Now you know why they call him Smokey…his plane caught fire!
In this case the board concluded: “The failure of a magnesium alloy restraining band surrounding the afterburner section of the GE F110 engine in Capt Ray’s F-16C contributed to the failure and subsequent in-flight fire and ensuing forced flameout landing”.
Now you know why they call him Smokey...his plane caught fire! (Click to enlarge)
As anyone who has read an NTSB accident report or seen any TV news footage of an aircraft crash knows, pilot error is a recurring theme.
In the military, we are privy to the exploits of our less than fortunate comrades who have “screwed the pooch, packed it in, bought the farm” or suffer other, less printable, fates. We spend hours during pilot meetings listening to post-accident investigative hoopla on how our poor buddy had committed an act of buffoonery of royal proportions. The examining board, as he or she is always referred to, hammers the MP or mishap pilot, mercilessly almost every time.
Having been the brunt of a USAF post Class A mishap investigation (Class A denotes over 1 million dollars damage) myself, I can assure you no stone is left unturned. Most MP’s get tagged with the pilot error label, and why not? In most cases the board is right: the cause of most aircraft crashes is the nut behind the stick.
First, realize that it doesn’t matter what type aircraft you are in, when an emergency raises its ugly head, your posterior is on the line, period. For us RV types we have emergencies just like everybody else, it’s the nature of operating mechanical flying devices. Highly efficient, cool looking, fun machines, but flying devices nonetheless.
So how do we in the RV world apply the techniques, lessons and hand to stick applications of in-flight emergencies (IFE) to our little world? The same way the big boys handle emergencies in multi-million dollar fighter aircraft with such aplomb.
Practice, my brothers, practice
The General who quoted that “The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed in war” was correct, practice makes perfect.
In the military and professional civilian world, simulators are used to “dial a disaster” for hapless pilots in a controlled environment. The simulator instructors can simulate emergencies with such accuracy that in cases of real emergencies the successful pilots claimed that what they did was exactly like what they trained in the simulator. (The exception is combat. When that first large caliber round or missile flies by your canopy, all that training goes right out the window. Been there, done that.)
When the proverbial feces hits the fan an old instructor of mine once told me “wind the clock” until you can’t stand it anymore, then think about doing some- thing. In simulated IFEs the first step is FTA or Fly the Airplane! Following these you can either pull out a checklist, have your wingman or somebody on the ground pull one out, follow steps therein and get home safely.
The actual steps are:
- Maintain Aircraft
- ControlAnalyze the situation
- Take the appropriate action
- Maintain situational awareness
The one item above left out is “don’t panic”. There is nothing short of an engine failure on takeoff or in-flight fire that requires you to go into “auto flail” to handle the problem. Even then, more people than not stall/spin trying to turn around or land too fast.
Bob Hoover once said “fly the airplane as far into the crash as possible”.
In a fighter, you do all the important stuff without looking and later your wingman backs you up to make sure appropriate items were acted upon. In RVs you can practice all kinds of IFE in your own cockpit. You may not have a wingman, but you probably have friends who fly RVs. Use them. In the safety of your own living room, hangar or RV cockpit (or in my case, Rocket…traitor!) you can go through the steps of any given emergency situation. Know your aircraft systems well, do a blind- fold cockpit check once in awhile and know where all the switches are without looking. When you are totally familiar, have your friends be the IFE instructor and yell out simulated emergencies. While they make sound effects, wry comments and swipe beverages from your fridge, you can flail away at solving the problem. It’s all good, every second spent thinking about disaster helps when a real one emerges. This “game” makes everyone present a better pilot, improves safety and gives the NTSB one less opportunity for to conclude RV pilot error after a mishap. Practice, my brothers, practice!
About Smokey
