Approach articles from March 2006

Approach archives from March 2006

Self-inflicted punishment.(Admiral's Corner: From Commander, Naval Safety Center)(Editorial)
March 1, 2006... I will admit that I've done some boneheaded things in my life, and, each time, I looked back at the situation in disbelief and asked why. Maybe I made a bad decision during a flight, or maybe it was a bad decision on the commute home from the...

Transforming Naval Aviation: it's essential that future leaders of Naval Aviation understand the whole process.(Cover story)
March 1, 2006... We present below part of the interview that will be of interest to the readership of Approach. Included are comments from PR2 (AW/SW) Jason Moore of AIMD North Island on changes he has seen. Some readers may already be aware of the changes...

The initial approach fix.(FY06 )
March 1, 2006... How Are We Doing? Every flight requires an untold number of decisions and actions to get the mission done and return home. That's just the way it is: a complex aircraft manned by highly trained professionals getting the job done. And we're...

What do you mean, it didn't go out?
March 1, 2006... I remembered thinking, "It doesn't get much better than this." We were scheduled for an eight-hour, banker's-hours flight off the coast of Central America. Generally, every event is a zero-dark-30 (middle-of-the-night) preflight and launch...

Barry gets schooled: my past came back to haunt me.(hazreps and hazardous materials)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... I was sitting in the system-safety-working group (SSWG) for the E-2/C-2 program, thinking this was another conference where we come up with a wish list that will never see the light of day. "COD community, we need more hazreps and...

Sins of the father.
March 1, 2006... While in the FRS in 1995, I was riding in the back of a C-2 as a student during an FCLP hop when I heard a loud noise. It sounded like something striking the side of the fuselage. I notified the aircraft commander on ICS and was surprised when...

Preventing Runway Incursions: NSC has the Ultimate Guide.(Naval Safety Center)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... The Ultimate Guide to Runway Incursion Prevention is now available from the Naval Safety Center (NSC). Developed by our aviation directorate, this guide is available in CD-ROM format or on the NSC website. Runway incursions are the No. 1...

Bravo Zulu.
March 1, 2006... HMLA-169 Event 1 Misfit 21 and 22, a section of HMLA-169 AH-1W Cobras, in support of Operation Phantom Fury/Al-Fajr, launched for their fourth sortie of the day at 1428. The section already had completed missions spanning many of the...

Out of the heat and into the fire.
March 1, 2006... Within two weeks of my return from a six-month TAD to CentCom as an individual augment, I became the squadron safety officer. I was integrating myself back into squadron life, getting current in the aircraft, and settling into my new job. ...

Dude, where's my jet?
March 1, 2006... I walked to my jet for a night training flight. Our squadron was eight days from departing on cruise, so the schedule was full of training flights. Earlier in the day, I had completed my level II, 2 v 1, air-combat-maneuvering (ACM) syllabus...

Belly up in Corpus.(Naval Air Station Corpus Christi )
March 1, 2006... As I drove onto Naval Air Station Corpus Christi on a warm August morning, I knew I was about to have a one-of-a-kind aviation experience. You see, I was about to embark on my airnav solo with a fellow flight student. I was relaxed and at ease...

As the rotors turn.
March 1, 2006... We were operating from a cruiser in the Yellow Sea in the middle for a dark night--and I don't mean just any ordinary dark night. As we eventually would learn, we were within 200 yards of the ship (as reported by the ASTAC), with the crew...

Out last HH-65A flight.
March 1, 2006... We were enjoying another cool, summer night in Humboldt County, Calif., with surprisingly good visibility and clear skies. The air station just had completed the transition to the bravo model of the HH-65 but still had the last alpha model in...

Crew Resource Management: a crash course.
March 1, 2006... I taxied to cat 3 to be launched on a five-hour Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) mission. We were more than three months into cruise and had been flying OIF missions for a month. What was about to transpire would not be a typical OIF sortie. I was...

Back pain in the rotary-wing community.
March 1, 2006... Eliminate or reduce back pain and you get: 1. Decreased time lost from work 2. Increased combat readiness 3. Decreased attrition rates, based on chronic pain and injury 4. Decreased healthcare costs 5. Overall improvement...