Recovering from buzzing...

beasly

beasly

Well-Known Member
First, I don't teach and don't do buzzing and am very stern with my student's on safety issues.

Howerver, I am taking the CFI Renewal from Jepp and saw this paragraph:
Another danger of buzzing is target fixation. Pilots become so focused on the target that they wait too long to pull out of the maneuver and crash into terrain. The military recognized this long ago and spends considerable time training their pilots to avoid this problem.


​
I am curious what the military training for this is. Any ideas?

b
 
beasly said:
First, I don't teach and don't do buzzing and am very stern with my student's on safety issues.

Howerver, I am taking the CFI Renewal from Jepp and saw this paragraph:
Another danger of buzzing is target fixation. Pilots become so focused on the target that they wait too long to pull out of the maneuver and crash into terrain. The military recognized this long ago and spends considerable time training their pilots to avoid this problem.


​
I am curious what the military training for this is. Any ideas?

b
Click to expand...

1. The importance of maintaining a scan. During dive bombing, this was a particular problem. Guys would get so focused on getting parameters correct as they were headed down the chute and getting aligned for bomb release, that they'd fail to see just how far the altimeter had unwound and how fast the speed would get, until it was too late.

2. During low level, high speed flight, guys would have a tendency to scan far ahead for terrain coming up, completely missing the one they're about to run into. Hence the phrase "don't miss seeing the near rocks, as you search for the far rocks."

3. "Time to Die" charts were developed. Essentially a chart that depicts when at a certainly altitude/airspeed combination low-level, what various pitch angles will give you (in seconds) before you hit the ground. For example, 300 AGL at 450 kts and you have an insidious 2 degree nose-low descent develop that you don't catch. The chart will show how many seconds you have until impact with the terrain.

Target fixation is very real stuff.
 
USMCmech said:
Look through the turn.

Same as riding a motorcycle, and the landing flare. Look where you want to go, not what you don't want to hit.
Click to expand...

This is so very true.

Target fixation is a very real thing. Happened to me, as a matter of fact. Somewhere near Mt. Ranier, on a twisty road, I target fixated on a boulder at the apex of a downhill left sweeper.

I hit that sucker. Hard. Destroyed my helmet, rashed my leathers pretty bad, broke my collarbone and tore up my beloved Yamaha YZF pretty badly. Helmet saved my life. Leathers and internal armor took most of the point loads.

If I had just looked through the turn - where I wanted to go - it wouldn't have happened.
 
I could be wrong but I thought a lot of the stall/spin accidents associated with buzzing were attributed to the pilot looking back over his shoulder at the people he just buzzed, then he puts himself in an unusual attitude on the climb out. Stall, spin, die.
 
Douglas said:
I could be wrong but I thought a lot of the stall/spin accidents associated with buzzing were attributed to the pilot looking back over his shoulder at the people he just buzzed, then he puts himself in an unusual attitude on the climb out. Stall, spin, die.
Click to expand...

Makes sense in that scenario. I think they're talking about misjudging the recovery from a descent.
 
USMCmech said:
Look through the turn.

Same as riding a motorcycle, and the landing flare. Look where you want to go, not what you don't want to hit.
Click to expand...

Yup, seen some good friends get run over by other good friends when they had to let it down in races due to fixation. Bad times and body casts.
 
My advice, unless your dropping bombs in the military or are an air show pilot, don't do it. Then you will never have to worry about recovering from it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top