Quote:
LivingInMEM;782996]Another example of how military leadership emphasizes the wrong things. Flyby's are some of the least risky things we do. They are usually well-planned and flown by experienced pilots.
Very true in my experience as well. Always well planned out, briefed in detail numerous times up the chain, and as I said earlier in a post - sometimes you know they are being watched at the highest levels!
I did one in Beaufort for the Water Festival once. The FAA rep at the meeting said "just don't go supersonic". I thought to myself - every O-5 and above will be at that Festival - I'm not doing anything stupid while on display like that.
Quote:
If one were to scrutinize the last 20 years of mishap data, how many organized/sanctioned flyby mishaps would be found? My guess would be close to zero.
Well there is the one where the F-14A mishap that just meets your timeline criteria
A supersonic flyby at sea.
YouTube - F-14 Flyby Explosion
Quote:
Now, poor pilot skills, those have led to many mishaps. I can speak for all of the services except for the Army (I was both an AETC and CNATRA IP) and can say that the emphasis is on just getting them out the door. It is nearly impossible to wash out a student in USAF UPT or USN/USCG/USMC flight training.
SO TRUE! During my seocnd IP tour I was told by the outgoing CO (who I had worked for during my first IP tour) that the students were not of as high a caliber as they had been 6 years prior and that it was almost impossible to attrite someone. During my last four years I think we tried to attrite 4 or 5 RPs - and even some who had tranistioned from other platforms. One Marine was attrited. The other Navy RPs joined the fleet. I believe that 2 or 3 of them have been FENAB'ed out of the fleet for performance issues. They tell us to make the hard call - the guys who are flying with them everyday - yet when we do - if they look good in uiform and say the right things as coached in front of the Admiral/General at the interview - they disregard what the chain as to say and keep them.
Quote:
Every year, marginal students are sent to the fleet with a known deficiency in basic flying skills - a risk that is accepted without question by those leaders who refuse to attrite them. Marginal flying skills are accepted in the operational squadrons.
See above.
Quote:
No one thinks twice. But......fly over a stadium at 800' vs 1,000' and there is going to be hell to pay for that incredible risk that you took
I could much more understand the mistake of 800' versus 1,000' than 200' as the article alluded too (symantics)
Quote:
The aviators, both from Strike Fighter Squadron 136 at Oceana Naval Air Station and both Georgia Tech alum ni, were supposed to pass over Bobby Dodd Stadium in downtown Atlanta at 1,000 feet, the standard altitude for military flyovers.
Plans called for two jets to pass overhead after the conclusion of the national anthem, shortly before Georgia Tech took the field against Wake Forest on Nov. 7.
Instead, the two F/A-18 Super Hornets flew just a few hundred feet above the stadium.
One thing is for sure though - through a variety of measures their actions were accounted for - HUD tapes and data collected from the airplane would be used to reconstruct every minutes of that flight. The board knows exactly what went on. The actions of the high level leadership though is not a surprise. They have had a history of holding flight crews to strictest level of accountability in the past few years.
I know of one O-5 who lost his wings when he took it upon himself to fly a plane back from Key West to Beaufort after one of the two generators repeatedly fell off line on deck. He felt pressure to get the plane back. Outside of Tampa - wouldn't you know it - he lost the second generator. This guy was a former MAWTS IP (similar to TopGun/Fighter Weapons School) and was certainly in line for a squadron command. Probably the only thing he had ever done wrong in his career - this meaning that he was not some well known crazy/dangerous pilot like Bud Holland.
USMCFLYR