The idle musings of a former military man, former computer geek, medically retired pastor and now full-time writer. Contents guaranteed to offend the politically correct and anal-retentive from time to time. My approach to life is that it should be taken with a large helping of laughter, and sufficient firepower to keep it tamed!
Thursday, March 10, 2016
"Bitchin' Betty" steps down
The video tells the tale.
I wonder if her voice provided warnings in English to pilots flying the F/A-18 in non-English-speaking countries like Finland or Switzerland? Did they translate the alerts? Does anyone know?
We had something similar on one of my "boats" We called it the "Bitch in the box." You would hear "Fire! Fire! Fire in the engine room!" Or "Flooding! Flooding! Flooding in the pump room!" Then gen. alarm and orders for emergency surface. It was tied to another automated contraption that could take over the boat. Boxes were all tubes and transisters way before digital hardware and didn't "work" very reliably. Disabled and removed after a few miserable tests.
Ha, love these stories. We need to hear more of the "regular" workers stories. We have too many congress-critters and prez memories tucked away in archives. We need to hear about day to day folks that make this country great. They are the real history of this country. Steve
While I don't know for sure, I would suspect that foreign users of the F-18 still have English recordings, to go along with their English manuals and training. I have read of pilot training on other US aircraft, particularly the F-16 and F-15, that was conducted entirely in English and where pilots could, and did, wash out due to insufficient language skills even if they were good pilots. With the (relatively) small number of aircraft involved and the high education levels required of the operators, I would be surprised to see US military aircraft with manuals, training, and other linguistic requirements translated.
Somewhere, an enterprising tech is plotting taking a capture from this video of Betty saying "Say Goodbye", and is going to sneak it into the cockpit....
We had something similar on one of my "boats" We called it the "Bitch in the box." You would hear "Fire! Fire! Fire in the engine room!" Or "Flooding! Flooding! Flooding in the pump room!" Then gen. alarm and orders for emergency surface. It was tied to another automated contraption that could take over the boat. Boxes were all tubes and transisters way before digital hardware and didn't "work" very reliably. Disabled and removed after a few miserable tests.
ReplyDeleteHa, love these stories. We need to hear more of the "regular" workers stories. We have too many congress-critters and prez memories tucked away in archives. We need to hear about day to day folks that make this country great. They are the real history of this country.
ReplyDeleteSteve
While I don't know for sure, I would suspect that foreign users of the F-18 still have English recordings, to go along with their English manuals and training.
ReplyDeleteI have read of pilot training on other US aircraft, particularly the F-16 and F-15, that was conducted entirely in English and where pilots could, and did, wash out due to insufficient language skills even if they were good pilots.
With the (relatively) small number of aircraft involved and the high education levels required of the operators, I would be surprised to see US military aircraft with manuals, training, and other linguistic requirements translated.
She's one of a long history! :-)
ReplyDeleteSomewhere, an enterprising tech is plotting taking a capture from this video of Betty saying "Say Goodbye", and is going to sneak it into the cockpit....
ReplyDeleteI think in the German Air Force, it's "You WILL turn now!" In the French and Italian Air Forces, it's "Run! Run!"
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, "Hit the deck!" takes on a whole different meaning in the Japan Self Defense Forces...
GH: Was that the Scamp?
ReplyDeleteGlen,
ReplyDeleteNo, it was Dolphin.
Well, English is the international language of aviation.
ReplyDeleteI'll try to find out the finnish side.
ReplyDelete