(NavyTimes) – Flying a fighter jet is often compared to being in a car crash over and over again. Retired Navy F/A-18 Hornet pilot Matthew “Whiz” Buckley, a TOPGUN graduate and former instructor, remembers being hurled off the deck of an aircraft carrier at 150 to 200 miles-per-hour in less than two seconds.
Every catapult launch, every high-G turn, felt like an assault on the body and the brain. Arrested landings were even more violent. Pilots, including Buckley, described them as controlled crashes: going from 150 miles-per-hour or more to a complete stop in approximately one second. CONTINUE