Notify PAF Aircraft Crashes

[anathema]

That is a dedicated aerobatics team. Same goes with the Rafale solo demo team. Whereas with PAF demos they are normally practiced close to a time of choosing regarding an occasion. PAF normally does not have a dedicated squadron pilot who flies demos. A good example is UAEAF, who have a junior operational pilots assigned as demo pilots for flying the Mirage 2000-9 & F-16 Block 60s.

Junior pilots ? Are you sure ? World over aviators consider flying display as one of the most challenging since margin of error is extremely small. So pretty much display team is made up of seasoned aviators !

 

[baqai]

he had ample amount of time to bail out but he till the very last second was trying to pull up

 

[LeGenD]

I am late to comment on this development due to sickness, but I shall do the needful.

Very sad news and development (i.e. loss of PAF’s Wg Cdr Noman Akram).

Inna Lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un.

My 2 cents.

1. WE live in troubling times (aur iss era mein nazar lagg jaati hai). Lessen demonstrations at personal and national capacity. Dua for mercy from Allah Almighty.

2. PAF should not consider accomplished pilots for RISKY acrobatics in a show. Maybe consider training a few pilots for these ends/spectacles - safer this way.

 

[CaptainNemo]

 

[ghazi52]

DG ISPR
No PR- 45/2020-ISPR
Lahore, March 15, 2020

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa visited family of Wing Commander Noman Akram Shaheed in Lahore today.
COAS prayed for the departed soul and offered Fateha.
" We owe improved peace & stability to supreme sacrifices rendered by our martyrs. Their sacrifices won’t go waste”. COAS

https://www.facebook.com/

 

[Windjammer]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1239238978290810880

 

[Silicon0000]

I think PAF should make a dedicated team of pilots for air shows with JF17. It will also help in JF17 promotion in international air shows.

Just my opinion.

 

[Raider 21]

Junior pilots ? Are you sure ? World over aviators consider flying display as one of the most challenging since margin of error is extremely small. So pretty much display team is made up of seasoned aviators !

Yes by junior operational pilots. Another thing from when I spoke to a retired Viper veteran today, PAF does not field a no.2 or safety observer when aerobatics are being flown as they normally stay in radio comms with them. Another negative sadly.

Notice in the clip below, 2 rolls followed by a split S a few seconds later. PAF Viper demos normally are not creative to change hence the expected maneuver by late Wing Commander Noman would have been the same. In the videos from what I've noticed, he does 1 roll followed by an immediate Split S.

 

[extinct]

Everyone knows about stalls but there is a lesser known category of stalls that happens at high speed during maneuvers (turns and loops)... this is because the "angle of attack" (thus the "critical angle of attack" just before stall) is between "wing chord" and "relative wind" and not the "head wind"...

when a pilot tries to pull close to the bottom of a loop his/her plane (to level out) the wing is close to critical angle of attack since the "relative wind vector" is more from the bottom of the wing. The wing loses lift and the plane starts sinking in the loop... the only way to decrease the angle of attack here is to ease on the stick, or widen the loop, but the wider loop is not possible since the ground is fast approaching and if there is no altitude margin (this was an demonstration maneuver designed to wow the spectators so no margin here) a crash in inevitable...

Lift of a wing depends on (at current altitude) wind speed/direction, humidity, baro pressure, ambient temperature... Physics is brutal and the equation is dynamic... you set your loop decision heights and after that you are on a roller coaster that will follow the tracks of physics...

This was neither pilot error, nor it was machine error... an experienced airshow caliber pilot was rehearsing maneuvers to wow a crowd, margins were lowered and it was his day to perish due to an unsolvable equation...

I think he did eject at the last moment, hence the parachute deployment, saved his remains intact, quite lucky as the outcome could have been complete vaporization at a nose first impact...

 

[Raider 21]

Everyone knows about stalls but there is a lesser known category of stalls that happens at high speed during maneuvers (turns and loops)... this is because the "angle of attack" (thus the "critical angle of attack" just before stall) is between "wing chord" and "relative wind" and not the "head wind"...

when a pilot tries to pull close to the bottom of a loop his/her plane (to level out) the wing is close to critical angle of attack since the "relative wind vector" is more from the bottom of the wing. The wing loses lift and the plane starts sinking in the loop... the only way to decrease the angle of attack here is to ease on the stick, or widen the loop, but the wider loop is not possible since the ground is fast approaching and if there is no altitude margin (this was an demonstration maneuver designed to wow the spectators so no margin here) a crash in inevitable...

Lift of a wing depends on (at current altitude) wind speed/direction, humidity, baro pressure, ambient temperature... Physics is brutal and the equation is dynamic... you set your loop decision heights and after that you are on a roller coaster that will follow the tracks of physics...

This was neither pilot error, nor it was machine error... an experienced airshow caliber pilot was rehearsing maneuvers to wow a crowd, margins were lowered and it was his day to perish due to an unsolvable equation...

I think he did eject at the last moment, hence the parachute deployment, saved his remains intact, quite lucky as the outcome could have been complete vaporization at a nose first impact...

He was an experienced fighter pilot, a sharpshooter by talent and qualifications. Not to mention a leader by OC. But definitely he was not an experienced demo pilot and no you're mistaken. Did not eject at all.

 

[airomerix]

Everyone knows about stalls but there is a lesser known category of stalls that happens at high speed during maneuvers (turns and loops)... this is because the "angle of attack" (thus the "critical angle of attack" just before stall) is between "wing chord" and "relative wind" and not the "head wind"...

when a pilot tries to pull close to the bottom of a loop his/her plane (to level out) the wing is close to critical angle of attack since the "relative wind vector" is more from the bottom of the wing. The wing loses lift and the plane starts sinking in the loop... the only way to decrease the angle of attack here is to ease on the stick, or widen the loop, but the wider loop is not possible since the ground is fast approaching and if there is no altitude margin (this was an demonstration maneuver designed to wow the spectators so no margin here) a crash in inevitable...

Lift of a wing depends on (at current altitude) wind speed/direction, humidity, baro pressure, ambient temperature... Physics is brutal and the equation is dynamic... you set your loop decision heights and after that you are on a roller coaster that will follow the tracks of physics...

This was neither pilot error, nor it was machine error... an experienced airshow caliber pilot was rehearsing maneuvers to wow a crowd, margins were lowered and it was his day to perish due to an unsolvable equation...

I think he did eject at the last moment, hence the parachute deployment, saved his remains intact, quite lucky as the outcome could have been complete vaporization at a nose first impact...

Beautifully explained.

 

[Safriz]

Everyone knows about stalls but there is a lesser known category of stalls that happens at high speed during maneuvers (turns and loops)... this is because the "angle of attack" (thus the "critical angle of attack" just before stall) is between "wing chord" and "relative wind" and not the "head wind"...

when a pilot tries to pull close to the bottom of a loop his/her plane (to level out) the wing is close to critical angle of attack since the "relative wind vector" is more from the bottom of the wing. The wing loses lift and the plane starts sinking in the loop... the only way to decrease the angle of attack here is to ease on the stick, or widen the loop, but the wider loop is not possible since the ground is fast approaching and if there is no altitude margin (this was an demonstration maneuver designed to wow the spectators so no margin here) a crash in inevitable...

Lift of a wing depends on (at current altitude) wind speed/direction, humidity, baro pressure, ambient temperature... Physics is brutal and the equation is dynamic... you set your loop decision heights and after that you are on a roller coaster that will follow the tracks of physics...

This was neither pilot error, nor it was machine error... an experienced airshow caliber pilot was rehearsing maneuvers to wow a crowd, margins were lowered and it was his day to perish due to an unsolvable equation...

I think he did eject at the last moment, hence the parachute deployment, saved his remains intact, quite lucky as the outcome could have been complete vaporization at a nose first impact...

Pilot never ejected. There is a video being shared on social media in which a PAF pilot is lying on the ground with parachute deployed, but that's from Mianwali crash involving an FT-7.
The plane did come down like a bullet after the loop and there seems to be something wrong. An experienced pilot couldn't have come that fast towards the ground.

 

[Yaseen1]

initial reports saying that jet was hit by bird due to which its maneuverability was affected and pilot failed to control it,also there were birds flying near jet at time of accident.

 

[Raider 21]

I think PAF should make a dedicated team of pilots for air shows with JF17. It will also help in JF17 promotion in international air shows.

Just my opinion.

Manpower is something they'd lack, PAF normally moves in a cyclic manner particularly with pilots. It took them over 30 years just to upgrade their Sherdils routine. Nothing is impossible in their capabilities, they have top notch aviators who can do the job. They just don't exhibit a culture for those type of air shows.

 

[Windjammer]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1239370406462722048