Category Archives: Fighter Pilot

T-34 Instructor Presumed Dead, Student Rescued

The US Navy has indicated that the instructor pilot from the crashed T-34C training aircraft, Lt. Clinton Wermers, is now presumed dead.  The student was rescued the night of the crash and has not yet been identified.  Initial reports had indicated that both pilots were holding on to the wreckage before it sank.

A comment left on the CNN article on this story indicated that Wermers was a married father of two, and was expecting a third child.

The T-34C is a Navy primary training aircraft used to teach new student pilots.  The two-seat, single engine aircraft does not have ejection seats, but requires aircrew to manually bail out in emergencies.  The T-34C is slated to be replaced by the T-6A Texan II.

Fighter Pilot Training: The Centrifuge

A significant milestone specific to the fighter pilot is attending the centrifuge, a dastardly little machine made famous by its amusement park portrayals in various movies.  The centrifuge is not nearly as fun to actually experience.

Much as the movies show, pilots are seat-belted into a cubicle that simulates a cockpit on the end of a long arm that spins at amazing speeds, compressing the pilots under increased gravity (G) forces.

A person sitting or standing experiences 1 G, or a force equal to gravity.  At 9 Gs (the maximum modern fighters are designed to experience), a 200 pound person feels as though they weight 1,800 pounds.  Though significant, the increased “weight” is bearable.

The more challenging aspect of G forces is that the outward forces cause a pilot’s blood to pool in his legs and feet.  The potential result is a lack of sufficient blood to the brain which causes a blackout under G, called a “G-induced Loss of Consciousness,” or G-LOC (pronounced Gee-Lock).  Aerospace physiologists do an excellent job of teaching the proper techniques and the Air Force provides anti-g equipment to wear in the form of a chap-like “g-suit.”

All fighter pilots-in-training go through the centrifuge twice.  The first Read more

Hasan and the Military Evaluation System

The investigations into the Fort Hood massacre are increasingly highlighting the less-than-optimal military evaluation system.  They ask a simple question: how can a person with identified deficiencies be rated as satisfactory or outstanding rather than having those faults documented?  One reporter (at both the LA Times and Baltimore Sun) caught on to this indicator of a wide-spread problem with the military rating system (key points highlighted):

As widely practiced in Army culture, few performance reviews contain negative comments, and almost all seem outwardly positive. However, at senior levels and in competitive fields, where only a few officers are promoted, an evaluation that is less than effusive in its praise can derail an officer’s promotion.

In less competitive fields and at junior levels, the Army has promoted the vast majority of its officers.

As noted here in 2006 and in Christian Fighter Pilot is Not an Oxymoron, these criticisms of the evaluation system apply outside of the Army, and likely apply to the military as a whole.  Embellishment and overly positive reviews Read more

Wedding Ring Returned to Hill AFB Widow

Air Force Captain George Bryan Houghton was killed in June of 2009 during a night training mission in his F-16.  An article from the Associated Press, as distributed by FoxNews, recounts the story of his widow’s liaison officer (the officer who becomes the family’s help in any way necessary) going an extra mile to help her obtain closure.

The article reports that Houghton’s widow, Josie, only asked for the investigators to return one thing to her: his wedding band.  Unfortunately, it was not recovered in the initial crash investigation.  The liaison, Maj. Robert Ungerman, took it upon himself to correct that failing, and a moving story results.

Read the full story.

Pilot Error Caused F-16 Collision

The Accident Investigation Board has determined that pilot error on the part of Capt. Nicholas Giglio resulted in him colliding with his flight lead, Capt. Lee Bryant, near the end of a night sortie over the waters just east of Charleston, SC, in October.  Giglio died in the collision; Bryant landed his crippled aircraft.  It appears that Giglio, an inexperienced F-16 pilot, may have been “distracted” by a radar problem and failed to properly execute a rejoin on this flight lead, leading to the collision.  Giglio is one of several fighter pilots to die in night training accidents in 2009, including one in Utah and one in Afghanistan. 

As noted earlier, Giglio was held up as a man of God and family by his Pastor.

Fighter Pilots and Pigs in Space

Fighter aircraft are, by stereotype, fast, maneuverable, and nimble jets capable of amazing feats of dogfighting, turning, and speed.

What many people fail to realize, however, is that most fighters are only stereotypical “yank and bank” dogfighters when they are stripped down to their bare essentials and flown at low altitude.  When loaded with sensor pods, electronics equipment, weapons, and external fuel tanks, virtually every fighter becomes a “truck” or “bus” rather than a Read more

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