Pechs1 wrote:

Guy writes about the F-111- Bill Gunston, in his ARCO book on the F-111, says
that at least three
experienced pilots, including one company test pilot, got it wrong with serious
consequences. BRBR

I say-after flying the Turkey, Ifind it amazing they 'got it wrong' with the
wingsweep. Altho the F-14 wings were auto, every once in a while you moved them
around manually while airborne. It seems intuitive to me, particulalry since it
changed how the A/C 'felt', when moving them back. Plus the switch was aft for
back, forward for forward.

Same with the F-111, but even so, mistakes occasionally happened. The problem was
that they sometimes happened in the F-111 on the deck at the speed of heat, when
there was no time to correct the mistake. I don't know if the accidents happened
with the wing sweep set up in the opposite way (forward = faster), as the OP asked;
I've never heard that they had to change it to the production Aft = faster, but
that might explain it. Another explanation that seems possible to me is that
moving from the throttles to the trombone handle requires a fairly natural
adjustment of hand position, while the F-14 wing sweep control seems to be
qualitatively different. Or maybe it's just that the MSP prevents you from
manually sweeping the wings if its going to cause problems? ISTR they lost a B-1
to similar incorrect wing sweep (throwing the Cg out of limits), so maybe the auto
system on the F-14 was just keeping you out of trouble.

Guy