DC4 Skymaster Flight Sequence - SAAF Harvard 50 Year Anniversary

[whemadre]

Lots of Gs for that old bird. Made when things were made to last. Navy pilot.

[elscrono]

Does Anyone,now where this Footage was taken???????

[tonetriv]

Great flying. You can see the tiny touches that mark a pilot who knows what he's doing. Slight climb into the steep banks at low altitude, minute but keeps the wingtip from the weeds. Many other small masterful touches.

[sablatnic]

Great piloting!! We used to have C54's here, but I never saw one do like that.

[42percent]

I say it was great piloting. This guy really knows the bird. He definately pushed it to the edge though.

[chopperrules]

Correct Juggie62!!!

[Juggie62]

The pilot in this video is a respected ex Air Force Pilot and Airline Pilot. The aircraft was flown within all of its limits. With proper planning and practice all manouvers were cleared by the SAAF. I know as I was the co-pilot during these flights, yes there was more than one, and never was I afraid or thought that we were endangering anybody.

[xKmotx]

Fly it like you stole it! :):):)

[andresprieto68]

great pilot? He´s an asshole. What the hell he was thinking? The aviation is not a circus

idiot

[greenseaships]

@andresprieto68

@andresprieto68 Aviation? Perhaps not. Air shows? DEFINITELY a circus. That is and always will be the point. It's a fine line between idiot and great pilot. A great pilot is one who understands not only his airplane, but it's condition (especially metal fatigue) intimately and knows exactly what he can get away with and no more. Did he crash this plane? Until the evidence shows otherwise, he looks more like a great pilot than an idiot.

[fighterace0]

That simultaneous restart was beautiful! Amazing teamwork, amazing pilot. Was it bad risk management? Well I've seen guys jump out of an airplane when all 4 engines were still running so...

[sussitube]

Que belleza !!!

[turugo]

Muito bom...

[marceloquines]

Beatiful flight and great pilot, but must be carefull with a rare and precious plane.

[tavow]

Espectacular el video y lo que hacen con ese DC-4

[tbm3pilot]

Hmmm. Our warbird insurance company takes a dim view of such maneuvers in "their" aircraft - not to mention the FAA's opinion. Perhaps we should relocate to South Africa. Good show nonetheless.

[BoeingFE]

Obviously smoothly flown and not stressful for the airframe. Not too sure about the low level pass with gear down and double assymetric though. Not unknown for feather pumps to fail to unfeather the prop or for pne of the remaiming operating engines to fail. Great flying - poor risk management I suggest. Old Fella

[CusoOrtiz]

As the late Tex Jonhston said "you can do aerobatics in any airplane,there is a fine line in that envelope,just know the limits". He did a pair of aileron rolls in a B- 707 wihixh is in the Udvar Hazy Museum in Dulles Airport,Washingotn DC. I have seen it twice at the museum and and I imagine Capt. Jonhston seating in the pilot seat rolling the 707...WOW. Who ever is the pilot and crew in this flight,I take my hat offf and admire them.

[CusoOrtiz]

Spectacular way to fly a DC-4. The pilot and crew knows what they are doing,that's team work. It's a very smooth flight taking advantage of speed to change it to altitude and vice versa. Notice after the wing over they come down to to pick up speed and begin the partial barrel roll....spectacular.

[TankPanZeR]

The C-17 demo team has nothing for this.......

[traveler08a]

Beautiful A/C, love this plane, remember when i was a kid in the airport all those birds in they gloriously days as an airliners...

[Archie23rulz]

Yeah Baby!!!

[freaklemon]

I fear that doing these 2G+ manoeuvres repeatedly, is too much for these old birds. I flew one of our squadron birds to LaCrosse, WI in early 2000s and French V-tail Fouga snapped a wing and killed not only the pilot, but a newly wed bride who had one a raffle to ride. The profile was not a high G one, either.

[web2student]

Like a bird that never flapped its' wings.

Magnificent.

[GRRXtreme]

Very nice flying!!! Impressive flying with only two engines turning (on the port wing) ;^)

[ladalmagro]

Nice Plane on very good hands. The pilots knows his aircraft! Congratulations

[xaminmo]

I didn't think much about it until he did the loop. Nice job.

[agwhitaker]

UMMM !!!

You are not supposed to fly 4 engined aircraft that way , you know. 

[rbradaigh]

@agwhitaker True. On the other hand four fingers and a thumb.

[willievictorwv2]

Crank'em up, then push the throttle up under the driver's right hand, then let go. Watch the MAP's for over boosts, how ever.....

[OGJDive]

Otimo Piloto parabens

[Guilhemlepilote]

he's a FABULOUS pilot ! congratulations man !

[southernpilot]

That pilot is an idiot.

[Guilhemlepilote]

@southernpilot no ! only a pilot who knows his machine and his limitations ! the idiot's pilots are the one who try to do the same thing without experience of flying !

[willievictorwv2]

@Guilhemlepilote

You don't see any yanking going on. Just smooth stick work. I wonder what ole Donny would say if he saw this???

[BillyRosinet]

American aviation engineering at its best. The pilot ain't too shabby either!

[eaglegrafix]

I was a passenger in a DC4 on flights across the Atlantic as a child. The pilot never ever did a loop for me.

[55bloke]

That's genuinely astonishing! Borderline suicidal though!

[MONDARIZDK]

I like how the flight engineer pump #3 and #4 back in action - cool stuff.

[Propliner1955]

@MONDARIZDK . It's easy. Just punch #3 and #4 feather buttons. That, in turn, activates the electric feather pumps, pushing oil to the dome to bring the blades out of feather and back to normal range. The mixture levers were probably already set to Rich, so the engines fire off right away and power is restored.

[asixpilot155]

Great flying! Beautiful to watch!

BZ!

[spendinthemost]

This flight sequence looks a bit risky to me. Reminds me of the C-17 crash I witnessed on Elmendorf last summer only this guy was lucky! Just my opinion and I only fly models but I think he's right on the edge with this flying style!

[creationsbyrms]

Bigradials I understand your point however I was really impressed. I didn't know a plane like the DC4 could even be maneuvered in this manner.  IMPRESSIVE.

[bigradials]

There´s no loop in this video. Just a pull up followed by a roll to an almost fully inverted attitude. Sufficient speed and height to roll back and pull out. Very mixed feeling about this though. There´s no need at all to display a C-54 like this, the Skymaster is spectacular enough of its own and neither does it fit an airliner/transport. Tremendous flying though, and obviously superb teamwork by the pilots and flight engineer.

[ThinkingManNeil]

Personally I'd be a bit hesitant to stunt a plane as old as a C-54 like that, especially doing that pull-up so close and perpendicular to the show line (i.e., pulling up close to or over the crowd), but it also appears to me that the pilot knows his airplane and her capabilities well.

[LethalHobo]

Now I know a little more as to why the DC-4 is such a legend!

[762radron]

Despite the critics, (maybe they're jealous), that's some good piece of flying. Had to look twice at the two starboard engines. The loop was a complete surprise!

[max2gain]

The real impressive thing in this video is the simultaneous restart of No 3 & No 4.

That airplane with no cargo load and probably a very light fuel load could easily handle the stresses the pilot was putting on it.

[mileswrich]

And that full loop, that was really frigging stupid flying

[mileswrich]

Some idiot did that with a B-52 and he and his crew bought the ranch

[AirAusquin]

@mileswrich right. Dumb thing to do with a plane with spoilers :(

[aab737800]

There are no spoilers on either the DC-3, DC-4, DC-6 or DC-7.

[aab737800]

Beautiful low-energy routine performed in a very capable airplane.

[AirAusquin]

@aab737800 I was talking about the B-52 accident mentioned earlier...

[greenslime27]

Fantastic right up to the point it stoofs in . . . oh, that hasn't happened . . .yet.

You really shouldn't do that with big aeroplanes, especially vintage ones

[peacewavenow]

WOW!

[johnnythelowery]

That is some good flying!