0.8 Seconds to Live - Stinky's F-16 Ejection Story (Interview Clip)
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- čas přidán 8. 11. 2021
- Lt Col (Ret) Pete "Stinky" Smith shares his F-16 ejection story during a live interview. Check out his book ICARUS 2.0: Parachute Included: books2read.com/u/mZryNp
Paperback:
www.amazon.com/dp/1098399943/...
store.bookbaby.com/book/icaru...
The F-16 flight controls trim to 1g static - the visual cues I was perceiving through the HUD was a horizon, I think, aligned off the water defined by low cirrus cloud bands creating a false horizon effect. During the maneuver, I believe I transferred the actual horizon visually to the low layer band of clouds (false horizon). The sea became my sky visually (NVG’s) until the audible hum of high speed clued me into something not being right. I was not in my safety block yet to address the issue further exacerbating the vertigo I was experiencing and disorientation I was already undergoing until fully recognized in my block, confirmed by the round dials and unable to process for recovery before running out of altitude. The pucker factor, speed, 9g’s and vertical descent rate severely inhibited my capacity to solve the unfortunate circumstances I got myself into aligning various error holes within the ‘Swiss cheese model’ for mishap prevention. I made peace with accepting my piloting error long ago and learned from the experience. I believe the AF gave me a second chance due to my errors being ‘omission’ versus commission in answer to the comments inquiring about “what happened after?, demotion, training, etc?”. There is no ‘ego’ ax to grind…I crashed a perfectly functioning F-16. The takeaway is for pilots to ensure a disciplined setting of traps when performing any / all aggressive maneuvers considerate of experience and specific threats of the environmental conditions we are flying while greatly respecting our human physiology limitations. I did not adequately do so and crossed a dangerous line between “train like we fight, fight like we train”. I was very lucky to survive.
Thanks for telling your story, Stinky. 🇺🇸
.00001% of the population could even fly an F-16 at your level of precision and expertise so you don't owe ANYONE on CZcams an explanation. Nevertheless, thank you for humbling yourself and explaining your mistakes so we all can learn. That's true character and I'm sure is at the heart of why your superiors gave you a second chance. Thank you for your service!
Great story Stinky! Im an old egress troop ACESII. Glad the boys in the shop and chute shop did it right! Curious as to why the hum? Im happy it clued you that something wasnt right. I worked F-117 not the Viper but never heard that hum about a canopy before. I commend you on your brutal honesty in your debrief and the humility that no doubt has already saved countless lives. Well done Sir!
Thank you for sharing the story with us!
@@kinch613 there is a familiar humming? / resonation? / wind noise? the F-16 translates as you get into thicker air at high speed audible in nature through or within the canopy bow.
Takes a real man to admit a mistake and be humble enough to talk about it in a way so that others do not repeat it. I salute you sirs.
🙏Thank You
There are simply not enough upvotes for this comment. This is EXACTLY how we get better.
I had the pleasure to fly with Stinky and his brother Shooter. Both stand up guys and great pilots! Long live the World famous FL Makos!!!
Thank you Guy
Served with Stinky many a year in the Makos. I remember that night like it was yesterday and was so grateful he came back to tell his story. Stinky is a great pilot and a good man.
🙏
As an AME, these stories hit home so much more. Glad he is able to tell the story. Every pilot I've talked to thats punched have all said everything slows.
Don't have to be a pilot to experience time slowing down in emergencies. It's pretty common. My first time was in a fight in school. He hit me nevertheless, cause I was so amazed by time slowing down, that I forgot to duck :)
I guess this incident explains Stinky's handle?
Thank you, both of you, for your service. 🇱🇷
🙏
What a story, thank you for your service.
My pleasure, Thank you for your comment.
Thank you for the story and thank you for being humble. It's refreshing to see one of the AFs finest demonstrating that we're all capable of having a really bad day...no matter how good we think we are.
🙏My pleasure. Sometimes our desire to train and perform at our best can lead to unintended consequences...but we step into the arena anyways! Thank you for your kind comment. All the best.
Wild story! Thanks for sharing. So glad Stinky is still with us!
Thank you Kevin
Great interview, and thanks to Mr. Smith for sharing his experience!
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What a crazy story, thanks for sharing!
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WOW ...Mover Thanks for These Videos they are amazing! Congrats "STINKY" on another day here on the Rock!
Thank you, blessed
Thank you very much Pete for sharing this truly harrowing story. I’m so very relieved that you survived. It’s highly unfortunate that you got disoriented at night with such intense conditions. I’ve watched many fighter pilot stories. What amazes me about your story, and the others is how quickly your training kicked in, and how instinctively you were able to do what you needed to do to survive. Thank you for your service to the nation, and thank you for sharing this truly harrowing event with a positive outcome.
Thanks again Mover was fun to listen to last night. Thanks Stinky
Your welcome, thank you Doug for your comment
Thanks for sharing your story. Glad it had a happy ending.
My pleasure and Thank you.
Fascinating, thank you both.
🙏
🙏
Great video with excellent concentration on detail.
Stinky, so happy you survived your "adventure"! Thanks for another great video, Mover.
Thank you Michael.
Great story thank you for sharing!
That's a hell of a story. Gotta make time for the full interview.
Honest pilot! Professional demo of humility! Thank you for your service! Glad you survived to tell the story and for your family sakes!
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Best story yet Mover Thanks to you and Stinky.
🙏Thank you Robb
Great escape! Good for Stinky with his LSO training. High speed ejections are terrible. This event was eerily close to Brian Udell's supersonic ejection in some ways but in this case Stinky had a good head on his shoulders for those 9 seconds and made the right decision before it was too late!
Thank you and I am familiar with Brian’s accident. Tragic and surreal.
@@petersmith4797 I've met Brian and my mentor ran the Life Science Equipment Lab at the time and did the training for the LSOs so I know exactly why you wanted to slow down to a safer speed for ejection. It was a terrible mishap for him. Your experience was so much better because you had a little more time to make the decisions and slow down. Great that you got the seat too!
@@theejectionsite1038 👍🙏
Wow, for a lay person such as myself this was a harrowing account of a mishap. Stinky was very articulate and precise in his description of the events that led up to his moment of ejection. I was hanging on every word. I'm really glad that he made it home.
You guys are awesome! I applaud you and thank you for your service.
🙏TY Sir
One of the best stories I ever heard. Don't think, make it happen!!!. The conditions were against him but your training somehow find a solution. The final is also incredible. I'm quite sure that day when he went back home to his family was the best feeling ever. Thanks Mover for bringing this interview in your channel. Bravo!!!
It was indeed, thank you!
Wow - it's never so simple. What's better - than to hear than from the actual guy that was there. Godspeed.
🙏
Great interview, clearly a very humble man, glad to see the mistake didn't define him and he continued on flying jets.
🙏 Thank you, sorry for so late of a reply.
This is eerily similar to an Aviano spatial-D and ejection that happened in 2013. He got out but he was at 569 knots (0.96 Mach) and the ejection killed him, so doing that at high speed is no joke.
Near identical except for the decision to eject at near Mach. The drogue applied 40+ G's to the pilot.
@@mnpd3
Damn.
@@Skank_and_Gutterboy Yes, this was a sad and tragic loss. If my memory is correct, I believe he also was attempting a defensive tactical maneuver.
I wasn't even in yet, but I worked with some guys who were at Aviano at the time and nearly 10 years later, it still hurt them to talk about it. Gaza was a class act and a good pilot, it was one of those "we can't lose THAT guy THAT way" stories. All I've heard of that day really stuck out listening to this as well.
One of those countless accident stories... Been a TORNADO WSO myself. Met a lot of guys with the caterpillar ( for those of you who don´t know: Martin Baker gave a caterpillar collar sticker to aircrew who successfully ejected using one of the Martin Baker Ejection Seats). Some wore 2 of them on their flight suit collar. Each of these folks could tell a story like Stinky. Or even 2. Myself, I have an equal number of take-offs and landings. But BAIL-OUT stories still grab me long after I have retired from military jet flying. Thanks Mover for this interview.
Thank you for your service Sir Solar
Wow Stinky...that's one hell of a story and good luck for you.
Glad u made it.
🙏Thank you Geoffrey
Wow. The mention of the shrimp boat made me think of the
large number of sharks that generally follow them.
Didn’t think about them till I whipped out my knife in the dark - did not want to cut myself or accidentally deflate the raft for this reason.
Excellent interview and a great instructive story to not just Viper pilots, but all pilots as well. After several personal wtf night flying moments I taught-
1. Never give up a well lit horizon source in your cockpit. ADI, STBY ADI, or HUD. The STBY ADI should always be bright enough to recognize up vs. down.
2. Stay out of ACM modes to keep the horizon line in the HUD, unless the maneuver is preplanned and well-briefed. Then- keep your thumb on the ACM switch to remind you to bring back the horizon ASAP.
3. On NVG's, try and stay within 25-40 degrees from the horizon. More is ok if the mnvr is preplanned and briefed.
Stellar observations from Stinky about the random (swiss cheese) choices made during this flight and how he could have maybe changed the outcome with some preflight reflection.
Thanks for sharing.
Fantastic synopsis!
Dang, that's a wild story!
Thanks!
Fascinating interview. A faster jet than usual, extreme manoeuvres and disorientation at night! Amazing how the time dilation kicked in on ejection. An evolutionary survival function. I was once in a car crash and experienced the same effect. Didn't stop me from crashing the car though :-(
Had a similar situation coming off Avon Park after a night bombing sortie. Did a vertical burner climb once cleared to altitude (way more fun way to use gas than flying approaches in the dark), and I got seriously disoriented when I mistook the highway out of Sebring for the coastline. Going straight up saved my bacon, but boy oh boy, it took a long time to re-cage my head. They tell you how bad spatial disorientation can be in pilot training, but until you live it, you just don't get it.
No kidding Tim. I was on the wing heading to the tanker when lead try to join on Venus.
Hey Tim, Wow! Straight up versus straight down, same problem, more time! Yes, so hard to build a shared mental model / convey how bad spatial D, vertigo, false visuals mess up your head under g and aggressive maneuvering. Thanks for sharing!
Ever been in a spinning/vortex tunnel in a haunted house? I imagine that’s similar.
Tim, I don't know about now, but back in the 70's the area around Avon Park was sparsely populated. I believe there was an incident where two tried to rejoin at night after departing the range. But he was focused on a distant ground light instead of lead and subsequently crashed. In the old days, there was a saying: Don't fly at night, and don't fly in the weather.... Much better night vision tools today, but still....
Until youve experienced it, people just dont realize how powerful it is!
Complete respect to Stinky for his harrowing story! Mover, have you had a chance to chat with Brian Udell? Very similar story; I got to meet him, and he is a great speaker as well
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Wow! What a nightmare. That scenario was right out of the Spatial Disorientation film we watched in pilot training in the 70s. Scary.
Fortunately for me the only vertigo I experienced while flying the Herc was the leans. 😊
Imagine having to keep the very ejection seat that you bugged out with and building your own flight sim cockpit with it.
Now that would be cool!
Stinky, yours is an absolutely terrifying tale. As I watched your interview with mover, I felt my body tense up, my palms getting sweaty, and my breathing rate increase noticeably. I flew tactical jets for 26 years in the Marines and the Air National Guard. As you related what happened to you I was right there in that jet with you. I had a few close calls in my career, two involving spatial D and a couple due to loss of situational awareness under conditions of task saturation. I'm here to tell you that it can happen to any good pilot, including the golden aces of the bases!
One of my spatial D incidents happened, like yours, on a moonless night, but on a routine cross country hop to McChord AFB in an A-6 cruising in thin cirrus with no visible horizon and the autopilot engaged as we glided through absolutely smooth air! We were flying over the sparsely populated mountains of northern Idaho where the distribution of lights on the ground, visible through the surrounding cirrus layer, identically matched that of the starry sky above. Since the AP was doing the stick and rudder, I was not concentrating on my flight instruments, but was looking down at my knee pad, studying the approach plate for McChord to mentally prep myself for the tacan procedure I would fly in the descent and landing. When I looked back outside, I instantly had the overwhelming visual illusion of being inverted! It took several seconds that seemed like an eternity of rapidly cross checking my instruments to shed that almost inescapable sensation of being upside down. In comparison to your situation of high-G maneuvering in utter blackness, mine was almost laughably zero threat, but it illustrates how potentially disastrous such a simple incident like mine, if acted upon, could have been.
In that context I contemplate your accident in terrified wonderment. Black night, zero horizon, highly disorienting NVGs mounted to your face, lack of an all axis ADI for attitude awareness, concentrating on a HUD radar display setup for your BVR engagement....what a recipe for tactical and spatial overload!
You were set up to fail, my friend, by a corporate culture that often demands too much of its troops. Yours is a classic case. I believe in fostering growth through challenging the individual's skills envelope, but there's a thin line between that and asking too much. You have nothing to apologize for. I salute you as a brave comrade in arms. So grateful that you survived and stayed for a successful career of service to our great nation.
🙏Bear, thank you for sharing your experiences. Excellent highlight of the complexities involved in our tactical operating environment. Glad you’re with us and honored to have served with you!
Loved the interview man. Had a small question, Can you explain what stinky meant at 17:53 ? What's the ACMI Tower? did he mean that the ACMI Pod from the falling Viper almost hit the Helo?
No. They are radio towers used to communicate with the pods
In primary flight training one cloudy day we went out for instrument training. I was under the goggles. (Non-pilots - I was wearing a vision-restricting device so I couldn't easily see outside the cockpit. No horizon.) My IP executed some 90 degree steep turns in both directions, quickly reversing bank and pull.
Midway through the third or fourth turn he "accidentally" dropped his pencil and asked me to retrieve it.
As I looked down to find it he let go the controls and said, "You have the airplane." I snapped upright and immediately had no idea which way was up or down.
I remember my flight instructor doing something similar to me for my private pilot license training. It was one quick bank in one direction followed by a slow bank in the other while using a visor hat. I was asked to simply lift the visor and when I looked up, the entire planet was tilted for at least a half-second before my brain corrected itself. This was just a taste of IFR since I wasn't going for that rating at the time so we didn't do much of that stuff; I'll never know if I would have fully trusted the instruments had I been tasked with flying at that moment but I hope so. It was a weird sensation having the level ground look so far off.
God that’s terrifying just listening to that. Glad your ok!
Thank you🙏
Wow... as they say... "by the grace of God". Great interview!
Thank you!
Just…WOW!
Incredible story .. thankfully it’s ended well
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That was an awesome but scary chain of events.! it would have been amazing if the shrimp boat crew managed to see this vid.!
Was thinking the same thing after the interview wondering if those shrimpers will ever see this..."all be, I knew we were tracking on somebody popping flares!"
Excellent interview. Scary thing is catastrophic D.O can happen to anyone. All you need is the wrong screwy visual cues at night. Once deep in it no way out. I think some of the newer jets fly there way out of it by themselves once you take your hands off the stick. High G maneuvers at night in poor vis is something else.
Thank you
This is mundane, but on a nite cross country 2 ship(T-38s) along the Louisana coast line( no moon): my IP in back seat got spatial disorientation. We were on the inside looking out over the gulf. Lots of stars and lights from oil rigs. Felt like he was in 90 degrees of bank. Gave me the A/C for 5 mins or so until he got his orientation back. Training certainly helps!!
Crazy story!
Doesn’t the HUD have ground pointers on the end of the ladder? Spacial D is no joke. Glad you made the decision to get out. Thanks for your service…
Phew!
I don’t think that they could of helped in this situation unfortunately n yup it’s an amazing survivor story.
@@e24kgold Ground pointers….they are on the pitch ladder at the tips where the numbers are, that show the degrees of pitch, and they point to the horizon”ground” when right side up, and yes the Sky if inverted.
Honor to serve and appreciate your comment. We were trained not to recover off the HUD when encountering Spatial D intending to get us focusing inside on the round dial instruments versus outside through the HUD contrasted against already disorienting visuals. I agree with the training based upon my experience.
@@petersmith4797 I agree & the HUD ground pointers certainly wouldn’t of helped due to the display just going haywire & trying to make sense of it all.
I recall a story of a Strike Eagle pilot doing night maneuvers and his hud display decided to try and kill him. He heard the rushing air over his canopy and thought it unusual as the sound only manifested when the ac was pushing into trans sonic. The HUD showed level flight just under 400 knots. But the ac was actually inverted and diving. High speed low altitude ejection but I think they both lived.
I too thought of that story. His name was capt brain udell. Crazy how a split sec literally means life or death and there is no restart or pause when things go wrong. Amazing story on both accounts. Glad they both had the opportunity to tell their stories!!!!
His backseater didn’t make it. 😢
Great debrief, wow! Any injuries incurred on the ejection?
TY, yes, 100% torn MCL, partial tear ACL left knee, herniated disk lower back, 3 bulged discs neck…didn’t feel a thing till stepping on land.
Wow, what a night!
RESPECT Sir. 🇺🇸
🙏
Orientation issues of that sort have been brutal constantly during night time trainings for planes such as Sea Vixen in the 60s.
Indeed, thanks for sharing
Great story. I remember the old Navy crash and burn film about ejections, they said most waited to long. .87 seconds was cutting it close! Seat Shop gets a gold star!
Any landing you can swim away from....
They were taken care of - trust me!
@@petersmith4797 No doubt increased respect for maintenance workers also from your copilots.
Really most people don't realize how little time for getting out alive from situation even seemingly high altitude can have when plane is in dive.
And neither understand that negative vertical velocity means even zero altitude capable ejection seats can do their job only with in usual human scale lots of altitude left.
Also that temporal distortion sure makes even short time feel long enough to think awfully lot like I experienced in 2007:
There had been couple sounds of thunder from like 10km or so away earlier at that day, but general weather and full stratocumulus cloud cover were anything else than convection favouring.
So out I go to put up (cattle) fence posts.
After about half hour of doing that I suddenly saw flash of light while being focused at ground straight in front of my feet.
Causing obvious "What the heck was that?" reaction... Followed by very alerting realization:
"FML, that was reflection of lightning bolt's light and here I am in open holding this steel rod in my hands!"
Then followed by calming down "Oh well, it missed. Let's find out how far it was." and got time to say one followed soon by nice sharp thunderclap.
In next day I found that it had hit tree 450m away.
@@tuunaes ‘Holding onto a lightning rod in a storm’ is analogous to what any of us can experience during risky activity. Your story drives home the value of training, checklists/tools/SOP’s to help avoid complacency and foster disciplined risk management keeping us mindful and situationally aware. Glad the lightning missed!!! Thank you for your comment.
@@petersmith4797 Avoiding lightning strike risk from also such weather would mean staying pretty much whole summer inside. (+lightning can strike even during winter when it's snowing)
So it was just one of those random events, whose risk you can't prevent if doing anything in life.
Comparable to perfect flying weather only to hit bird.
And in analysis it propably wasn't the absolutely worst possible risk situation:
Like all electricity lightning is attracted to paths of the least resistance.
So 20 kV power line 50 m away would have been more likely general target.
And that 1" thick digging bar would have been far better conductor than me and hence likely main target for current.
Anyway I've had still closer hits couple times.
Including possibly building I was in, because of hearing electric like crackling just before extremely sharp cracking sound.
With initial crackling likely being corona discharge from local electric field strength skyrocketing just before lightning. (or maybe upward streamers looking for leaders from cloud)
@@tuunaes you’ve taught me more about electricity! Thanks.
Even with all of the modern advances in aviation, flying maneuvers, in the dark, over the water, is dangerous business. Shit happens and I am glad Stinky made it back safely.
🙏Thank You Sir
Awesome, Stinky. Work the problem until you can't. Glad to see a good outcome.
Thank you!
Honored Stinky. Your Amazing. USA
Thank you. I appreciate the compliment. ‘Amazing’ are the people who trained me to know when it’s time to go!
I've experienced a few hours of light aircraft training. On one lesson (daytime) my instructor directed me through cloud.
For 30 seconds it was as if the cockpit glass had been painted grey. I could not tell you which way was up or down. Left or right.
Horrible sensation.
@@Koufalia4 yes, but I was working near the limits of the reference indications at the top of the indicator - no ref lines beyond 65 degrees in old ADI’s, which is why there is a perimeter sky pointer on the instrument I failed to incorporate in the seconds I had left.
That guy - is - awesome.
You know, I'm not a pilot but I have had similar things happen when skiing in whiteout conditions. I got caught up on an off-piste peak on the back side of Jackson Hole during a whiteout and I, being young and overconfident, tried skiing out of it which was stupid. At one point I tried to sit down to adjust my boot and I didn't even realize I was already moving pretty quick and ate it. Thankfully nothing lethal around there.
Spatial disorientation is one of those things that seems like a nothing problem until it happens to you. Glad everything ended up OK.
WhT did you mean, you said something about “The Lines”. Thanks. Glad you made it.
Attitude Indicator artificial horizon lines
Crazy story Sir. Raises the hair!
God kept you safe.
To live as a blessing to us all.
Thank you
Great case for auto-GCAS !
100% and many have it now.
@@CWLemoine I was curious about that as well. Did the older f-16's have an autopilot?
Stinky, the exact same thing happened to me off the coast of Gulfport years ago, I had Betty set for 10k, and fortuneatuly Iwas able to right the wings passing 9k, and get leveled off around 5k and RTB's.. I went through the same mental and visual checklist you did.. we were close to thermal inversion, so the horizon was washed out a bit.. I didn't have an undercast, and I think that saved my life, as I ended up somehow pointed at gulfport, and caged my brain, exactly like you described about 8k.. but I remember seeing 1.05, when I looked down before idle / boards/Pull.. wow.. but otherwise this sounds so familiar.. wow brother.. wow...goose
Wow Goose, glad you were able to right the ship. When I confirmed I was FUBAR passing 10k, straight down, 600 knots staring at a wobbly top dot on the ADI - I thought it was over - too fast to eject and not enough time to recover - got on the 9g’s and hammered away till the clock ran out just below 400 knots - shitty night, glad to be alive. Thanks for sharing your story.
@@petersmith4797 Brother, I'm just glad you made the decision to eject in Pilot training, just waiting for the parameters. Im proud of you.. You executed flawlessly that decision to eject when the parameters were met. Well done.. I noticed that pulling the power to idle didn't do crap for me due to mach idle, the Boards and pull, scrubbed me down in the 350 range, and about 45 deg nose low, I saw gulfport.. one peep is worth a thousand sweeps on the peanut gauge.. I remember seeing the wobbly dot and the useless HUD in other maneuvers, man going straight down at night with gogs on, and near the Mach, the altitude goes fast.. I had my camera running, and when I played it real time for the 8 ship debrief, it was silent.. seconds.. look forward to that beer someday.. Are you still down around S Fla? My email is on my CZcams/about page
@@goose-F16 Goose, look forward to that beer! Yes, S Fl and flying for airline. I’ll contact you through email.🍻
I was stationed at the ACC Range & Airspace division 2005-10; I recall the Range Instrumentation section getting a tasking to get rid of the ACMI towers in the Gulf of Mexico because a helicopter had almost hit one. IIRC it wasn't as simple as just getting someone to cut them down - they needed to be removed underwater as well so boats wouldn't run into them. And the local fisherman weren't happy because they liked to fish around them.
Wow! I'm guessing the time frame matches and it was probably our rescue helicopter causing the removal tasking.
Yes, time-compression is real. I'm not a pilot but it can manifest itself in other things.
Hell of a story. Would love to hear the story on how he was given the call sign “Stinky” also why wasn’t Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater dispatched as well? seems like they may have been closer with a faster response time.
It’s in the original video. This is just a clip.
Can understand the less than one second to survive after working in hazmat chemical industry. Once was a lab rat who had to carry out bomb calorimetry many times a day or night. One occasion I was on shift and had a bomb which did not vent as expected. Figured it was another bad batch of cemfuel and tried to remove the head of the bomb. It didn't take long to realise something was wrong and uttered the words "oh s##t" and fell backwards. The head of the bomb "popped" and flew past my nose. If I had not realised in the split second things were about to go wrong.. would not be here. Turns out an O-ring was at fault and it was not replaceable, having to a new venting kit off the manufacturer. That was around £200 a pop and the company I worked for didn't want to pay out that cash once a week!
Wow! Thanks for sharing and glad your with us!
Aye let’s go Makos (and vultures💪🏽💯)
This is an insane story! Before my time with Makos, still sick tho.
I’m wondering if these vipers equipped with auto pilot or anti-collision system, it might have helped to recover the aircraft in those type of situations, he lucked out.
That'd be auto-GCAS
It'd have helped here
Yakovlev built a panic button into the Yak-130 trainer
It puts it right side up, wings level, and in a slight climb
@@Wannes_ The Typhoon also has a "panic button" .. didnt the Hornet had something like?
Indeed I did
Yes I did
Oh good!!! He is alive...
I remember this well
Yes you do Sir, bless you and enjoy retirement!
Great interview. Also good to hear the words "divine intervention" - because yes, military men are religious as well. Seems obvious, but not to everyone I have known. Nice to see you live Sir Smith!
Thank you. There is a supreme intelligence. I experienced the transcendence and have no fear of death as a consequence.
Sometimes we forget that this game is played for keeps… just how dangerous it can be when you cross that line between control and out of control.
Terrifying story, but an awesome & educational story.
Indeed
Just a question, wouldn't the low altitude warning horn sound as he passed through the hard deck?
Yes, aware of altitude, unable to correct, which is why I ejected
I have a great deal of respect for Lt. Col. Smith's willingness to let us all learn from his experience. It says a lot for the military aviation culture of training/debriefing/learning, and for him personally. With that in mind - @C.W. Lemoine he mentions more than once trying to "get into some lines" - I THINK I know what he means but I'd rather have it explained to me and be sure. :-)
On a separate note - the level of judgement it takes to try everything, decide it's not working and then make the right call with .87 seconds remaining can’t be overstated. Anyone who thinks this was a "mistake" isn't listening to the whole story imo.
@Doug Narby Im not sure, If you will understand me, cause I'm Not native english speaking. But for me, in the context of the Interview and situation he experienced, He meant the lines of the artfical horizon. I imagine in a DARK environment, the nvgs can not represent any kind of color shades. On an artifical horizon, there is a light blue for going up, and black for going down. ITS Like a ball with two colors. And 80degrees nose down there are no lines anymore to reefere to. Even If bitching Betty says pull Up, you dont know, where is "Up". I can imagine also, while going 500ktas, with more than 60deg nose down He was very close to a 0g flight. So your body and senses do Not tell you anything.
@@ltcasey6318 i understand, and I think that’s right.
Thank you Doug and Lt Casey has it right in his reply.
I was actually in an 8.7g nose low barrel roll trying to get to horizon line references on the ADI…it was taking too long since I wasn’t manifesting a straight pull. Had I incorporated the small sky pointer on the perimeter of the ADI into my crosscheck I may have bought enough milliseconds to pull off a recovery. 1000 feet per second towards the water limited my processing power.
Holy crap thats harrowing, so glad Peter made it out.
You've probably covered this in other videos but what happens to a pilot after this kind of incident? Are they grounded for a certain period of time? Are they re-trained and sent back up? Agree with the other commenters, takes a real professional to admit mistakes and as a former Marine I appreciate the skill and effort of pilots from all branches.
Semper Fi! I covered this question with the pinned comment at the top. However, this was considered a pilot error of omission versus commission as there were no violations of regulations or training rules. Spatial D is a known threat - but there were lessons learned extracted and implemented as a result and I was allowed to fly again post investigation.
@@petersmith4797 Thank you sir… glad this ended safely for you and your family! 👍🏻
@@billsbuilds5961 🙏
Damn this is why I feel even though we may not use certain techs anymore. We still should maintain them. You never know when those same old techs may save your life or be of help. Almost like the movie battle ship. When aliens took out our new tech but the old school battle ship was what saved us from the aliens. Fyi duh I know it's just a movie. But point is those old school tech seem to always be perfect for when shit hit the fan and all else fails. I love knew fancy tech but I was mad when we went to cellphone and took all landlines away. No more payphones etc. Sometimes your cellphone acts up and now your fucked lol. If we still had landline those never went out. I digress 😆. This was a damn good video 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿✊🏿✊🏿✊🏿✊🏿✊🏿✊🏿✊🏿💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿. I love videos like this.
That just sounds like a nightmare.
Holy !@#$ !! I was nervous just listening to this...
Just more proof that when you are in doubt one of the first things you need to be bringing back into the scan are your instruments.
One word: 'Whoa'
Wow!
Hi Mover, did you ever have to eject? If so, how many cm did you get shorter?
No. This is not a common thing.
Scary Story. Thanks. I miss SPECTRE! Love the books, but I miss Spectre. :(
Hectic how quickly things can go pear shaped.
Hey Mover greetings from Indonesia. Been really enjoying your videos. Our Air Force is also flying the F-16. What about doing interview with one of ours. Gonna be unique as we fly F-16, SU-27, SU-30, and BAe Hawk 200. We also used to fly the F-5, F-86, Bronco, and P-51 in the past. In fact my grandfather was one of the first Indonesian Air Force P-51 pilots. I have couple friends on the Air Force that used to fly the Viper. Let me know if you are interested. See if I can hook you up with them. Cheers, mate
As a non-IFR pilot, I'm surprised that the artificial horizon is not mentioned in the description of the incident. Wouldn't it be the first source for the pilot to determine the plane's attitude?
It was the first source.
Hmmm... doesn't sound like a safe occupation at all! 😆
So glad he made it 👍🏻
🙏
Wonder if Stinky got a Bremont MBI watch, if his seat is a MB.
ACES 2 seat, but the MB watch I’m familiar…cool. Missed business opportunity.
14:23 hell, thats the WARMEST "fort peck lake, montana" gets in the summer
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65 degree water isnt THAT cold..... again, thats as warm as this lake gets...... even in July, its still 45 to 50 degrees
and below the power house..... that water is ALWAYS about 36 degrees
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and yes.... 65 degree water will still kill you, if you spend a few hours in it
but its not like hitting bearing sea water..... thats like, below freezing year round
.
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not trying to take away from his survival story
just adding some perspective
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like, houses in some states get blown off the foundation in a 70mph wind
up here AT LEAST 5 days out of the year, we have 70 sustained.... gusts to 80 or 85
and LITERALLY no damage..... not even a roof shingle blows off
.
i sometimes wonder why i live in montana..... 184 degrees between summer and winter (-70 to 114 degrees IIRC)
65 isn't THAT cold, but it isn't pleasant with wind, waves, sea spray and no exposure suit...I can assure you.
Not a pilot but isn't there an artificial horizon gauge which still works even if you're inverted? If there wasn't on his plane there should have been, it's obviously doable
I have the same question.
Yes, and I was using it, however you have to imagine an instrument limited to 65 degree horizon line references and being nose low beyond those references pointed almost straight down pulling 9g’s to get back into those references while closing the distance on the water at close to 1000 ft per second. Recovering from extreme nose low attitude at high speed does not happen fast - pretty large turn radius in the vertical. The pull was not straight - more of a barrel roll, like JFK Jr working limited reference staring at the top dot on the ADI, coupled to NVG’s passing 6000 feet which is where ambient light began filling the cockpit taking me away from the ADI in hope of finding an outside horizon. I ate up the altimeter clock faster than I could process the initial limited information while trying to slow down enough to eject. Had I brought the sky pointer on the perimeter of the instrument into my initial crosscheck, I may have had enough time an altitude to recover after confirming I was disoriented.
THIS IS BAD ASS!
Intense.
Thank you both for your service! You guys are the types of people kids should be looking up to, not athletes and movie stars. How did you get the name stinky? Did you shit your pants in the plane?
Watch the full interview 👍🇺🇸