>Any aerospace engineer could credibly comment on the avionics.
This is central to the claim about the airworthiness of the aircraft. (And FWIW, aerospace engineer is generally not the same as someone who works on, or designs, avionics. The latter are typically more aligned with electrical engineering.)
>no one aside from another military pilot could judge the totality of that military pilot's judgment on that day.
I think this is being needlessly constrained. I would take the opinion of someone familiar with the specific comm/nav avionics of the F35 than, say, a military pilot that has never flown that airframe. I may even prefer an avionics tech’s opinion over that of the pilot, depending on the pilots technical knowledge. Given what we know about human psychology and memory, I don't even know if that specific pilot can give the most accurate representation of what was going on in the cockpit. A pilot can give great insight into crossing aspects, like human factors engineering, but they are not always the best at understanding the full system. It’s like when you talk to a high-level race car driver and find out they don’t actually know much about automotive engineering; sometimes their job doesn’t actually require that to perform at a high level.
I do agree with your overall sentiment though. All it takes is coming across a HN thread about something you're actually well-versed in to understand these types of forums are saturated with comments with more confidence than sense.
Truth re: incident recall of the pilot. It's amazing how memory become highly selective on certain details and "blind" to others during flight or fight.
You learn that "the hard way" during even basic private pilot training. Black boxes are essential.
You're also correct on an EE background for avionics. Ask me how I know. ;)
This is central to the claim about the airworthiness of the aircraft. (And FWIW, aerospace engineer is generally not the same as someone who works on, or designs, avionics. The latter are typically more aligned with electrical engineering.)
>no one aside from another military pilot could judge the totality of that military pilot's judgment on that day.
I think this is being needlessly constrained. I would take the opinion of someone familiar with the specific comm/nav avionics of the F35 than, say, a military pilot that has never flown that airframe. I may even prefer an avionics tech’s opinion over that of the pilot, depending on the pilots technical knowledge. Given what we know about human psychology and memory, I don't even know if that specific pilot can give the most accurate representation of what was going on in the cockpit. A pilot can give great insight into crossing aspects, like human factors engineering, but they are not always the best at understanding the full system. It’s like when you talk to a high-level race car driver and find out they don’t actually know much about automotive engineering; sometimes their job doesn’t actually require that to perform at a high level.
I do agree with your overall sentiment though. All it takes is coming across a HN thread about something you're actually well-versed in to understand these types of forums are saturated with comments with more confidence than sense.