Washout stories

[Angels seventy]

I'm not now, nor have I ever been a pilot in any branch of our military. I relay this true story only as 2nd hand information passed down to me by my (recently deceased Uncle) who was a Navigator/Bombadier in our U.S. Army Air Force in 1945. He flew the A-26 Invader, and was awarded a Silver Star with a V by the way. James McNamara.

Anyway, he was in pilot training and while on solo training with his crew, they strafed a farmer's field with .50 caliber machine guns and killed one of the cows. The farmer complained and had seen the tail number of the aircraft. They didn't wash out my Uncle of the program but did bust him to Navigator/Bombadier duties.

I was wondering if there are any other washout stories out there? My poor vision kept me out of any pilot training but I was happy to serve as enlisted from 1979 through 1986.

Take care and a Happy New Year to all of you and especially to those serving our Nation overseas.

Your efforts are appreciated.

[brabus]

There's countless washout stories, but I think any of us would be hard-pressed to find a story that equals blowing away a cow with a .50 cal! I guess "go big or go home" applies.

[Guest bravodelta79]

I'm sure it sounded like a good idea at the time.

[Buddy Spike]

I think most of the washout stories you find today will be fairly mundane like couldn't do TP stalls (T-6s), couldn't land a jet with no wings (T-38), couldn't match flight lead during the flight control check in the EOR (IFF), etc. Then of course there are the people who throw up on themselves or bust too many academic tests.

[Guest SQUARE PAIR]

I don't think it's ever pleasant to see someone's dream crushed as they wash out of pilot training, but the rich irony of knowing that THIS girl recently washed-out is too much not to share. I wonder how long it will take her (or Daddy) to take down her other websites HERE and HERE.

Edited December 28, 2007 by Trunk

[Buddy Spike]

I don't think it's ever pleasant to see someone's dream crushed as they wash out of pilot training, but the rich irony of knowing that THIS girl recently washed-out is too much not to share. I wonder how long it will take her (or Daddy) to take down her other websites HERE and HERE.

For her part, she didn't seem outwardly cocky . . . and didn't pitch a fit when her classmates printed out her "bios" and posted them around the squadron.

That sucks and all.. but... WTFO?

Katrina uses her experiences to motivate people of all ages. She points out that, "If I could break the sound barrier when I was eleven, each and every one of you can break your own barriers!"

What "accomplishment" is it to have a rich mommy and daddy fly you to Russia to ride in a Mig? Good on her for having parents willing to do that for her, but seriously?

From there, she wants to enter the astronaut program and lead the first manned mission to Mars.

Oh the ironing!

Edited December 28, 2007 by Patch

[HerkDerka]

WTFO?

"2"

At the end of the pilot training, the Air Force will determine what airframe they will have her fly. Right now, she's not giving a lot of thought to her goal of becoming an astronaut, as graduation from the Air Force Academy is just one small step in the many that must be completed to become an Air Force pilot. Then, depending upon her career from that point, she may well have the opportunity to head to Edwards at Test Pilot School

Of course. TPS drops are a common sight at many assignment nights.

HD

[brickhistory]

I have GOT to get me one of these writers! I'd be so much more than I am today.....

In 1999, the Navy's Blue Angels, seeking to recruit her, invited her to the opening of the Navy's Flight Demonstration Air Show at El Cajon Ca.

With the call sign “Kat One, " Katrina amassed the best record in mock aerial dog fighting in real planes at the world famous Air Combat USA facility in Fullerton Ca. Many experts believe that Ms. Mumaw could become the best combat pilot ever.

To be fair to her, she did do some very cool things at a young age; I'm wondering how much Mom and Dad forked over for them, but good on her for getting to do them. I woulda if I coulda.......

No pressure on her I bet........

[Sim]

"* First child in history to fly Russian military jet (L-39 Albatross jet trainer at Mach .8 with aerobatics outside Moscow at Zhukovsky Air Base (Age 11)"

,.....and I thought it was Czech

[tac airlifter]

holy crap, is that girl for real? how do you know she washed out?

[usaf36031]

unbelievable.

Anybody on this forum have some first hand UPT/academy stories about this tool shed?

On a side note, I'm curious what washed her out, she has apparently been around planes for quite a while.

[brabus]

First child in history to pilot an aircraft through the sound barrier in a MiG - 29 Fulcrum jet fighter at Mach 1.3 at Zhukovsky Air Base, Russia. (Age 11)

Wow, b/c flying an aircraft "through the sound barrier" is so incredibly difficult. "Hey did you see the needle jump...yeah...good job, you're a hero."

After the show, Katrina, then 16, was allowed to climb up and peek inside an F-18 Hornet’s interior.

Holy shit! A real live hornet interior! Wow, I wish I was cool enough to do that kind of stuff.

She's beaten adult pilots from all branches of the service who have flown planes including the F-14 Tomcat, F-15 Eagle, F-16 Falcon, F/A-18 Hornet, F-117A Nighthawk and the A-10 Warthog.

Ah, so some chick when she was 16 beat a fighter pilot from practically every fighter out there...yeah, I'd like to hear a little more about this one. What a douche.

BL: She's a douche bag and fucking ugly. And just for that and the stuff above, good riddance and have fun in finance. Wait, crap, now she's going to fuck up my next travel voucher.

[Scooter14]

OK, I'll bite...

Earlier today, someone had written that she was actually not a bad person and handled herself well when people found this stuff on the 'net and posted it around the squadron. I don't know where that went, but oh well.

There's this kid that plays hockey here. Real good skater, I'd go so far as to call him a prodigy. He just turned six, but the league just moved him up to the 9-11 year old league because he skates circles around all the 6-8 year olds. His dad constantly has him out on the ice running drills with him. My kid and I will go to play pickup, and they're already there. I'll show up to play pick up with the fellas, and they are just leaving. He's already been kind of put on a pedestal. He'll probably go to all the select camps, play the tier 1 travel teams, prep school, etc. I think one of two things will happen:

1 - He will continue to grow as a hockey player and if he keeps his speed he's got a shot as a forward at a D1 school, maybe pro.

2 - He'll burn out and leave the sport.

I think our "Kat One" might have been in the same situation.

Or, another possibility is that for the last 10 years, she's been told she's the "best pilot EVER!" JSUPT has a way of showing you ealy on how not good you really are. People struggle with this. I was a nav before UPT. Everyone told me "Oh, it'll be easy! You were a nav, you'll be fine! You know how to talk on a radio, etc, etc." "Bison 22 Dogface, Contact Spins...WTF does that mean?" I struggled early in Tweets. I struggled all the way through Final Contact. It happens. I saw people bail under the pressure. I saw a couple people just not get it. That's life.

Brabus, you seem a little hostile with your post. I'm not singling you out (well, maybe I am) but we are real good at character assasination on this site. I know, we're crewdogs and that's our job. Granted, sometimes the judgement is warranted, but all Kat did was wash out of pilot training. It happens. So she had a website. Guarantee that was Daddy's fault. Like Brick said, if my Dad came home from work one day and asked me if I'd like a MiG-29 ride, I don't think I'd turn that down.

I'm just trying to find the evil in this poor girl. It's not like she dyed her hair and tried to escape Oklahoma.

BTW, her site said she went to Vance. Brabus, you are at Vance. Let's get the scoop kid. Maybe I'm missing something here, or maybe the pressure just took it's toll.

Edited for better wording

[Scooter14]

P.S. Scooter I assume you were there when the gorilla fled UPT, drove from Oklahoma to Colorado, and woke up the next day and did not remembering a thing? Me too.

Also, if they were to put at .50 cal on my tweet I'd shoot at cows too.

I was actually referring to a certain field grader trying to escape a former Soviet republic, but now that you mention it, I vaguely remember something about someone kind of losing their marbles and waking up in Colorado. I don't remember the details, but I was in Tweets at the time in the 8th. The gorilla doesn't ring a bell, though. PM me with a name or something. I'll have to call wacky. He was the Casual Lt in charge of the Casual Lt desk, he had the scoop on everything.

...and if I had a .50 cal on my Tweet, I'd probably be in Leavenworth right now. I struggled at formation as well.

Cause we're the wingmen and you know we never miss...

[Guest Trunk]

It wasn't my intention to bash on her, just point out some hilarious websites and the irony involved. It just puzzles me that someone with so much "time" in the cockpit environment could have such poor hands (sts) and low SA. Of course she lacked the SA to allow those sites to go up in the first place, and not take them down when she got into the Zoo, or graduated, or started UPT, or washed out of UPT.

From what I understand she didn't make it to mid-phase.

[Scooter14]

It wasn't my intention to bash on her, just point out some hilarious websites and the irony involved. It just puzzles me that someone with so much "time" in the cockpit environment could have such poor hands (sts) and low SA. Of course she lacked the SA to allow those sites to go up in the first place, and not take them down when she got into the Zoo, or graduated, or started UPT, or washed out of UPT.

From what I understand she didn't make it to mid-phase.

That is low SA to leave that stuff on the 'net, I agree with you 100% on that. Just makes it worse if (when) you wash out.

I'm sure she's going to feel like she let everyone down, and that sucks.

[Guest LocoF16]

I'm counting at least two stories that need to be told. The world definitely needs more psycho military chick stories...

Oh wait I got one...while I was a CE officer this chick LT shows up in our squadron one day to start working and she has wings on her BDUs. Long story short, she goes to the Academy and threatens to kill herself because one of her male classmates rejected her. She gets kicked out but goes on to do ROTC at some college in Missouri and pulls off a pilot slot. Graduates from Corpus and falls in love with one of her classmates, who eventually dumps her because she's psycho. She threatens to kill herself again and loses her rating. She comes to CE ('cause her degree was in engineering I guess) and spends about a year there before calling one of her fellow female LTs one night claiming to have taken an entire bottle of tylenol. Turns out she took no tylenol but I guess Big Blue had enough and kicked her out. Who knows where she is now, but I'm sure she's creating drama wherever she is.

[Toro]

Earlier today, someone had written that she was actually not a bad person and handled herself well when people found this stuff on the 'net and posted it around the squadron. I don't know where that went, but oh well.

Good for her. I think it's unfortunate that her parents, or these magazines, elevated her (and I imagine her ego) to such a high status before she even got behind the controls of a USAF aircraft. I think that perhaps the bashing is a bit excessive in hindsight, but I think it would have been completely warranted had she been in, or prior to starting, UPT. There's no way that having been the star of your family, hometown, and whatever organization published this, could have been helpful. It either put her up on a pedestal with too high expectations, or it inflated her self-worth.

As far as this coming out in UPT, I hope she dealt with it okay. And the fact that she's a chick...who gives a $hit. If we found out dirt like this on a guy student in UPT, we'd be merciless. I would expect sexual equality all around.

Trying to keep this on track with the washout stories, I don't have any spectular stories as a T-38 or F-15 IP, but I've seen my fair share wash out and SIE (Self Initiated Elimination). Most of the washouts in T-38s were guys who were fairly dedicated, just didn't have the hands or capacity to keep up with the jet. Most of the guys I've seen wash out of the FTU seemed to be behind the jet in both a flying and mental capcity.

And to prove that not all MIAs from formal training are chicks, we had a male student up and leave one weekend from Seymour. Everybody showed up to class Monday morning and he was nowhere to be found. The SRO couldn't get in touch with him, so they called the flight commander, who called the SFS to go to his house. No sign of the guy, so they called his parents to see if they had heard from him. Said parents, "Uh...yeah, he's hear with us." Turns out the guy had just freaked out and driven to Kentucky without telling anyway and with no plans of returning. No idea what happened to him, but I know did not return to the program.

[bucky60k]

The kicker for me was after all these gee-whiz publicity stunts she did as a kid, she never actually took the time to become a certified pilot . If shes was such a prodigy it should have been gravy to fly a lowly cessna while studying for your AP/IB bull****. Four years of academy ass kicking down the tubes plus taking away a pilot from a more derserving dude who would have made the most out of it. What an effing waste.

[amcflyboy]

Something that boggles my mind is how the fvck did I NOT know this broad because I grew up in Lancaster, CA from 1985-1994, before my parents decided to move back to New England! At the time, Lancaster wasn't that big. I'm only six years older than her, and the way the media is making her out to be is bigger than the Challenger explosion in 1986, and I'll remember that for the rest of my life. A street in Lancaster was renamed in memorance that connected Palmdale Plant 42 to Edwards AFB, as a side note.

Again, just boggles my mind. From what I remember, there wasn't any rich kid prep schools in the Antelope Valley. I'd laugh my ass off if she lived near me, and went to the same schools.

[Guest MizzNav]

I'm counting at least two stories that need to be told. The world definitely needs more psycho military chick stories...

Oh wait I got one...while I was a CE officer this chick LT shows up in our squadron one day to start working and she has wings on her BDUs. Long story short, she goes to the Academy and threatens to kill herself because one of her male classmates rejected her. She gets kicked out but goes on to do ROTC at some college in Missouri and pulls off a pilot slot. Graduates from Corpus and falls in love with one of her classmates, who eventually dumps her because she's psycho. She threatens to kill herself again and loses her rating. She comes to CE ('cause her degree was in engineering I guess) and spends about a year there before calling one of her fellow female LTs one night claiming to have taken an entire bottle of tylenol. Turns out she took no tylenol but I guess Big Blue had enough and kicked her out. Who knows where she is now, but I'm sure she's creating drama wherever she is.

How Long ago? I am finishing up my CE at MU, started in '03. I don't remember any crazy chicks in CE, but there are a lot of crazy chicks that go throughROTC for sure. The only other ROTC in Missouri is at SLUH and UM-rolla, and if she went to rolla i would want to kill myself as well. Anyways...

I had a buddy washed out of UPT for a series of unfortunate events. It started with him throwing up on a checkride and then they put glasses on him even though he never needed them before and they waited until he got into a plane to put them on him. After that he kinda lost his confidence and didn't have the touch to land the plane within the parameters the IPs wanted. Now's he is a finance guy after they told him he would get an ABM slot, then canceled that and told him he would be going to whiteman, which he was happy about to be close to family, then they sent him to georgia after they cancelled the whiteman order the day he out processed.

Anyone else heard of someone being jerked around a little after washing out? It was a rough month or so before he knew what was going to happen.

EDIT:can't spell

Edited December 28, 2007 by MizzNav

[Skitzo]

Not quite a washout story but an SIE story, dude graduates academy gets pilot slot and like a lot of people before him "decides to try it out." Guy doesn't like being a pilot, and SIEs, no big deal right, wrong, AF force shapes him and pursues action to make him repay the worth of his academy education. Not sure what ended up happening.

[Ram]

The one YGBSM story I have about a wash-out was a guy I taught for a while. IPs always say shit like "hey, Lt ### tried to kill me today" and whatever, but this guy actually came REALLY close to taking me, himself, and the student I was flying with out one day in the pattern here at KSPS. There were also a couple other times that were pretty hairy.

I didn't really expect him to make it, but you never know.

He ended up having some attitude problems (I wonder if I would have had problems too if I came to work for a year straight and got my nuts kicked in every single day like this guy), and then he washed back to another class. I didn't hear about him much for about a month, until...

He's doing a night sortie with his flight commander (a very experienced IP that has the complete respect of the SQ), and one of the requirements is to do a "blindfold cockpit check" before the night solo. Well, usually, this is a "hey dude, close your eyes and tell me which side of the cockpit the gear handle is on" kind of thing, and that's how it started with this LT.

But then he's missing a LOT of questions, so the IP decides to go up the ladder so he can look over the rail while this stud does his "closed-eye find the lever" game.

The IP asks him where the canopy jettison handle is, and the stud can't even tell him which side of the cockpit it's on. The IP thinks "well, this kid is stressed...let's give him the benefit of the doubt" and he lets him open his eyes. The kid looks around for about 2 minutes and says "it's on the left side, sir." (Now, anyone with T-38 time knows it's on the right side of the cockpit, near where the forward cockpit panel meets the right side thigh-height panel...this kid is nowhere close.)

Now the IP is curious. "Right side, eh? Could you point to it for me?" The stud looks around for a while and finally points to the general location of the gear handle. "YGBSM, dude...are you pointing to the gear handle?" says the IP. "No, sir" says the student...I'm pointing at the jettison handle." So the IP says "OK, maybe we're confusing each other here...why don't you just put your index finger physically ON the canopy jettison T-handle."

The student then proceeds to place his left index finger on the G--Damn FLOOD LIGHT HOUSING on the left side of the cockpit.

The IP: So that's it, huh? That's the canopy jettison T-handle?

Stud: Yessir...that's what I'd pull to jettison the canopy.

The IP: Well, why don't you try pulling it right now?

Stud: I guess you're saying that I don't have the right handle...

The IP: Let's walk inside...we're not flying together tonight.

Well, that wasn't the last straw that washed him out (he managed to cling on for another week or so before buffooning something else while actually flying), but I'm sure that testimony made it to the eval board.

Looking back at his training record, I don't know how he ended up even graduating from Phase II. He hooked 4 out of 5 checkrides in Tweets. By the time he got washed out of 38s, I think he'd managed to hook a couple more.

Just incredible.

[brickhistory]

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[Guest bunk22]

A Navy washout story...or attrite as we call. It involved my old roomate, Bill, in Primary in Corpus Christi. I was VT-27 and he was VT-28. We pretty much started about the same time. Bill was a Marine and had 10 years of Marine reserves (infantry) behind him. He was a bit older, didn't take shit and was a big dude. He was 5'9" and about 240lbs of pure muscle. A former football player and wrestler. His girlfriend was a former Buffalo Bills cheerleader, met her many times and yes, she was hot. Anyway, Bill has issues from the get go. By the end of FAM's, he has two downs as I recall...the Navy's old grading system. He ended getting another down before the end of primary. Besides the downs, his grades were horrible....he finished with something like 10 net below averages. Bill used to stay up all night long studying, even if he had a 0600 brief, he would study to 0400, get no sleep and try to fly. He liked to party though and that man could drink. We drank ourselves silly but when it was time to study he did, he just didn't know how to study. I used to tell him, you need to get sleep. Somehow, someway, he made it through primary and selected helo's, which is what he wanted all along. He did awesome in intermediate, or so I was told. He was actually above average overall. It had finally clicked. So I went to advanced at VT-4 (T-2C's for E2/C2 types) and he went to advanced helo's. We no longer lived together but partied together so I would hear how he was doing once in a while. At some point, Bill got another down for performance. He got one more chance, most didn't get beyond the 3 down mark. So with three flights left to his winging, Bill goes on one of his last HT hops and something happens between him and the IP. I never got a clear understanding of what happened but the end result was the IP decided to give Bill a down for conduct unbecoming of a Marine officer. He claimed he lied about a radio freq change. Regardless, Bill lost his cool in the debrief and bodyslammed the IP up against a wall in the briefing room. That of course was the end. I think he could have fought the down but after man handling the IP, no way. Three flights left!! He used to call me after that, just to come over because he didn't want to be alone. I think suicide was on his mind. What really sucks is that a year later, he applied to an Army National Gaurd Unit that flew Apaches. He got several endorsements from IP's at his last HT, many believed he got a raw deal from that IP. Overall, Bills grades were good as well in advanced. So the ANG unit accepted him into flight training. However, the Marines would not let him out of his contract and he was unable to attend. He was right at the age limit as well. So Bill never became a military helo pilot. I heard a few years ago his father died, who was a multi-millionare and left his fortune to him as he was an only child. I think in the end, Bill won out afterall.