http://allthingsaero.com/airshows/video-smokin-hot-video-highlights-from-the-...

Adrenaline junkies, GETTIN their fix..

Does the EPA know about this?

I have had limited amounts of aerobatics, in a vintage Tiger Moth aircraft during rare visits to Australia. It's quite disconcerting at first as you need to go into an almost vertical dive to get enough speed to loop the loop. Then you appear to rely on momentum as you actually loop, because the engine starves for fuel and cuts out. Propeller momentum restarts it once the loop has been done The G force pushes your head down somewhat. Barrel Rolls and Spins seem a little easier on the body. Rightly or wrongly there seems to be a fair attrition rate of aircraft at air shows, some times with tragic results for non participants or spectators. A Wikipedia search of air show accidents and incidents will confirm this. The attrition rate seems to be high among historic aircraft, particularly World War 2 type fighter planes. On a couple of occasions I've sat at the controls of a light Tecnam aircraft which is entertaining but quite expensive. I've also had a tandem parachute jump from 12000 feet which was interesting, particularly when you leave the aircraft and realise the proprietor hasn't supplied a rope ladder to let you get back in.

Some of the aircraft I have jumped out of, I was glad to leave.

Another flight story- kind of funny:
When I was a student in Toronto there was another student who had just got his pilots licence and wanted to get his flight hours up to progress his qualifications. He would rent a four seater Cessna and charge $10 to three students for an hours flight out of Toronto Island airport to help defer the cost. He came into the common room and asked if anyone wanted to go for a flight. I said yes, another girl said yes and I asked my GF (later to become my wife of 41 years so far) who I knew was afraid of flying. She said no so I asked another girl, whereupon my GF said yes.
So off we go tooling around Toronto harbour looking at the tall buildings when someone asks "can we go up to a mile high?" So up we go.
The extra time required to do this makes the pilot run late (he has only rented the plane for an hour) so we speed back to the airport as fast as he can go.
Time to insert some factoids:
The Cessna is a very forgiving aircraft, and the stall warning buzzer will go off long before the aircraft actually stalls (looses lift to the point it won't stay up)
It has tricycle landing gear- a nose wheel and two wing wheels, but it also has a tail skid to protect the tail if it should have contact with the runway.
The end of Toronto Island runway is built out onto the water on rocks.
So there we were, screaming towards the end of the runway.
This is what we saw and heard, all within about 5 seconds: rocks right in front of us, then they fall away and all we see is sky, then the stall warning buzzer goes off, then he lands it on the two wing wheels and the tail skid, which makes a hell of a racket itself, then the nose comes down thump, and he almost tips it over turning onto the closer taxiway, so he won't have to taxi all the way down the runway. My wife to be got out and sat on the runway patting the ground crying.
At no time did I think we were in any danger, except when he almost tipped it over turning onto the taxi strip too fast.
My wife has only flown once since then, in a 747 to California to visit a friend, and she had some chemically induced help with her nerves.

stinger wrote on 09/22/14 at 14:14:33:

I always love the line about rockets being built by the lowest bidder... it goes for airplanes too.  

I believe the Royal New Zealand Air "Force" still uses the C130 Hercules and the Lockheed PB3??? Orion.

C130 is a fine machine.. noisy,ugly,functional..
Our squadron was invited to ride one. I have flown before. Never in a cargo hold. I knew what it would be like. I passed. Everyone who went regretted it. At least one guy puked.