Ground clearance is the name of the game ...

[Snuffy]

If yer doing aerial acrobatics ...



http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,532552,00.html?test=latestnews

[Dangerousdave26]

And here is the video...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8150639.stm

They referr to this as a Double Decker Plane...



A double-decker sports plane has crashed into a car after plunging from the air. The pilot was performing aerial acrobatic manoeuvres and struck the family car, which was parked on a road near the airfield.

Is that a European term or a sign that someone does not understand anything about airplanes?

Which if the latter is true shows I don't know beans about planes...

Which is partly true.

[Tako_Kichi]

Is that a European term or a sign that someone does not understand anything about airplanes?
Sadly it's yet another sign of the times where news agencies employ people who will work for the least amount of money rather than paying for a reporter with more than a bare minimum education. I see it all over the place in news reports where the reporter obviously does not have a clue what they are writing/talking about and so writes/talks nothing but gibberish to fill the space and the so called 'editors' are not much better for passing the garbage to print/air!

Personally I blame 24 hour news stations (like CNN for example) for starting the trend of allowing reporters to waffle aimlessly on subjects they have no clue about as they need to fill the airspace until the next commercial break which is really the only reason the channel exists in the first place. They make no money providing the news and exist to sell advertising space at a premium rate based on the number of viewers who seem addicted to the drivel they pump out.

[Moparmike]

And here is the video...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8150639.stm

They referr to this as a Double Decker Plane...


Is that a European term or a sign that someone does not understand anything about airplanes?

Which if the latter is true shows I don't know beans about planes...

Which is partly true.

Probably comes from a German to English translation hiccup. Zweidecker (two decker or double decker) is an old term used for a biplane. I don't know of that's still in the common language or not. Anyone from Germany care to verify the terminology?

That...along with typical news reporter "duh" cluelessness...could be why it's called a double decker.

[Naismith]

Perhaps the pilot was upstairs taking fares at the time.

[Wittpilot]

Perhaps the pilot was upstairs taking fares at the time.


lol


Seems like he doesn't apply full throttle but sputters it...... regardless, he came out of that spin too low...

[Whitehawk]

It certainly spluttered, could be he saw that he had started his recovery too low and instinctively slammed the throttle forward, I've had engines far smaller than that lose power and splutter due to acceleration lag (engine gets a whole bunch more air but the fuel, having more intertia, takes a second or two longer to accelerate causing a temporary lean mixture)

It's impossible to tell really, but that's my guess. Just glad there were no serious injuries!

[Lionheart]

That had to be his engine. The smoke stopped flowing fast from thrust. The spin was a bit odd too, like it went suddenly a bit too fast. I think he had problems in that spin. Luckily, he lived and so did the people below. Incredible story! Thank the Lord! It could have been a real mess, like a crater with many people gone.

Did you see how he almost cleared the ground! Reminds me of that Mig that went down at an airshow.. Skimmed the Earth/grass just enough to damage it, and he ejected. Same with this plane.

Man... So close..



Bill

[sandar]

As far as I can remember from my days in Germany, biplanes were sometimes caled zweideckker (two wings) or doppeldekker (double wings), I suspect that the use of computer translation software may be the culprit.

Going back to WWI German aeroplanes, just think of the Fokker EIII (E=eindekker or monoplane: DVII=doppledekker or biplane and the DRI=Dreidekker or triplane.

[sandar]

lol


Seems like he doesn't apply full throttle but sputters it...... regardless, he came out of that spin too low...

I thought the spluttering was from the involuntary bowel movement being experienced by the pilot at the instance he realised he was in the sh*t.

[RAF_Bip]

A Double Decker is a common term for a bi-plane and still in use today. I used it in conversation the other day:jump:

[Wim]

in dutch we would say "dubbeldekker", which is very common to descride a bi-plane,

Wim :mixedsmi:

[TomSteber]

You know I was wondering which way the runway was. Here's a crazy thought. I've done this in the flightsim and I've seen it done for real too, where you'll go up and do whatever maneuver (say a hammerhead) and kill the throttle on the downline while lined up with the runway and pull level, sideslip to bleed off some speed and land. Could it be that he was looking up/out at the runway to line up and didn't realize he was getting too low?