Saturday, May 28, 2016

Tight formation


4 comments:

  1. When they did that at Midway, the Japanese fleet went to the bottom.

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  2. I remember the first time. The Thunderbirds rolled into the ground back in '76 or '77. In a split second all of them hit the ground.
    I lost any semblance of absolute faith in leaders at that point.

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  3. Start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_Thunderbirds_Indian_Springs_Diamond_Crash

    I read a little bit more about this, shortly after the accident. As Wiki says, the lead pilot had a mechanical problem which prevented him from pulling up. Speculation, or maybe the accident investigation, suggests that the lead pilot took his left hand off the throttle, to use both hands on the stick. Problem: the pilot's "push to transmit" button was on the throttle. The other pilots in the formation were focused on maintaining position with the leader - as their training and procedures required, and so they followed him into the dirt. After this accident the demonstration teams changed to "hot mikes", wherein the lead can always transmit without having to key the mike.

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