B-52 aircraft crash at Fairchild Air Force Base

[Artemis08]

Hello. Resgistered here just to add my 2 cents. The Copilot of this flight was Lt. Col. Mark McGeehan, a close friend of my father's. He did everything he could to get this rouge pilot grounded, but was unsuccessful. He instead consistently penciled himself in as co-pilot to prevent any of the men in his squadron from flying with him. When he perished due to this man's nerve, his family suffered greatly. His sons watched it all happen. To commend this man for being a risk-taker is nonsense. He took 3 other men down with him.

[expat]

Welcome to SimV. Don't take the views in this thread as a blanket example of what you would find here. We are a friendly bunch really.


Matt

[C]

The Copilot of this flight was Lt. Col. Mark McGeehan, a close friend of my father's. He did everything he could to get this rouge pilot grounded, but was unsuccessful. He instead consistently penciled himself in as co-pilot to prevent any of the men in his squadron from flying with him. When he perished due to this man's nerve, his family suffered greatly. His sons watched it all happen. To commend this man for being a risk-taker is nonsense. He took 3 other men down with him.

Very sad to hear indeed. The fact that (as you say) he [i]"consistently penciled himself in as co-pilot to prevent any of the men in his squadron from flying with him"[i/], again is testament to the fact that it appears his (Lt Col. McGeehan's) superiors did not give him the support he needed to be able to stand up to his "Boss" and say enough is enough. He should never have had to put himself in that position. Sadly it appears he had to, with tragic consequences. Hopefully the lessons were learnt, and 4 men (3 completely innocently) did not die in vain...

[Papa9571]

This will show you what kind of pilot he was and how he routinely violated regualtions.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQa4PpIkOZU

[beaky]

Hello. Resgistered here just to add my 2 cents. The Copilot of this flight was Lt. Col. Mark McGeehan, a close friend of my father's. He did everything he could to get this rouge pilot grounded, but was unsuccessful. He instead consistently penciled himself in as co-pilot to prevent any of the men in his squadron from flying with him. When he perished due to this man's nerve, his family suffered greatly. His sons watched it all happen. To commend this man for being a risk-taker is nonsense. He took 3 other men down with him.

'Nuff said.

[DaveSims]

Amazing how even an experienced Air Force pilot can forget some of the basic rules of aerodynamics, namely the overbanking effect, where once you bank an aircraft past a certain angle, it will continue banking and roll you on your back.  Add in an aircraft with spoilerons for bank control and you get....

[C]

Amazing how even an experienced Air Force pilot can forget some of the basic rules of aerodynamics,

I think forget is the wrong word. Maybe "show complete and utterly negligent disregard for..." would be more appropriate.

[Papa9571]

And even saying that you are being too kind.

[C]

And even saying that you are being too kind.

Quite.

[beefhole]

Hello. Resgistered here just to add my 2 cents. The Copilot of this flight was Lt. Col. Mark McGeehan, a close friend of my father's. He did everything he could to get this rouge pilot grounded, but was unsuccessful. He instead consistently penciled himself in as co-pilot to prevent any of the men in his squadron from flying with him. When he perished due to this man's nerve, his family suffered greatly. His sons watched it all happen. To commend this man for being a risk-taker is nonsense. He took 3 other men down with him.

THAT is leadership, and his is a name I won't soon forget.

It is incredibly uninformed to say "He flew the BUFF like a viper, so he was a good pilot."  Holland was both a bad pilot AND a bad airman (the latter being more important than the former).

The logical fallacy there has already been thoroughly vetted, but almost all posters have missed the single most important point--the BUFF is a CREWED aircraft.  The Viper isn't.  In the F-16, if you do something stupid, the ground should survive you just fine.  In the B-52, as aircraft commander, you are responsible not only for the integrity of the aircraft but the lives of the people within it.  

As a pilot, my single greatest fear isn't killing myself because I did something stupid.  Oh well, Darwin at work.  It's taking other people with me.  And it should have been LtCol Holland's also.

[Jet Black1]

Well, you can look at him either way...the safety hazard and an accident waiting to happen...or the dare devil pilot who took the Buff to the very edge (and beyond...his last flight) of its flight envelope.

I personally think he was one hell of a character and it was very unfortunate that he "messed up."

...records (and rules) are meant to be broken

Let us all hope you never get to fly anything but flight sim.
Because if you think like that one day you to will end up just like him.