Pablo Sacked from MyTravel

[fake wafu]

Maybe his 'back seat driver' took them both out because they were in iminent danger of losing their lives. Maybe the pilot had his hands full and couldnt get to a handle. Maybe the chap in the back did them both a favour. All speculation of course but no worse than the isinuation that the nav ejected the pilot contrary to the pilots wishes.

[AARON O'DICKYDIDO]

HARRIERPILOTNAS


I have heard some Stories about Pablo Mason, from the Boys at Valley.. Rumours have it that Pablo the legend that he is.. Was ejected from his aircraft from the Back Seat Driver, under 'Command' ejection! I can't imagine how pissed off Pablo wud be because he was Ejected by his Nav!

And when was this alleged incident exactly ?

[PPRuNe Radar]

29th July 1983

Hawk of 2TWU after a mid air collision with another of that ilk.

Or more likely the 10th May 1991

Ejected by nav from Tornado GR1

This from a bang seat website:

On your next Tornado entry dated 10 May 1991, you correctly note that the pilot was ejected by his navigator. I can give you a little more detail to this story. The pilot, Pablo Mason was quite a flamboyant character and possibly overconfident of his own abilities. The nav, Rob Woods was quiet and professional.

The nav had claimed that the aircraft was out of control at low level and he initiated command ejection for himself and the pilot. The pilot admitted that the aircraft was out of control but claimed that he was regaining control when the nav banged them out. He blamed the nav for the accident. The board of enquiry, with the benefit of the flight data recorder, confirmed that the aircraft would not have recovered and that the nav had undoubtedly saved the pilots life. Pablo Mason went on to sell his Gulf war stories to the tabloids and said some unpleasant things about his fellow aircrew.

[AARON O'DICKYDIDO]

Prune Radar



Thank you.

[CirrusF]

On your next Tornado entry dated 10 May 1991, you correctly note that the pilot was ejected by his navigator. I can give you a little more detail to this story. The pilot, Pablo Mason was quite a flamboyant character and possibly overconfident of his own abilities. The nav, Rob Woods was quiet and professional.

The nav had claimed that the aircraft was out of control at low level and he initiated command ejection for himself and the pilot. The pilot admitted that the aircraft was out of control but claimed that he was regaining control when the nav banged them out. He blamed the nav for the accident. The board of enquiry, with the benefit of the flight data recorder, confirmed that the aircraft would not have recovered and that the nav had undoubtedly saved the pilots life. Pablo Mason went on to sell his Gulf war stories to the tabloids and said some unpleasant things about his fellow aircrew.

Can anybody elaborate how exactly he lost control?

This happened before the lessons learnt from the Czar 52 tragedy. If it had happened after, would he have been allowed to keep flying?

[Union Jack]

Very interesting sidetracking, but it seems like no one wants to answer Yoffey's question, namely "Did he (PM) ever get back to flying?"

Jack

[airborne_artist]

It seems he's taken up the pen - link.

[soddim]

And lost control of the pen!

[HTB]

I thought it was more by way of mishandling during a bodged 2 v 1 low level intercept (with Pablo and Rob as the aggressor), converting from a head-on at high speed in 67 wing, pulling hard to convert to stern attack with high alpha while simultaneously moving the wings to 45. Somebody with a better grasp of aerodynamics might be able to explain what happens in these conditions, but I vaguely reacall a warning in pilot's notes about the deleterious effects of doing this.

[CirrusF]

converting from a head-on at high speed in 67 wing, pulling hard to convert to stern attack with high alpha while simultaneously moving the wings to 45. Somebody with a better grasp of aerodynamics might be able to explain what happens in these conditions

You'd end up with a very high speed stall. Swept wings produce low lift/drag ratio but stall at high alpha. Unswept wings produce high lift/drag ratio but stall at low alpha. So if he moved wings forward at high alpha and high speed, and assuming he was maintaining constant alpha and power, lift would initially increase rapidly, giving marked decrease in turn radius and increase in g, and then a very sudden stall. Given the high directional stability of the Tornado probably the outside wing would have stalled first so they probably flicked upright, but not necessarily!

[Airborne Aircrew]

The board of enquiry, with the benefit of the flight data recorder, confirmed that the aircraft would not have recovered and that the nav had undoubtedly saved the pilots life. Pablo Mason went on to sell his Gulf war stories to the tabloids and said some unpleasant things about his fellow aircrew.

I never knew the man myself, (obviously), but the above paragraph speaks volumes about him. Unfortunately, none of those volumes are particularly flattering.

[HTB]

Pablo was good at deflecting blame - I flew a night Taceval sortie with him, which included a FRA at Nordhorn. I think it would have been a half decent DH, except the chimp for some reason converted to Phase 2, moved the tgt bar and gave us a 1500ft long bomb (a Taceval "fail" for the sqn). At the mass debrief he claimed that I had given him Phase 2 from the back seat and he hadn't touched anything, honest guv - it was the nav's fault. All on film of course, including the the movement of the phase 2 mark from astride the bus to a nebulous point in the overshoot. Needless to say this flimsy and transparent line of defence was kicked out of court (and he later fessed up to taking phase two and moving the marker because it was obscuring his view of the bus).

I don't know how, but we convinced the Taceval team that the 3kg had a faulty nose cone, or tail ,or something equally implausible, so they wiped the score.