Stories from FL280...

[Serenity]

In the AF, just having it in the cockpit could easily result in disciplinary action or loss of flight status, for either IPs or students...

OUCH. I've never seen an IP fly without one.

[earl1937]

The Minimum Radius Turn is NOT a level turn. The requirements are to maintain a constant speed (300 KIAS) and a constant AOA (17 units). In order to maintain these two constants, you HAVE to sacrifice altitude to maintain speed. We see anywhere between 10 degrees and 3 degrees nose down throughout the maneuver. And it's not a single turn 180 degree turn, it's 180 degrees, followed by a snap roll in the other direction, and another turn the opposite way, so its 360 degrees total, coming out on the initial heading.

I like your post's, but don't understand the lingo sometimes! Why would they teach you a minimum radius turn to use in a combat situation? Of course I understand that the Navy and Air Force have two different attitudes toward the use of the throttle, one says elevator controls airspeed, the other says elevator controls altitude! Why way are they teaching you?

[Serenity]

I like your post's, but don't understand the lingo sometimes! Why would they teach you a minimum radius turn to use in a combat situation? Of course I understand that the Navy and Air Force have two different attitudes toward the use of the throttle, one says elevator controls airspeed, the other says elevator controls altitude! Why way are they teaching you?

I think the purpose of the min radius turn is to practice sustaining airspeed and AOA under G. Similar to the S1 and S3 patterns, the maneuver itself is useless, but it's used to build muscle memory and a basic monkey skill that will be expanded on at a later point.

As far as what the elevator controls, the difference in theory only comes into effect when on final approach to landing. For the navy, elevator controls airspeed for one simple reason: Geometry. For a given airspeed, your angle of attack (True AOA, not the attitude) is always the same, meaning at a given airspeed, your hook is always at the same angle to the earth. So, you use the nose to achieve "on-speed", the ideal angle of attack for hook engagement, and use power to control your rate of descent. It's all about that hook!

[Serenity]

So they've certainly given up on my instrument training. I'm in the AirNav portion, which is supposed to focus on aerial navigation, so long distance legs across several jet routes. multiple navaid changes, and occasionally an enroute destination change. I have 5 flights in the block, and the syllabus even emphasis that in the event a cross-country (And we REALLY mean crossing the country, not the private pilot "Go to a field 20 minutes away"), two out-and-ins (Take off at home field, go somewhere else, land, gas up, return home) SHALL be accomplished, and it says the reason for this is getting us as far from the local environment as possible provides the best training. As of last night, I've completed 4 of the 5 flights. Two out and ins, to... Corpus Christi.

Why is this such a load of crap for my training? This is how an out and in to corpus goes:

Takeoff.
Departure: "261, climb maintain 5,000. Crossing 3,000 turn left 050"
"261, 5,000, crossing 3 050".
As I get on heading I'm already at altitude, and immediately get "261, contact corpus christi approach, 120.9"
"261, 120.9" "Corpus Approach, 261, level 5 negative numbers with request" (I haven't even had time to get their ATIS because this whole process has taken 3 minutes so far).
"261, altimeter three triple zero, say request"
"261 would like 4 tacan 18 approaches"
"261, roger, vectors to final TACAN 18".

And that's it. Corpus is only 30 minutes away by car. Doing "air navigation" flights there is outright insulting.

That being said, it's very clearly NOT a good time to be in a Goshawk...

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2016/09/07/meridian-naval-air-station-crash/89968336/

"They hit the wrong button and were ejected," Metro Ambulance director Clayton Cobler said.

Wut?! 

[Kanth]

I guess you should eject. Everyone's doing it.   

[DaveBB]

It has to be a budget issue.  Fuel and maintenance cost for the aircraft, service life reduction of the aircraft. 

But as a naval aviator, it seems that navigation would be one of the strongest skill sets that they would try to equip you with. 

But then again, the Government is out of money...

[Oldman731]

And that's it. Corpus is only 30 minutes away by car

In my view, probably 90% of an instrument rating is focused on the ten minutes before landing. The cross country stuff is easy, relaxing compared to VFR because you have ATC watching traffic for you. Your instructors are cutting out the easy stuff so you can focus on what counts.

My instructor used to made me do the PNE ILS 24, then the miss, the hold, then the ILS 6 to TTN, then the miss...it got very confusing, especially single pilot. You will be learning how to do six things at once, in addition to keeping the plane 100 feet +- your alt. Instrument rating I thought was far more difficult than the license.

Oldman

[eagl]

A rite of passage in USAF T-38 training used to be the HI ILS 21 KROW...

https://flightaware.com/resources/airport/KROW/IAP/HI-ILS+OR+LOC+RWY+21

[Serenity]

In my view, probably 90% of an instrument rating is focused on the ten minutes before landing. The cross country stuff is easy, relaxing compared to VFR because you have ATC watching traffic for you. Your instructors are cutting out the easy stuff so you can focus on what counts.

I get that, but going to Corpus, where I've shot ALL of the approaches at least a half a dozen times a piece, isn't very good training as I already know it like the back of my hand. That's more the reason that the syllabus calls for going somewhere else, just to provide something new and challenging rather than the same approaches we've been doing for months.

A rite of passage in USAF T-38 training used to be the HI ILS 21 KROW...

https://flightaware.com/resources/airport/KROW/IAP/HI-ILS+OR+LOC+RWY+21

Dear lord... I... I literally don't even know where to start on that plate...

[Golfer]

Dear lord... I... I literally don't even know where to start on that plate...

JENOM looks like a good spot.

[Serenity]

JENOM looks like a good spot.

lol now that I've had my coffee (and it's no longer 0400) I can see that a little more clearly. That NDB kinda threw me for a loop. I can honestly say I've never encountered one, but I've also never flown an aircraft with ADF capability.

[eagl]

You don't need NDB/ADF for that HI ILS at roswell...  You can fly it all off the VORTAC.  Having the marker under the IAF holding track is confusing but the actual holding fix is off the VORTAC.  I think only the alternate missed approach procedure uses the NDB.  I suppose you could use the marker if its in your GPS database but to my knowledge, that would be considered a "backup" procedure since using the GPS as an alternative to the raw radio signal is always just a backup.  So the primary gameplan would be simple vortac/ILS/LOC w/ DME.  Gonking the named points into your GPS flight plan would be a reasonable SA backup in the event of radio navaid failure that could permit continuing an non-precision approach in the event of DME failure, but that would essentially be an emergency procedure, swapping navaids during the approach, but in mil flying sometimes ya do what ya gotta do and explain it to the board or the FAA once on the ground.

I *think* technically you could fly the final approach portion (ILS only not LOC or circling) with just VOR/ILS and no DME since you could use the LOM to verify glidepath intercept, but I'd want to verify that with a current inst instructor before going in there without the equipment its designed for.  And of course if you're just getting vectors to final then there's no reason to use the HI approach anyhow.

[Serenity]

Brag time... Today, after exactly 5 formation flights, I had my Baby Form Solo. Not a lot to it. Take off, running rendezvous, 0-360 Tacan Rendezvous, 5 Break and rendezvous maneuvers, then a section drag into the break. I'm a little tipsy as this is my first night off all week, lol, but if there's any interest, I'd be happy to explain those terms. Otherwise, here are the pics of me in 257, or Tweek 1-2 as our Tac was today. Disclaimer: All pictures were taken by a NATOPS qualified pilot, in the back seat of the lead aircraft, NOT listed as a functional air crew. He was NOT engaged in the operation, navigation, or in any functional capacity at any point in the flight; He was there purely for the purpose of photography.



You can see my tiny speck in the mirror on the takeoff running rendezvous



Mid-running-rendezvous



After completing the running rendezvous



VFR Turn Away



Another mirror shot



Middle of the Break-And-Rendezvous



Almost at the joinup



Parade Position



Dramatic visor reflection



Getting dragged in for the break

[colmbo]

Disclaimer: All pictures were taken by a NATOPS qualified pilot, in the back seat of the lead aircraft.....

Cool, the girlfriend got to go for a ride.

Looks like fun, I'm green with envy.

<S>

[Kanth]

great pics!