Comments for You do not want to see this in the aircraft...

You do not want to see this in the aircraft...

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 05:57:00 -0600

Lost It!.wmvWhen the first IqAF helicopter pilots came up here from Taji, they just wanted someone to show them how the sim worked -- I wasn't teaching a class that day and knew how to run the sim without flushing the database. One thing led to another, though, and I started showing them how to recognize when the situation was starting to hop into the handbasket and how to recover *fast* -- it didn't start out as an instrument flight training session, buuuuut, when the Boss asked me what we'd been working on and I told him, he took me...

Comment from R Jewell on 2008-07-09

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:15:39 -0600

That TINS wouldn't be something like this would it.......?

CLICK HERE and scroll to the middle of the page.

Comment from BillT on 2008-07-09

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:17:41 -0600

XBrad -- Heh. That U-Toob vid brought a TINS! to mind...

Comment from BillT on 2008-07-09

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:02:49 -0600

Sis -- Briar patch as in, "Puh-leeeze, Bre'r Fox, don't throw me in that briar patch!"

XBrad -- A sixteenth of a mile is 330 feet further than you can see when visibility is zero. The sim flies like a sim, but the procedures for keeping it twirly side up and oily side down are the same, and a lot of these guys were taught rudimentary instrument flight, but they never had the chance to actually go out and practice it. I know exactly how a self-sealing fuel tank gets installed in a Huey, but if I had to actually do it, it'd take me about a week to get it right. If you're inadvertent IMC and lose it, you're dead after forty seconds, even if it takes a couple of minutes to get to impact.

Now throw in the fact that there were only two TACANs and one VOR in the whole country, the service volume for each is only about 40 miles, they're located in Basrah, Baghdad and Ali Base (all down south) and don't reach up or out as far as most of the air bases were located. No navaids means no way to get from A to B in the soup except by flying time-distance-heading, and if the wind shifts, you could be 40 miles off-course after a two-hour flight.

Going into an unusual attitude kills *trained* pilots in the US, and there are so many reasons it happens that there are people out there who make a pretty good living by teaching classes on why it happens and how to get out of it. I could write a post on somatogravic illusions, but most of you would doze off during Physiology of the Inner Ear.

BTW, if you were in the pattern with a sixteenth of a mile vis and could still see the ground, you were flying too low...

Comment from XBradTC on 2008-07-09

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:18:02 -0600

BillT, might I suggest you go over to Neptunus Lex for a refresher course in why we use checklists?

Comment from AFSister on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:34:55 -0600

Chewing gum, eh? Glad you're still putting it to use. :-)

And anyone who knows anything about you at all could have told the uppers that BillT (aka SugarButtons) ALWAYS does the right thing- especially when it comes to keeping fellow pilots alive and aloft. Briar patch.... INDEED!!!!!

Comment from XBradTC on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:35:30 -0600

BillT,
Not an aviator, but I did fire up flight sim, and tried a circuit around my hometown airpark in a 206 with 1/16 nm vis. no problems maintaining orientation.
Now I know that's not real world- what is it that causes them to suddenly slip off the bubble?

Comment from BillT on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:50:49 -0600

BTW, the beer's in the fridge, Sly. If there are Cheetos crumbs on the caps, it just means ry was trying to gnaw 'em off...

Comment from BillT on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:47:57 -0600

You specified *angelic* faces.

Comment from bad cat robot on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:04:11 -0600

Okay, the Denizennes can supply the angelic faces, but how'm I gonna get you to look suitably terrified?

I'm shocked, shocked to learn SugarButtons doesn't have a hidden camera so he can collect video of all his terrified passengers. For later review and giggling.

Comment from BillT on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:53:03 -0600

HAH! I *knew* that'd get her out from behind the drapes!

Comment from DL Sly on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:50:33 -0600

Put on a thong.

pptthttthhtthhtthh!

Comment from BillT on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:24:04 -0600

And you could also add some brief glimpses of terror-stricken angelic faces in the atmospheric soup ...

Okay, the Denizennes can supply the angelic faces, but how'm I gonna get you to look suitably terrified?

*the first one who sez "Put on a thong" gets a mousetrap candygram in the typing fingers*

Comment from Chuck Simmins on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:58:58 -0600

Oh, heck, those of us who have faced the Kobayashi Maru scenario ain't afraid of nothin.

Comment from bad cat robot on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:00:26 -0600

Sounds like TINS:the lab course to me ;-) Do you have "Tuttle's Top Ten" scenarios from the oh-god-oh-god-we're-going-to-die series? You could give a special award to the student who successfully completes them all. And you could also add some brief glimpses of terror-stricken angelic faces in the atmospheric soup ...

Comment from BillT on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:02:54 -0600

Cool.

I'm ready to tackle the Kama Sutra...

Comment from homebru on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:56:22 -0600

When the student is ready, the instructor will appear.

Comment from BillT on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:17:55 -0600

Don't forget to add a thermal element...of uncomfortable heat.

That'd still be cooler than going outside.

Then Bill could come in and give the guy 72 raisins.

I'm *already* in there. And they're perfectly happy with chewing gum, thenkew veddy motch....

Comment from BillT on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 05:58:07 -0600

...how about a big fireball on the screen.

It's better than that -- in a visual sim, everything on the screen goes bright red when you "die." The fun part is figuring out what parameters trigger the RSOD...

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 05:52:41 -0600

Don't forget to add a thermal element of a flash of uncomfortable heat.

Then Bill could come in and give the guy 72 raisins.

Comment from ledger on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:19:26 -0600

Just a thought but, after the student puts it in the ground how about a big fireball on the screen.

You know - just to get their attention.

And, your sim would probably be the first one with it.

Just trying to help.

Comment from ledger on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:07:22 -0600

Just as I predicted. More work and higher pay… Well, maybe just more work. But, just think of the satisfaction factor.

Comment from BillT on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:00:59 -0600

“No good deed goes unpunished.”

I'm finding that out -- I just got the revised draft.

They incorporated my suggestions. Again.

Carp. Now I have to start *writing* the classes...

Comment from ledger on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:47:35 -0600

Bill, your letting your teaching skills get in the way of bureaucratic protocol. That’s an insult to the system.

Remember the old maximum, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Worse, it could lead to a pay raise.

Comment from BillT on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:00:39 -0600

I figured out it's 'way past your bedtime...

Comment from FbL on 2008-07-08

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:38:18 -0600

Aw, i got nothin' but mushy things to say. In order to reduce my Estrogen Footprint, i'll just keep the thoughts to myself. I think BillTcan figure them out, anyway. :)