Premium on Safety - Issue 48, 2023 - 14

A MESSAGE FROM ASI
TARGET FIXATION
BY RICHARD G. MCSPADDEN, JR.
Cruising in the low-400 flight levels,
I break radio silence with a double
click of the push-to-talk button on
the throttle, roll the F-15 inverted,
and hang there, suspended as I look
over to confirm my wing pilot heard
the " zipper clicks " and has mirrored
my move.
He has. Go time. We pop a bundle
of chaff and pull our noses down in
a pure vertical 90-degree dive toward the Gulf of Mexico. I have
just a moment to admire the sun sparkling on the emerald-green
water far below. My wing pilot and I are in a pure vertical dive
to " hide " from " Blue Air. " The Blue Air wing pilot, a student in the
F-15 upgrade course, has been working on mastering the radar
and employing the proper armament while flying formation and
learning the art of flying a combat wing.
Like all radars at the time, the F-15 had a built-in " notch " to
filter out ground clutter. The " notch " hid targets that did not show
opening or closing velocity in reference to F-15 ground speed. Our
tactic was to distract Blue Air with a large fake target (the chaff)
while diving in the " notch " to lose some 40,000 feet.
Upon reaching 90 degrees nose low, we unload and roll 180
degrees to place our lift vectors (an imaginary line running out of
our cockpits, perpendicular to the wings) in the direction of our
pull-out and toward our adversaries.
Reaching our target pull point, I again zipper click the mic and
start a 9-G pull to horizontal-vision narrowing slightly from the
quick and high G onset-but once a safe pullout is confirmed, we
loosen the pull and begin looking high and to our left for the Blue
Air. " Tallyho left 10 very high! " I set my lift vector toward Blue Air,
slam the throttles into full afterburner, and begin a hard 9-G pull-up
in a climbing attack.
This is going to be a bad day for the Blue Air student, I think.
" Knock it off. "
I'll take the far bogey and give my wing pilot...
" Knock it off. "
...the near bogey and we'll...
" Knock it off, knock it off... "
" Red One, knock it off, " I finally respond to the call, snap out of
afterburner, roll wings level, and glare out at my wing pilot, thinking,
our deception worked, and we were about to wreak havoc-this
better be good.
Sensing my frustration, my wing pilot stammers, " Your right wing,
you're missing three feet of your right wing. " I look over and see a
ragged edge where the wing's outer portion ripped off in the pull
to attack.
I start a climb, move my wing pilot to a chase position, and
with altitude for recovery if needed, fly a controllability check,
slowing, configured until approach speed or abnormal flight
control deterioration, whichever occurs first. We always performed
a controllability check anytime we suspected structural problems
with our aircraft. The indomitable F-15 was unphased and showed
no signs of deteriorated control. I flew a straight-in approach, on
speed, and landed uneventfully.
I was so focused on our targets-something military pilots call
" target fixation " -that it took me three times to hear the knockit-off
call. In debrief, we could plainly hear it on the tapes. Target
fixation can happen to anyone-flying in a VFR pattern, sightseeing,
in a GA formation rejoin, or on an instrument approach-
anywhere we can get so focused on an activity that we tune out
other important inputs, and we drop our cross-check.
In the military, on attack runs, target fixation has proved deadly.
In GA, it's helpful to remember that no matter how important any
single task, we can never afford to focus on one aspect of our
flying too long at the expense of all other inputs that affect the
success and safety of our flight.
As for the Blue Air student, well, we offered him more flight time
for the opportunity to work on his radar search discipline.
Richard G. McSpadden, Jr.
Senior Vice President, AOPA Air Safety Institute
14
Premium on Safety - Issue 48, 2023

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