Posted on 04/21/2007 1:42:05 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Breaking on CNN a few minutes ago.
1 plane down in neighborhood, status of pilot or occupants unknown at this time.
Niters...Hopin’ for a better day...;0)
Post them or keep them. Shrug
He works in a coal mine; only rides the city transit bus or his highly customized VW van.
Sigh. It should be a requirement that everyone should have to read every post on a thread before posting anything.
I don’t even drink and I need a drink on that one. ;-)
Thanks for trying to inject some facts into a thread. The rampant armchair speculation on breaking news threads is so tiresome.
A4=Heinaman’s (sp) hotrod.
My local news just reported that this was the Pilot’s first demonstration show, although he had been with the squadron for 2 years.
Also reported 8 people on the ground were injured.
Very sad.
I don't like spit shined jump boots and bloused trou' on staff rats either.
Not real big on Monty Python marching formations.
But bands and demonstration teams provide a link between the warriers and the folks that don't generally want to consider war as an option...they make Jodie stop and consider what it takes to remain free.
Elites can be a pain for the rest of the troops & they're not immune to failure - but people NEED heros & watching the Angles, Thunderbirds, or some guy riding a parafoil with an American Flag is a real effective means of providing for that need.
The “eyewitness report” in post#345 seems consistent with an unschooled observer describing an engine out situation... losing speed rapidly... and therefore consistent with your bird ingestion call, etc.
Wondering how likely it is that a single engine problem might have caused sufficient deceleration in the situation here to account for the eyewitness report? Seems that might not have been sufficient to me. Speed loss and brushing a tree account for most of this, but seems there might not be enough if only a single engine got trashed.
Absolutely they would if called upon. These are C-models, combat capable, as are the pilots. It is a point of pride for them to be a combat-capable squadron.
There are very few mods. By far the biggest mod is the paint job:
Thunderbird Modifications
• Dogfight switch rewired to accommodate smoke oil on/off switch
• Smoke oil safe switch added to right console
• Smoke oil plumbing
• Ammunition drum and cannon removed to accommodate smoke oil drum
• The jet-fuel starter doors were removed
• Thunderbird paint scheme and motif
Yeah, I know, but I want NOISE when the Blue's play their symphony. I am deaf from jet noise, I need that volume. Never saw the F-4 Angels work out. F-14 would have been a hoot.........a bitch for them though.
Good night, 2126 hours here in Hawaii................
Uh...PD... You and I seldom disagree, as you know. However, there ARE situtions where a pilot is able to maintain sufficient control to steer a plane away from homes or other high value areas, and yet be riding a plane that was going to crash. Not a matter of “ego” or “bravado” ... simply humanity. Of course, the real question then becomes “how controllable” the plane is to begin with. If it’s totally uncontrollable, there’s no point in hanging on, but you know that “total lack of control” is very seldom the case.
In this accident, it sounds like there wasn’t much time to think of anything, though... probably some engine problem (or possibly control surface) - contact with something attached to the ground - fireball before able to think about doing anything... so the discussion seems moot to begin with. Perhaps that is the genesis of your upset about people speculating to begin with.
Many of my fellow pilots stated during flight room BS sessions that they would never eject if there were any chance they could save people on the ground. I also heard a few state they would never eject period, but I somehow thought those were comments that could be modified with situation. Perhaps your squadron was different, and you heard differently, but that is what I heard.
This is NOT a media invention or simple hero worship.
Also, whether the AF or Navy likes it officially - when that final call comes, each pilot is going to do what they as an individual thinks proper.
I have not seen a single aviation thread in which you were not a prick.
I have more than a hunch that Pukin Dog is all that he implies, and more. He knows naval aviation, bank on that. Matter of fact, we might have crossed paths, depending on time of service. No where have I detected anything other than someone I know to be the man he says he is.
I suggest you go pound sand and insult someone you can substantiate is a poseur in the meantime.
Semper Fi, Pukin Dawg, even though you be a swabbie...........
Well, I knew that they didn’t have any females in the crew that flew the F-18’s so I was just suggesting that if there were any women pilots, she’d have to be flying something else, and I remembered seeing Fat Albert at one of the practices.
Eaker never claimed that Pukin was a poseur. That was
someone else. “You are new here too” referred to Pukin’s relative age on FR compared to Eaker’s. I suggest learning to read before opening your mouth.
“Paradoxically enough, people deserving it is still not a license to do it.”
A-fricking-men.
Ninofan,
Thanks!
What is clear to you is not to doorgunner69.
You made it even more clear.
Maybe he will get it now.
As for the Blues, I try to see them every year they come up to Seafair in Seattle. I took my family up there for a Saturday practice session a couple years ago. One of the solos accidentally broke the sound barrier and created a sonic boom...that was spectacular. The other thing I remember was their final pass over Lake Washington. We were directly under them as they came in over the treetops and houses. I swear they were no more than 100 feet off the ground, and I have never seen something moving that fast, that close. All 7 of them, in a ‘V’ formation...and right over my head.
It is something I'll never forget.
Salute to the fallen aviator.
What is a dogfight switch??
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