Navy Fighter Pilot Brain Injury Study - Fighter Pilots Review

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Mover, Casmo, and Gonky cover a study the Navy is conducting that may link long-term brain damage to tactical jet flying. Does flying fast jets cause brain damage?

What do you think? The forces on the body can't be good? Naval Aviators should stop whining and suck it up? Have we finally found out what's wrong with Gonky? Share your comments below!!

Every Monday at 8PM ET, Mover (F-16, F/A-18, T-38, 737, helicopter pilot, author, cop, and wanna be race car driver) and Gonky (F/A-18, T-38, A320, dirt bike racer, author, and awesome dad) discuss everything from aviation to racing to life and anything in between.

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[CallsignEskimo-lo]

There are a pool of USAF pilots who would have performed the same manoeuvres, except for the cat shots and traps, as the naval aviators. So the next study would be to compare the two and determine whether there is a difference.

[travisbuscholl]

Brain trama is no joke. Very serious. I know I played 22 years of hockey. I'm 46, and I'm starting to have problems.

[michaeldehart]

You men and women that step forward and say, "send me, I'll go" endure so much. Whether it is fighter pilot, airborne, infantry, artillery, you all put your bodies through so much. The VA should be more aware and in tune with reality and get all the bureaucratic BS out of your care. It ain't all glam and glory, is it?!! Thank you gentlemen. I'd love to shake your hand.

[KGSpradleyAuthor]

The FAA grounded 5k pilots last year for going to the VA. I was one of them. I got my medical back but some people lost there jobs because of paperwork issues, etc. I would encourage your groups to ask the FAA to update the process. In the middle of a pilot shortage to boot.

[AnonymousMontanan]

There are a lot of military jobs that are hard on the body. Anything in Combat Arms for instance

[CentralStateMower]

It would be interesting to compare long term data from Navy Fighter pilots and Navy E2/C2 pilots who also do cat shots/traps to see if there is a trend.

[Member]

The Army has started to do research on the relationship between brain injury and repetitive concussive forces from artillery fire. There are lots of things that can cause brain injury to different degrees. The tough part is how do you determine what caused what and to what severity. It's not easy to study these things at all since they can have such varying effects and can be compounded by other things as well.

[gregorymaupin]

Let’s be real about the VA I’ve needed a hip surgery and I’m finally getting to see the surgeon seven months later, now they’ve connected that to an accident I had in the service that required surgery on my pelvis. Not only that I have had multiple TBIs in the service and it took me almost dying for them to connect my TBIs to get connected.

[renshangarailshipyard-pitstop]

In F1 the HANS (Head and Neck Support) device is a safety system designed to protect drivers from serious head and neck injuries in the event of a crash.
I remember we had a Naval Aviator jump from a bridge in Portugal, RIP. At the time he was a Commander working as a Staff Officer.

[ryanfitz]

Had a pilot in my command who was barely flying for months turns out he was having serious neck issues from flying he ended up getting out not long after because of it. Also doesn’t help that the JHMCS isn’t the lightest thing to be squeezed down on ur head under G.

[shawn]

I’ve often wonder about the back seaters getting knocked around without warning.

I mean, the driver knows when the stick is about to be yanked.


And I’m sure Gonky ‘s one wire tire popping landings don’t help

[Therav]

Boxing racing football there should be a heap of info at this point.

[SavageTactical]

They should do a corresponding study with the Air Force.

[bmwlane]

I've read some articles that states Suicide rates from military personnel are about the same as the civilian population. In fact 1 study showed in the army that a lot of the suicides were from non combat personnel. It's a sad situation either way.

[donkeymarco]

A F1 car at Monza circuit (Italy) in 2018 had an average G value while braking of -5.6 g for the 9.9 seconds of total time braking per lap.
The peak was before "parabolica" bend with -6.7 g peak in the 1.22 seconds braking, with maximum pushe by driver of 211 kg (465 lbs) on broken pedal.
F1 driver modulate push on brake while braking.
The circuit now changed a little bit as well as cars. Now values are a little bit lower.

[ljthirtyfiver]

Used to wanna be a fighter pilot ….but only on the A-10 . But I’m sure the brain bleed and neck strain is worth it on the F-18

[dmac]

One major topic of research into traumas has been lower level trauma which occurs over a long period of time but doesn't result in concussion or apparent injury. Football players have been studied for this. Its not only from the concussions from a few big hits, its the continual reoccurring pounding they take on the field from high school until they retire from the sport. I would imagine experiencing several hundred launches and landings and being subjected to high G maneuvers over a long period of time could have a similar effect.
I could also see confounding factors present in military life like stress contributing to it.

[TheRealCFF]

Just a question on this: have similar problems been observed in civilian pilots, engaged in competitive aerobatic flying or airshow demonstration flying? That is considerably more violent than cat shots and traps or positive G ‘gentleman’s aerobatics’ involved with BFM.

[verifyingyouarehuman]

This caught my attention. Very interesting and informative. Research on this topic could benefit studies in artificially intelligent programs designed to assist people with brain damage. I think this is a very worthy cause. Respect to the lady Doctor who is getting this out there. Very inspiring.

[sharizabel]

The Air Force is seeing issues with fighter pilot bodies and brains. They just aren’t being public about it. For instance I had to see the chiropractor at USAFA on a hip issue. I has near the end of a 20 year career. He said my issue was due to pulling Gs and eventually the hip would need to be replaced. He said the Air Force is replacing many fighter pilot hips due to damage from Gs.