Beage's Wrote:
'In 1989, I once porked up a fully authorised fly past limit, albeit not deliberately.'
Mate, that is some story! I myself have been 'maxed out' having to both turn, and speed up. But then me and my course moved on to BFT......
Joking apart, you highlight a good point in my view: In that even the most experienced (and even in a multi cockpit environment) can lose the bigger picture, and forget some of the really basic stuff. I would be interested to know how the de-brief went, with regards to CRM? Fun-bus would have had 4 folks at least up front, so that was a failure of mainly 2 (Pilots), but also Nav and Eng?
Not aiming to fire shots, but the lesson might be that the 'Devil' that is 'Flypasts' can never be regarded as 'Standard' or 'Routine' for the Sqn Pilot/Crew. This should be also understood by Supervisors. Non of us 'NOT Reds', do it often enough to make it routine, and the angry little horns are all too easily let out.
As several posters have commented, good aircrew, often blow it on the most mundane 'FlyBy'.
I personally am certainly not Holier Than Tho, and have had my share of shockers. My earlier points, mostly related to the poor formation the guys flew. (Incidentally, I don't think what they did was at all dangerous, just shoddy.)
Fly Pasts are a task, in my view, which should be carefully planned by both crew and supervisor. By all means, let the youngsters out, and do them, but be sure of 2 things:
1. They Have a plan, and you have seen it!
2. They know that deviation from the plan is NOT an option, and lauditory reports of 50' 500Kts+ will not be defence!!.
3. Oh, and just as a tester, try this: "OK mate, all's going well, on time, on track etc then over crowd center you get...Bird/Fire/Flameout/ insert as req" see what answers you get (?).
It's often said, but mostly ignored: Assumption is the biggest problem.
Keep Safe Guys, Nurse says I have to lie down now.......
Advo