Approach articles from April 2002

Approach archives from April 2002

Flying on goggles.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... As a nugget who had checked into the squadron just before SFARP and having finished Air Wing Fallon, I didn't feel intimidated by a night division, self-escort strike into Navy Dare. It was, however, the first time I had done a self-escort...

What's more dangerous?(airplane versus automobile accidents)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... Four hundred and fifty people died in 12 fatal U.S air-transport accidents from 1996 to 2000. Meanwhile, 209,117 people, including 30,189 pedestrians and bicyclists, died in 186,474 fatal traffic crashes. In 2000 alone, 37,409 crashes killed...

Smoke in the groove. (Cover Story).(aircraft problems while landing on an aircraft carrier)(Cover Story)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... It was October in the Arabian Sea. Unlike the two-hour Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) mission I'd flown previously during the dark, moonless night, this late morning, add-on day flight was a single-cycle hop and the final event for the day. I...

Why was I so trusting? (ORM Corner).
April 1, 2002... We were in the Northern Arabian Gulf, flying our daily, middle-of-the-night SSC and MIO mission. We arrived on station, identified the contacts in the area, reviewed the Hellfire checklist, and began our continuous-circle search for suspicious...

I want to be a Navy pilot.
April 1, 2002... By a fifth grader I want to be a Navy pilot when I grow up because it's fun and easy to do. Pilots don't need much school, they just have to learn numbers so they can read instruments. I guess they should be able to read maps so...

Below in headwork, above in luck.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... It was dark, 0100. I was wired, wide-awake and straight and level. I was in my rack as all Sea Sprite H2Ps should be. Lying there tossing and turning, I couldn't ignore the thought of my OinC complaining about how the HACs and H2Ps haven't...

Welcome to naval aviation.(flying in bad weather)(Cover Story)
April 1, 2002... I'd always heard the fleet stories from salty training-command instructors about how bad it can get flying around the ship, but I never believed it was much different from flying around the field. I always thought they were embellishing the...

Fire is not the training objective.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The flight was briefed as an SFWT BFM warm-up off the boat during a good-deal, one-hour cycle--a snapshot drill, a defensive, an offensive, and a high-aspect set. The weather was great; unfortunately, I was fighting one of the more skilled JOs....

Slip sl-i-ding away.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The crew had finished an EP-3 dispersal at Hill AFB, filled with training (also known as skiing on the 2002 Olympic slopes) and good night life. It was a Saturday morning and the airfield did not open until 10 a.m. We coordinated with...

The adventure was over. ( Cover Story).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... As I began the training track for my squadron XO-CO tour, I felt my aviation experience would hold up well to the challenges ahead. I had completed sea tours as a JO, FRS instructor, super JO, and department head, gathering experiences as an...

I can't believe we're actually doing this!(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... It was battle group work-ups and another long flight spent identifying orange forces near the southern tip of San Clemente Island. Launch was at 1700 for a day-into-night, 3.5-hour bag. We found the bad guys within the first 20 minutes. Our...

Emergency: seat-cushion removal.
April 1, 2002... I was six months through my nugget cruise as a PQM in the SH-60F and HH-60H. My HAC and I were scheduled for a mid-cycle, cold-go launch on a night plane-guard flight. We preflighted in the helo-hole before dark, and we sat in the aircraft...

Turboprop in afterburner.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... It was a cloudy day in the Papa areas off the coast of California. My E-2 crew just had finished a COMPTUEX combat search-and-rescue and battle-group air-defense (BGAD) mission. As the combat-information-center officer, I was in the back of the...

Radio relay. (Crew Resource Management).
April 1, 2002... It was a dark and stormy night [Only a frequent contributor like LtCol. DeHart gets away with an opening line like this.--Ed.] as we were being cleared for an approach into Texarcana. We descended through a thick layer of clouds. We...

Strange noises in the night.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... During COMPTUEX, our squadron sent a detachment to USS Thorn, a Spruance-class destroyer, to participate in an international ASW exercise and further efforts in HS- and HSL-integrated operations. As a new pilot with only six months in an...

It finally clicked!
April 1, 2002... We left North Island Naval Air Station on a night and NVD-requalification mission off of the Southern California and Mexican coast. The flight turned out to be anything but standard. Flying H-46s off San Diego is usually a relaxed event, the...

The day the docs walked (almost).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... They had reached the end of their surgical tubing... Had there been too much teasing? Aviators were caught off guard. Realizing the need for aerospace medicine, they quickly developed a new streamlined annual flight physical. ...

Ready room gouge.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminum going hundreds of miles per hour and the ground going zero mile per hour, the ground has yet to lose.