Tandem Aerobatics Reloaded
Two years have passed since I began the Tandem Aerobatics Project ! 1013 tandem flights recorded. And these, these are the numbers of this statistical study of mine:
Out of all these flights, 78 % were acro flights(SAT or looping at least:
– 65 % were top-level aerobatic ( hellie & connections ) ;
– 13 % of the passengers felt sick and threw up from thermalling over the mountain;
– 5 % of the 78 % passengers that did not feel sick from thermalling and opted for acro got to feel sick upon landing.
– 7 increased danger situations were recorded from normal flight procedure ( 4 on takeoff, 3 on landing ). Note that increased danger does not mean incident or accident, it just means moments of intense stress for the pilot ( like late abort of takeoff, short, long or vertical landing );
– 1 increased danger situation while flying tandem acro ( line loosening + front collapse );
– No accidents or injuries whatsoever to passenger or pilot.
– No emergency lake landings. Only special-show tandem lake landing, pre-planned with rescue boat scheduled on-time.
– 1 unhappy passenger due to aerobatic flight ( during an air to air filming session ).
All aerobatic activity was done with the full consent of passenger, over the lake with safety altitude and life jacket at hand.
Conclusions ( statistical ):
Tandem aerobatic flight can involve less risk than normal flight procedure ( if trained and performed properly ). Respekt acro!
Tandem aerobatic flight does not necessarily make people sick if they do not get dizzy from normal thermalling, and if the maneuvers are performed only at the end of the flight, prior to landing.
Most of the passengers opt for aerobatic flight if they are asked during flight, before the approach to the lake – asking them prior to takeoff is inefficient, they don’t know how normal flight is yet. Ask them after 10 min of thermalling, then they can decide – 🙂
In the video that follows I show my maneuver repertoire, the result of my work during those 2 years. The edit of this video has so been done to emphasize maneuvers independently, so that the viewer can observe different passengers’ reaction comparing same type of movement.
There were no failures in the cut parts of the clips, but because I connect the maneuvres all the time ( like superstalls with hellies, hellies with SATs, misty flips with hellies, etc , it would have been a very very long video :)). So, enjoy, and be amazed !
hey colin! nice video! maybe a little bit to long 😀
nice job! see you