Hat tip to Rodney of the Rodney’s Aviation Ramblings blog for finding and posting this video of 1920s wing walker Gladys Ingle of the 13 BLACK CATS changing aircraft in mid-air in order to replace a lost wheel. Rodney’s comment was:
I am sure there are a few reasons why this would never happen these days…
…probably including the Rules, and a lack of engineers who enjoy flying…:-)
And we can safely assume this would not be legal in the UK today:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oAzdbd0J2A&w=480]
The same goes for this next video (“The daredevil pilots of Colombia”) produced for Al Jazeera and posted on FlightSchoolList.com showing pilots in Colombia fly a DC3 on some of the most perilous air routes in the world over the Amazon jungle. One reason old DC3s are still used is because they can actually stand up to the brutal weather and climate conditions in places like the Amazon jungle where they deliver supplies to remote villages, but maintenance problems and (fatal) accidents are common:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-F-cBF5ZbQ&w=480]
Finally, Matt Dearden, a British born Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter pilot who flies over the jungles of Indonesia, has recently posted this great flying video on his Bush Flying Diaries, Indonesia blog that was taken on trips to remote and rather dangerous looking jungle airstrips in Northern Kalimantan/Borneo. The scenes were shot over a few months entirely on a single GoPro 1 HD camera:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj2aw2zjdlA&w=480]