Edit : I know I’m stupid but reading that story made me emotional. Much respect for all the parties involved in the rescue operation.
MQ-25 T1 test asset flew with an ARS (Aerial Refueling Store) for the the first time.
Wonder how long it takes to get that formation…errr…formed up?
There is something you don’t see every day…
I think the T-345s are sexy…
This…is just frustrating to read. The heat of the moment…sometimes bad decisions are made. And sometimes the bad decisions just keep piling up…
I’ve read some recent articles on this aircraft and really like it in term of looks and systems incorporated into a trainer. One article was about how the Polish Air Force had bought a bunch of these as their primary trainer for their new pilots. Pretty interesting training syllabus with what looks like a fantastic, top-notch trainer.
That was indeed a very cool looking cockpit. Who knows, may in the future the DCS M-345?
“Max sustained load of 4Gs”. Am I misreading that? The design limit can’t be that low. What could you do with it? If it means, “she has the thrust and cornering to SUSTAIN 4G” then I get it. That’s pretty good actually. And I concur, it’s a beautiful machine.
I have another question to any experts out there: What advantage is there in having such a complicated trainer (UFC, FMS, etc)? Those systems will occupy considerable brain-power and work almost nothing like the students’ eventual destination, the F-18, Typhoon, F-22 and so on.
Especially frustrating as the accident board seems all too happy to attribute the accident to human error. Every error is human, if you trace it far enough up the chain of events.
First, the engine had a mechanical failure. This triggered the following events.
The crew shut the good engine.
In a similar incident in a civilian version of the same aircraft type, the crew spent 1-2 minutes figuring out which engine had failed. This, the accident board says, indicates that the crew of the military aircaft didn’t spend enough time analyzing the failure.
Yes, but it also indicates that the aircraft warning and alerting systems can be confusing…
But yeah, sitting on your hands for a while, can be a good idea, when the hits the fan.
^^^This. To some it’s just easier this way. And I imply no malice towards the reviewers (investigation boards)…
…as I’ve been on review boards for incidents, and made suggestions for technical improvements too. For some of them it was, to me, interesting to see the push-back from both those actually doing the job (real-time operators; would change their routine - people hate change), and those who had to fund it, directly or indirectly. Rationalization took over.
So many (and I include my own errors) stem from distractions, both external and internal, not so obvious but maybe more important.
Man, this reminds me of “a thing” that happened to me, with a trainee. Seems when he got overwhelmed, or was mentally exhausted from current events, he could literally do anything! I was the first to discover this tendency…
I got distracted trying to help our assistant fix a technical issue (piece of kit was messing up); he [the trainee] had just handled a fairly challenging situation, lasting about 15 minutes (of full-fledged concentration), without drama. Or so it appeared to me. Then he went…somewhere, mentally; just ‘did something/anything’ because, as time would expose, when he was confused or tired he didn’t want to appear ‘slow’ to react.
I got ‘fired’ (from that position) and eventually he washed out (he died of a heart attack not long after). If you dug deep enough money was involved (why he was even there). Been a 1/4 century and I still can’t get that one outta my head…typing this out makes my gut churn a little still. In the end was still my fault, and I admitted it, however he shouldn’t have been there.
Applies to more than aviation.
Whew…that was therapeutic Back to my lil world of logic and symbolic languages.
I don’t know nothing about nothing. Their website says +7G / -3.5G as limit load factors. So maybe 4Gs is the “normal” load limit for recurring operations?
My guess - they can probably just dumb it down for basic or advanced training, but from the onset provide the stick functionality and muscle memory to build on perhaps? I mean…I would suppose you could disable most of the sensor stuff and just focus on the basics, then work in the HOTAS stuff later perhaps? I dunno…just spit-ballin’…