TYLER ROGOWAY
-induced loss of consciousness, more commonly known as G-LOC, has claimed an untold amount of fighter pilot’s lives around the globe. Reclined ejection seats and g-suits that inflate and squeeze the lower body to keep blood flowing to the brain all help with this G tolerance, but they don’t help once a pilot has succumbed to gravitation forces. This is where the Automated Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto-GCAS) comes into play, turning the controls over to a computer if the jet is set to collide with ground and is not overridden by the pilot.The Auto-GCAS system works by comparing the jet’s position, altitude, bank angle, speed, heading and gross weight against a set of terrain profiles, called the Digital Terrain Elevation Database, stored in its memory banks. In a sense, Auto-GCAS sees the entire ground below and around the jet, although virtually within its memory banks, at any given time. This way it can not only warn when a collision is imminent, but can also autonomously direct the aircraft’s path for the most favorable recovery.The video of the USAF Viper pilot’s near-death experience, which was originally posted over at Aviation Week, has the following description:
“In this instance, an international F-16 student pilot was undergoing basic fighter maneuver training with his USAF instructor pilot in two separate F-16s over the U.S. southwest. The student rolls and starts to pull the aircraft but experiences G-induced loss of consciousness (G-LOC) as the F-16 hits around 8.3g. With the pilot now unconscious, the aircraft’s nose drops and enters a steepening dive in full afterburner from an altitude of just over 17,000 feet.
After only 22 seconds, the F-16 is nose-down almost 50 degrees below the horizon and going supersonic. The shocked instructor calls “2 recover!” as the student passes 12,320 feet at 587 knots. Two seconds later, the clearly concerned instructor again calls, “2 recover!” Then, at 8,760 feet and 652 knots, the Auto-GCAS executes a recovery maneuver.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/5197/watch-a-computer-save-this-g-stricken-f-16-pilot-from-certain-death
