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Watch This Fighter Pilot Fly Just Feet off the Ground

Daniel Nelson
Contributor
An admittedly under-informed flight booker, Daniel arrived at TPG in May 2017 still convinced that Spirit Airlines was an viable travel option. But after just one summer at the frequent flyer's front lines, he's changed for the better.
June 16, 2017
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1 min read
Screen Shot 2017-06-16 at 11.18.53 AM
Watch This Fighter Pilot Fly Just Feet off the Ground
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Airplanes are typically found flying high in the sky, far from dangerous obstacles like trees, rocks and other pesky ground-based debris. When you're rocketing forward at speeds well over 400 mph, its not so easy to avoid collisions; if you make one wrong move and you're toast. Yet, in this crazy aviation video, one daring pilot defies reason as he flies really (really really really) close to the ground.

The pilot is flying a "nap-of-the-earth" course, which basically means he's flying as close to the ground as he can. Its a tactic mostly used by fighter pilots in high-risk environments, where flying high means showing up on enemy radar. By maintaining an extremely low-altitude flight course the pilots are able to exploit the surrounding terrain's natural features to mask their position.