john_tullamarine,
I totally agree that flight testing should be done in a calm and careful manner. I guess I did not see how me sitting on sandbags in the baggage area of a King Air as being reckless.
To be honest though, once the planning is done and your on the bird you can't think about it. You have to be a bit on the over confident side (most flight test pilots have balls that they carry in a wheelbarrow) or you will freeze up. If you freeze during some of this stuff your dead.
Not all flight testing is dangerous. I just happen to have done a lot of it that would be considered on the other side. Some flight testing can be extremely boring (drag polars). Just because I don't go white when an airplane rolls over on its back and crap my pants does not make me reckless.
We are not out there flying by the skin of our ass endangering people. Most of this stuff is done over the desert or the water. All carefully planned out. Your flight test plan has to be approved by the FAA and all DERs involved or your not going.
In closing there is no way to assess risk management and minimization when your doing hundreds of heavy aft cg stalls. Your either doing it or your not. You just hope everybody knows what they are doing and that your going to come back.
