Approach articles from June 2001

Approach archives from June 2001

A Real Show-Stopper.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Instinctively I pushed the stick and then realized, with only one or two seconds before impact, this reaction wouldn't cut it. What a great deal! I was scheduled to fly what most strike-fighter pilots consider our best mission -- an...

Stupid Is as Stupid Does.(flying in extreme heat)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... For those of us lucky enough to have deployed to the Persian Gulf, we all know how monotonous life becomes. Especially when your ship is "swinging from the hook," waiting for the Marines to finish whatever exercise they happen to be doing...

This Approach Is Going To Be Perfect.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... His roll to final and approach angle looked good. At one mile out, he was right on the numbers. Thirty seconds later, he was a little high, so he reduced collective to get back on glide slope. At a half mile, his descent went through the glide...

Don't Touch the Money.
June 1, 2001... We had been doing everything right, but we still ended up all wrong. The way ahead was covered in fog. We had no communications with ATC, and both our helos had minimum fuel. How did we get in this predicament? Our mission had been to...

Out-thinking the System, Almost.(pilot troubleshooting problem aircraft)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... It was certain to be an easy flight. I had flown a half-dozen or so FCF charlie profiles in the past few months, and today's looked like a repeat of yesterday's. The maintainers had done some tweaking and adjusting on the flaps, which had not...

At Least I Wasn't the Only One Who Didn't Know Where I Was Going.
June 1, 2001... We had just heard a blow-by-blow account of an FA-18 pilot's ride in the nylon, following a night ejection during a JDAM strike into the Fallon Range Complex. He drove home the fact that an ejection from 35,000 feet on a dark winter's night...

SKATING ON THICK ICE.(flight school cross-countries)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... As everyone knows, one of the best things about flight school is the cross-countries. You get out of the local area, talk to different controlling agencies, and learn lessons you can't possibly learn close to home. I had no idea how much I...

STRAIGHT DOWN AT 610 KNOTS.(night flying)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Dark night, no moon no goggles--I don t recommended that you try this at home But as a first-tour pilot fresh out of the FRS, I couldn't wear night-vision goggles because it was too dark, and I didn't have my mean-starlight qualification yet...

Flying the Pointy-Nosed Glider.
June 1, 2001... We were just days away from a six-week RIMPAC exercise. As the operations officer, I was pushing to get all of the FCLPs out while maintaining a bit of tactical flying for myself before deployment. Our maintenance department was working hard to...

What Do You Mean, They Went Inadvertent IMC?(Instrument Meteorological Conditions)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... The title of this was my response when, as the unit safety officer, I heard that one of our crews had "punched in." Of all the times for it to happen, it occurred during a deployment to Bosnia, over mountainous terrain, and at night while...

Oh, So That's Why They Told Us a Hundred Times.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... We had no hope of getting out of the clouds without descending too low for our mission. One night, we were tasked with a triple-cycle, airborne early warning mission--lots of time to spend on station with no tasking. Just as we launched,...