Put that much horsepower on a brick and you can send it into low orbit!

    @OldNFO: Not going to take up gliders?

  16. The amount of wing distortion caught my eye.
    Do they make those things in 46XL?