Re: Low level loss of concentration
Happy to hear our lads are of the same mentality. Let's face it - if I were a kid getting to fly a Typhoon sure as hell I would want to skim the trees. Wouldn't we all? (Except the po-faced Squadron Leader who had grown out of it)
They aren't actually allowed in general unless for specific training. We have a very limited number of fighter aircraft, and it's perhaps not generally understood by the general public that they also have a limited flying life due to metal fatigue etc when you throw them around so using them up on joyrides would lead to getting a disciplinary without a (good) plausible excuse.
What actually happens is that some RAF pilots then volunteer to fly air cadets at weekends in their training aircraft. Did you know you can pull negative gee turns and do enough positive Gees to start getting a greyout from manoeuvring a light aircraft with an engine with less power than the big boss/ sales manager has in their car? You do now. ;)
Point the plane straight up, and turn the engine off. There hum of the engine turns to a thrash, thrash t h r a s h as the prop stops without anything driving it, and the plane slows down and just hangs. For a moment it starts sliding backwards, before gravity reasserts itself against the fact that a ton worth of front heavy material is sitting a few miles up. Then the plane violently changes direction, and falls with the aerodynamic grace of a brick, before asserting enough aerodynamics to spin violently. Then you turn the engine back on, shove it to full throttle (check for airframe damage, ie that nothing has fallen off etc) and then pull out. After this, assuming that nothing has departed from the aircraft in an uncontrolled and unplanned manner then either repeat, or try something else more extreme.
Pulling those sorts of stunts is simply incredible. It doesn't do much for the structural life of the aircraft though.
ACP33 vol4- airframes "Aircraft life is often quoted in flying hours. For example an RAF training aircraft has a life of 5,000 flying hours and Concorde 45,000 hours (A service trainer is expected to suffer much more severe treatment than an airliner!)."
The manufacturer seemed quite happy at first to get a large order for a few hundred aircraft, and given the 30 off year type history and pool of aircraft with 15-25k hours in service I'm sure they thought they wouldn't have any problems. Presumably the unique items on servicing like "the engine mounts are becoming detached from the frame of the aircraft" and "the propellers fall off?!" were something of a surprise to them.
No idea why, honest. ;) You'd think that the people supplying the aircraft didn't read think to read the manuals the cadets study or ask any questions about the intended use or something.