Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 7:02 amThanks to AJ for this tail (sic)
"The tail strike occurred during at a 1990 airshow in Harrison, Arkansas. Kelly, who was a technician for the FAA and somewhat of a camera buff, was tracking this guy flying a MiG-15 with his camera.
The pilot had just completed a loop and misjudged his pull-out. Everyone, considering themselves as potential victims, took-off running in all directions.
But Kelly had a non-threatening position with strong motivation to take the picture. So just as the MiG scraped the ground, Kelly captured this rare image.
Had it been circulated at the time, this clear, once in a lifetime photograph might have earned an award.
A few weeks later, in Fort Smith, Kelly was showing me these pictures he had developed at a local Walmart. I asked him for a copy and now have it hanging on my office wall "“ a clear depiction of the tiny difference between life and death.
Oh, by the way, the guy just flew a wide circle, lowered his landing gear, touched down then taxied in, the plane showing very minor damage."
"The tail strike occurred during at a 1990 airshow in Harrison, Arkansas. Kelly, who was a technician for the FAA and somewhat of a camera buff, was tracking this guy flying a MiG-15 with his camera.
The pilot had just completed a loop and misjudged his pull-out. Everyone, considering themselves as potential victims, took-off running in all directions.
But Kelly had a non-threatening position with strong motivation to take the picture. So just as the MiG scraped the ground, Kelly captured this rare image.
Had it been circulated at the time, this clear, once in a lifetime photograph might have earned an award.
A few weeks later, in Fort Smith, Kelly was showing me these pictures he had developed at a local Walmart. I asked him for a copy and now have it hanging on my office wall "“ a clear depiction of the tiny difference between life and death.
Oh, by the way, the guy just flew a wide circle, lowered his landing gear, touched down then taxied in, the plane showing very minor damage."
Somewhere on my travels I've seen a shot of a Mk XIV Spit leaving the tips of its big old Dowty 5-blade prop buried in a grass runway after misjudging a loop (again, a very quick, cautious circuit and he made it down ok) Also while waiting for the tow-plane at NZTG, I've seen the Hawker Hunter giving its pilot a good demonstration of how much inertia a 10ton jet has while trying to pull up from either a dive or the back side of a loop (wasnt taking much notice until i saw the nose raise and the a/c continue earthwards) That said he was at least at 1500ft when it was occuring... 
