Few people outside the aerospace sector are aware of the breadth and depth of our admittedly insular little world. If it’s not an airliner or fighter jet, it’s pretty much off the radar for the general public.

I’ve been fortunate to partake in a wide variety of different flying activities throughout my career: aerobatics, sea planes, instructional flying, tailwheels, antiques, formation, skywriting, experimentals, warbirds, crop dusting, and now the rarefied world of high-end jet charter.

But there’s one particularly tantalizing segment of aviation I’ve yet to delve into: the low level back-country “bush” flying you’ll find in places like Idaho, Alaska, and Canada. There you’ll find aircraft with astounding STOL (short takeoff & landing) capabilities, especially in the hands of the right pilot. These guys routinely alight in places you’d never think an airplane could go without sustaining fatal damage.

The key elements are skill, experience, and of course the proper equipment. Put large enough low-pressure tires on a Cub and it’ll land on virtually anything. Ice, snow, water, and rocks that are more aptly described as boulders.

A few years ago a guy named Greg Miller started filming his off-airport exploits and published ‘em under the name Big Rocks Long Props. If you haven’t seen the series, volume 5 is about to be released, and the cinematography looks to be the best yet due to the new cameras and mounts they’re using.

If you enjoyed that one, take a look at their Study of STOL video. It centers on the annual STOL contest in Valdez, Alaska. I’ve seen helicopters that could barely land in that short a space — and that’s the raison d’etre behind it all. When you don’t need pavement and have a landing roll of less than 100 feet, you journey to places few fixed-wing pilots will ever see up close. Fishing in a remote location, climbing a glacier, exploring a tiny sand bar, it’s all within the realm of possibility.

There’s a practical application for this kind of flying, too. Most of the world lacks our aviation infrastructure. If you want to get around in places like Africa, you’ll be landing on short, rough strips in the middle of nowhere. Bush flying is more the rule than the exception in the third world.

Anyway, much like sea plane flying, every bush landing is different because the surface conditions are always changing and the undulating terrain creates unpredictable wind conditions. Even for the experts, it’s not always easy. Here’s a narrated clip of Greg Miller nearly busting up his airplane while filming volume 2 of the series.

Even though most of us don’t do this kind of flying, there’s a good lesson here: you can do something of great difficulty just right a thousand times, and then you make one little mistake and you’re a Youtube sensation for all the wrong reasons. Fair? Maybe not… but aviation is like that.

Flying seems to be getting more painful every day for those confined to the airlines. If you think it’s bad here in the United States, take a look at Irish-based Ryanair. They take cheapness to a new level, both in terms of airfares and amenities.

Ryanair is quite famous for this. Far from being embarrassed by their reputation, they actually take pride in it. The fares may be low, but walk aboard their aircraft you’ll find less leg room than on any other airline. They’ve even gone so far as to remove the seat-back pockets in order to save weight and space in the cabin.

But that’s just the start. Ryanair charges passengers extra money if they are too heavy (a so-called “fat tax”). You’ll also get dinged if you need to print a boarding pass or use the toilet on board the aircraft. Checking luggage? That’ll cost you at least $41 per bag.

Never one to rest on their laurels, this month Ryanair has taken the “cheapo” mentality to a new level by virtually doing away with lavatories altogether.

While not exactly a long-haul airline, they do have awfully long routes for that sort of thing (Finland to southern Spain, for example), especially when you consider that the time on board the aircraft often includes long taxi delays. Imagine a two hour flight with a two hour ground stop.

I’m flying in the Gulfstream world, where there are two lavatories for a typical 5-7 people on board the aircraft. Ryanair is expecting 200+ souls to share a single restroom, and pay for the privilege. Can you imagine the conditions on board that airplane? I’m guessing it’ll be akin to what you’d find in a poor rural village somewhere in India.

Ryanair has been skewered by many, but few hit the mark quite like this parody:

I think there was a mix-up somewhere and I got this guy’s fortune by mistake.

Last September a Thunderbird F-16C crashed just after takeoff during an airshow performance in Idaho. The pilot managed to eject 0.8 seconds before impact and walked away with only minor injuries.

As one might expect at an airshow, there were many cameras trained on Thunderbird #6 when the accident occurred. Even so, this photo showing the $21 million jet just before impact is quite remarkable.

Even more remarkable is this video clip from an on-board camera showing the split-S maneuver and subsequent ejection from inside the cockpit. It’s a 4.1 megabyte mpeg, but if you can swing the bandwidth I highly recommend watching it.

As a side note, the accident investigation report was issued this week. It concluded that the accident was caused by pilot error. The pilot misinterpreted the altitude required to complete the “Split S” maneuver. He made his calculation based on an incorrect mean-sea-level (MSL) altitude of the airfield. The pilot incorrectly climbed to 1,670 feet above ground level (AGL) instead of 2,500 feet before initiating the pull down to the Split S maneuver.

It was a simple mistake. Unfortunately the stakes are very high when you’re performing low-level aerobatics.

Update – Feb 25, 2004: This entry has been receiving a lot of hits, so I thought I’d upload another video of the crash (1.3 meg, WMV format)–this time as seen from the ground. It’s every bit as dramatic as the cockpit video.

Update – Sept 21, 2004: If you liked this entry, there are a few more video clips you might be interested in.