DUDE! I'm glad you lived to tell the story. The Lord watches over the
foolish. I too am living proof.
)
Don+
On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 5:08 PM, fasteddiecopeman wrote:
> OK, guys - you want IDIOT? I'll give you IDIOT! STUPID IDIOT!
>
> I was a pilot candidate in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) training on
> the Tutor jet (same ones the
> "Snowbirds" demonstration team fly, if you've ever seen them), way-y-y-y
> back in 1968. The first 5 or 6 solo
> flights are restricted to the 'circuit' where you practice touch and go's,
> while you do training with your instructor
> out in the aerobatic area to prepare you for solos out of the 'circuit'.
>
> Well, I'd just been cleared to go solo out of the 'circuit' by
> demonstrating capability to safely fly stalls, spins,
> barrel-rolls and loops, and my instructor had demonstrated what we'd cover
> in the next dual session - the "half
> roll and pull through". Basically this is the last half of a loop started
> at the top.
>
> One of our Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) was that students carried a
> card with the airplane's emergency
> procedures with them at ALL times, and on it we would write various
> procedures that we had been 'cleared' to fly
> solo. ANY instructor could ask for this card, and if you had any
> non-authorized procedure written down you
> were in REALLY BIG doo-doo!
>
> Another SOP was that IF a student was in a non-recoverable attitude by
> 10,000 feet above ground (AGL), he was
> to eject, and THAT altitude was 12,000 feet indicated (I was in Moose Jaw
> which is 2,000 feet above Mean Sea
> Level [MSL)]). My instructor had told me that if you did your aerobatics at
> 15,000 MSL you'd be safe, BUT if you
> did them at 25,000 MSL, it would take a much more precise control input,
> resulting in a much finer aircraft
> control, so you'd do better on the check ride. Well, I LOVED doing spins
> and discovered I could spin left, recover,
> spin right, recover, and STILL be above the 12,000 minimum altitude.
>
> So, my instructor had demonstrated a 'half roll and pull through' but I was
> NOT authorized to perform this solo,
> yet, and I was on my FIRST solo out of the 'circuit', at 25,000 feet,
> practicing stalls, spins, rolls and loops, and, as
> I was a pretty good pilot, doing just fine. Now, on my 'card', was written
> various 'entry' procedures, for instance,
> a roll was done at anywhere from 150K to 400K with power at 94% to Maximum
> Continuous, while NOT written
> on my card was the procedure for the 'half roll and pull through' - power
> at IDLE and airspeed LESS than 150K
> BECAUSE YOU WERE GOING TO DO THE LAST HALF OF A LOOP in this manoeuvre!
>
> A little aside - it was REALLY emphasized that we could "pull the wings
> off" if we exceeded 7G, so we were not
> given G-suits so as to make it harder to exceed 7G.
>
> Well, I was an "ACE", I was happy with what I was practicing, so I thought
> I'd do the little extra my instructor had
> shown me. Well my 'card' didn't have entry speeds or power for the 'half
> roll and pull through', but it DID have for
> the roll (after all, wasn't it a half ROLL ... etc?), so I looked - 240k
> airspeed (...ONLY 90K too high), and I had 94%
> power on (instead of IDLE),so I rolled inverted and started to pull.
>
> Right away I knew something was wrong - my airspeed was increasing, my
> altitude was decreasing, and I was
> TOO STUPID to reduce power, "pop" my speedbrakes to scrub off speed, or
> roll out to the nearest horizon. WHAT
> I DID DO THOUGH, WAS LOOK AT MY G-METER AND PEG IT AT 6.5G. I started
> 'graying-out' from the G, but I
> concentrated on not exceeding 7, knowing full well that, if there was a
> prize for STUPIDITY, I would get it!!!
>
> I pulled out of the 'bottom' at 10,000 feet (remember the 'eject'
> altitude?) at 450K, and realized that, had I done
> this at 15,000 feet, I would have hit the ground at about 450 Knots in a
> nose-low attitude and become a
> "smoking hole"!
>
> I've not shared this with many people, but I wanted you all to know that
> there's 'idiot' and then there's "IDIOT"!
>
> Ed
>
>
>
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