Military Ace Yeagers

[Walter Sobchak]

Andrew I'm interested to learn more about why you said it is debatable that the guys that are obviously fast learners who excel in the airforce environment might not turn out to be the best pilots in the long run.

[Colonel]

Ok.  What you have to keep in mind is that the
military keep having their budget cut.  Their student
pilots must master a ridiculous amount of material
in a ludicrously small amount of flight time.

I remember an ex-mil standards pilot, telling me
that the poor students today, do their form eval
on their 5th formation flight, and it was really
a scary experience for him.  The students tried
to kill him regularly.

So, the military must select for pilots with ridiculously
steep learning curves, and nothing else matters.

I suspect that you like to linearly extrapolate,
but that's not how life (or learning curves) work:

[img width=500 height=307]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... nality.jpg[/img]

The above curve is nicely egalitarian but that's
rarely how life works, BTW.

Just because someone has a very steep initial
learning curve, doesn't mean that they will
necessarily end up being a more skilled pilot
in the long run.

Many times, a pilot who learns a little slower,
and is a bit more thoughtful, ends up being a
much more knowledgeable and skilled pilot.

I have only been flight instructing continuously
for a quarter of a century, so I might not know
as much about aviation as some people, but
I do know that:

1) everyone is different.  People learn at different
rates, and end up with different skills, which has
nothing do with with their genetic gifts (vision, etc)

2) the earlier YOU learn to fly, the better a pilot you will be

3) the MORE you fly, the better a pilot you will be

The military think the above is nonsense.  They
want to buy a handful (65) of F-35 and not fly
them.  They intend that their fighter pilots become
sim wizards, because they haven't figured out that
a sim and an aircraft are different.

[Colonel]

Two data points:

Two of the best pilots of my generation (to try
to eliminate cohort effect) are IMHO Rob Holland
and Skip Stewart.  I must ask them sometime
how many hours to solo they were, which is
indicative of the slope of their initial learning
curve.

I suspect they will both smile and tell me that
they think that what they did in their first five
hours of flight time doesn't really matter - but
it surely does, to the military.

What do the very best pilots - Rob Holland and
Skip Stewart have in common?

1) They fly more than anyone else
2) They fly harder than anyone else
3) They are still alive

re: #1 ... seat time is great.  But straight and
level pilots in particular, when they have 1000TT
really have 100 hours, ten times over.  A lot of
repetition.

re: #2 ... this is what, with #1, makes really
great pilots.  They are always flying to the edge
of the aircraft's envelope (and beyond) and always
learning.  Always flying new types in new places.

re: #3 ... staying alive is important.  There are
lots of dead pilots - the list is endless - who were
fantastic sticks.  Lincoln Beachy. Jimmy Franklin. 
Bobby Younkin.  Jim Leroy.  Freddy Cabanas.  All
incredible pilots, and all dead before their time.

[Colonel]

re: aircraft aerodynamic flight envelope

Every pilot ought to know this diagram,
but bizarrely, very few do:

[img width=500 height=318]https://www.metabunk.org/data/MetaMirro ... d31c79.jpg[/img]

You don't want to fly in the dashed area
outside of the envelope - specifically to
the right, above or below, because you will
hurt the airplane, and people who hurt
airplanes are assholes.  Write that down.

However.  You want to become an expert
at flying on the curved lines on the left
side, from the origin to the corners of
the envelope.  And I would encourage
you to fly slightly LEFT of that line -
fully stalled.

A highly skilled and experienced pilot
can fly an aircraft at CLmax - that is,
at the stalling AOA - at any airspeed,
generating max lift.

And when he is past the corner, he flies
the aircraft at the max structural G -
either +ve or -ve - along the top and
bottom lines of the envelope, as his
speed varies.

Let's say you fly an aircraft with vanilla
civilian aerobatic category certification
to +6/-3G.  At the end of every flight,
as your speed varied from 0 to Vne,
your G-meter should look like this:
[img][/img]

NOT this:
[img width=500 height=465][/img]

See the difference?


-- EDIT

Hey!  This is my "Battle of Hastings" post!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-hist ... f-hastings

[Walter Sobchak]

I thought that was what you were thinking. Thanks for the detailed response.


I'm more of the red line type I think, but luckily couldn't help but get good (I think at least) because I fly a lot.


I wonder how the blue line guys make out vs the red line when something goes wrong. I suspect better.


Yeah too bad they can't fly more but I guess they are proficient enough at what they do to get it done. Might add I'm also glad to not have to pay for more.

[Walter Sobchak]

Yup red line. Just counted up solo at 11.6 :)

[Colonel]

Doesn't matter how you start.


What matters is how you finish!

[Colonel]

[quote]people who hurt airplanes are assholes[/quote]

I know I am in the minority here, but ....

I have spent decades of my life, working as an engineer
and a mechanic.  I have many thousands of hours flying
and two ATP's but I have spent more time during my life
wrenching than flying - which IMHO makes you a better pilot.

Airplanes (like animals) can't take care of themselves.  It's
up to you to take care of them.

[img width=500 height=272][/img]

You hurt an airplane, you earn my disgust.  You hurt an
animal, I will hunt you down and fuck you up.

That makes me a [b]BAD PERSON[/b] because I am indifferent at
best to injuries to paperwork, and I'm cool with that.

I am reminded - back in 1976, Viktor Belenko flew a MiG-25
to Japan, and the paperpushers went bonkers.  He was charged
with damaging their airspace.  He replied that any injury that
he caused to Japanese airspace would heal itself.

[img width=500 height=105][/img]

[ScudRunner-d95]

[qoute]

I am reminded - back in 1976, Viktor Belenko flew a MiG-25
to Japan, and the paperpushers went bonkers.  He was charged
with damaging their airspace.  He replied that any injury that
he caused to Japanese airspace would heal itself.

[img height=105 width=500][/img]


[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Belenko]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Belenko[/url]


Thanks for that interesting story.

Another one I found:

[youtube][/youtube]