You are right Tom. Most of it (the *hit) was created by my complacency. I had not followed the aircraft part of the program closely. I was into the armament.I was haphazard in my walk around because I failed to notice the two different launcher configurations. I did not do detailed questioning of the flight test engineer and he did not do a detailed briefing, assuming that I knew the pilot part of the project. Most of all I ASSUMED it was just another weapons system. All of that combined put me in that situation. I think the Bell guys were making the same assumptions too but they had benefit of knowing the speed restrictions.
Anyway, That kind of stuff never happened to me again. It made a real professional out me.
Salute
BT