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Marine pilot loses command after ejecting from F-35B that kept flying

marinecorpstimes.com

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Re: Marine pilot loses command after ejecting from F-35B that kept flying

#491

Post by nradov »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #466
bumby wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m somewhat skeptical that they exist, at least in the numbers needed to fill pilot slots. Barring certain neurological disease, I don’t think people are “hyper rational” despite even appearing that way to the outside, or identifying themselves as such. We like to sometimes think of our brains as cold computers but they’re not, and even less so in time-critical situations like flying a damaged aircraft. We’re moreso…

> I don’t think people are “hyper rational” despite even appearing that way to the outside, or identifying themselves as such. As I wrote in my parallel answer https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42115831 I do believe that on rationalism websites or forums, it's quite plausible that some of this breed of people hangs around. --- > I’m somewhat skeptical that they exist [...] in the numbers needed to fill pilot slots…

Rationalism is overrated. It doesn't even help much with making good decisions, especially under tight time constraints and with incomplete or inaccurate information.

People who consider themselves to be "hyper rational" are just obnoxious wankers. I don't take them seriously or trust their judgment.

Re: Marine pilot loses command after ejecting from F-35B that kept flying

#492

Post by mlsu »

julianeon wrote: post #140
mmooss wrote: post #77

Has this become a politicized, viral, ideology thing? I keep seeing this story pop up in several places, but it doesn't seem like its impact merits the attention. I'm not trolling and please don't bring the politics and ideology here. I am asking factually. (I'm here because I prefer to avoid those things and as a result can be ignorant of them.)

Something I think about in stories is "how strong is the emotional hook." This one is great! A guy fighting his controls, weighing the risk to his life, a Top Gun-style commander of a squadron, ejecting (well, an hour) before the plane explodes. It scores low on the "relevance" scorecard, but it's off the charts in terms of human interest, and I think it's climbing due to the latter.

Not to mention that the military lost the location of the jet after he ejected and they asked the public to give tips on its location. It was missing for like a day before they found it.

Lots of tweets to the effect of "how tf do you lose a $100m fighter jet??"

Re: Marine pilot loses command after ejecting from F-35B that kept flying

#495

Post by ethagknight »

bergen wrote: post #240
ethagknight wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> However, the report said its standby flight display and backup communication system “remained basically functional.”

The interesting thing here would be to find out what "basically" means in that context.

Probably functional enough that a veteran pilot would know how to operate the plane

Re: Marine pilot loses command after ejecting from F-35B that kept flying

#496

Post by le-mark »

the__alchemist wrote: post #160
le-mark wrote: post #88

It’s unfortunate neither the Navy nor the Air Force want anything to do with the close air support role. The Marines are the smallest arm of the US military but they “do it all”, except tanks, they got rid if they’re Abrams some years ago.

The USAF has done, and continues to do CAS as an important mission. Edit: I will clarify. USAF multirole fighters (And the A-10) train to, and execute CAS in combat regularly. Even bombers do from time-to-time.

They do it because if they don’t the Army will get it, and a fixed wing aircraft budget which will come out of the Air Force purse. AF sees it as a distraction from what they want to be doing; air dominance.

Re: Marine pilot loses command after ejecting from F-35B that kept flying

#497

Post by bawolff »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #447
bawolff wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, a pilot blaming procedure for a bad call is ass covering Ultimately pilots are humans, being asked to make split second decisions. A certain percent of the time decisions are going to be bad. That is why we have procedures. In pretty much every other field we recognize that. Ignoring that fact is incompetence on the part of military command. There are of course situations that cannot be covered by procedures,…

Do you think there is no value in picking pilots that make the correct split second decisions or screening out pilots that don't? The priority here is combat effectiveness, not job security for pilots. On top of all this, they found that he didn't follow the correct procedures that did exist!

Oh, i think there is tremendous value in that if you can do it. However i don't think humans work that way, and what is really happening is survivorship bias. This reduces combat effectiveness as it sweeps opportunity for organizational improvement under the rug.

Re: Marine pilot loses command after ejecting from F-35B that kept flying

#498

Post by dralley »

datavirtue wrote: post #205
gm3dmo wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s a new plane! First flown in 2006. Introduced 2016.

This project needs scrapped. They tried to make it everything for everyone. Not practical. No danger of retiring the stalwarts anytime soon.

It's extremely practical and a good aircraft. Not to mention cheap, now that the development costs are paid for.

There is no aircraft in history that did not have hiccups during procurement. Even "ol reliable" platforms like the Blackhawk or the F-16 had much worse reputations when they were first introduced.

Re: Marine pilot loses command after ejecting from F-35B that kept flying

#499

Post by AlwaysRock »

bumby wrote: post #465
AlwaysRock wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the review found that the pilot did do the right thing and did follow the manual. The definition of, "out of control" seems to be to blame. He's even been cleared to fly again.

It's important to acknowledge he was part of a Test & Evaluation squadron. It's usually part of their jobs to push the flight envelope so that people can define procedures. Reading between the lines, it sounds like the pilot may have been too conservative in their eyes for that purpose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMX-1

Yup. He will get to request a role that is a better fit for him.

Re: Marine pilot loses command after ejecting from F-35B that kept flying

#500

Post by datavirtue »

nradov wrote: post #233
datavirtue wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This project needs scrapped. They tried to make it everything for everyone. Not practical. No danger of retiring the stalwarts anytime soon.

It's a little too late for that. The JSF program probably should have been cancelled or completely restructured circa 1996. But now there's no remaining alternative. The inventory of legacy AV-8, F-16, and A-10 aircraft are going to be retired no matter what because they're literally falling apart and it's impossible to keep extending their service lives.

You can build five F-18s for the price of one F-35.
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