F4GIB71 said:
"Back in Old Army when I was a fish"... er, in my 18 years of flying, they were continually emphasizing "do not delay the decision to eject". I've lost friends and heard many safety briefings where someone was lost because the waited too long. I ejected from an out of control aircraft, and my pilot did not. All this Monday morning quarterbacking does is plant the seed to "try just a bit longer" to recover. Give it back to the taxpayers, we can't replace the pilot.
I've been on a couple mishap investigations. But never a class A, thankfully. But the thought is that, under most circumstances, the pilot did everything they were taught to do. Their training is the culmination of every instructor they had. Whether they survived or not, they probably did what they thought was the right thing to do.
It has got to be a tough line to walk. What constitutes punching out too early? I think we all know what's too late. I would imagine the investigation report covers what altitude he was at, and how long he waited to trouble shoot before punching out. Also, I've been on an investigation where one pilot's recollection of evens was VERY different than the other pilots, and both were plausible. It's also tough as an investigator, because you don't want to blame the pilot when they did nothing wrong, or their mistake was reasonable error.
But, I guess, the DoD has decided someone needs to pay the price.
CanyonAg77 said:
c model?
hog frog?
Think he means the UH-1C. And depending on weapons configuration it had various nicknames like hog or frog. Not familiar enough to know what was what.