The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Check your math. This Tbird demo pilot made a calculation error, and no one checked his math prior to flight. Near fatality and $20 million later....

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=alo_XWCqNUQ

I'm surprised for airshow purposes they don't set their altimeters to QFE (above field elevation).

What's worse is that the F-16 has a radar altimeter in it that works the whole way up to 30k feet. A proper scan might have caught the error in altimeter setting.

In a split-S manuever, I doubt the radar altimeter would be useful.

In a split-S manuever, I doubt the radar altimeter would be useful.

Rumor has it that the pilot was reassigned from the Tbirds to clerk/messenger duty in the Pentagon.

no but it would have told him how high he was when he started the maneuver, and the radar altimeter is pretty amazing in that thing. I've only been in it for one ride for about an hour but at 90 degrees of bank, it was still giving a pretty accurate reading. I know it doesn't work inverted, but it still might have helped if in his scan.

AND JUST WHY IS IT THE TAX $$$$$$$$$$$$$ PAY FOR THIS NON-SENSE ??????????

The military is needed to protect and defend this country not for entertainment. The military should not be be in airshows or for that matter be sponsoring NASCARS and Dragsters.

N171TD

And just how do you think the military draws volunteers to join and serve.

It's called advertising and promotiion. A necessary evil with a volunteer military.

Of course we could drop all that and go to mandatory service like many countries, something I favor. But now we are getting way of topic.

I think you'd be suprised at how much those sponsorships and airshows attrack the enlisted men and women as well as officers to join the military. I do know for a fact that the Blue Angels fly the oldest jets in the inventory, so these aircraft were on their way to the boneyard anyway.

v/r,
Jud

It is still a waste. You have no way to know if in fact it makes people join the military. All I ever see are field grade officers struting around the so called stars. It is a waste and this government needs to start spending our taxes like a business and not an out of control never ending $$$$$ well. And yes we need a mandatory military, would make the younger generation more mature and respect the USA.

N171TD wrote:.... It is a waste and this government needs to start spending our taxes like a business and not an out of control never ending $$$$$ well....

If the Air Force were a well-run, competitive business with products to sell, I'm sure their marketing department would have them do exactly this. Heck, even Red Baron Pizza did it!

(However I do agree that it was wrong to end the draft, if that's what you're saying.)

gahorn wrote:Check your math. This Tbird demo pilot made a calculation error, and no one checked his math prior to flight. Near fatality and $20 million later....

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=alo_XWCqNUQ

If what the narrator in the video said was true, then the guy's math was good; he just used the wrong field elevation in his calculation. Garbage in - garbage out.

Miles

Even at the beginning of the manuever the radar altimeter would not likely be useful because the aircraft was pitched up so highly it would have an erroneous readout.

If you start with bad numbers, you end up with bad numbers. In fact, there's nothing new about the math should it have been performed correctly. I didn't say his math was bad. I said he made a calculation error. ( I wasn't trying to impress injuneers lik yew, Mils....dont bee so piky.)