On 2/21/04 11:06 PM, in article
, "WaltBJ"
wrote:

"Doug \"Woody\" and Erin Beal" wrote in message
...
SNIP
Culturally, the brief also cited a greater propensity for Navy and Marine
Corps pilots to willfully violate SOP or FAR's than their Army or Air Force
counterparts. (Although anecdotally, I can come up with an example or two
of why I doubt that's true.)
--Woody

SNIP -

So can I. Perhaps (undoubtedy) USAF and even Army aircrews are more cunning.
One has to be caught to be charged with a violation.
Walt BJ

I guess I'm not the only one who sees it that way.

I know of an F-16 pilot who morted himself a few years back while doing a
loop over a relative's farm. During an impromptu airshow, he didn't leave
enough vertical airspace underneath his jet to complete the back-side of a
loop and pancaked in just short of "airshow center."

The SIR (or whatever the USAF guys call) acknowledged that he had done quite
a bit of flat-hatting (even in two-seat aircraft) during his (nearly 17
year) career but stated that his commanders never knew it. Apparently,
commanders don't have all the tools to know what their pilots are doing
because their JO's are doing a great job of covering up.

Curiously enough, the SIR also discussed extensively his poor technique over
the top of the loop that ultimately lead to his demise.

Anecdotal evidence, yes, but I think their corporate cover up makes sense
culturally because of the USAF's very tight regulation and zero tolerance
for mistakes.

Bottom line for me: As long as imperfect humans are designing, building,
fixing, and flying airplanes, we'll be crashing them. The best you can do
is minimize the mishap rates, but at some point, you must accept SOME low
number.