Military pilots and recklessness...

[SWAnnabee]

Hey Boz, you forgot to mention the 1999 Harrier mishap rate.....18.65

Those were the days!

JJ

Yea, I remember that year. Correct me if I'm wrong but none of those mishaps were due to reckless flying. In fact, all but one were due to aircraft malfunction.

 

[GVFlyer]

Just more anti-military bias reported in a sensational manner on a slow news day.

In the military you are compelled to train the way you are going to fight. Even in the C-21 Learjet we did overheads and low level, high speed tactical flight and yes, we rolled the airplane. Competency can't be a question so military training is pretty much a process of continuous evaluation. Even in the Gulfstream, the military does things in the airplane that civilians only do in the sim: V1 cuts, single-engine landings, approaches to stalls, steep turns, Mach buffet demonstrations and so forth. Between Local Proficiency Sorties, Qual Checks and Instrument checks it's clear that even in training the military spends a lot more time in a more hazardous aviation environment than do the civvies. Its a tribute to their skill and ability that the accident rate is so low.

GV

 

[Kaman]

Hello,

The military isn't much different than the civilian world when it comes to flying. Some people lack the self-control, self-discipline or what i've also heard called "air discipline" to keep from killing themsleves. My Dad told me of coming back from training missions in the B-24 over Iowa with corn stalks in the bomb bay. They were all young, heading to war and feeling the invincibility of youth.
I think we've all either been tempted or done some type of "flathatting" we called it in the Navy. However, I don't find boredom, trying to impress people, or attempting to fully expliot an aircraft's perfromance capability as an excuse. I've seen or known personally of people killed or aircraft destroyed while doing stupid things in military. This isn't something new and isn't something thats probably going to change anytime soon. Human nature being what it is, we all like to say, " Hey watch this!". Sometimes, it turns out really good and sometimes it's disasterous.
Thinking back to a Fallon in-brief in 1992, I recall the words of a Marine Major (OV-10 pilot) that was the aviation safety officer for the Navy Strike Warfare Center (or whatever they call it now), "you are out there on the range, you still have pretty close to full bag, so you think to yourself...I'm bored, so why don't I just go kill myself." Often times, it begins as simply as that and next thing you know, you've got a smoking hole and no one can find anything really amiss. Does make you wonder why the flag officers hate those rug dances at the dreaded long green table.

Regards,

ex-Navy Rotorhead