USMC F-35B Crash - 17 Sep 23
"New Stuff" includes 9 cartoons with dates in 2020 and 2021. What other evidence is there of this "coming out of retirement"? "The Daily Dose" is all old work but I still enjoy it each morning.
Salute!
The Bee has an auto eject feature when in the last of the landing modes.
Apparently the USMC and maybe the RN Harrier folks wanted this. Seems the plane could roll rather sharply if certain things failed, and the installed system was quicker than the pilot.
Guess we wait for a report from USMC, and it might be a long time.......
And BTW, even the primitive FBW jet I flew 40 years ago would fly at last commanded/trimmed roll rate and gee following ejection unless completely outta control. So early motor failure crashes and controlled ejections were typified by descriptions of the jet flying ahead until reaching the AoA limiter, then descending until impact. One even landed slightly ahead of the pilot, broke one gear but was in fairly good shape. And the Thunderbird a coupla years back has a good pic of the plane that "landed" short of the rwy at Pete Field. Didn't burn and had only a few hundred pounds of gas left. Was throttle linkage failure and engine shut down when he retarded the throttle - "power lever angle" in some manuals, heh heh.
Gums sends...
The Bee has an auto eject feature when in the last of the landing modes.
Apparently the USMC and maybe the RN Harrier folks wanted this. Seems the plane could roll rather sharply if certain things failed, and the installed system was quicker than the pilot.
Guess we wait for a report from USMC, and it might be a long time.......
And BTW, even the primitive FBW jet I flew 40 years ago would fly at last commanded/trimmed roll rate and gee following ejection unless completely outta control. So early motor failure crashes and controlled ejections were typified by descriptions of the jet flying ahead until reaching the AoA limiter, then descending until impact. One even landed slightly ahead of the pilot, broke one gear but was in fairly good shape. And the Thunderbird a coupla years back has a good pic of the plane that "landed" short of the rwy at Pete Field. Didn't burn and had only a few hundred pounds of gas left. Was throttle linkage failure and engine shut down when he retarded the throttle - "power lever angle" in some manuals, heh heh.
Gums sends...
The auto eject feature on the Bee is there to ensure safe ejection when a certain set of parameters are met during STOVL. An auto ejection in any other condition would I guess result in an immediate fleet grounding, as well as being the first time auto eject is used operationally!
If the pilot is to have a new nickname, can I suggest “Otto”?
There was a Lightning abandoned just west of RAF Valley in the late 70s, premeditated because one MLG was locked up. That aircraft was left allegedly with the AP in and it headed off towards Ireland but went down in the sea a few miles from Dublin, presumably when it ran out of fuel (not difficult). Rumour had it that its Northern Ireland driver had dialled up the DUB ILS…
if memory serves, that was the event which led to all RAF fast jet premeditated ejection drills including the selection of half aileron trim to induce a spiral dive and thereby avoid unexpected and unaccompanied long transits.
There was a Lightning abandoned just west of RAF Valley in the late 70s, premeditated because one MLG was locked up. That aircraft was left allegedly with the AP in and it headed off towards Ireland but went down in the sea a few miles from Dublin, presumably when it ran out of fuel (not difficult). Rumour had it that its Northern Ireland driver had dialled up the DUB ILS…
if memory serves, that was the event which led to all RAF fast jet premeditated ejection drills including the selection of half aileron trim to induce a spiral dive and thereby avoid unexpected and unaccompanied long transits.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
So if it clears the memory of Mode 5, datalink, HQ and other settings, I guess a question is does it also automatically clear the Mode 1, 2, 3 and Mode S settings….
The Marines said features that erase a jet’s secure communications in case of an ejection – a feature designed to protect both the pilot’s location and the plane’s classified systems – may also have complicated efforts to find it.
“Normally, aircraft are tracked via radar and transponder codes,” the Marines said. “Upon pilot ejection, the aircraft is designed to erase (or ‘zeroize’) all secure communication.”
“Normally, aircraft are tracked via radar and transponder codes,” the Marines said. “Upon pilot ejection, the aircraft is designed to erase (or ‘zeroize’) all secure communication.”
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Rumour had it that its Northern Ireland driver had dialled up the DUB ILS…
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I have read that there has been 7 or 8 F35 losses, depending on how they are categorised in a stated 721,000 hours. That seems to me to be a relatively high attrition rate for such a modern and highly sophisticated military jet.
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I don't have other miljet accident statistics to hand however I'd reckon the F-35 variants do well but then again I WOULD SAY THAT. 
Back at the ranch the pilot ejected at "2,000 feet after an aircraft failure" he says? Back to above YES "depending on how they [F-35 losses] are categorised" but why does that make a difference? How are other miljet stats categorised in your mind.
Back at the ranch the pilot ejected at "2,000 feet after an aircraft failure" he says? Back to above YES "depending on how they [F-35 losses] are categorised" but why does that make a difference? How are other miljet stats categorised in your mind.
I don't have other miljet accident statistics to hand however I'd reckon the F-35 variants do well but then again I WOULD SAY THAT. Back at the ranch the pilot ejected at "2,000 feet after an aircraft failure" he says? Back to above YES "depending on how they [F-35 losses] are categorised" but why does that make a difference? How are other miljet stats categorised in your mind.
Back at the ranch the pilot ejected at "2,000 feet after an aircraft failure" he says? Back to above YES "depending on how they [F-35 losses] are categorised" but why does that make a difference? How are other miljet stats categorised in your mind.We categorised aircraft losses as well as other things like aborted takeoff or component removals as either Basic which were attributable or Non Basic which were non attributable such as birdstrike or maintenance errors for example.
A heavy landing which resulted in aircraft being scrapped may be counted by some airforces but not by others.
The US sometimes use the term Mishap without a specific definition of the cause.
Hope that is clear.
But one always wants it a bit lower.
The Osprey is at about 3 for the last ten years.
A couple of years ago the US Navy had a roughly 1.09 per 100k hours mishap rate.
For the Navy, with eight class A flight mishaps so far this year, its rate is 1.29 per 100,000 flight hours. For all of 2021, its rate was 1.09 per 100,000 flight hours. Both years’ rates are above the service’s 10-year average of .97 class A mishaps per 100,000 flight hours. They are not statistical outliers, however, according to the Navy’s calculations.
Edit: Oops - didn't look up far enough.
News: CBS news just played the 9/11 call from the pilot made at a house he found after landing his parachute to report the missing jet to try to alert emergency services to the errant aircraft. No more details about the reason for separating from the jet.
News: CBS news just played the 9/11 call from the pilot made at a house he found after landing his parachute to report the missing jet to try to alert emergency services to the errant aircraft. No more details about the reason for separating from the jet.
Poor 911 dispatcher.
Probably wondered at first if someone was taking the mickey given some of the calls 911 get.
And she would have got a bollocking from her supervisor if she hadn't gone through the list of questions.
Doing what every good pilot does - she was following her checklist!
Probably wondered at first if someone was taking the mickey given some of the calls 911 get.
And she would have got a bollocking from her supervisor if she hadn't gone through the list of questions.
Doing what every good pilot does - she was following her checklist!
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1 per 100,000 hours is a bit lower than I'd expect for military aircraft. (Or at least it's within the realm of "not bad" if you look at historical trends).
But one always wants it a bit lower.
The Osprey is at about 3 for the last ten years.
A couple of years ago the US Navy had a roughly 1.09 per 100k hours mishap rate.
So it's within the error levels, or standard deviation.
But one always wants it a bit lower.
The Osprey is at about 3 for the last ten years.
A couple of years ago the US Navy had a roughly 1.09 per 100k hours mishap rate.
So it's within the error levels, or standard deviation.
Given the F-35 is single engine, any in-flight engine shutdown is going to be a forced landing at best - and in most cases going to be a hull loss.
Taking that into account, ~1/100,000 hours is damn good given an in-flight shutdown rate of 1/100,000 hours for a military engine is very impressive (that's the sort of number we strive for on commercial engines for 300 minute ETOPS).
1 per 100,000 hours is a bit lower than I'd expect for military aircraft. (Or at least it's within the realm of "not bad" if you look at historical trends).
But one always wants it a bit lower.
The Osprey is at about 3 for the last ten years.
A couple of years ago the US Navy had a roughly 1.09 per 100k hours mishap rate.
So it's within the error levels, or standard deviation.
But one always wants it a bit lower.
The Osprey is at about 3 for the last ten years.
A couple of years ago the US Navy had a roughly 1.09 per 100k hours mishap rate.
So it's within the error levels, or standard deviation.
1/1000 hours may be ok historically.
But F35 is still quite new so it seems a bit on the high side so early in its life cycle.
Typically in early life there's a fairly high accident rate as the platform 'beds in' and people figure out the hard way what the engineers got wrong. Then there's a mid-life low rate of accidents. Only after something is "properly knackered" does the accident rate start to tick up due to failure of old components - typically you see that in non-NATO countries but arguably there are a few examples like F-15 fatigue failures that might make the cut.
F-35's rate is pretty solid to be honest, though I'd always hope for better.
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That's not really how accident stats work if I'm interpreting your statement as meaning new things crash more than old things.
Typically in early life there's a fairly high accident rate as the platform 'beds in' and people figure out the hard way what the engineers got wrong. Then there's a mid-life low rate of accidents. Only after something is "properly knackered" does the accident rate start to tick up due to failure of old components - typically you see that in non-NATO countries but arguably there are a few examples like F-15 fatigue failures that might make the cut.
F-35's rate is pretty solid to be honest, though I'd always hope for better.
Typically in early life there's a fairly high accident rate as the platform 'beds in' and people figure out the hard way what the engineers got wrong. Then there's a mid-life low rate of accidents. Only after something is "properly knackered" does the accident rate start to tick up due to failure of old components - typically you see that in non-NATO countries but arguably there are a few examples like F-15 fatigue failures that might make the cut.
F-35's rate is pretty solid to be honest, though I'd always hope for better.
The bath-tub shape failure curve is virtually intrinsic to engineered artefacts. Even a fridge will either break down a few days after installation, or last for yonks. I have just changed a light-bulb for example. Yonks. The replacement may fail tomorrow.
Theres some substantial rumors flying around that they pilot lost all the huds and MFDs. Checklist said land immediately, he followed his wingman down but due to weather missed that approach. He lost sight of the wingman and decided to bail out
Salute!
.......And the Thunderbird a coupla years back has a good pic of the plane that "landed" short of the rwy at Pete Field. Didn't burn and had only a few hundred pounds of gas left. Was throttle linkage failure and engine shut down when he retarded the throttle - "power lever angle" in some manuals, heh heh.
Gums sends...
.......And the Thunderbird a coupla years back has a good pic of the plane that "landed" short of the rwy at Pete Field. Didn't burn and had only a few hundred pounds of gas left. Was throttle linkage failure and engine shut down when he retarded the throttle - "power lever angle" in some manuals, heh heh.
Gums sends...