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This month's article comes to us from CW3 Glen "Bartman" Carter. Bartman is an OH-
58D Maintenance Test Pilot for the Mississippi Army National Guard. Bartman wrote me
a few month ago and asked if he could provide information on fixation. Since Bartman is
an Attack kind-a-guy, he has some experience on fixation that others might lack. So I
offered for him to write the entire article. He accepted and provided the following:
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Fixation or Fascination
(in flight)
PULL UP, PULL UP, PULL UP!!! These two words, coupled with the proper inflection
in someone's voice can make even the most fearless man a pile of silly putty.
We are all taught about visual illusions from the moment we get to "fright" school. Most,
we think, are no brainer's. We know, the closer we are to something the faster it appears
to be moving, or the object being overlapped is the farthest away. DUH!
What we fail to realize is, that like everything else in our lives, until someone points it out,
we tend not to "think" about it. Then we all become "Einstein's" when our IP asks us
about Autokenisis. "That is when there is a single light source and when stared at appears
to be move". We blurt out that canned response without actually "thinking", or taking it
to the cognitive stage of learning. It has been many years now since flight school and I
have become a seasoned aviator. Been there, done that, gave the T-shirt to this real cute
young lady I met at the O'club. That is another story in itself. But anyway, I thought(key
word) that I knew enough about flying at night for this to happen to me. For what it's
worth, here goes;
There I was, on the six of an MI-24, out of bullets, missiles, and ideas all at the same time.
Oops, wrong story. It was July of 95, Ft. Hood, Tx. Midnight, and I am sitting in an
attack by fire position (formerly known as a battle position) target in sight and in range.
Symbology lined up and ready to fire. (By the way I fly OH-58D(I) Warriors) My left
seater said he was ready so I pressed the fire button and sent .50 cal downrange. The
target was about 1500 meters away and I had a visual on it with my night eyes(NVG's).
As the rounds started to impact, I adjusted them onto the target. To see rounds
splattering on and bouncing off that target was immensely satisfying. My grip on the
cyclic became firmer, I gritted my teeth and kept firing. In my mind I was killing anyone
that was in my way. I wanted to see mass quantities of dead and wounded rendered by my
fine gunnery skills.
Suddenly, above the machine gun noise, radios, and rotor noise I hear PULL UP, PULL
UP, PULL UP!! My stick buddy was slapping me on the chest screaming (the normal way
to tell someone to stop firing in a 58D). Instinctively I glance down at the radar altimeter
and it reads 10ft. In itself, this is not a bad thing, but when you are nose low at 45 kts
headed for mother earth, this changes the equation quite drastically. Thankfully, due to
my superior piloting skills (sheer luck), I managed to recover (save my butt) without
crashing or causing damage to the aircraft or myself. After a long silence and looking at
each other, my stick buddy spoke. For fear of offending the younger variety of reader, I
will not publish his words, but you get the point. (Insert multiple expletives here.) It was
then that I could no longer say "I have never fallen into the trap of a visual illusion". I have
experienced them all, but never have I just ignored or failed to realize what was
happening.
I had been "had" by fixation. Fixation or fascination in flight is defined as; an illusion that
occurs when aviators ignore orientation cues and fix their attention on a goal or an object.
Unlike most of the other visual illusions, fixation can happen day or night. I know what
you are saying, "I don't fly attack so I don't have to worry about that". What about that
load you are looking at below you or that aircraft you are flying NVG multiship with, or
that helipad you are on approach to? There is more than one way to experience fixation.
It is not only an attack worry.
SOLUTION: Keep your head on a swivel! Actually keep your head on your
shoulders and keep your scan going. If you don't, you may be the next to fall into the
fixation trap. Or you may hear something to the effect of TREES, TREES, TREES!! But
that is another illusion.
Be safe and kill something everyday, no matter how small, just to stay proficient.
Some history on me; I am in the Ms. National Guard at Tupelo. I am an MTP on OH-
58D(I)'s. I went through flight school in 87-88. Flew UH-1's and all models of OH-58's.
Mobilized for Desert shield/storm in 90-91 and currently am a CW3
CW3 Glen B."Bartman" Carter
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Thank you Glen for your informative contribution to Helicoptorial. Like many aviators, I
too have been caught by the fixation trap. And just what Glen was saying, the only way to
get out and stay out of this illusion is to keep your scan moving. Always stay aware of the
surrounding cues to keep yourself oriented.
Safe Flying...
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