Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Kara Hultgreen's F-14 Tomcat Mishap

She flew the EA-6A with VAQ-33 prior and that squadron (along with VAQ-34 and 35) were going away as the Navy stopped having dedicated squadrons for that mission and moved to using the Reserves and contract flown aircraft to provide fleet EW training services. Since restrictions on woman in the fleet were removed she needed to go into the fleet or essentially accept the end of a flying career. I have no idea how much influence she had in what community she got with going to Tomcats.

Was there no "easier or more familiar" aircraft for her to transition to?
( I realize that the entire point of this thread is basically affirmative action)

....

In the end, Kara died because she was put in an airplane that was beyond her abilities. The politicians are the ones responsible for her death.

what I find surprising is the men, don't call this crap out and say putting women in combat aircraft is ridiculous, frankly it is. just say it! changing standards to accommodate something like this is insane, its wokeism run amuck. The men failing to call this out are the same ones that willingly put a mask on and wear it like a good little boy. some young man is robbed of his dreams all so some women who should be raising children and living up to the measure of here creation is put into a situation like this. probably will end up with a revolving door of men in her life and being miserable later in life, meanwhile the fighting men and the mission have been distracted. Look I have never been in the military but the fact that those who have will not call this crap out is something I never understood.

This.

Women have no place in combat arms, no matter how good of a pilot any woman may be.

Given everything I read, Hultgren was of above average intelligence and ability, but not up to the task of piloting the F-14. And obviously Hultgren lacked wisdom for trying to pilot the F-14. Poorer performance during training relative to the men is something a wiser woman would pick up on.

Hultgren's life was wasted on a political stunt. Instead of marrying, having intelligent & talented children, and contributing to her nation, she ended up dead in an affirmative action pilot spot.

I had a bit over 850 hours in the Tomcat and over 3500 hours in other a/c when I transition to the Tomcat and even after 34 years, I can still repeat the “engine failure off the catapult” procedure. We briefed it on EVERY SINGLE HOP regardless of a land take off or a cat launch off the boat. The F-14A engines were fondly (not!) referred to as Pratt and [bleep]. I transitioned from being an F-4 RAG instructor to the Tomcat in the RAG, VF 101.

From practically DAY ONE in the F-14 RAG, compressor stall procedures were pounded into your head. Probably because of that emphasis, I never had a full-fledged compressor stall although I did have one “inlet buzz “ as it was called on an ACM hop; probably because of a little too much rudder at hi angle of attack during a fight. I’ll get back to this…..

IIRC, she had gotten an “unsat” or “down” in her first attempt to get through all the Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) before going to the boat for day/night carrier qualification. She had at least one (maybe two) “fleet naval evaluation board” (FNAEB) which is pretty much normal. Her main problem was overshooting final and trying to use “A LOT OF RUDDER” in an attempt to avoid overshooting and had been addressed several times with her by the squadron LSO’s. Focus should have been on getting the a/c to the correct distance abeam the boat and maintaining the angle of bank around the corner. It’s almost a given that a nugget (new guy/girl)) will take out some angle of bank at the 90 (degrees) to go position. This results in an overshoot of final.

On the day of the mishap she was overshooting final and in trying to use lots of rudder, with the excessive yaw, the nose of the a/c disturbed the airflow to the left engine and caused a compressor stall.

Yes, she departed controlled flight as a result of the compressor stall and improper corrective action. That caused the loss of control. But to get to the real cause, you need to back up a few seconds. It was the habit incorrectly using a lot of rudder in an attempt to correct for an overshoot that started this sequence. The was too much rudder at high angle of attack.

So saying the mishap was caused by a compressor stall is true, BUT it doesn’t really get to the root of the problem which was using too much rudder in the approach turn. That’s what resulted in the compressor stall. Reflexively using right stick to try to counter the left roll of the a/c was the wrong move. If you watch the lead in to the interview, there is a short clip of a T-2 that flips over and flew into the island of the Lexington. UGLY!

That too, was an adverse yaw departure. At slow speed and/or hi angle/slow speed maneuvering off the cat or on final, using rudder to control angle of bank or roll in the Tomcat is correct. But in this this case, too much rudder caused the engine stall. Which then led to the loss of control

Pugs, thanks

One more question if you don't mind,
Are all Navy pilots "carrier qualified", are there any land based only planes or pilots?

and another

Do any others services land on Navy boats? (excluding Marines)

Has nothing to do with the facts of this mishap, but I have a problem with Naval Flight Officers referring to themselves as "flying" an aircraft (3:33 mark of video)

Navlav8r,

So was she trying to forward slip the a/c on landing?