For John, BLUF: It is always on you. Nothing to see here; just move along.
Coolstone was a heroic Air Force pilot, who encountered a number of different problems related to flying safety. In this story our hero is the Zero Responder—that is, he was the "PIC", the Pilot in Command, when something went wrong with the aircraft. Fortunately for Coolstone he had plenty of fuel (for a fighter) and he convened the Accident Board, that ad hoc body that comes together after an accident to try and determine what went wrong.
In the story Coolstone is flying an F-101B, the McDonald VOODOO—"two weenies, two genies and two J-57s. : That is, two aircrew members, two MB-1 nuclear GENIE rockets and two J-57 Jet engines. The VOODOO, the One-oh-Wonder, provided Air Defense for the United States from the 1950s into the 1980s.
As Coolstone learns in this story, at the end of the day, you are responsible for your own actions. Try as you might, you can't pass it off to others.
Regards — Cliff
My flight instructor had me under the hood in very turbulent air and after several really heavy jolts, I began to lose SA and was having difficulty regaining some semblance of control.
ReplyDeleteFrom under the hood, I pleaded "What should I do?"
Almost laconically, he said, "Well, you decide. That is why they call it Pilot In Command." Sort of a nice lesson in "It's all on you buckaroo."