Luck, Choice and Fate – Part 2:  F-16 E/F Terrain Following ‘Anomaly’

Luck, Choice and Fate – Part 2: F-16 E/F Terrain Following ‘Anomaly’

For many of us, the road we follow is deliberate but sometimes three forces play into life’s outcomes: luck, choice, or fate. This is likely truer in aviation than in other vocations, at least if you stay long enough. And that is certainly the case with me and a near fatal event during an F-16 Radar Terrain Following test flying over the Gulf of Mexico when the jet suffered an ‘anomaly’ in the flight control system and pushed hard over when flying at 600 knots and 100 feet above the water.

F-35 Works After All!

F-35 Works After All!

Air Forces are realizing that bringing on the F-35 is not simply a fighter replacement program but the trigger to transform their entire armed forces into a 5th Gen Force.

F-16s to Ukraine?

F-16s to Ukraine?

Allowing F-16s to be transferred to the Ukrainian Air Force, standing up training for their pilots and eventually converting them to fly the F-16 will solve an emotional appeal.  It just won’t change the course of the war.

Tall Poppies

Tall Poppies

We all love the rock star performers who can solve the unsolvable, succeed against insane odds and triumph when people think that there is no hope.  HR departments hate the people who are not like the rest of the gang and diminish or ostracize the ‘one offs’ who don’t behave like everyone else.

Capability Paradox

F-35 pilots today are an order of magnitude more lethal and capable than any previous generation of fighter pilots and yet that might not be enough to win a war against China. The jet does so much for the pilot in terms of global situation awareness, connectivity, and...