The caption states: "A Boeing 707 of Air Zimbabwe, flown by Darryl Tarr doing a low level, high speed flypast in Harare in 1995. According to witnesses, this was not the lowest the pilot flew. Tarr says that his radar altimeter read 6 feet beneath his keel at one time. Many believe that the flight was unauthorized and that Tarr was fired because of it, but he states that he made two flights and they were both authorized. He recounts the facts of the flight in fine detail:
1. Three Crew members only on-board (Flight Engineer, First Officer, and myself)
2. Non- Revenue Flight (or non-commercial flight as some prefer)
3. 12,000 KGs of Fuel (2.0 hours endurance)
4. VREF Approach Speed Flaps 40 was 116 Knots (I was flying at 125 Knots)
5. Radio Altimeter call of 30 feet (from the FE), will be my cue to initiate a Go-Around
6. Back-up call from the F/O, plus visual cues (outside references due to the pitch attitude)
7. Rising ground and the fact that the aircraft is rotated towards +15 degrees in a Go-Around, the empennage will initially rotate downwards and get lower to the ground which was accounted for (as depicted in the photo, the aircraft is climbing)
8. High Speed Fly Past (which is not shown here), was at the Barbers Pole of 375 KIAS (due to the density altitude at Harare True Air Speed was 400 Kts)."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And Captain Tarr left this message in a forum at: http://www.avcom.co.za/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=40464

Re: Air Zimbabwe/Zimbabwe Thread
by darryltarr » Mon Jan 05, 2009 2:00 pm

THE FACTS FROM THE HORSES MOUTH

Gentlemen, I have decided to EDIT this post today (18 August 2011) in order to elaborate further on certain issues and also to answer some recent critics.

My name is Darryl Tarr and I am the pilot of the Air Zimbabwe Boeing 707-330B doing the "fly-past".

From January 1992 till July 1996 I was the Senior Type Rating Examiner on the B707 fleet for Air Zimbabwe. My last flight on the 707 was on the 26th of July 1996 as the following week I started my B767 type rating conversion course and flew the 767 from the LHS until October 1998 which is when I left Air Zimbabwe to join Emirates Airline (Dubai).

There were in-fact TWO air shows called Mashonaland Flying Club Air Day and these were held at Charles Prince Airport (west of Harare). The first air show was in May 1993 and for this display I flew Z-WKS. The second air show was in May 1995 and for this display I flew Z-WKU.

For both air shows I was authorized to display the aircraft as we had planned, briefed, and scrutinized. Unfortunately during the air show in 1993 an Air Zimbabwe Boeing 767-200ER on a Commercial Flight (revenue flight), from HRE to JNB did an UNORTHORIZED fly past with passengers on-board. It’s a real can of worms but at that time my UNCLE (same surname) was actually the Chief Pilot of the Company and he got into trouble for the method by which disciplinary measures were planned for the Crew of the B767.

Unfortunately as we all know the media very rarely get the facts 100% correct and an article was published in the Herald stating that a certain Captain Tarr was in trouble for an illegal fly past. As it turned out not many people saw the B767 fly past as it was early in the morning, and yet my display was at midday being the highlight of the show. Just to re-emphasize that my fly past was 100% LEGAL and authorized. YES, I did have some words with a certain SAA Captain afterwards but there was no malicious intent and also no flight safety issues between the Company, DCA, and my crew.

Someone asked me an interesting question recently and I quote: “Many people believe that you had no idea what you were doing”. Actually it’s very easy to get upset when you hear such comments and I nearly didn’t even dignify to answer such a question, but that would be unprofessional of me so this was my response.

“Believe it or not I can actually still verbalize all the performance parameters used for the fly-past, EPR/N1/Fuel Flow, speeds, pitch attitudes, etc. To elaborate, as the senior TRE on the 707 at that time I spent a lot of hours on the aircraft doing maneuvers such as: MMO/VMO Mach Tuck entry and recovery, Approach to Stall entry and recovery, Engine Shutdowns and Re-light procedures, Fuel Jettison, Alternate Gear and Flap extension, GPWS system alerts (involved flying an approach with the gear up in order to TEST the aural alerts), etc. These maneuvers were typically required during a “C of A” Air Test which I was responsible for back then. I was also responsible for all Three-Engine ferry takeoff’s which did happen occasionally and perhaps the most challenging one was out of Victoria Falls, a captains only destination for the 707. I also used to fly the 707 into the most remote parts of the World (Quito, Ecuador / Rio Gallegos, Argentina / Across the Antarctic to Auckland), to name a few, and flying back then was quite different than today mainly due to the fact that the 707 is truly a “Hands-On” airplane, and my involvement was not dissimilar to that of a lower Test Pilot Status (not that I'm implying that I deserve to be on such a level).

So trust me; "I KNEW EXACTLY WHAT I WAS DOING".

Here are some details of the fly-past:

1. Three Crew members only on-board (Flight Engineer, First Officer, and myself)
2. Non- Revenue Flight (or non-commercial flight as some prefer)
3. 12,000 KGs of Fuel (2.0 hours endurance)
4. VREF Approach Speed Flaps 40 was 116 Knots (I was flying at 125 Knots)
5. Radio Altimeter call of 30 feet (from the FE), will be my cue to initiate a Go-Around
6. Back-up call from the F/O, plus visual cues (outside references due to the pitch attitude)
7. Rising ground and the fact that the aircraft is rotated towards +15 degrees in a Go-Around, the empennage will initially rotate downwards and get lower to the ground which was accounted for (as depicted in the photo, the aircraft is climbing)
8. High Speed Fly Past (which is not shown here), was at the Barbers Pole of 375 KIAS (due to the density altitude at Harare True Air Speed was 400 Kts)


Do I miss the B707, HELL YEAH, lets just say that as far as older generation aircraft are concerned I think it was the "best ever", a fantastic aircraft that I could do things with that no other aircraft comes close to (although the Piper Super Cub was hard to beat but I am referring to Commercial Jetliners that I have flown).

Would I do the identical fly-past again: In a heartbeat, YES. I have no regrets at all regarding any of these displays. Believe it or not it took a lot of skill, piloting technique, and serious concentration to make the 707 do this. I also made sure of the fact that I had excess energy management at the time and the display did go according to plan. Was it FUN, well all display pilots know that such thought are the further-est from your mind whilst doing any maneuver and you can only reflect on feelings when the display is over. When I look back now I do get very excited about the 707 that I once flew - it's a CLASSIC.

Actually growing up in Zimbabwe from an aviation perspective was fantastic. I started flying at a very young age and was a B737 Captain at the age of 24, and a B707 Captain at 26. Today I still fly to JNB several times a year when operating the B777-300ER with Emirates and do love to do this flight as it’s like returning to my back garden, my playground.

YES, Wrex Tarr is my father and unfortunately he is no longer with us.

I am currently a Senior Type Rating Examiner for Emirates Airline on the Boeing 777. I have been living in Dubai for almost 13 years having left Air Zimbabwe in 1998.

Regards,

Capt Darryl Tarr
Type Rating Examiner B777
Emirates Airline