BAN ALL RUDDER PEDALS!!!!!

[BoeingBobby]

there you go again! do you really believe the military yanks any old jerk of the flight line and designates them a test pilot???? do you really believe that even after 6,000,000 hours of teaching, practice, and testing even the BEST DAMN PILOT IN THE UNIVERSE wont make a mistake?

Although losing a brand new, low density-high demand asset like an AC-130J is bad news, this is what testing is for. Better have a permanently grounded plane than one laying on the ground burning in the enemy’s backyard.

Why bother TeeVee, I am sure this was a problem with the center wing fuel tank!

[TeeVee]

Absolutely not!! This is what test-pilot training is for. It's nice to know the military is lumping all the cash into R&D and not enough into S&R (Stick & Rudder). Oh well, scratch one of only sixteen AC130J and taxpayer money that could have been used to build a school of fix a bridge or train an air wing on the use of rudder and unusual attitudes recovery, especially for test pilots pushing the envelope. I'm also wondering where the AoA was when they did this...

there you go again! do you really believe the military yanks any old jerk of the flight line and designates them a test pilot???? do you really believe that even after 6,000,000 hours of teaching, practice, and testing even the BEST DAMN PILOT IN THE UNIVERSE wont make a mistake?

Although losing a brand new, low density-high demand asset like an AC-130J is bad news, this is what testing is for. Better have a permanently grounded plane than one laying on the ground burning in the enemy’s backyard.

[3WE]

... I'm also wondering where the AoA was when they did this...

Probably varying.

[Evan]

Although losing a brand new, low density-high demand asset like an AC-130J is bad news, this is what testing is for.

Absolutely not!! This is what test-pilot training is for. It's nice to know the military is lumping all the cash into R&D and not enough into S&R (Stick & Rudder). Oh well, scratch one of only sixteen AC130J and taxpayer money that could have been used to build a school of fix a bridge or train an air wing on the use of rudder and unusual attitudes recovery, especially for test pilots pushing the envelope. I'm also wondering where the AoA was when they did this...

[elaw]

Fair enough... but considering the plane's been flying for 60+ years and has more variants than Beanie Babies, it must have seen quite a bit of test flying before!

On the other hand, I guess sometimes "stuff" just happens...

[Gabriel]

Why do I suspect there's more to this story than just "Captain fu*kup misused the rudder pedals"?

The generic C130 has been around for a heck of a long time and I'd expect any "quirks" in this area to be pretty well known. Maybe the changes to this aircraft put the CG in a bad spot or something?

Bear in mind that this was not a normal flight. It was a test flight where they were putting the plane at the limits of its envelope. They lost control of the plane, which at a point became inverted, and the recovery was less smooth that it should. That's where they damaged it.

As I understand it the incorrect use of the rudder is what triggered the loss of control, not what caused the damage itself.

[elaw]

Why do I suspect there's more to this story than just "Captain fu*kup misused the rudder pedals"?

The generic C130 has been around for a heck of a long time and I'd expect any "quirks" in this area to be pretty well known. Maybe the changes to this aircraft put the CG in a bad spot or something?

[3WE]

...all they ever do is bend and break stuff and they should only be computer operated.

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/brand-new-ac-130-ghostrider-a-total-loss-after-going-in-1743122173