Originally Posted by
SpazSinbad
Monitoring the approach is of course a requirement but this pilot had a helmet fire. I'm reminded of the Eglin AFB F-35A pilot at night attempting to rectify HMDS faults during his FAST approach. These two pilots were trying to do TOO MUCH and needed to GO ROUND AGAIN - but too late. CRASH.
Eglin was way outside of the envelope at the other end of the spectrum, but at least it was still subsonic... FBW places the driver outside part of the feedback loops, but the soft squishy stuff still has an ASI, an E indexer or other to show the energy state. If the commands are accepting of the SA that exists where the guys n' gals have bad days because the CB popped on their HMD, or the mode didn't change, then we may be at the thin edge of some large orders for replacements for the wrecks that are going to stack up. For an aircraft that has been designed to give unparalleled sensor fusion and information to the driver, that there appears to be a hint of a trend to loss of SA to the pilot with expensive outcomes, seems to need a bit of a rethink.
The helmet fire itself is not the problem, it is having a helmet fire, and without a greater emergency existing, continuing with a wild ride without the advantage of having a season ticket. We can always sell tickets to spectators to come and see the impromptu rapid disassembly of seriously expensive assets conducted with flair.
Have we forgotten to teach go arounds recently?