XPost: or.politics, or.general   
      
   On Wed, 4 Apr 2007 10:12:17 -0700, "gatt"   
    wrote:   
      
   >   
   >"Don Homuth"  wrote in message   
   >news:api713tb86kn3mhv6ute1hu0ju99v4p806@4ax.com...   
   >   
   >>>"The plane would fly 250 mph 200 feet off the ground in rugged terrain   
   >>>under   
   >>>instrument flight conditions."   
   >>>   
   >>>That's insane.   
   >>   
   >> The pilots are jarheads. They train for that and are used to it.   
   >   
   >Still insane.   
      
   Yabbut they're Jarhead pilots!   
      
   > At that speed, the 200 feet beneath you can vanish in an   
   >instant.   It's the IFR thing that blows my mind.  Intruders did it too, of   
   >course, and much faster...but it's still insane.   
      
   That's the training.  It doesn't do much good to be flying in a load   
   of troops and deliberately putting yourself in Harm's Way from a SAM.   
      
   At 200 ft and 200+ knots, it's hard to track an incoming aircraft.   
   That's the whole idea.  Terrain-Following Radar certainly helps as   
   well.   
      
   >I'm pretty sure I've heard it a couple of times in the evening when it was   
   >too overcast to identify the airplane. There's been something roaring   
   >overhead that didn't sound like your typical C-130 or jet, but I didn't   
   >think too much about it.   
      
   The OV-22 is pretty much unlike Anything else in the air.   
      
   >Bummed that I missed it.  Apparently the jarheads are still pretty nervous   
   >about riding in them.   
      
   Appropriately so, but most of the flight control stability problem   
   early on seems to have been dealt with.  Now they just need to deal   
   with the weak link -- the Human Factor.   
      
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