Thinking and Flying

The Power of Logical Thought

From the desk of Captain Jim Wright: 

"While watching a recent C-Span interview with one of the 13 remaining Tuskegee Airmen, he related an experience that caught my attention. While flying a mission over France in WW-II, his plane was hit and caught fire. Baling out seemed the only reasonable option. The problem, as he described it, was that his flight instructors had not bothered to give him or his fellow airmen any instruction on how to bale out. 

Faced with this dilemma, he came up with his own technique. He released his canopy then began cranking in nose down trim while holding back on the stick to maintain level flight. When he had cranked the trim wheel down to maximum, he simply released his shoulder harness and let go of the stick. The plane then nosed over with such force that he was thrown from the cockpit and kept going straight ahead with enough velocity to miss the tail.

Maybe this is a standard bale out maneuver although it was new to me. Reminded me of another interview with a WW-II B-17 pilot who said the Army Airforce was so short of pilots that he learned to fly on the way to his first bombing mission. Raising the question, could an automation dependent pilot develop those skills “in a pinch” if required to do so?"

What do you think?

Enjoy the Journey!

XO Karlene