Combat Chatter -- Pilot taking damage

Likely none because he would be dead or would have ejected.

"Oh shit!" comes to mind.

There are a whole lot of variables here. Airplane? Helocopter? Jet ? Prop? A sam missle would kill the airplane. An rpg will cause damage. Reguardless, the conversation between the pilot and base would be rather calm. Hard to believe, but true. 'Red dog, Red dog, this is Eagle. Just took a hit. Lost control of the airplane. Coordinates are..... bailing out. Rodger, Eagle, help on the way. Keep your head down. Something like that.

dclary said:

This is what I was hoping for. Specifically, I'm talking about an F-16c 50-block and what the pilot *assumes* is a late-model-to-modern shoulder-mounted SAM (or RPG, I guess, but that's a tough hit... a high-altitude fighter, right?). We'll find out later it's not a SAM, but that's not important at this point in the story. This is his best guess, despite no warnings of lock-on or viewable contrails in the sky.

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I think the hardest part here would be convincing the reader that the pilot thinks it is an RPG or an unidentified SAM. Pilots have regular INTEL reports and know what threat and weapon systems are out there. If he is totally oblivious then as a reader my first thought would be friendly fire.

Apart from that I suggest that there would be a distinct pause while he fights to control the plane. Then it would come across professionally.

JJ

Another problem with an unexpected hit is those usually result in kills. Pilots survive hits because they have prior warning and make attempts to evade incoming threats, resulting in wing clips or tail hits.

Regular AA fire/flak might work better than a SAM, in my opinion. Otherwise, the first comment is really the most accurate.

Prozyan said:

Another problem with an unexpected hit is those usually result in kills. Pilots survive hits because they have prior warning and make attempts to evade incoming threats, resulting in wing clips or tail hits.

Regular AA fire/flak might work better than a SAM, in my opinion. Otherwise, the first comment is really the most accurate.

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Bingo. Of course it depends what setting it is. But for Anti-Aircraft weapons you can't go past the ZSU 23-4.

JJ

dpaterso said:

I'm betting he's been sucker punched by a UFO with a trillion megawatt effector. Dirty purple squid sumbitch flew up his ass real quiet-like and fried his engine!

-Derek

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And I tried for a very short time to be serious Derek. For all of those out there who are wondering what Derek is on about let me help.

A trillion magewatt effector is only as accurate and effective as per the operators training guide. Let's face it, Derek has trained many an operator on this system, but at the end of the day - he's the expert.

As for the DPSSFUHARQLAFHE, I'd say to check the flux-capacity settting. Sounds like you've blown a valve.

JJ

dpaterso said:

I'm betting he's been sucker punched by a UFO with a trillion megawatt effector. Dirty purple squid sumbitch flew up his ass real quiet-like and fried his engine!

-Derek

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No no, it's clearly a pigeon perched on the tail fin.

dpaterso said:

Dastardly & Muttley's flying machine wouldn't show up on an F-16c Fighting Falcon's radar.

JJ, some of that stuff is classified, maybe you should CSWKB and TTFTD stat.

-Derek

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Okay keep this to yourself. If you come across anything classified just grab a pair of scissors and remove the clsssification label at the top and bottom of the document. That, my friend, is a sure-fire way to de-classify anything.

And will you stop calling me a Cheap Skate Who Kills Bears and Third Thursdays For Trapping Dingoes doesn't suit. Can we move it to TMFTD?

JJ

alleycat said:

If you need additional information beyond this question let me know and I'll put you in contact by e-mail with a guy who is currently flying over Iraq.

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Currently flying over Iraq?

No offense, AC, but I suspect he's got more important things to do than e-mail DClary. Why not wait until he's landed?

dpaterso said:

I beg your pardon, those standard acronyms were taken from the OMBPG (Official Military Bullshit Protocol Guide) -- I meant maybe you should Call Someone Who Knows Better and Take The F***ing Thing Down stat.

I'm also betting this exchange (plus acronyms) finds its way into dclary's story, giving it an authentic grounding that today's tech-geek audiences demand.

PS - I've reported you for the scissors thing. Expect visitors in the night. When you least expect them.

-Derek

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Thanks for that Derek. I've received the report and I promise to look into it. It's a balance between investigating myself and procrastinating.

JJ

Bmwhtly said:

Currently flying over Iraq?

No offense, AC, but I suspect he's got more important things to do than e-mail DClary. Why not wait until he's landed?

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dclary said:

What would the radio chatter sound like between a pilot and his base if he'd been on patrol and got hit by a SAM ?

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Now fast movers I can't help you with. Never had the chance to fly in a jet. Helios are another story. Greg 1 does have a point. Them pilots are a controlled lot and generally will keep chatter in check. However, pilots are human........and so are their crew if they have any. So it's not neccessarily unreasonable to add a bit of excited chatter if you need it for tensions sake.

Also possibile if you had non-aircrew. Transport plane or helio having grunts on it, would be very realistic to have some off-color remarks thrownout.

I don't know avionics, but it's realistic to have dust/dirt problems in the Iraq/Afghan theater. Stretching it, since the grounds crews (at least on helios) are darn good. IME.

SAMs/shoulder fireds are always a threat. Occassionaly, HUMINT/ELINT/and Intel miss something. If they didn't, we'd have kicked every frickin' enemy back to the stone age and ground their bones to dust. Of, course, that hasn't happened so "we" obviously don't have all the intel needed. Regardless of which proganda machine you cotton to.

The insurgents are clever, resourceful, and tricky. If you word it well enough, you can make prit near anything possible.

Never overestimate the ego of a fighter pilot to not screw something up.

I can give you some chatter from helio pilots as they went into the shit, but nothing for jet jockeys.

Oh boy

dpaterso said:

WHEE WHEE WHEE "Mayday mayday <callsign> my plane is hit, losing power/controls locked/other errors, grid position <coordinates>, punching out!" WHOOSH!

"Uh, this is Lazy Dog, repeat your last, over."

-Derek

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That sounds good. One safety problem I recall from my brief
stint as a contract researcher was the problem of pilots staying too cool when
their jet was in trouble. They would stay on the radio reporting things
going wrong for far too long to survive the problems they were reporting. One theory was that they were
under so much stress that things seemed to be happening rather slowly from their point of view. I recall one pilot listening to some other pilot who barely survived such an incident and landed the jet against all odds and all he said to the survivor was, "That was stupid." Ie, he should have gotten out of the jet when the getting out was good.

First the exchange would be almost unintelligable to those not used to that particular radio. Hell most pilots seem to talk in a way not meant to be heard. Second it is a point of pride for a pilot to die calmly, not betray fear or panic, the report would be matter of fact or even with a twinge of flat grim humor. Third an RPG hitting a jet is so unlikely pilot wouldn't believe it. Shooter wouldn't believe it. It's damn hard to hit anything moving with one of those things. Still the tactic of firing infantry weapons at attacking aircraft can be effective, some infantry units even train at it.