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Story: Pilots grounded for good after low flyover

HackerF15E

Retired Strike Pig Driver
None
OT slightly, but serious curious.

Are low-levels (aka sand-blowers, oil burners, etc.) still done for training? IIRC, we did them at 500' AGL and 420 kts. for a few hundred miles. Is that still done? And if so, how often?

In the AF we still do 'em. Target attacks at the end of those low levels at higher speeds, too.
 

Pugs

Back from the range
None
OT slightly, but serious curious.

Are low-levels (aka sand-blowers, oil burners, etc.) still done for training? IIRC, we did them at 500' AGL and 420 kts. for a few hundred miles. Is that still done? And if so, how often?

Can only speak of my day but 200' low levels out west at whatever speed left you enough gas at the end were the norm. East coast most were 500'.
 

phrogdriver

More humble than you would understand
pilot
Super Moderator
OT slightly, but serious curious.

Are low-levels (aka sand-blowers, oil burners, etc.) still done for training? IIRC, we did them at 500' AGL and 420 kts. for a few hundred miles. Is that still done? And if so, how often?

In the V-22 we'll do 200AGL and 200-250KCAS. We can go down to 50' if we slow down and do the helo thing.
 

Kickflip89

Below Ladder
None
Contributor
Did a ll at the RAG Thursdaly: 500' 480 kts, but 200' is min alt. LATT stuff is done at 200 feet min, with a 100 ft s&l demo, lo-hi-lo's start at 420kts.
 

slug

Member
Another good helo fly-by. Oh yeah, he lost his wings.


I don't get fly-bys. Do people really need their egos stoked that much by showing off to people on the ground? "Yeah, that was me baby."

Or in the perfect yet unrelated quote from Will Ferrell, "Ah, I'm flying! Honey, take a good picture--I'm dead!"

The pilots deserve to be dirt-darts. I just feel bad for their crew and families.

Sad... just sad.
 

Ducky

Formerly SNA2007
pilot
Contributor
If you have a single anchor and say you haven't broken a rule EVER, you are an outright liar. If you speak authoritativelly about not doing it with two anchors, you never had the capability to. (know its nice to be all "professional" here, but being real gets points as well.)

Part of finding where the "line" is involves stepping over just a little bit. Only an Air SWO wouldn't do it.

+1

"Good" pilots don't break the rules, then lie to the Air Boss about it. They knew the potential consequences going in when they made a poor decision to violate established procedures. There is no defense for that, but you seem to believe that they're getting screwed somehow. That is what I don't understand. Again, back to the maturity thing - being responsible for one's own actions.

Brett

Unless you have first hand knowledge, what facts are you basing the accusation of lying. From the articles other than Navy Tabloids it states they fessed up immediately upon landing and "the board concluded, their lapse was neither intentional nor malicious," and recommended probation. This was then signed off on by several on the way up the chain. Yes they fucked it away, but I'm not so sure I'd call them liars.

Definitely sucks for -2 because in parade that tight its tough to scan the altimiter, and I would be trusting the shit out of lead to be where he needs to be.
 

Jim123

DD-214 in hand and I'm gonna party like it's 1998
pilot
I don't get fly-bys. Do people really need their egos stoked that much by showing off to people on the ground?

Well... yeah... minus the need for ego (usually).

When you were a little kid, didn't you ever wave at big rig drivers to get them blare their airhorns? Honking back = fun thrill for everyone. Swerving closer and accelerating while honking back = dumb.
 

pilot_man

Ex-Rhino driver
pilot
Unless you have first hand knowledge, what facts are you basing the accusation of lying. From the articles other than Navy Tabloids it states they fessed up immediately upon landing and "the board concluded, their lapse was neither intentional nor malicious," and recommended probation. This was then signed off on by several on the way up the chain. Yes they fucked it away, but I'm not so sure I'd call them liars.

Definitely sucks for -2 because in parade that tight its tough to scan the altimiter, and I would be trusting the shit out of lead to be where he needs to be.

I couldn't agree more. I've kept my mouth shut for a while. These guys seemed to have made a honest mistake. It was a mistake out of their own mouths. A couple of Department Head mouths. And yet there is a lot of name calling. Brett, you know I love you, but when flying tight parade, like into the break, or especially when doing a fly over, I don't do any HUD checking. Especially when on the wing of someone I trust. If I didn't, I wouldn't fly that tight. I guess I won't be doing any fly overs, I wouldn't want to make a honest mistake.
 

jarhead

UAL CA; retired hinge
pilot
...These guys seemed to have made a honest mistake....
I'm not going to mutha-fuck these two guys in question because I don't know the whole story but why do you think it was an honest mistake? A department head should be able to fly a SH dirty and maintain 1000' AGL (in this case above the stadium). I'm sure they both had a working RadAlt ...

Is there more to the story?
 

pilot_man

Ex-Rhino driver
pilot
How well is your Radalt going to work with a city skyline? I'm not sure I would want to fly Radalt to the HUD. I guess it's close to trying to fly the same AGL altitude over the mountains. I would also assume they had working Radalts as that is a requirement for going below 1500'. The story out of their mouths was it was a mistake, plane and simple. They didn't try to hide it. They immediately called home to talk about it.
 

Brett327

Well-Known Member
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
I'm not going to mutha-fuck these two guys in question because I don't know the whole story but why do you think it was an honest mistake? A department head should be able to fly a SH dirty and maintain 1000' AGL (in this case above the stadium). I'm sure they both had a working RadAlt ...

Is there more to the story?

Thank you. I'm not going to rehash this for the Johnny come latelies. I think it's pretty clear what happened and what these guys did when they talked to CNAL. Sorry if some of you can't handle an NFO with an opinion, but's it's based on 20 years of flying experience.

Brett
 

feddoc

Really old guy
Contributor
Maybe one of the Phatom drivers can chime in....several years ago, I did a favor for someone. He offered to take me on a ride to break the sound barrier....below sea level. I thought that would be pretty cool, but a Huey wreck sort of postponed things for me.

Any of you Phantom drivers ever hear of something like that?
 
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