Thunderbird Crash Footage

"Jay Honeck" writes:

The pilot survived, right?

His health is fine.

His career, I sadly suspect, is not.

A comment from one of the ASF people at a CFIRC I was at over the
past weekend was that he is now flying a desk at the Pentagon.

The same man stated that the problem was that the pilot had become
too comfortable with practicing the maneuver at his home base, which
was about 800 (+/-; I don't recall the exact number) feet lower
than the airfield at which the accident occurred. At the accident
location he set up the split-S so that the top was at the proper
altitude MSL -- at his home base, meaning that the entire maneuver
was executed 800 feet lower than it should have been.

I have *no* military jet experience, but especially for airshows I'm
somewhat surprised that there isn't an altimeter set to QFE to serve
as a sanity check against exactly this sort of problem.

Joe Morris

"Joe Morris" wrote in message
...
"Jay Honeck" writes:

The pilot survived, right?

His health is fine.

His career, I sadly suspect, is not.

A comment from one of the ASF people at a CFIRC I was at over the
past weekend was that he is now flying a desk at the Pentagon.

The same man stated that the problem was that the pilot had become
too comfortable with practicing the maneuver at his home base, which
was about 800 (+/-; I don't recall the exact number) feet lower
than the airfield at which the accident occurred. At the accident
location he set up the split-S so that the top was at the proper
altitude MSL -- at his home base, meaning that the entire maneuver
was executed 800 feet lower than it should have been.

I have *no* military jet experience, but especially for airshows I'm
somewhat surprised that there isn't an altimeter set to QFE to serve
as a sanity check against exactly this sort of problem.

Joe Morris

Newbie ignorance:

What does QFE stand for?

Jay Beckman
Chandler, AZ
Student Pilot
3.2 Hrs ... Nowhere to go but up?

"Jay Beckman" wrote in message news:UU31c.12459$id3.7043@fed1read01...
What does QFE stand for?

QFE is the altimeter setting that will cause the instrument to read zero at the field
elevation. It's used a lot in relatively low lying places (like the UK). If you've
got some real elevations you run out little numbers in the altimeter to dry to get
the proper QFE in there.

Jay

QFE

QFE is a Q code used by pilots and air traffic control to refer to the
current air pressure which will calibrate the pilots altimeter to give
actual height above the ground at a particular airfield.

Sometimes it's easier to go to Google and type the word or phrase in
to get an answer vs asking the group and waiting around for an answer
G

Big John


On Tue, 2 Mar 2004 10:56:21 -0700, "Jay Beckman"
wrote:

----clip----

Newbie ignorance:

What does QFE stand for?

Jay Beckman
Chandler, AZ
Student Pilot
3.2 Hrs ... Nowhere to go but up?

Jay. Remember what goes up must come down (hopefully under control)
G

Jay
Sometimes it's easier to go to Google and type the word or phrase in
to get an answer vs asking the group and waiting around for an answer
G

Thanks, Big John -- but it wasn't me that was doing the asking!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:dY71c.462737$na.1096169@attbi_s04...
Jay
Sometimes it's easier to go to Google and type the word or phrase in
to get an answer vs asking the group and waiting around for an answer
G

Thanks, Big John -- but it wasn't me that was doing the asking!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"



I think he meant me...

The "other" Jay

;o)

Jay Beckman
Student Pilot - KCHD
3.2 Hrs ... Nowhere to go but up!

I think he meant me...

The "other" Jay

Whoops! Sorry, Jay!

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:nj81c.25354$ko6.219040@attbi_s02...
I think he meant me...

The "other" Jay

Whoops! Sorry, Jay!

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"



Guess you and I will have to stick with full "N" numbers...no abbreviations!

G

Jay (Beckman)

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:nj81c.25354$ko6.219040@attbi_s02...
I think he meant me...

The "other" Jay

Whoops! Sorry, Jay!


"You can call me Jay, or you can call me...."

"Jay Beckman" writes:

"Jay Honeck" wrote:

Jay
Sometimes it's easier to go to Google and type the word or phrase in
to get an answer vs asking the group and waiting around for an answer

Thanks, Big John -- but it wasn't me that was doing the asking!

I think he meant me...

The "other" Jay

Jay Beckman
Student Pilot - KCHD
3.2 Hrs ... Nowhere to go but up!

....and "QFE" by itself as a Google search yields 50,000+ hits, starting
with "Quad Fast Ethernet". grin Adding "altimeter" to the search
brings up what you need.

But as a student pilot, please recall that the most stupid question
is the one that you don't ask. If there's something about flying
that you don't understand, it's far better to ask it while sitting
in front of a monitor at home than to realize while on short final
that you need the answer before landing...

And while definitions of "QFE" found on Google will probably be
correct, there are issues where a search on Google will return
conflicting responses. (surprised?) Ask the questions here and
you might also get conflicting responses, but you'll also get a
discussion as other posters offer arguments for or against one
of the answers, giving you some ideas about what to ask your instructor
in a face-to-face discussion.

And welcome to the ranks of aviation!

Joe Morris