exodus wrote:It's one thing to do it at altitude, another down low when the margins are down to zero. Most pilots who do this at altitude never look at they're altimeter to see if they end up at the same altitude or higher when they begin. Add in the Kodak courage and the fog that descends on judgement when "performing" for an audience and your just about guaranteed to become a statistic,... a dead one.

This was a show of force because those ground guys where being attacked. All army pilots are trained to fly at 200 feet and below with the help of a radar altimeter. The radar altimeter would have been useless to them when they pitched the nose up because the angle changed the distance to the ground and would have been read as an increase on the radalt. Supposedly the investigation found that they mushed when they pulled back and do to the mushing they were not able to gain the altitude they were expecting.

mtv wrote:I don't know if the Army still has "shit burning details", like they did in Viet Nam. If so, I'm guessing they now have a warrant officer or two available for a loooonnnnnnggggg stint in that detail.

Expensive mistake, and VERY lucky nobody was killed. It was really close.
MTV

They still have burn barrels around...


This was a bad judgement call and could have been executed differently.