David Cenciotti recently posted some videos on his blog in Italy of a crazy flyover by an Argentine Air Force IA-63 Pampa pilot. In the videos, it looked as though the pilot flew his jet just one meter above the ground in front of a group of guys watching and filming the maneuver.
Commenting about the videos, David himself wrote that the stunt was a sign of poor airmanship in the wake of the leader of the Blue Angels stepping down after a near crash but his views have sparked a debate on his site – often pitting Argentine aviators and readers who feel their pilots are behaving bravely against readers from other countries who feel as David does and that such stunts are a sign of poor airmanship.
David has since written another post where he noted that he has been receiving plenty of links to other videos showing impromptu air shows or stunts – most of them involving Argentinian pilots. One video also showed a 2001 accident involving a T-34 Mentor at the Escuela de Aviación Militar de la Fuerza Aérea Argentina of Cordoba where the formation leader misjudged the position of the left wingman – who ended up hitting the control tower and crashing.
Hence, we want to ask you our readers what you think about these pilots performing these types of stunts or maneuvers: Are they being brave or is this just plain stupid behavior on the part of macho pilots?
