F-35 accident KABQ

[///AMG]

Makes sense. Does mark the end of an era.

Yeah, it sure does. I want to be cautiously optimistic and trust that the technology is what they say it is (the claim is that there is no failure mode affecting PLM that wouldn't already require a field divert), but I do have a nagging feeling that never giving the students a swing at the bat flying fully manual might have unintended consequences down the road.

 

[MikeD]

Yeah, it sure does. I want to be cautiously optimistic and trust that the technology is what they say it is (the claim is that there is no failure mode affecting PLM that wouldn't already require a field divert), but I do have a nagging feeling that never giving the students a swing at the bat flying fully manual might have unintended consequences down the road.

It’s akin to manual bombing being a one time fam event now for many pilots, if done at all. Everything is all GPS now, don’t you know? May even have to back it up with old ass technology like laser guidance!

 

[knot4u]

I'm confused, so USN carrier fighter pilots aren't trained to manually land on a carrier anymore? That seems impossible considering the number of F-18s still operational. Do the new guys do their CQ in an F-18 when they get to their squadron? I'm an old fart and still don't trust the tech completely. What do the F-35 guys do when the automation gets away from them when landing on a carrier? They punch out...

Pilot error caused F-35 carrier crash and plunge into South China Sea

A Navy probe found the pilot did not act "in a reckless manner." The officer remains in the service, but is no longer flying.

www.navytimes.com

 

[///AMG]

I'm confused, so USN carrier fighter pilots aren't trained to manually land on a carrier anymore? That seems impossible considering the number of F-18s still operational. Do the new guys do their CQ in an F-18 when they get to their squadron? I'm an old fart and still don't trust the tech completely. What do the F-35 guys do when the automation gets away from them when landing on a carrier? They punch out...

Pilot error caused F-35 carrier crash and plunge into South China Sea

A Navy probe found the pilot did not act "in a reckless manner." The officer remains in the service, but is no longer flying.

www.navytimes.com

So I misspoke a little, kind of. A "PLM" (aka magic carpet) landing on the boat is considered to be a "manual" landing, and it is to be fair, it is just highly highly aided. Going from a guy who flew every pass fully manual, into the PLM world late in my active duty career was night and day in terms of workload at night/bad weather. It is truly amazing technology. The question becomes, when it doesn't work, where does that leave us? The engineering consensus currently is that "that won't happen". We shall see.

And yes, F/A-18 pilots now never see the boat until they are flying themselves in a real life F/A-18 there. No flight school CQ anymore.

 

[Pilot Fighter]

The question becomes, when it doesn't work, where does that leave us? The engineering consensus currently is that "that won't happen". We shall see.

Well, you already have a pretty good list of things that will keep you from getting aboard, I guess this is just one more thing.

During evaluation, pilots felt a need to remain current with non-PLM traps. It’s said they added redundancy and issues that made headlines appear to have been resolved.

I can see the issue of adding another (old) qual with a limited number of hours is probably counterproductive.

Are folks allowed to make non-PLM approaches to the boat?

 

[///AMG]

Honestly, at this point I'm not sure. The policy on PA CAS "currency" varied by CAG, but on my PLM deployment, we were supposed to do on PA CAS pass every 30 days. There was nothing at the time to say that you couldn't do them all in PA CAS mode, though your grades would definitely suffer (for the folks who cared about that kinda thing). At this point, I'd imagine it is a rarity, if allowed. But that's a good question