In aviation there is an inexplicable joy of seeing the machines doing their thing up close. Maybe it’s because as a kid, you spent most of your observation time watching planes fly over at 30,000 feet above your house, or saw helicopters far-off hovering. This is why air shows are so popular, because it’s the closest that most people get to moving aircraft without being a licensed pilot.
This video comes from the 2014 RAF Waddington Airshow. The pilot of this Turkish F-16 Fighting Falcon gave people who had congregated on a perimeter road outside of the base one hell of a show by clearing their heads by mere feet while coming in for his final to land. This plane was flying somewhere close to 140-145kts (161-167mph) as it cleared the bystanders with maybe twenty feet to spare. And I’m being very generous in that estimate.
From our end of it, while the footage is pretty cool, the danger level is extremely high. Had the pilot come up short or low, this could’ve gone bad. Additionally, a lot of the people in attendance had on caps and had loose items about, and if any of that had been sucked up into the engine, foreign object damage could’ve made the pilot’s day a lot worse. But people are always willing to get close to experience the power of the aircraft…ask anyone who has been on St. Maarten island at the far end of Princess Juliana Airport just to get blown into the water by a 747.
Click play below to watch the world’s fastest wake-up call go flying overhead!
The Quickest ….. Fastest ….. hottest ! ….. Low flying
Hair – dryer ya ever did see …….??
That’s what I was wondering, what are the exhaust temps at that range??
Exhaust temps at that range are hot…but not anything to worry about short term. The dude with the cane almost lost i. that would ahve been awesome…I Just FODDED out an F-16 with my cane! (FOD = foriegn object damage)