Yet Another USAF T-38 Talon Trainer Has Crashed, The Fifth In 12 Months - The Drive

Laughlin FB page says one dead, one in the hospital.

Nickel on the grass. 🍺

Fair winds and following seas Airman.

A nickel on the grass...

I was the T-38 SME at the AF Safety Center for a bunch of years...when the T-38 was first introduced the AF estimated a loss rate of 12 per year. Obviously we have done much better than that over the last almost 60 years...but every loss still hurts. RIP Airman....

It would actually be interesting to see the number of pilots who train in the T-38 pr year now vs then. In the 70s we had over double the amount of UPT bases as we do now and everyone went T-38s. Now we have 4 UPT bases and with the exception of Sheppard, only a very small fraction of the class goes 38s. I'm guessing our percentages aren't that great right now.

Nickel on the grass for the fallen!

I remember a welcoming talk at Webb AFB in 1971: “Would you like to fly the airplane that set a world time-to-climb record? It’s out there on the ramp.”

T-38 Class A mishaps and rate during the heavy use years. Rough guess using FY17 flying hours for FY18 would put the rate around 2.75ish...not good