AAIB report published on Gnat crash at Car Fest

[aeropilot]

Couldn't find original thread to append/update.....?

But, anyway, AAIB report is now out. Nothing most weren't expecting tbh.

https://assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk/media...

[Dr Jekyll]

So the pilot had only averaged 12 hours a year over the last 5 years. Just about enough for local flights in a simple Cessna or Piper perhaps. But hardly for flying a swept wing jet, or doing aerobatics, or doing low level displays. Let alone all three.

It could be that the 12 hours a year is purely Gnat time (still pretty low for a display pilot) and he's done dozens of hours in something else, but that isn't how I read it.

[aeropilot]

Dr Jekyll said:

So the pilot had only averaged 12 hours a year over the last 5 years. Just about enough for local flights in a simple Cessna or Piper perhaps. But hardly for flying a swept wing jet, or doing aerobatics, or doing low level displays. Let alone all three.

It could be that the 12 hours a year is purely Gnat time (still pretty low for a display pilot) and he's done dozens of hours in something else, but that isn't how I read it.

Nope, it's as you read it, and he wasn't doing any other flying, so was barely just doing enough to keep his PPL, but in a Gnat!!
How on earth the system allowed him a DA is beyond me.

We've seen the CAA banging on about the aircraft (Hunters grounded, all the issue over complex a/c like the Vulcan etc) and yet, perhaps they should be paying more attention to the people flying the stuff, not what they are flying....??

[Honeywell]

"An average of 12 hours per year over the previous five years (flown in an average of 16 flights)."

I wouldn't say you'd be current and competent to bash the circuit in a Cessna at that. Nevermind twinkle roll a Gnat with a 92 degree per sec roll rate at 300ft agl 50kts too slow.

I'm suprises me that the recklessness was not apparent to either the regulator or the pilots involved.

Edited by Honeywell on Sunday 15th May 10:59

[Flooble]

Let's try not to be too harsh.

I noted that his annual hours appeared to be accumulated in a short batch rather than strung out at the "one hour once a month" currency that many club pilots cling to:

Last 90 days - 6 hours
Last 28 days - 2 hours


While 6 hours in 90 days is still only two hours a month, which is less than I would want to feel nicely "current" (and I don't fly aerobatics or turbines), I wonder if it may have been a case that those 6 hours were actually in the previous, say, 45 days or less.

It's possible he adopted a policy of having an intensive "de rusting" period each summer after a winter off flying. It's also telling that the six hours was over nine flights. It's the sorties that counts, not flying in straight lines doing nothing.

Nine sorties isn't really enough to fully de-rust and be doing live displays, but it's perhaps not quite as black as the bald numbers would indicate.

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

Flooble said:

Nine sorties isn't really enough to fully de-rust and be doing live displays, but it's perhaps not quite as black as the bald numbers would indicate.

When you compare that to the RAF's requirements for FJ Display Currency (or, indeed, any Display Currency, and let's face it the RAF are really the Subject Matter Experts here), it's insane.

[Mave]

I understand that the gnat was more of a handful to fly than the hawk (which the AAIB report is using as a comparison)... And I noted that this gnat had wing tanks, which I don't think the RAF fitted during aerobatics? Might have made it even more sensitive to inertia coupling at low speeds?

[aeropilot]

Flooble said:

Let's try not to be too harsh.

Why....?

Harsh isn't enough IMHO....as mentioned above it's an insane situation.

[Honeywell]

Air safety relies on a dispationate assessment of facts and a brutally honest reaction to hat is discovered. It's expensive, unsympathetic, callous but ultimately it works.

Rich play display pilots in complex military jets were accident waiting to happen. The gnat and the hunter crashes just happened to occur close together.

Some of us predicted this.

[BOBTEE]

I was at Carfest watching the display but thankfully missed the actual crash, I must have looked away for a second, was eating at the time but saw the plume of smoke rising. I was also at Church Fenton where the remaining Gnats and the Vulcan performed a missing man formation which reduced me and the girlfriend to tears. It's really had an effect on me and I often find myself thinking about the day.

Now, having read the report, I just don't understand how he was allowed to display! I'm no pilot but so few hours and he can display in front of thousands!! I've long been a fan of aviation and motoring/motorsport so I'm well aware the mechanical things can fail and was hoping the report would show a failure but now I have to live the rest of my life knowing that a man died in front of me and it was largely avoidable.