Louis Skupien flies with the Patriots Jet Team in an L-39 Albatros in California, filmed from the cockpit during a jet aerobatic display.
What the video covers
Written in our own words. It only describes what the video shows and says.Preflight with the Patriots Jet Team
In this video Louis Skupien joins the Patriots Jet Team in California for a display flight in one of the team's L-39 Albatros jets. According to his description, the Patriots Jet Team is a civilian jet demonstration team that flies a fleet of L-39s at airshows across the United States. There is almost no talking in the video; it is cut to music, with a few short lines such as "Let's go" and an on-screen title asking "Are you ready for an airshow?".
The video opens on the ramp with the black L-39s in Patriots colours, red remove-before-flight streamers and the ground crew preparing the aircraft. Louis climbs into the cockpit in a flight suit and helmet and is strapped in, and the canopies close before the jets start up and taxi out past the hangars. Several Patriots jets line up on the runway and take off together, with dry hills and wind turbines in the background, and the camera on the aircraft shows the shadow of the jet on the ground during the climb.
Aerobatics from the cockpit
Most of the video is filmed with a camera facing Louis in the cockpit, with the horizon rolling and turning behind the canopy over farmland, rivers and water channels. He is seen looking up and around during loops and rolls, at times visibly straining against the G-forces and at other times laughing and cheering. In between, shots from the ground and from other aircraft show the team in close formation with white and coloured smoke, splitting up and crossing each other's paths, and solo jets climbing straight up with a smoke trail.
Opposing passes and the finish
One sequence shows two jets flying towards each other in an opposing pass. On-screen text reads "2x opposing hit" and "600 mph closure", which refers to the combined speed at which the two aircraft approach each other; this is where the title of the video comes from. Further shots show formation flying with smoke and a jet in a steep bank close to the ground. The video ends with more cockpit footage of Louis during the final manoeuvres, including a low pass over green fields where the shadow of the L-39 is visible on the grass.
