PILOT SPIN
Pilot Zone => Pilot Zone => Topic started by: Jaybird180 on September 20, 2017, 08:05:55 AM
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I took my 2 eldest children to see the Thunderbirds this weekend, which for me marks the umpteenth time I've seen them. I was thinking about the titled maneuver and the cross at the bottom of the Split-Ess...how do they get the timing right?
For some reason in this video and many others I find online, there doesn't seem to be much of a prevailing wind (judging by smoke drift) but there certainly was a good prevailing wind during our show this weekend. In fact it was enough to notice that the winds shifted during the show and the landings were to the opposite direction.
During the maneuver, the 4-ship diamond pulls into the vertical, rolls outboard with smoke and separate. Assuming there's a prevailing wind, the guy who's downwind will travel further and then will have a headwind enroute back to show center. They pretty much get the timing right for the cross- afterall, it's a safety concern with 4 airplanes convening at nearly the same location. I don't think I've ever seen them with error higher that 3 seconds of each other and I'd estimate within 100feet vertical and 500 feet horizontal separation.
Do they do this with the F-16's Nav computer? I know the Falcon has some sophisticated A-G and navigation computational capability where it can get timing to the next waypoint to allow the pilot to adjust speed, but I wouldn't think there would be time to set this up during an aerial demonstration, though it's plausible.
I recall a video of the Blue Angels and they implied that they pretty much fly stick, rudder and eyeballs. Just wondering how the USAF does it. Looking for speculation and known facts.
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I am confident that it is all cadence/timing, decision gates (speed, height, heading, position) and visual geometry - since that is what I have learned for formation flight, aerobatic flight, and formation aerobatic flight.
They fly specific speeds and headings for specific times, lead makes calls, they make adjustments to meet the gate which you can see when smoke fades out for some but not all (afterburner use) - when you can see closely you'll see boards (speedbrakes) from some as they close in to meet the time hack.
JK
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