WTF is a "Social Aide"?

[WingsOfGold]

Female Pilot in Crash Trump Blames on DEI Was Top 20% Cadet

Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach died when the Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting collided with an American Airlines jet.

www.thedailybeast.com

Sure the window dressing looks great but so did Lieutenant Kara Hultgreen's that was pushed through the pipeline.
Probably a lot more to this
Rotc BFD, how did she do in flight school?

 

[vraiblonde]

Until they report otherwise I'm going to call this an unfortunate accident. Male pilots have training accidents, so we shouldn't lose our sht when a female pilot has one.

 

[Czar]

Above article is nothing more than a hit piece. Headline is different than what they wrote in the story. Also, being in the top doesn't mean she didn't screw up.

Her distinguished career was at apparent odds with President Donald Trump suggesting that DEI hiring practices could have been to blame for the mid-air collision. He was backed up by his...

The term "may have" was used for DEI hiring policies in general by the President.

 

[WingsOfGold]

Until they report otherwise I'm going to call this an unfortunate accident. Male pilots have training accidents, so we shouldn't lose our sht when a female pilot has one.

Sure it was an accident but there's more to this that we don't know and somebody is covering it up. Again, what was their quals?

 

[stgislander]

Is that a rhetorical question?

 

[Monello]

I think Trump was suggesting that the DEI fault was in the tower & not the cockpit.

He had to have been aware of the FAA's push for diversity in its hiring.

 

[vraiblonde]

I think Trump was suggesting that the DEI fault was in the tower & not the cockpit.

He had to have been aware of the FAA's push for diversity in its hiring.

This is my understanding as well - that the concern isn't with the pilot so much as the ATCs.

 

[WingsOfGold]

I think Trump was suggesting that the DEI fault was in the tower & not the cockpit.

He had to have been aware of the FAA's push for diversity in its hiring.

Maybe but outside looking in this was the helo's doing. They had far better visibility and were a couple hundred feet from assigned altitude from the sounds of it

 

[LightRoasted]

For your consideration ...


Initial rotary wing flight training in the Army, while either a warrant officer or commissioned officer, is broken into four phases that total 32 weeks with 179 hours of flight instruction. 60 of those hours of flight time are a training helicopter, the TH-67 Creek. 30 hours are in a flight simulator. Training is completed in the OH-58. After this training, graduates move on the Advanced Graduate Flight Training to become specialized in the AH-64A, AH-64D, CH-47D, or UH-60A. All training, basic and advanced, adds up to about 55 weeks of total training before gradating and then going off to a regular assignment.

So say she's flying for 4 years total after graduating. She served about 5 years, after joining in 2019. With about 450 total flight hours, that leaves about 271 of total flight hours in the Blackhawk, or about flight 68 hours per year. Which is abysmal.

In the Army, for standard training & garrison operations, the typical yearly flight time is around 150–200 flight hours per year for active-duty pilots. For those 4 years post training, she should have accumulated at least 600 hours of flight time. So she was behind on her flight time, because of doing other things at the White House not related to flying. Also, there is absolutely no way she was a PIC, Pilot-In-Command, with those low flight hours. If she was in the left seat, as the majority of pictures show, she was the co-pilot. Pilot and co-pilot seats are reversed in helicopters. She was possibly getting a nighttime check flight.

Also, Army officers are eligible for promotion to captain 4 years after commissioning, perhaps she was promoted to captain possibly due to DIE factors?

 

[Bare-ya-cuda]

For your consideration ...


Initial rotary wing flight training in the Army, while either a warrant officer or commissioned officer, is broken into four phases that total 32 weeks with 179 hours of flight instruction. 60 of those hours of flight time are a training helicopter, the TH-67 Creek. 30 hours are in a flight simulator. Training is completed in the OH-58. After this training, graduates move on the Advanced Graduate Flight Training to become specialized in the AH-64A, AH-64D, CH-47D, or UH-60A. All training, basic and advanced, adds up to about 55 weeks of total training before gradating and then going off to a regular assignment.

So say she's flying for 4 years total after graduating. She served about 5 years, after joining in 2019. With about 450 total flight hours, that leaves about 271 of total flight hours in the Blackhawk, or about flight 68 hours per year. Which is abysmal.

In the Army, for standard training & garrison operations, the typical yearly flight time is around 150–200 flight hours per year for active-duty pilots. For those 4 years post training, she should have accumulated at least 600 hours of flight time. So she was behind on her flight time, because of doing other things at the White House not related to flying. Also, there is absolutely no way she was a PIC, Pilot-In-Command, with those low flight hours. If she was in the left seat, as the majority of pictures show, she was the co-pilot. Pilot and co-pilot seats are reversed in helicopters. She was possibly getting a nighttime check flight.

Also, Army officers are eligible for promotion to captain 4 years after commissioning, perhaps she was promoted to captain possibly due to DIE factors?

PIC can choose whatever seat they want to fly in. My brother always flew from the left seat. No hard fast rule for it.

 

[Czar]

For your consideration ...


Initial rotary wing flight training in the Army, while either a warrant officer or commissioned officer, is broken into four phases that total 32 weeks with 179 hours of flight instruction. 60 of those hours of flight time are a training helicopter, the TH-67 Creek. 30 hours are in a flight simulator. Training is completed in the OH-58. After this training, graduates move on the Advanced Graduate Flight Training to become specialized in the AH-64A, AH-64D, CH-47D, or UH-60A. All training, basic and advanced, adds up to about 55 weeks of total training before gradating and then going off to a regular assignment.

So say she's flying for 4 years total after graduating. She served about 5 years, after joining in 2019. With about 450 total flight hours, that leaves about 271 of total flight hours in the Blackhawk, or about flight 68 hours per year. Which is abysmal.

In the Army, for standard training & garrison operations, the typical yearly flight time is around 150–200 flight hours per year for active-duty pilots. For those 4 years post training, she should have accumulated at least 600 hours of flight time. So she was behind on her flight time, because of doing other things at the White House not related to flying. Also, there is absolutely no way she was a PIC, Pilot-In-Command, with those low flight hours. If she was in the left seat, as the majority of pictures show, she was the co-pilot. Pilot and co-pilot seats are reversed in helicopters. She was possibly getting a nighttime check flight.

Also, Army officers are eligible for promotion to captain 4 years after commissioning, perhaps she was promoted to captain possibly due to DIE factors?

Who tells them what altitude to fly at or do they do that themselves?

 

[Hijinx]

I don't know anything about hrs, or who was flying what., but I am pretty sure the airplane was where it was supposed to be and the helicopter was not.. Yes this was an accident, but the accident has someone's name on it.

 

[LightRoasted]

For your consideration ...

Who tells them what altitude to fly at or do they do that themselves?

Altitude data for any given area for comes from NOTAMs.

 

[Czar]

For your consideration ...





Altitude data for any given area for comes from NOTAMs.

So either NOTAMs or the pilot messed up.

 

[LightRoasted]

For your consideration ...

PIC can choose whatever seat they want to fly in. My brother always flew from the left seat. No hard fast rule for it.

From my experience, in the Army, the PIC always takes the right seat. In part, because a helicopter, once in the air, trends to tilt slightly on its axis to the right giving the pilot more visual outside information. Except in tandem helos such as the Apache. In those, the PIC sits in the back seat, closest to the rotors, and highest seat.

 

[LightRoasted]

For your consideration ...

So either NOTAMs or the pilot messed up.

NOTAMs are rarely ever in error. Reports are now coming out that there is a discrepancy in altimeter readings from the plane's flight data recorder and ATC. It could be possible that the pilot of the plane did not properly set the altimeter setting for above ground level, AGL, for the area correctly.

Altitude reading from DC plane crash could explain how it happened

The black boxes recovered from the American Airlines plane and the Army helicopter crash in DC revealed a key discrepancy in their altitude readings.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[PeoplesElbow]

Commercial aircraft don't have radalt?

 

[LightRoasted]

For your consideration ...

Commercial aircraft don't have radalt?

They do, but it is separate from other avionics. However they also have to enter the altimeter pressure setting for any given area that they are flying into, which can be obtained from the ATIS, (Automatic terminal information service), or AWOS, (Automated Weather Observing System). This is the system I was referring to. This system is also integrated with the autopilot system. ATC can also assign the altimeter pressure setting.

Another question is; Was the plane on autopilot during the glide phase of landing using the Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach? If so, metrics entered incorrectly into the system could cause issues.

 

[stgislander]

Another question is; Was the plane on autopilot during the glide phase of landing using the Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach? If so, metrics entered incorrectly into the system could cause issues.

NTSB has reported that autopilot was turned off before the CRJ made to change to runway 33.

 

[Bann]

Until they report otherwise I'm going to call this an unfortunate accident. Male pilots have training accidents, so we shouldn't lose our sht when a female pilot has one.

Exactly.

She did have to apply and BE accepted into the position at the WH. (including more extensive background checks) I read something somewhere that showed very exemplary military service, and commendations, etc. Whethere we like it or not, the position of Aide is necessary and probably a prestigious one. I wouldn't want to serve in that position for a POTUS like Biden, but... that's me. I don't necessarily begrudge her for that.