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Thunderbird crash link...

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Banjo33

AV-8 Type
pilot
Crashed during a demonstration at Mountain Home AB, Idaho. The pilot, Capt. Chris Stricklin, misjudged the altitude required to perform a split-S manoeuvre and started the pull down at only 1,670ft (510m) instead of the required 2,500ft (760m). The error most likely resulted from using an incorrect airfield altitude. Capt. Stricklin ejected only 8/10 of a second, at an altitude of 140ft (42m), before impact
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That's a quote from that website as to why the accident happened. That's a hell of a mistake! Forgot to update the altimeter setting? Good grief!
 
Flash

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
I believe the formal crash investigation found the pilot at fault because he used the airfield altitude of Nellis AFB (T-birds home base) instead of the altitude of Hill. I saw this in numerous open sources so I am not saying anything new. As for what happened to the pilot, the only thing I saw about it was that the T-birds were flying 5 plane shows instead of 6, that was a few weeks ago though.
 
Flash

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
VetteMuscle427 said:
I thought they had a back-up bird too. The Blues do.....
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They do have back up a bird/birds?, I saw at least one extra when I was at Nellis a few months ago, they don't have any extra pilots though. As of a few weeks ago the guy who crashed was not flying with them in shows.

The Blues have more than one back up bird, I saw 2 or 3 single seaters without numbers and an extra 2 seater when I was in Pensacola.
 
VetteMuscle427

VetteMuscle427

is out to lunch.
None
Question... what is the point of a 2 seat in the Blues? For a cammeraman? Or do they have an NFO? I couldn't see why they would have an NFO
 
jarhead

jarhead

UAL CA; retired hinge
pilot
not impossible, wait until you read some of the mishap reports when you get to the Fleet ... 3 of the last 4 Navy Hornet class A mishaps were pilot error, 2 of those were 2000+ hour Pilots, that resulted in the lose of perfectly good Hornets

s/f

jboomer said:
That's a quote from that website as to why the accident happened. That's a hell of a mistake! Forgot to update the altimeter setting? Good grief!
Click to expand...
 
kmac

kmac

Coffee Drinker
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
Right now, the Narrator (who flies the celebs the day(s) before) is one of the past instructors from Kingsville. Callsign Otter. I'm sure it's not such a bad job to have a 3 year tour with the Blues.
 
Flash

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
VetteMuscle427 said:
Question... what is the point of a 2 seat in the Blues? For a cammeraman? Or do they have an NFO? I couldn't see why they would have an NFO
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The Number 7 jet is the one that the narrator (Blue Angel Number 7), a pilot, flies to the airshows and is used as a backup jet. The narrator usually does a year (or 2?)as number 7 then upgrades to one of the 6 who fly in the show. His name is painted under the pilot seat. Blue Angel Number 8 is the only NFO on the team and is the Events Coordinator, his name is painted under the back seat. When the Blues are practicing over the winter and spring in the beautiful oasis of El Centro (gag!), the Number 7 jet flies around to possible airshow locations and checks them out and they meet with the organizers (I am not sure if No 8 flies in the back seat for those but someone does).

There is a book written by a retired USAF COL about the Blue Angels. It was for the Blues 50th anniversary and he followed around for a year and even flew with them sometimes. It is an excellent read and where I read all most of the above info.

The No 8 for the team last year (maybe still?) is a Marine Prowler NFO and a former instructor at VT-86, pretty good guy.
 
nittany03

nittany03

Recovering NFO. Herder of Programmers.
pilot
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
As for further purposes for the two seater, when I was in A-pool I volunteered at the NAS Pensacola Airshow. They took a 3-star in the back seat of #7 and flew it in the slot position during one day's show. I guess rank hath its privileges, but that's still something you don't see everyday . . .
 
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