Dudley

Understand. I on several occasions was sent around for some reason or
another and after cleaning up bird was cleared for a closed pattern,
close base and short final.

My normal landing used the standard GUMP check and several
transmissions of "Gear down and locked", the last turning final and
with the change in procedure I almost landed wheels up a couple of
times over the years because my concentration was broken.. Only didn't
because of my 'double rubber' approach to things when I was flying on
the edge with hard adherence to check lists.

If your up in the air you can get away with a lot but low there is
maybe only one shot so it better be a good one (or be lucky)..

The TB accident has been covered pretty well so we should leave it and
let it RIP. As you stated, those in the business will learn from what
happened, but it was an expensive dollar wise teacher.

New subject. Did you spin the '51 when you were flying it?

May luck be with you.

Big John


On Tue, 09 Mar 2004 19:19:33 GMT, "Dudley Henriques"
wrote:

Hi BJ;
Hope all is well with you these days.

Yes; you are correct about that John. I haven't talked with the new guys, as
my association with the team involves us "older" folks :-)) but the
procedure in both the official TB regulations for the team and the preflight
brief as far as I know haven't been changed through the years from using the
field elevation at the show sites as a MSL reference for both the Diamond
and solo maneuver target altitudes. The trick is remembering the targets!
What happens is very subtle and could bite anyone as it bit Stricklin.
When you practice day after day at the same location as the team does at
Indian Springs near Nellis, your subconscious can store this repetitious
data as a constant. Then you go to another location and fly a demonstration
there. You go through a normal brief and note the target properly as being
different naturally, because of the difference in field elevations between
the two points. Then you enter the front side of the maneuver knowing full
well the briefed top target and then something happens....a slight
distraction.....doesn't have to be much.....something breaks that intense
concentration you have going up....then suddenly the distraction's vanished
and you snap back immediately. Your eye catches the altimeter at exactly the
altitude your subconscious has stored and you react instinctively and
initiate the reverse. Nothing else is out of place and you haven't picked it
up yet as even a possible error. The result of this is that you miss the
visual cues as well that should be telling you you're a full thousand feet
lower in the reverse than you should be. Your airspeed is in the energy gate
parameters so absolutely nothing is caught that should be screaming at you
to exit out in roll and call a maneuver miss. Once you commit past the
inverted gate, you're dead already. This is exactly what happed to Strickin.
He had a brain fart on the frontside and missed every cue that he should
have caught.
The team is looking hard at the broken concentration issue. but I doubt if
the procedure for using field elevation for maneuver targets will change.
The final result will probably be a "head's up" official report stressing
the need for unbroken concentration at all times by all team members. Also,
in all preflight briefs, it's common practice to have each team member
answer a safety question given by the boss. I'm fairly certain that just
before the usual compulsory in cadence hand slapping on the desktops begins,
this "head's up" on concentration will be a required reminder by the boss to
each position. I'm looking for this is ALL teams as well...throughout the
world, as with something like this....EVERYBODY learns!!
Dudley

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