The Blue Angels would be proud to pass this close in a cross over !
I just threw up a little. Fate is the hunterâŚ
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I just started reading it (again)âŚ
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Dumb luck or just plain dumb? That is the questionâŚ
Wheels
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Scary, indeed.
But what I donât understand is why donât I hear a âCLIMB!â and associated expletives?
I mean, the guy saw it in time to film itâŚ
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Both Cav , I mean the guy passing under has to be dumber than a bag of Hammers. It also had to be pure luck that the Pilot in the Aircraft that was above , above being a very relative term here, did not see him sooner as most peoples instincts would be to either dive and turn, or they might possibly flinch or such and the slightest change in attitude of the top aircraft and we just get a story about a Mid-Air. Video would have been gone with the wreckage.
I do not think the pilot up top had any recognition at all of the dire situation coming towards him at some serious speed, till things were so far into the red zone his mind did not even have time to process what was actually happening .I am guessing that was a Blessing that he may not have.
On the other end of the spectrum , Harrison Ford there in the crossing aircraft needs his license pulled / suspended immediately . Then a good arse whooping might not be a bad idea either , do him / her some good .
I am like @BeachAV8R , I threw up a little in my mouth first time I saw that. Scared the hell out of me just watching it . Will certainly make one hell of a Safety awareness training / re-training video for sure .
Was flying with my Dad many years ago , we were about 35 miles or so North of San Diego . I just happened to look up and say âhey dad look at that 747â , had to be 3 miles out at One Oâclock High. Next thing I know, we were in a very interesting dive and turn. I mean that was 3 miles and I still will never forget that.
This one, was about 3 feet, or less ! Its horrifying to even think about that. I bet that top pilot has been throwing up and shaking non-stop since this happened.
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I think that was as clueless a passenger / co-pilot as one could ever have . I wondered that myself , but might be a good thing they did not since all turned out ok.
Still, I agree, with the lead time to get your phone or camera and start filming , there is plenty of time for a fire walled Throttle and climb to the moon.
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Regarding the guy filmingâŚsome posts (Tweets) on the original post have been slamming him for not issuing a warningâŚwhich would have been nice.
I recall going to the Red Flag safety brief at Nellis AFB (not the DCS version; the RL version). Most of it was about Low Levels and terrain avoidanceâŚwhich we learned was a good thing.
They also had a small section about photography and filming from the cockpit, especially in single seat jets. (This was 1987, personal video cameras were still a bit big for a cockpit but 8mm movie cameras were not)
We were told that a couple of things happen:
First, the view through the view finder of a camera (in this case the phone screen) does not accurately portray reality. It like the âObjects in Mirror are Closer than they Appearâ warning. What you see is often just not where you are. It also limits your view (more so with view finders) so you lose peripheral vision cues. They illustrated all this with 8mm film recovered from an A-7 crash. It all looks normal until tree branches enter the frame a split second before impact.
Second is fixation: When it is in a view finder (or on a screen), it sucks your attention. You can very easily lose SA of what is going on around you. Your focus is the screen and thatâs it.
Not defending the passenger, just a potential explanation of what was/wasnât going through his brain at the time.
âŚthis might be a good place for a GoPro⢠advertisement. 
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Someone should be filling out an airprox report and taking a lesson in what 500ft looks like
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If this was uncontrolled airspace, which I think it was, both aircraft may very well be at the correct altitude.
The right of way for converging aircraft says the overtaking aircraft should change its course to the right. But who is overtaking who?
Uncontrolled airspace VFR is all about see and be seen. This is also a classic case of a high wing aircraft passing below a low wing aircraft. Both pilots are at a visual disadvantage.
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Not so much this as the minimum safe distance for separation in VFR.
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Yeah, but thatâs if you see the other traffic.
Using the same altitude is allowed, as long as you use lateral separation.
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I agree.
However I still think this is a few boneheads messing around rather than a genuine airprox out of the blue lol
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My new favorite thing to write on Mudspike is, flying is safe until itâs not. Weâve all been there. Iâve had two misses that were about as close when I was towing gliders. People fly (flew? not sure yet) through my aerobatic box all the time. Once I chased an intruder (a Cherokee) down and held his wing about 10 feet away. It was a minute before he saw me. . People donât pay attention to what they are doing. The guy filming was concentrating on filming. He/she was probably looking at the screen and didnât even notice the trouble they were in until the plane passed. Itâs easy to judge people. The internet makes it a pastime.
BCV, I would try to avoid flying on weekends. There are just too many planes, especially near airports, training, getting lunch, enjoying the day. Bumpy, cloudy weekdays are the best!
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Fun too⌠
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Not unlikelyâŚ
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My first comment is that it seems to happen more when the sun is low on the horizon, and in my case around busy metropolitan areas. Add some afternoon haze and your slant visibility can be largely impaired. Not a factor here for either aircraft. The second is that it is harder for the high aircraft to see the low aircraft, because the latter is somewhat obscured by the darker background. Have had close calls in both situations.
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Whew @Victork2 , man BONEHEADS not exactly the term that would come to my mind⌠
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I dont mind a little fun and horseplay or rough housing with a friend at all. Heck , thats what your buds are for , good game of Basketball with some hard but all in fun fouls every now and then or Flag Football where you accidentally put a crushing tackle on a good friend⌠
, but wow if that is their idea of some kind of a fun thing to do they have ZERO right to a Pilot License in my world .
At best if this was some kind of attempt at being cool or having fun , I hope its a Video Edited HOAX .
That kind of thing , if real and joke or not , is simply screaming in the face of Darwinism or Karma to show up and introduce itself to you .
Its not judgement, its just plain truth to me.
Cheers
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Man you said it all there. We have Mckinnon Airstrip here, its a nice and well maintained stretch of sidewalk. Sandwiched between two minor hills and about 2-3 miles from Kentucky Lake. That little Valley it sits in funnels wind up through it in swirls that make life interesting on approach.
Oh, and it is unmanned . 100 yards from it is a nice , out in the middle of no where , Motel and restaurant where one can get the Best Prime rib in the World, or the Best Sunday Home Cooked Country Breakfast Buffet you could ever imagine , been there for years and even though its in the boonies and the smallest county in the state of Tennessee, its known far and wide .
Every weekend evening and especially Sunday Mornings , that little runway more closely resembles a Aerial version of Bumper cars than it does anything one would call a Airport , much less a Airport where anyone with a drop of Sanity would want to be flying in to.
It is no small miracle that we have not had more than few minor or major incidents .
EDIT⌠It is so bad these days, I can not even think of Flying even my RC down there at those times. That is the only place in the County big enough for our RC to fly. Many would hesitate to even fly a Park flyer there , if that tells you how insanely small that stretch of blacktop is.
It is also a good 35-40 miles (55-65 km ) to the next place one might even attempt to fly a kite 
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That was scary - aircraft on collision courses donât âmoveâ from your viewpoint, so are hard to see, so maybe the pilot wasnât aware and the passenger didnât understand the danger? Small planes are hard to see too - particularly gliders.
A glider pilot at my old club in Sydney told how he heard a loud noise and a Duchess flew over him from behind, only a few metres higher than him! He figured he just wasnât visible. Its something you notice when watching aircraft from the ground - as Duty Pilot Iâd be watching locally-flown gliders and it was amazing how a clearly visible glider in a bank could disappear in a split second.
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