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Chopper pilot killed doing loop-de-loop

sg38 said:
>Look at the clip again, you can see the chopper react to both hard stick inputs...hard back, then relaxed, even harder back and hold. If he had G-LOC'd....

The inputs you are refering to happen AFTER the G-loc (the straight down line).
CFIT ???? I always thought that's the difinition for hitting mountains or ground in IMC during 'controlled flight'. Hitting the ground in situation where the craft is definitely not doing what you want doesn't qualify as CFIT at all IMHO
Click to expand...

The chopper was under control when it impacted. Just because there wasn't enough distance between the chopper and the ground to complete the loop doesn't disqualify it as a CFIT event...he flew it into the ground just like the T-Birds did with their T-38's many years ago. If you think he G-LOC'd on the front side of the loop or at the top of it, then fine...I find that hard to believe, but OK. The greatest G-load in this case is when he tried to pull out of the loop. If he passed out at the top of the loop, he woke up pretty darn quickly and showed an amazing effort at clearing his head (and staying awake) enough to try and recover the manuever....which would be at odds with a 74 year old passing out to begin with. A 25 year old would most likely not regain consciousness and clarity that quickly.



Here's an excerpt, and the link, also.

http://www.associatepublisher.com/e/u/u/u.s._air_force_thunderbirds.htm

1982, there was another disaster for the Thunderbirds, occuring during pre-season training on January 18th. While practicing the 4 plane diamond loop, the formation impacted the ground at high speed, instantly killing all four pilots: Major Norm Lowry, leader, Captain Willie Mays, Captain Pete Peterson and Captain Mark Melancon. The cause of the crash was officially listed by the USAF as the result of a mechanical problem with the #1 aircraft's control stick actuator. Despite the fact that the accident investigative board had not uncovered any evidence to support this theory, there was heavy pressure from the pilots' families and top Air Force officials to arrive at this conclusion. During formation flight, the wing and slot pilots visually cue off of the #1 lead aircraft, completely disregarding their positions in relation to the ground. In this accident, this is the root cause for all four aircraft impacting the terrain, not just the lead jet with the problem.
Many in the fighter community felt that the cause was most likely a result of the lead pilot's error due to a simple miscalculation, the equivalent of controlled flight into terrain (cfit). <TABLE class=imgR cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 bgColor=#cccccc><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR><TR><TD class=wkTC width=260>Thunderbirds F-16s precisely lined up on the ramp at Nellis AFB just prior to the team's last performance of 2004.












</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


EDIT: I know you're a Professional Pilot, sg38, so I certainly respect your opinion on this....we're just looking at it differently. Cheers:)
 
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