Approach articles from March 2003

Approach archives from March 2003

Bad day for the Prowler. .
March 1, 2003... Day one of WestPac 2002. I was beginning my second cruise on board USS Abraham Lincoln during my first tour with the Cougars of VAQ-139. Throughout my first two years in the EA-6B community, I had experienced a long list of emergencies around...

Be careful what you say.(flight instruction training)
March 1, 2003... During my tour as a flight instructor, training NFOs on the finer points of the T-34C and navigation, I found myself sitting at the hold-short and going through the engine run-up checklist. My student was in the front seat, on his third hop in...

This is no place to be.(Tomcat aircraft mishap avoided by diverson to Scott Air Force Base)
March 1, 2003... The title of this story ran through my mind while our flight of nine Tomcats were low on gas, in marginal weather, and looking for a place to land. The hair on the back of my neck stood up with good reason. Several links in the chain led to...

Way too ahead of the airplane.(flying without clearance for takeoff)
March 1, 2003... We were set to return home to Pt. Mugu for a long weekend, after winding up a detachment in Fallon. We would be flying our DCAG, a former A-6 BN, to NAS Lemoore on an E-2C fam flight, then would press on to Mugu. Normally, the E-2 flies with...

Who needs gas anyway?
March 1, 2003... We had been on station in the Gulf for about two months, and the daily grind was a little like "Groundhog Day." I was the lead of a two-plane of Hornets, scheduled for a daytime double-cycle patrol over the no-fly zone in southern Iraq. We had...

Am I in the simulator, or what?
March 1, 2003... We just had inchopped to the Fifth Fleet area of operations on Sept. 11, one year after the terrorist attacks against our country. It was our fifth day of flying in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. We were getting comfortable with the...

Something just doesn't feel right.(loss of engine during flight)
March 1, 2003... It was a not-so-gorgeous winter day in Atsugi, Japan, with a solid overcast from 2,500 to 8,000 feet, and multiple layers above that. The visibility was restricted to about one and a half miles, and the freezing level was at 2,000 feet. I was...

Seahawk in afterburner.
March 1, 2003... It was 0720, Feb. 7, 1994, my second underway period as a relatively new H2P. Our LAMPS detachment just had completed six weeks of flight-intensive Haitian operations, and I felt comfortable flying the mighty Seahawk around our FFG. The weather...

Naval Air Station San Diego, Cal.
March 1, 2003... LCdr. Steve Gozzo sent this letter to Approach. His great uncle, RAdm. John J. Lynch, wrote it while a NAVCAD at North Island. RAdm. Lynch later flew SDBs in World War II and received the Navy Cross for his actions in the Battle of Midway....

No-HUD nugget.(head up display)(troubleshooting instead of flying)
March 1, 2003... Blue water in the South China Sea--last launch of the night, and the ship was steaming in a driving rainstorm. The cloud bottoms started at 2,000 feet, and there were layers upon layers through FL300; it was very dark. I was one month out of...

New programs that actually work. (CRM ORM Corner).(crew resource management)(operational risk management)
March 1, 2003... I somewhat resist change, and I cringe when an old program claims to be new and improved, simply by taking on a new name or acronym. Even worse is when a new policy or leadership style is thrust upon me for my own good. These days in the Navy,...

To pee, or not to pee ... Female aviators face a dilemma.
March 1, 2003... Operation Enduring Freedom brought with it the challenge of long flights. Extended flights pushed the limit of crew-day-and-rest issues for Navy and Air Force aircrews. Many of our flights were six hours long, with some reaching nine hours. ...

The uneventful trip.(medical evacuation during bad weather)
March 1, 2003... While our squadron was deployed to Diego Garcia, one of our many missions was the primary medical-evacuation platform for personnel at that remote location. We already had conducted 13 medevacs in the first three months of deployment, so the...