Chick Fighter Pilots...

[737ski]

You've got to be baggin' me... She

 

[Lear Wanna Be]

What?! That's an interesting bit of revisionist history.

The thing rolled left naturally due to the asymmetric thrust, probably IN SPITE of the front seater's stick inputs.

http://www.patricksaviation.com/videos/Starfighter/840/

Obviously you did not watch the video too well. The first shot is from the camera mounted in the deck. She was not on glide path or centerline in the shot. This was because she was in a shallow bank to the left steering away from the ship, not an uncontrolled roll...(by clearing the ship to the port side, the boat will naturally move away from the aircraft's flight path and you don't have to worry about the island). The aircraft does not depart until the RIO initiates the ejection. He stated that he pulled the center ejection handle as the aircraft started to roll and was below the deck. If Kara had departed while on centerline the aircraft would have either rolled short of the boat or on top of the flight deck. As it was the aircraft hit the water about 200 yards aft and off the port side.

Her record speaks for itself.....she was a nugget just 2 months out of the RAG and was well qualified to be an Tomcat driver. Mistakes were made and mostly they were a result of deficient training. The MIR states 4 negative conclusions as far as her actions on that day. 3 of which had nothing to do with the accident, only the late ejection. The other factor gave conclusion to why they had a compressor stall. This was based on the LSO and the Boss's eyewitness observations. Those observations are challenged in the fact that whether or not an LSO could actually see a Tomcat at 14 degrees AOA and 3/4 of a mile yawing to the left to compensate for an overshoot. Most in the know seem to think that you could not unless full left rudder would have been used, which was not. The MIR also reports several discrepancies with the aircraft, however they were all within limits to fly. In addition, when the left engine was salvaged and inspected, it was basically found to be beyond all limits, not a result of the mishap, for return to service. Also, HOTs were done at 750 hours on the TF-30 with out exception, but most were done at 600 hours. The left engine was over 600 hours at the time of the mishap. Several other problems had been noted including a 5 second delay for the AB to stage. That in itself was not enough to ground the aircraft, but could have been a sign of a more significant problem.

As a result of Lt. Hultgreens mishap, about 2 dozen recommendations and subsequent changes were made to the way Tomcat pilots were trained. More than likely her mishap saved many crews and their aircraft from the same fate.

 

[Mud Eagle]

Obviously you did not watch the video too well. The first shot is from the camera mounted in the deck. She was not on glide path or centerline in the shot.

Thanks, I'm well aware of how the PLAT system works. I also have a wee bit of time flying twin-engined fighters and handling single engine emergencies.

If you want to believe that she was valiantly saving lives on the deck of the bo-at by intentionally steering the jet off to the left, have at it.

 

[eatme]

The language and tone of the Navy's private assessment [the MIR], written to the exacting standards of a confidential safety report, are sharply critical of the pilot. The report finds repeated instances of pilot error. It notes the role of engine trouble but concludes that the pilot's flight-control mistakes were the most critical factors.

 

[Lear Wanna Be]

Take the time to read the MIR one day. It is critical in the fact that it assumes that the pilot put the aircraft in a side slip which resulted in a compressor stall. It also notes that there was a mechanical problem found that would increase the likely hood of a compressor stall by 26% in any phase of flight. It was also found that her training was deficient in single engine wave-off training as well as other areas. Second, the report faulted her for not communicating the engine failure to her RIO. Result was that the RIO was not aware of the engine failure and could not pass along critical information to the pilot. The engine failed at 300' and 8-10 seconds before impact and she was task saturated. Part of which was steering the aircraft away from the boat. The other two critical areas were the late ejection (trying to not hit the ship and kill other sailors might do that) and exceeding the max SE AOA, which happened 80' above the water just as they cleared the ship.

Let's not forget that this was a very hard time for the F-14 community. They were fighting for their survival and were trying to hang every weapon system known to man off the aircraft. To place blame on the crew was certainly easier than putting blame on the aircraft or the very unreliable and compressor stall prone P&W TF-30P-414 engines. In addition, it was interesting that the senior member and one other member on the investigation board were Viking drivers. Did politics come into play? Probably!! Then there was the issue of how pilot selection from the RAG was changed. Lt. Hultgreen was put into VF-213 because the Lincoln was the first battle group to incorporate women into the fleet. This bypassed the normal recruitment cycle and sent Lt. Hultgreen to the only Lincoln F-14 squadron. Unfortunatly, VF-213 had a very checkered history throughout the early and mid 90s. They lost several aircraft and pilots. A VF-213 Tomcat was the one that crashed coming out of BNA doing an unrestricted climbout. This happened to be the second time in 8 months that the pilot had a mishap resulting in a WO.

So to place blame on the crew was easy and assumed a lot, but it was not entirely truthful. Read between the lines if you read the MIR and just remember all of the circumstances that were involved.

 

[F18-FDX]

Sorry, but I have to laugh a little. I love how all you guys who have never flown a fighter, or better yet have never even flown in the military seem to be authorities on how "good" these chicks are...

 

[Scrapdog]

Sorry, but I have to laugh a little. I love how all you guys who have never flown a fighter, or better yet have never even flown in the military seem to be authorities on how "good" these chicks are...

F18-FDX...I couldn't agree with you more. I was thinking the same thing! For pete's sakes, this thread is about chicks that fly fighters with an extremely haenious website...not a Navy Safety Board thread.

 

[Deuce130]

Dude,
When you have the nuts to call me out, let me know... I will back up the fighter chicks, with fists if needed. I refueled many of them & they made you sleep well at night. They are solid AF citizens & warriors, bar none.

Z-man

Fine, you're called out. I don't think the fighter chicks need you to back them up, certainly not with your fists. What the he** do you think I'm gonna do? Fight one? Or worse yet, actually insult one? Whereupon you, the Tanke Pogue, will step in like the chivalrous bro you want them to think you are and punch me out?

I've known many fighter chicks also, even dated one for awhile. I never said that they weren't solid citizens or warriors. I did, however, comment on your odd hero worship of the female fighter pilot. Now go set up an orbit somewhere, I'm sure some chick needs gas. By the way, it seems like you're a little new to the board. I'd develop a thicker skin if I were you - otherwise you'll just feel like hurling your keyboard through the wall. Especially if you want to fight anonymous people sitting in front of a monitor everytime you get pissed off.

 

[Gorilla]

Here's the deal... maybe the older guys can relate. When the chicks first arrived in the AF ca. 1990/91 (the squids a bit earlier), we had a few CTJ (come to Jesus) meetings in preparation at Holloman for fighter lead-in training. In front of a roomful of male fighter IP's, the commanders announced in no uncertain terms that "the women are coming, and the word from on-high is this: THEY WILL PASS THE COURSE." Translation: Standards will be different for them. What would wash out a male is now acceptable for a female.

That was not a good way to ram this concept down our throats. I left the AF before they showed up, but it left a bitter taste. I have no idea what's going on these days. It may be totally level playing field. Probably is. But the entire concept of different standards for men vs. women has been around ever since women have joined the military, especially PT standards for ground troops.

Someone will try to make a race analogy here... go for it. But logic says that while races are truly equivalent in innate capabilities, the sexes are not, both in terms of simple physical strength, and in cognitive issues.

 

[Bjammin]

To me it's a self licking ice cream cone.

Females DO get special execptions in training and are looked down upon because of it by there fellow classmates. This leads to some making it thorugh instead of being attrited, ie:they bacome the weakest link in the squadron and are looked down upon by their squadron mates. They may have even a higher accident rate because of this. News travels fast and it doesn't take long to form opinions about female pilots in general.

It truly must suck if you are truly a GOOD female fighter pilot.

I have been watching this for the past 12 years as a student, squadron bubba, and then as an IP. Sad really.