Most Puckered Instrument Approach
02-06-2011 | 05:35 PM
#11
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Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 361
Likes: 1
single engine ILS to minnies in a DC3 freighter into Clarksburg,West Virginia after my no 1 engine explosively ate a jug. Everything else in range was below minimums, and freezing rain was getting ready to move into the area. It wasn't a trap, but it had my full attention.
Let me guess.....
....you broke out at minimums
02-06-2011 | 05:41 PM
#12
Moderate Moderator
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 5,681
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From: Curator at Static Display
Batman, Turkey
Northern No-Fly, and get a fire light just before I got to the ingress Tanker. Checklist makes me shut it down, even though I am confident it is a false light (F-4 had quite a few of them).
Squadron Commander is on my wing; he knows the checklist says "Land as soon as possible." I wanted to go back to Incirlik (about 50 minutes; VFR). He says no, you're going to the closest...Batman."
Batman (real spelling and pronunciation) is in Eastern Turkey, and the center of the rebelion between indigenous Turks, and the Kurds.
Weather is about 600 ft; 1-2 miles in rain. Hilly; big mountains are a short distance east of there. Only approach is a TACAN, or an ASR.
So, against my judgment, I am forced into the approach. I contact their "approach control," get bounced to another freq for the ASR. The channel is bad, and it would have been tough with someone who spoke english, but this guy was babbling in something I'm not even sure was Turkish.
At this point, it is obvious that "ATC," if it can be called that, is going to hinder, not help. We try to find the approach plate for the TACAN.
We do, and dial it up. Get a feeble lock, and start out towards final. The Boss' insistence on landing at Batman, and the ASR fiasco, has cost a lot of time and gas....I'm running out of options; I can't make Incirklik any more.
It gets better: the TACAN is intermittent. About 69% of the time, off-air. And it isn't pointing where the INS says the airport and the TACAN are.
My backseater laughs and says "Too bad we can't shoot a HARM at their radar antenna..we have Range Quality 1 on it!!" RQ-1 meant an extrememly high positional accuracy of location on the Radar Warning Receiver, which in the F-4G was the APR-47.
I looked at my RWR scope, saw what he said, and put it on the nose. Using their airport radar and my RWR scope as a "navaid," I had to make my instrument scan RWR-HSI-Airspeed-Altitude.....
Well, it worked, but it was that, or nothing.
The story is even funnier when we were taken to their control tower, and there were (I am not making this up) goats, chickens, and rabbits foraging around the base of the tower, or the tower controller who proudly told me "I am married to my cousin!!", or the enlisted guys who said we could not have a beer on base, but gave us all the whiskey we could drink.
But that's for another time.
Squadron Commander is on my wing; he knows the checklist says "Land as soon as possible." I wanted to go back to Incirlik (about 50 minutes; VFR). He says no, you're going to the closest...Batman."
Batman (real spelling and pronunciation) is in Eastern Turkey, and the center of the rebelion between indigenous Turks, and the Kurds.
Weather is about 600 ft; 1-2 miles in rain. Hilly; big mountains are a short distance east of there. Only approach is a TACAN, or an ASR.
So, against my judgment, I am forced into the approach. I contact their "approach control," get bounced to another freq for the ASR. The channel is bad, and it would have been tough with someone who spoke english, but this guy was babbling in something I'm not even sure was Turkish.
At this point, it is obvious that "ATC," if it can be called that, is going to hinder, not help. We try to find the approach plate for the TACAN.
We do, and dial it up. Get a feeble lock, and start out towards final. The Boss' insistence on landing at Batman, and the ASR fiasco, has cost a lot of time and gas....I'm running out of options; I can't make Incirklik any more.
It gets better: the TACAN is intermittent. About 69% of the time, off-air. And it isn't pointing where the INS says the airport and the TACAN are.
My backseater laughs and says "Too bad we can't shoot a HARM at their radar antenna..we have Range Quality 1 on it!!" RQ-1 meant an extrememly high positional accuracy of location on the Radar Warning Receiver, which in the F-4G was the APR-47.
I looked at my RWR scope, saw what he said, and put it on the nose. Using their airport radar and my RWR scope as a "navaid," I had to make my instrument scan RWR-HSI-Airspeed-Altitude.....
Well, it worked, but it was that, or nothing.
The story is even funnier when we were taken to their control tower, and there were (I am not making this up) goats, chickens, and rabbits foraging around the base of the tower, or the tower controller who proudly told me "I am married to my cousin!!", or the enlisted guys who said we could not have a beer on base, but gave us all the whiskey we could drink.
But that's for another time.
02-06-2011 | 06:31 PM
#13
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Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 4,196
Likes: 51
From: Legacy FO
Northern No-Fly, and get a fire light just before I got to the ingress Tanker. Checklist makes me shut it down, even though I am confident it is a false light (F-4 had quite a few of them).
Squadron Commander is on my wing; he know the checklist says "Land as soon as possible." I wanted to go back to Incirlik (about 50 minutes; VFR). He says no, you're going to the closest...Batman."
Batman (real spelling and pronunciation) is in Eastern Turkey, and the center of the rebelion between indigenous Turks, and the Kurds.
Weather is about 600 ft; 1-2 miles in rain. Hilly; big mountains are a short distance east of there. Only approach is a TACAN, or an ASR.
So, against my judgment, I am forced into the approach. I contact their "approach control," get bounced to another freq for the ASR. The channel is bad, and it would have been tough with someone who spoke english, but this guy was babbling in something I'm not even sure was Turkish.
At this point, it is obvious that "ATC," if it can be called that, is going to hinder, not help. We try to find the approach plate for the TACAN.
We do, and dial it up. Get a feeble lock, and start out towards final. The Boss' insistence on landing at Batman, and the ASR fiasco, has cost a lot of time and gas....I'm running out of options; I can't make Incirklik any more.
It gets better: the TACAN is intermittent. About 69% of the time, off-air. And it isn't pointing where the INS says the airport and the TACAN are.
My backseater laughs and says "Too bad we can't shoot a HARM at their radar antenna..we have Range Quality 1 on it!!" RQ-1 meant an extrememly high positional accuracy of location on the Radar Warning Receiver, which in the F-4G was the APR-47.
I looked at my RWR scope, saw what he said, and put it on the nose. Using their airport radar and my RWR scope as a "navaid," I had to make my instrument scan RWR-HSI-Airspeed-Altitude.....
Well, it worked, but it was that, or nothing.
The story is even funnier when we were taken to their control tower, and there were (I am not making this up) goats, chickens, and rabbits foraging around the base of the tower, or the tower controller who proudly told me "I am married to my cousin!!", or the enlisted guys who said we could not have a beer on base, but gave us all the whiskey we could drink.
But that's for another time.
Squadron Commander is on my wing; he know the checklist says "Land as soon as possible." I wanted to go back to Incirlik (about 50 minutes; VFR). He says no, you're going to the closest...Batman."
Batman (real spelling and pronunciation) is in Eastern Turkey, and the center of the rebelion between indigenous Turks, and the Kurds.
Weather is about 600 ft; 1-2 miles in rain. Hilly; big mountains are a short distance east of there. Only approach is a TACAN, or an ASR.
So, against my judgment, I am forced into the approach. I contact their "approach control," get bounced to another freq for the ASR. The channel is bad, and it would have been tough with someone who spoke english, but this guy was babbling in something I'm not even sure was Turkish.
At this point, it is obvious that "ATC," if it can be called that, is going to hinder, not help. We try to find the approach plate for the TACAN.
We do, and dial it up. Get a feeble lock, and start out towards final. The Boss' insistence on landing at Batman, and the ASR fiasco, has cost a lot of time and gas....I'm running out of options; I can't make Incirklik any more.
It gets better: the TACAN is intermittent. About 69% of the time, off-air. And it isn't pointing where the INS says the airport and the TACAN are.
My backseater laughs and says "Too bad we can't shoot a HARM at their radar antenna..we have Range Quality 1 on it!!" RQ-1 meant an extrememly high positional accuracy of location on the Radar Warning Receiver, which in the F-4G was the APR-47.
I looked at my RWR scope, saw what he said, and put it on the nose. Using their airport radar and my RWR scope as a "navaid," I had to make my instrument scan RWR-HSI-Airspeed-Altitude.....
Well, it worked, but it was that, or nothing.
The story is even funnier when we were taken to their control tower, and there were (I am not making this up) goats, chickens, and rabbits foraging around the base of the tower, or the tower controller who proudly told me "I am married to my cousin!!", or the enlisted guys who said we could not have a beer on base, but gave us all the whiskey we could drink.
But that's for another time.
02-06-2011 | 07:16 PM
#14
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 13,843
Likes: 1
From: FAA 'Flight Check'
Not a carrier landing, but did a couple of tactical approaches in a KC10 in Afghanistan to fields that required defensive systems, day time, mountainous terrain, 100+ temps, high altitude, 1 four star and 32 one stars onboard. Just inside a mile from the field, we hit our target glideslope and Vref. I looked down and noticed the TAS was 184 knots, it felt like a Space Shuttle approach. Thank God I started the flare at 100 feet AGL or I would have broke the damn thing in half.
Speaking of carrier approaches, one of the best carrier landing visuals I've seen in video comes from the Navy Pump It Video ... reference 4mins 14sec.
YouTube - Navy Carrier Squadron "Pump It"
Speaking of carrier approaches, one of the best carrier landing visuals I've seen in video comes from the Navy Pump It Video ... reference 4mins 14sec.
YouTube - Navy Carrier Squadron "Pump It"
YouTube - Navy Carrier Squadrons "Move Along"
Reference approx times 1:45-2:05
(and this is good weather and vis
- at least from what I have heard!)Btw - one of mine was riding the lower safe limit (now know as the Curosr B
) PAR into Osan AB, South Korea. Whew! USMCFLYR
02-06-2011 | 07:39 PM
#15
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 593
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From: Left Seat, Toyota Tacoma
Heavy weight hand flown CAT II ILS with a lost hydraulic system, fuel dump inop, pitch trim inop, an inop aileron, 1/2 normal rudder authority, and 1/2 normal spoilers. Crosswinds were out of limits due to our flight control issues. Seriously... I have never seen so many warning lights and error messages prior to this approach. Copilot asked me what checklist I wanted to run first, and my answer was "Gear down, before landing checklist." I wasn't about to wait for something else to break.
02-07-2011 | 04:16 AM
#16
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 2,100
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From: C47 PIC/747-400 SIC
actually,100 feet above,it worked out better than i had hoped,wx was reported right at minnies,and we didn't pick up any ice on the approach,though the freezing rain moved in after we landed and our boys up north had to wait 2 days before they could fly in and rescue/fix us.God is good to us !!!
02-07-2011 | 07:04 AM
#17
Moderate Moderator
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 5,681
Likes: 0
From: Curator at Static Display
Not a carrier landing, but did a couple of tactical approaches in a KC10 in Afghanistan to fields that required defensive systems, day time, mountainous terrain, 100+ temps, high altitude, 1 four star and 32 one stars onboard. Just inside a mile from the field, we hit our target glideslope and Vref. I looked down and noticed the TAS was 184 knots, it felt like a Space Shuttle approach. Thank God I started the flare at 100 feet AGL or I would have broke the damn thing in half.
Sounds like a quote from the sci-fi classic, 2001: "My God; it's full of stars!"
When you said 184 TAS: I was in the 747-400 doing an approach into Hong Kong during a typhoon, where we were flying 184 indicated on final....
Riddler, what were you flying when you were coming in on "a half-wing and a prayer?"
02-07-2011 | 10:06 AM
#18
Line Holder
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 810
Likes: 0
From: 747 Captain (Ret,)
That's a good story, too. I've never heard of one airplane having that many generals aboard.
Sounds like a quote from the sci-fi classic, 2001: "My God; it's full of stars!"
When you said 184 TAS: I was in the 747-400 doing an approach into Hong Kong during a typhoon, where we were flying 184 indicated on final....
Riddler, what were you flying when you were coming in on "a half-wing and a prayer?"
Sounds like a quote from the sci-fi classic, 2001: "My God; it's full of stars!"
When you said 184 TAS: I was in the 747-400 doing an approach into Hong Kong during a typhoon, where we were flying 184 indicated on final....
Riddler, what were you flying when you were coming in on "a half-wing and a prayer?"
That speed sounds about right. I just wish there were some way to shut off that pesky WINDSHEAR, WINDSHEAR warning when landing in typhoons.
Joe
02-07-2011 | 08:05 PM
#20
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,899
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From: Leftof longitudinal
Carrier landing, first cruise, but a reverse. Had only flown Case III instrument approaches (equivalent of straight in ILS, talk on radios) all cruise, somehow Skipper liked me flying nights or crappy wx day flying only. 5 months into cruise, had the scariest approach.
The setup? day time, clear and a million, calm sea state, regular overhead, oval pattern approach, over the boat, a standard Case I Zip Lip (no radios)
Holy crap! Realized I hadn't flown a visual approach to mom (boat) and was screwing up everything with a pattern full of birds! the interval, the distance abeam, groove length...... Intense pucker factor, was glad to get back to night carrier, no moon, instrument approach straight in landings for the short time left on cruise after that sweat dripping approach <g>
The setup? day time, clear and a million, calm sea state, regular overhead, oval pattern approach, over the boat, a standard Case I Zip Lip (no radios)
Holy crap! Realized I hadn't flown a visual approach to mom (boat) and was screwing up everything with a pattern full of birds! the interval, the distance abeam, groove length...... Intense pucker factor, was glad to get back to night carrier, no moon, instrument approach straight in landings for the short time left on cruise after that sweat dripping approach <g>
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