I was talking to a Naval Aviator (they're like flys around these parts) and being a former Army Aviator we of course digressed as any Army-Navy discussion goes.  Anyway, to make a long story short, Navy referred to some of the things we did (i.e. the way we fly in our helicopters) as "flat-hatting."  I took it to mean something similar to "hot-dogging", etc.  Well, of course I wasn't going to ask him what it meant.  I'd rather be taught "Squid Talk" from my ex-wife (Navy nurse) before I ask a Naval Aviator what something means.  So NAVY, enlighten me.  What is "Flat-hatting" and where does the term come from?  

Ross

Flying too low.

Hrmmm, no such thing as tooo low in a helicopter. Caertainly not if there are bad guys around.


Aviator [img]www.dredgeearthfirst.com/aviator.gif[/img]

Doesn't anyone remember seeing this
term used over and over
again by the media after
A Marine pilot cut that gondola cable?

Too low, too fast
or reckless.

Well thanks.  I knew I could rely on someone here to give me a definition.  As Aviator pointed out, for us there really wasn't a "too low".  Usually for us "too high" was bad.  Normally fast movers would stay above 300ft and we'd stay  WELL BELOW that (since the fast movers always got lower than 300ft anyway, especially those A-10 guys)

Anybody know where the term came from?  This really isn't as important, as most Navy terms seem to stem from some strange dialect anyway.  

Thanks,
Ross

In Germany, Federal Republic of... we were required to train flying UNDER the high voltage power lines there. If you even popped up above them somtimes in that area there was a chance of getting run down by an A10 or Tornado. of course we would slow way down when we crossed.


Aviator [img]www.dredgeearthfirst.com/aviator.gif[/img]

During REFORGER 87 I was almost "run over" by an RAF Harrier.  I was busily getting behind one of those big powerline towers for protection while reminding my Crew Chief to, "Find his wingman!"  

Kinda like sleeping in the field.  Always sleep near a tree so you don't get squashed by a tank.

Ross

Heh Yeah, when you see one, there is most likely another one. I was over doing the Reforger thing in 87 from Ft hood. 1st Cav. 227th Avn.

Aviator [img]www.dredgeearthfirst.com/aviator.gif[/img]

[url]http://www.fayettevilleobserver.com/news/archives/1999/tx99mar/e08t1bxx.htm[/url]

"During the trial, jurors deciding the fate of a Marine pilot heard of a map that did not denote the location of a gondola. They heard testimony of how an altitude gauge in the EA-6B Prowler was inaccurate, and had been reported as malfunctioning by other pilots during previous flights.
They heard testimony that the pilot might, or might not, have had a reputation for ‘‘flat-hatting’’ [u][b]-- a Marine term that loosely translates as taking risks unnecessarily just to show off.[/b][/u]

They heard how the pilot was most certainly going too fast, and was flying 1,630 feet below the 2,000-foot altitude restriction.

They also heard that the pilot had assuredly not been given all of the maps and other information he should have been given before setting out to make a low-level training flight in the Italian Alps.

It appears on that last evidence, jurors acquitted Capt. Richard Ashby of involuntary manslaughter.

But whatever evidence the jury heard, the families of the 20 people who fell to their deaths seem to have heard that evidence differently.

They do not believe that justice was done in Camp Lejeune, N.C. They think, as the prosecutor argued, that even if the pilot did not know the gondola was there, he could have looked at the houses below him to realize he was but 370 feet in the air.

The pilot and the crew are the only ones who know for an absolute certainty what happened the day a low-flying Prowler sliced through a cable and sent 20 people plunging......."

Dude! I was in F/227 and later E/227 during that same time frame (86-89).  I went to Reforger 87 with you!  Small world!

Ross

Interesting lingo.  I think every field has it and to nonparticipants it sound weird.  My buddy told me about "thumping" that the Chinese and Russian pilots would do to their planes when they were on recon patrols.  I guess thats what the Chinese pilot was doing to the P3 when it hit.