My thoughts and prayers are with everyone that knew these pilots. Bozz wrote a good piece on aviation safety a while back and I think we can all learn something from it. I couldn't find the post but saved it a while back so here it is.
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Some Things I’ve Learned Till Now
I’ve been fortunate to be able to fly the A-10 for a long time. I started out on active duty, then spent time in the Air National Guard, and now fly full-time for the Air Force Reserves. I’m not yet ancient, but I am old enough to have witnessed some major changes in the way we view the world and the way we fly airplanes in the fighter/attack community.
Around long enough to see some devastating mishaps, I’ve lost squadron mates, close friends, and many other professional acquaintances. Some didn’t make it past their first few years in the cockpit—others were seasoned veterans with thousands of hours under their belts. For me, one the most humbling things that can happen, is to see someone that you admire, someone you know is a top-notch pilot and human being, die in an aircraft accident.
You need to be introspective in this business. If you fail to examine yourself, each time someone else has a mishap, you fail to honor their sacrifice. In that vain, I’ve written a list of things that I’ve found to be truisms for staying alive and doing the job. They are derived from my personal experiences, but can be applied to most types of Air Force aircraft.
1. It’s Usually the Second or Third Bad Decision that Kills You
On flying missions, even when you’ve made a bad decision, there’s usually still a chance to rectify the situation. Sometimes you just make a bad call. Your first bad decision might pertain to weather, fuel, mission complexity, or physiological factors. Don’t keep doing it. Get yourself back on a viable course of action. Flying is constant string of decisions that affect your outcomes. There is a lot of pressure to get the mission done. Sometimes the pressure is real and sometimes it’s perceived. Regardless…it can cloud your judgment.
2. Being a Little Bit Scared is a Good Thing
I don’t care who you are…this job is dangerous. I once saw Chuck Yeager in a television interview. He made a statement that struck me as profound. I can’t remember it exactly, but it went roughly, “Every time I strap on an airplane, I say to myself, be careful Yeager, this sucker could bite you today.” If Chuck Yeager is a little bit scared, it’s probably okay for me to be. Call it what you want, maybe it’s a self preservation instinct, or those little hairs on the back of your neck, but you have to have an internal fear mechanism to make it in the long run.
3. Even within the Rules, There’s Plenty of Rope to Hang Yourself
There’s no other type of flying that comes close to what we do in the military. Think about it. What other company is going to let you take out their planes and dogfight within 500’ of each other, or fly a low level at 300’ AGL, or roll-in and drop a string of bombs with a 60 degree dive angle. You don’t have to break the rules to have fun. When you step out the door, the Air Force gives you about a hundred feet of rope to wrap around your neck if you choose to. There’s a lot of trust inherent in that. I’ve broken rules, but as I’ve gotten older, and hopefully wiser, I’m able to see how stupid and gratuitous that is. It’s an insult to yourself and the Air Force. And…if you end up killing yourself while breaking the rules, they’ll make an example of you in safety meetings for a long time. If that’s not motivation to follow the rules, I don’t what is.
4. There is a Lot You Don’t Know
The problem is…you don’t currently know how much you don’t know. Take this simple test. If you a have several thousand hours, think back to when you had 500. If you have 500 hours, think back to when you were in UPT. At each level, you were probably pretty confident and sure of your knowledge. Guess what folks…it never ends. I like to attend forums where there are aircrews from other communities. For no other reason, I’m reminded of how much is going on in military flying that I don’t know about. It’s humbling. If you fly fighters, talk to an AFSOC helicopter pilot, or a C-17 pilot who’s just back from one of the “Stans,” or even a FAIP who puts his life on the line with some young punk who’s trying to kill him everyday. You’ll find out real quick that nobody has “cornered the market” on risk and danger.
5. It’s Best to Keep Your Plan Simple
Don’t make things harder than they need to be. This business is hard enough without incorporating the “double-rat’s-ass” plan for no reason. In my anecdotal experience, a tactical plan’s chance of success is inversely proportional to its complexity. Concentrate on basics and be really, really good at them. If you are a fighter pilot, those things are probably de-confliction, target acquisition, weapons delivery, and mutual support. Those basics apply to just about every type of tactical mission, whether it’s air-to-air or air-to-mud. Make those the tenets of your objectives for every training or combat flight. If you are good at the basics, you’ll be able to adapt to complex situations.
6. You Need to Visualize Yourself in Emergency Situations
We can all sight examples of pilots who have “screwed up” in emergency situations. It’s easy to point a finger. How does a seasoned veteran forget to jettison his stores after being hit by a missile, or forget to put his speed brakes in with a failed engine and stall the plane, or make a landing 100 knots too fast and go off the end of the runway? Guess what…emergencies are stressful. There’s time dilation and the possibility of having the proverbial “seat cushion” where the sun don’t shine. Go through your boldface frequently. Don’t just say the words; translate the words into the physical actions you’d actually make in the plane. Move your hands to the switches as you say the words. If you reinforce the words with the actions it will help prepare you to act in stressful situations.
7. Good Communication is Imperative
It doesn’t matter whether you are mission briefing, talking to ATC, or calling out a threat reaction…you have to be able to communicate well. You may be the smartest guy in the room, but if nobody else can figure out what the hell you are talking about, you can’t be totally effective in this business. Our job is very technical. It’s important to use the proper terminology and protocol. As an instructor if my wingman has a problem with his HUD, armament control panel, or navigation system, I can’t help him unless he can successfully communicate his problem to me and I can successfully communicate a solution.
Communication not only has to be correct, it has to be timely. CRM is here and it’s important. We need to take care of each other in flight and on the ground. In one of my prior squadrons, an A-10 flight lead flew into the ground while holding at low altitude. He hit the ground at an extremely low angle of impact. He was highly experienced, had flown three different kinds of fighters, and was also a major airline pilot. He essentially mis-prioritized his attention in the cockpit while attack planning and gently descended right into the ground. He had two wingmen with him in tactical formation. Neither one said a word. One of them, a very young pilot, actually admitted to watching lead descend the whole time—all the way to impact. Afterward, he said it looked wrong, but he didn’t say anything, because he figured the guy knew what he was doing. Now he has to live with that.
8. Don’t Get Too Married to Your Plan
Murphy is out there on every mission. If you are like me, it seems like the harder you work on your plan and briefing, the more chance that it will change. Plan properly, but don’t become emotionally invested in your plan. It can lead you to make bad decisions. For a particular mission, you may have created the greatest low altitude attack geometry ever know to man, but if the weather doesn’t cooperate, you may need to shelve it and go to plan B. It’s tempting to push weather or fuel in order to meet your objectives. One of the things that make our job so gratifying is that you can never totally predict what is going to happen. Flying is more like a chess game than filling out a tax form. Stay flexible, keep thinking, and don’t get too married to your plan.
9. Admit When You Don’t Know Something
There are so many new systems, weapons, regulation changes, acronyms, tactics, and techniques that it’s becoming increasing hard to stay on top of all the things you need to know to do the job. It’s staggering when you think of all the layers of knowledge you are responsible for in the Air Force. You have know your plane, then the sub-systems of the plane (navigation computer, counter measures systems, displays), the mission planning software, the electronic briefing room, the simulator, and the new scheduling software. Add to that the volumes of regulations, the demands of your non-flying duties, death by PowerPoint, and the bombardment of emails from around the base. It’s amazing to me we can do our jobs at all.
The fact is…there is tons of stuff I don’t know. Even in the flying arena, all I have to do is sit through a briefing by a motivated young weapons officer and I’m lucky if I understand half of the material. It’s no sin to not know something. Ask questions and admit when you are clueless.
The same thing applies in flight. You’ve got lots of resources to draw on when you don’t know something. There are your wingmen, your SOF, ATC, Metro, FSS, and the RCO to name a few. If you don’t know something, there may be somebody else you can talk to that does.
10. Don’t Be to Proud to Change Your Mind
There are things that I knew to be true in the past that I can no longer call true. Your perspective can and probably should change with experience. It’s easy to become myopic and parochial. Every clothing outfit you’ve ever worn and every hair style you’ve ever sported, you must have thought was a good idea at the time. All I have to do is pull out pictures from the 80’s to see that I don’t possess perfect judgment and wisdom at all times. I think the ORM constructs we use now can help to put things in perspective in real time. I’m not as passionate about the need to train at 100’ AGL or knife fight BFM in a flat scissors as I used to be. You need to constantly challenge your beliefs and compare them to current realities.
11. When You Train…Make the Most of It
The government is only going to give you so much JP8 to burn in your career. How well you decide to use it is amazingly within your purview. How you train will largely determine if you are destined to be average or will actually be good. It’s easy to get into the rut of doing the same events or exercises every time you fly. In my community, it’s tempting to “mail it in” when you are going to the same weapons delivery ranges every week. Don’t fall into this trap. Push yourself to be really good in the airplane. Be proficient in all the weapons and deliveries, formations and tactics, and fundamental skills. Challenge yourself with difficult target acquisition, go to different airspace, and get realistic training.
Don’t make your training missions so complex that you never get really good at the core competencies. It’s analogous to practicing for a sport. A football team doesn’t go out and scrimmage every day. Although scrimmaging, a full dressed rehearsal for game day is important, most of the time you need to be doing drills; like blocking, tackling, throwing, and catching. It takes a lot of repetition to be good at something. Practice difficult maneuvers and deliveries over and over until you get them right. You’ll be able to do them better and safer during a complex scenario and be better prepared for game day.
It Can Happen To You
Sounds cheesy I know, but it’s true. This is an unforgiving business. Take an active role in your own safety. Supervision is important, but when you are strapping on that jet, mommy and daddy aren’t going along with you. Look in the mirror and make sure you like what you see. Be proactive in your squadron or wing. Pull a buddy aside and tell them if they are screwing up. Learn from other people’s mistakes, don’t get complacent, and listen to that little voice in your head.
You don’t want to be the guy who could have saved a squadron mate and didn’t…and you certainly don’t want to be an example in squadron safety meetings for the next 20 years.
Lt Col Brady Glick is command pilot and combat veteran with more than 4000 hours in the A-10. He is a graduate of the Air Force Weapons School, Advance Instrument School, and Flight Safety Officer Course.
