Tag Archives: Aircraft

Marine Ejects from Harrier

A US Marine Corps Harrier AV-8B jump jet crashed in the desert southwest; the pilot ejected:

A Marine Corps Harrier attack jet crashed while on a training mission Wednesday in southwestern Arizona and base officials said the pilot ejected safely.

The AV-8B Harrier went down about 3:30 p.m. some 15 miles northwest of the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma…

The spokesperson speculated that the pilot must have been ok since he called back to the base on his cell phone after the incident.

C-17 Makes Unscheduled Landing at Wrong Airport

Single seat fighter pilots are individually responsible for every action they take with their aircraft.  They have no co-pilot, so everyone — even the youngest Lieutenant fighter pilot — is qualified to make the calls necessary to safely fly their aircraft.

For that reason, fighter pilots sometimes joke that heavy aircraft are “flown by committee,” since every action is a “team” effort among pilot, co-pilot, navigator, flight engineer, loadmaster, flight attendant, etc.  Still, oftentimes passengers’ lives are at stake and valuable cargo is on board, so perhaps redundancy is called for.

On that note, it seems a certain C-17 team made a poor decision:

A huge military plane from New Jersey may have mistaken the tiny runway at Peter O’ Knight airport for the runway at MacDill Air Force Base…

While the aircraft was from McGuire, some news reports indicated the mission Read more

There’s a Busload of Nuns on the Runway

During every pilots’ recurring Emergency Procedures evaluation (whether in a simulator or in a table-top with an instructor), there comes a point where the evaluator needs to make the pilot “go around,” or wave off the landing, in order to observe the required “single-engine go around” or equivalent emergency go-around.  This might take an extreme situation, because a pilot in an emergency would have wide latitude to land even if, for example, the control tower told him not to.

Unless, of course, there’s a busload of nuns on the runway.  It never fails,  Read more

Virginia F-18 Crash Caused by Rare Double-Engine Failure

The US Navy has long relied on two-engine aircraft because, when you’re flying only over blue water, it likes the reassuring backup of a second engine.  (The acceptance of the single-engine F-35 was a significant event.)

Unfortunately, sometimes two engines haven’t been enough, as with the F/A-18 Hornet crash last April in Virginia.  The recently released report says both engines failed shortly after takeoff:  Read more

Marine Crusaders in the Modern Context

A local paper follows up on the decision of the US Marine Corps to order a unit not to become the “Crusaders” as they had traditionally been for 50 years.  As noted previously, the order came from a three-star General:

Lt. Gen. Terry Robling, deputy commandant for aviation, issued an order April 30 that Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 122 discontinue use of the Crusaders moniker and a logo that featured a red cross on a white shield. The squadon [sic] will retain its identity as the “Werewolves,” said Lt. Col. Joseph Plenzler, a Corps spokesman.

The Marine leadership apparently felt the “modern context” of the term made Read more

Pilots Eject from T-45C

The US Navy reported that both pilots had ejected from the Navy trainer T-45C Goshawk they were flying in Texas.

Navy Lt. John Supple says the aircraft from Training Squadron 22 at Naval Air Station Kingsville was on a routine training flight when it went down. He said the flight instructor and student have been recovered and taken to a hospital for examination, where both appear to be well.

Marine Crusaders Become Werewolves, Again

According to MSNBC, the VMFA-122 Crusaders were “ordered to reverse” their decision to return to the “Crusaders” moniker.

“The deputy commandant for aviation [Lt. Gen. Terry Robling] directed VMFA 122 to maintain the unit identification as the Werewolves,” said Marines public information officer Lt. Col. Joseph Plenzler. “I called down there to confirm that they have changed the tail markings, squadron patches” and other places the squadron logo appears, he said.

The Marines gave no reason for the order, giving Michael Weinstein — who had called the Marines a “national security threat” for the move — the blood in the water he needed to claim victory and make further demands:  Read more

F-15C Sports New Targeting Pod

The F-15C Eagle is an air-to-air fighter.  That’s what it does, and that’s what its pilots love.  In fact, saying the air-to-ground “b-word” (bomb) is even forbidden in the community (among other linguistic games).

That isn’t stopping the Eagles from trying out some of the air-to-ground toys.

The Air Force Times reports a National Guard F-15C unit has been testing a Sniper pod, an air-to-ground targeting pod, on its Eagles:  Read more

1 … 3 4 5 6 7 … 32