In what we can only describe as “serendipity”, Flight Test Safety Committee chairman Tom Huff ran into Col Doug “Beaker” Wickert at a safety workshop in California, hosted by Northrop Grumman Corporation. That meeting set off a series of conversations
January 20th was the 45th anniversary of the accidental first flight of the YF-16. This phenomenon is not new, but it seems like “some of us” have not learned our lesson yet, with accidental first flights recurring in the closing
How do we disagree, and do so professionally and constructively, with our colleagues? That is the question I pose as you read the following feedback from a reader. “I will say that I much prefer people make any attempts at
Words should be scalpels not spears. I want us–the people in this community, the readers of these articles and newsletters–to disagree. In fact, this is one of my core values, one of the things I want to spread. Conflict can
Recently, I heard a long-time USAF member of SETP say, “I never heard about the Flight Test Safety Committee.” I was speechless. This newsletter is the first step in fixing that problem, but there is another part of that problem
You are an expert at gathering facts and making technical observations. Admittedly, I say that based on a reasonable supposition about who will end up reading these articles. We like data, and often we want just the facts. John
“I poured my heart out,” she said, and I knew exactly what she meant even though the words held no literal meaning. She trusted us with words she had written about her life and flight test career, her daughter, and