Sounds to me like he lost his nerve.

A 'hard landing' can total a $2-million airplane. They busted him outta flying for pan-caking a couple of airplanes, I'd bet real money on it.
What role the drugs played--prior or post--would be a fascinating disquisition.

A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner

Bush didn't take a medical exam he was legally mandated and officially ordered to take, and, IIRC, that's when he basically dropped out and didn't fulfill his remainimg obligations.

Oddly, or not, the Air Force had added drug tests to the exam, for the first time, before Bush refused to take it.

This is 2007; the story was 2003-4; I need to timeline, though I believe there are links to some in the updates here.

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

"Whether he crashed or not, he was moved out of the “combat ready” category as a pilot, first into a training aircraft, then into the second seat of a training aircraft, and finally into a simulator."

After which, as we all know, he deserted. Sarah, that's the most damning sentence about The Chimp I've ever read.
Have you ever hung around fighter jocks?
Crazy, brave, stupid, trainable, mostly unreflective, fatalistic...one some level, they really are the epitome of macho maleness.
And The Chimp flunked out. Among the folks to whom that matters, that matters a LOT.
He lost his nerve, and 'they'--the guys he thought he belonged among--washed him out.
The way he struts, and poses, he's saying, "Okay, you fuckers, who's the fighter-pilot NOW? Hunh? Yeah! That's Right..."
This whole travesty may just be an elaborate enactment of his fantasy about getting his 'wings' back...
bad movie

A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner

when it was near the top of the line in high-altitude interceptors.
i've seen 'em launch. they went from the deck to over 50k feet in mere minutes. climbed like rockets. they were designed to go after strategic bombers.

A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner

Oddly, or not, the Air Force had added drug tests to the exam, for the first time, before Bush refused to take it.

It was interesting: the brass really started cracking down on drugs and drink in inverse proportion to the number of troops who were being pulled OUT of Nam at the time. '72 the end of the big draw-down, almost all the ground troops were out by the end of the year. Then it became almost exclusively (for us, anyway) an air war. But they didn't put drug testing into the regimen until '72, when the huge majority of the troops were home and civilians.

A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner

"That's the most damning sentence ...." thanks, Woody. I meant it to be. You have no idea of the viscerality with which I loathe, despise, and want to see him jailed for wasting a fighter jock slot. Then he had the gall to desert, completely, in a time of war.

Good grief, Woody -- I wanted to BE a fighter jock for 20 years. Even when Uncle Sam said my eyes wouldn't cut it, I still wanted to be a back-seater. Busted my shiny white little yes in any job they'd find for me to get into the Palace Chase program (Then tore up both knees and got cross-trained to a civilian, but that's another story) so I could go to navigator school.

Fatalistic? Damn straight. When I was young, and single, it made all the sense in the world to me that I was more expendable than an experienced officer with a wife and kids.

All gonna die someday, might as well have some fun on the way; and, with a very few notable exceptions like Pappy Boyington, if everything goes waytoowrong all at once in a fighter, you won't likely live to do the paperwork.

(Bringiton, where are you when I need you?)

Trainable? Hell, I can still learn anything, and next week I'll be so close to 50 it's not funny. Trainable's not just my middle name, it's the damn stamp on my ID.

The macho-est of males? Um, yes. Even the females. :D
Ask me about my motorcycle. :D Ask me about my pickup. :D

Crazy? Sure. I mean, how else you gonna be, when upside-down is a concept that just means you reach up for the cookie you dropped from your inflight sack lunch, 'stead of down?

Brave? Dude. There are no non-military fighter jocks. There are no fighter planes built except by the lowest bidder. It's, like, what's the duh factor here?

Stupid? Arguably, I guess. After all, I never made several million $$ from Amway or real estate or the lottery (mostly 'cause except selling a house and farm to settle my parents' estate, and buying one lottery ticket once, I never tried).

Mostly unreflective? Hmm. Maybe I don't fit that.

We can admit that we're killers ... but we're not going to kill today. That's all it takes! Knowing that we're not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0

a question of balance. i dint have the answer...
i loved the zoomies, though.

A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner

I've thought for a long time that SOMETHING happened to scare Bush out of the cockpit. That he's a physical coward is pretty evident. Heck, a guy afraid to get on a horse would probably have some severe problems climbing into a cockpit after a bad day at the office.