Poor flight discipline by Luftw. pilots ==> high accident rates

[stevehnz]

Roger, your paper is very interesting on a quick look through. I've downloaded it & will digest it in depth over the next few days. I have read more thoroughly your section on the Luftwaffe & I wonder how much of that was down to national temperament & traditions, & how due to a very bureaucratic & hide bound RLM administration which maybe stifled innovation & change & from my reading persisted in some of these attitudes right to the later days of the war, all the more incredible when the RAF & USAAF had made huge gains in innovation & professionalism in their wartime training regimes.
Steve

[NickM]

Originally Posted by RolandF

Now I get your point. Most interesting, especially the attitude of the Luftwaffe aces being trained to 50ies jet status after the war.
Looking at the LW loss rates I´m always wondering about the sheer amount of so-called "Bedienungsfehler" as loss reason. The odd behaviour of the Bf 109 during take-off and landing imho can´t exclusively be the reason for those accidents because the otherwise more stable Fw 190 was involved in such accidents, too

Regards

Roland

This reminds me of Ed Rasimus' second war memoir when he flew F4 Phantoms during "Linebacker"; when he was still in the US he had to qualify flying a multiengine aircraft--he found the need to announce his actions (going full rich, going full flaps, raising flaps, lowering flaps) to his 'trainer' to be utterly demeaning & frustrating-almost as bad as having to fly as a 'trash hauler'...