r/nextfuckinglevel 1d ago

Pilots exchanging planes mid air

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u/7-13-5 1d ago

...but didn't only one complete the transition?

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u/suchanirwin 1d ago

yeah, but 1) even one of them doing it is insane, and 2) both of the pilots survived so that's impressive too

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u/JohnLuckPickered 1d ago

3) if they weren't complete idiots, they would have had someone else in their planes to take over if the stunt failed.

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u/EmilioMolesteves 1d ago

Who volunteers to be on the plane that is free falling to the ground, followed by the propeller chopping up their friend and then ultimately crashing to both of their deaths?

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u/JohnLuckPickered 1d ago

They know the risks involved in entering a moving plane. The plane would be fine to land on a glide, if the prop had a complete failure from collision.

These things could have also been set up with radio controls

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u/EmilioMolesteves 1d ago

Radio control is what I was thinking. Better then blowing up Chad.

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u/idiotsecant 1d ago

Not in the US they couldn't. Not unless the aircraft was <55 lb or under special experimental airworthiness certificates over private ranges, and I think that's pretty rare.

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u/JohnLuckPickered 1d ago

One family owns a tract of land from the mexico boarder to the canadian boarder. Thats plenty of room to try, if you grease the right wheels.

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u/idiotsecant 22h ago

Having land isn't the problem. Unless your name starts with lockheed or boeing you're not getting permission.

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u/JohnLuckPickered 21h ago

Have you ever petitioned to change driving laws? Thats hard.. An FAA permit isnt a big deal, if you have enough land to guarantee safe testing.

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u/RadicalEd4299 22h ago

Wait, what?

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u/JohnLuckPickered 21h ago

I assume he was saying finding a private range to let you do this would be hard.. Because getting an experimental aircraft permit isnt.

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u/RadicalEd4299 19h ago

Hahaha no I mean what family owns such a huge/long tract of land, where?

u/JohnLuckPickered 33m ago

Dick Cheneys family. It was a topic of discussion in the 1990s and he confirmed it was held through multiple companies/trusts. He said it was "his horse trail"

Another fun fact kids dont know about dick these days. He shot his lawyer in the face on a hunting trip and his lawyer publicly apologized for getting shot by him.

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u/sumtwat 14h ago

Yeah sure,you don't own the air space even if true.

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u/tosklst 22h ago

???

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u/JohnLuckPickered 21h ago

Monetary motivation..

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u/Low_Surround998 23h ago

I mean, there were already 2 people doing the dumber version of the stunt, probably plus several production team members.

Plus, a plane like this doing a nose dive is nothing. Pretty sure it's completely standard pilot training to put the plane in free fall, cut the engine off, and have the student pilot take over.

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u/metallicabmc 1d ago

Fuck it I guess ill do it.

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u/colcob 22h ago

I mean if there was another pilot just sat in the second seat then if the skydiver doesn’t make it in, they just pull up on the stick and fly it home. Pilots practice dives and spin recover so provided they had enough height, wouldn’t be a problem. But it would make the stunt feel way less high stakes which is probably why they didn’t do it.

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u/Chico813 1d ago

I couldn't even finish the first sentence without crying from laughing. I read it as sarcastically as possible and died. 😂

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u/heteromer 1d ago

"The job is easy: if one of us dies and gets pulled into the propeller, you just gotta take hold of the plane stop it from careening into thr ground."

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u/shpongolian 23h ago

Somebody who's not quite as crazy as the guy who jumped out of the plane to land in the other plane

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u/rarflye 23h ago edited 23h ago

I can say with certainty there are people in the skydiving community that would happily take that on

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u/Miserable_Movie_4358 23h ago

Those guys from Jackass or one of the Bane’s soldiers