PAR Radar approaches for Earl

[Wolfala]

Earl,

I was training a couple of guys a few weeks ago on how we did things in the bad old days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoJhT2gTW84

I figured this would bring back some memories for you. We spent about 5 days down in New Orleans and Gulfport MS getting every military controller current on PAR and ASR approaches.

[earl1937]

Earl,

I was training a couple of guys a few weeks ago on how we did things in the bad old days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoJhT2gTW84

I figured this would bring back some memories for you. We spent about 5 days down in New Orleans and Gulfport MS getting every military controller current on PAR and ASR approaches.

Good video! Sound was a little lacking about midway of the video, was hard to understand the lady controller, but overall a good video! that certainly does bring some memories, especially Lakefront! There seem to be a standard fog in the early morning hours all along the gulf coast! I used to ask for PAR's, where or not if I actually needed one, just for practice for both me and the controller. Most of the civilian facilities appreciated it because they didn't get to do many for real!
One of my squad mates, Gard06 is a USAF controller, working the North Atlantic routes, and he and I have worked on some things in the game just for the heck of it. I made me a instrument "hood" out of card board, which I can place on my monitor and work on my instrument scans, practice PAR's and we actually tried to come up with some ILS approaches, but they never really worked like the real thing.
It would certainly be nice if the game had one field at a neutral site, which had ceiling 200/1/2 with tops at 2,000, so people could actually work on their instrument procedures.

[Wolfala]

Yeah the audio you can't do anything about it because every plane is wired a little bit differently so some plans would be over modulated some plans just right some planes and not the case. These approaches and surveillance approaches of gone out of fashion pretty quickly but I think there is value in them for letting at least a Vfr pilot knowing that if they do get completely screwed up that there's an option other than dying - granted it may die anyway but they would at least have a little more of a chance

[Wolfala]

We still practice them in the simulator to stay current.



PAR radar approaches in the simulator in Duluth MN

http://youtu.be/1DhWVbXq5-Y

[earl1937]

We still practice them in the simulator to stay current.



PAR radar approaches in the simulator in Duluth MN

http://youtu.be/1DhWVbXq5-Y

Very nice! Had a little wind to compensate for, that is a nice touch! People should practice more and more of these, and maybe they do, but being out of day to day aviation, I just am not aware of things like I used to be!
This time of year, with low ceilings and rain, ice and snow being "jokers" in ones flight, everyone should stay up to date on their instrument procedures. One of the areas of instrument flight that a lot of people don't think about is the weather en route to destination! I always found it interesting to try to figure out, as I went along, what the atmosphere was doing ahead of me, between me and destination: If flying on a southern heading and a low pressure filling in to my west, how to tell if weather is deteriorating ahead of me. What is the dew points doing along my route, and what is their trend, is the wind as forecast, any pirips which might be a clue? Of course, back in those days, no cel phones, no smart phones, only that little ole guy sitting at a FSS somewhere that you could talk to.
NDB approaches into airports in West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina and East Tennessee were ones that I was not crazy about! Maybe the field had Unicom and maybe not, or maybe no one around to go out side and give you some kind of estimate on visibility and ceiling. After you get to know some of them at those out of the way airports, they could tell you if they could see a certain hilltop, a certain landmark that you get familiar with and then it would make you feel a little better. I really didn't like "circling approaches" with no one to talk to, but it went with the job.
One of the most interesting people I ever met was Richard Collins, long time editor of Flying magazine, and he used to have some very interesting articles on flying in IFR conditions in his Cessna 210P. He had more insight into weather problems than anyone in general aviation back then.