An Army investigation found an F-35 pilot with no previous experience in the type was at the controls of an Apache attack helicopter when it crashed at a base in Utah last February. According to KUTV, which got a copy of the report, the pilot was a colonel and he had 35 minutes of sim time in the Apache before he took off on an orientation flight with a Master Warrant Officer who was qualified in the type.
Full colonels should not be allowed to fly unfamiliar aircraft, they are too used to being in charge and fixed wing guys don’t know chopper controls from a bilge pump. Many years ago an ex 106 guy (06) practicing landings in a KC-135 stalled it on the down wind, and was such a brute that the IP barely was able to recover it and of course the IP got fired.
As a retired Warrant Officer I can assure you there is no Master Chief Warrant Officer either. There is no “Master” anywhere within the Warrant Officer ranks
It can work the other way round as well. We had guy, lower ranked than Colonel, who transitioned from rotary wing to fixed wing. He was always reaching for the collective when time to flare for landing.
Speaking as an Army helicopter IP the issue wasn’t really letting the colonel fly, but letting him land.
FAM flights are done all the time in many airframes, but you normally don’t let the unqualified pilot land.
I won’t presume on a cause, but if the pilot was a F-35B pilot control habit may have played in. I am a helicopter pilot, and I previously worked in a career where I had access to a V-22 simulator. The difference between a helicopter with a collective and a vertical lift aircraft with a throttle is that the pilot’s motion for power is opposite. To add power a collective requires a pull and a throttle requires a push. Decrease power is an opposite motion. We found that transitioning pilots often defaulted to the wrong input when critical operations during hovering required quick changes in power to control the aircraft.
My son is a Navy helicopter pilot and he got me some time in the simulator. Flying a helicopter is easy. Like most aircraft, takeoff and landing is far more difficult. Landing was really hard. Crashed on my first try and took over 2,000’ of runway to make my next landing.
I trained several former Army helo pilots for their fixed-wing instrument ratings in Cessna 172’s. While they already had their ASEL ratings, on the missed approach they kept trying to use forward cyclic as they applied power. At least with the second guy I was ready for it. As a non-RW pilot, I can only imagine going the other way and having a FW pilot doing RW transition pulling on the cyclic for a go-around.
At least with the second guy I was ready for it. As a non-RW pilot, I can only imagine going the other way and having a FW pilot doing RW transition pulling on the cyclic for a go-around.