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First Night Flight!

gregsivers said:
The IP pretty much beat that into our heads during the sim. Both he and my onwing back in HTs talked about the black hole, doesn't sound like fun at all.
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It's definitely something to be respected, but honestly, I've found, both for myself and nuggets I've been flying with, you don't truly understand why it's a big deal until you're in it. Of course, the problem with that is that you hope your copilot is with it enough to see it happening and is ready to pull power. I had my first (and only...knock on wood) experience in the middle of my first cruise, and it was very "educational."
 
I got my first taste of it on COMPTUEX in Feb 04. FATHER was FUBAR, in that it's 345 was more like 060. HAC got a tad disoriented, AW called for power at about 70 feet. The lights looked like we were close in, but we were looking at the side of the ship, not the hangar. Scared the piss out of the 3 of us.
 
So, how did this thread devolve from gloating over awesome night flights to arguing over goggles?

I say we gloat some more.
 
Wati a minute, what do you use to judege closure if not the Gogs? Are we talking small boy pattern or any pattern? I use the gogs to get closure rate going to the LPDs (smallest baot Ive done thusfar). A good vigilant scan can pick up closure and realtive motion so lang as you scan the entire ship not just a point. Sometime you can get nice alt and closure refrences from seas with some chop to them, the glassy calm seas are the most dangerous.
I am of the goggle on almost no matter what school of thought, there ae times as mentioned in really bright urban areas and taxiing at some really bright fileds (we are still flying when taxiing) and flying inst in the clag that I am in favor of Goggle removal I will usually have one pilot leave them on though.
 
TheBubba said:
So, how did this thread devolve from gloating over awesome nights to arguing over goggles?

I say we gloat some more.
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I've had both good and bad experiences with goggles - beer goggles.

Good - I've got laid on nights where it might otherwise not had been in the cards. :D

Bad - I saw where I'd been after the goggles cleared.....:eek:

So I can go either way on the goggle issue.
 
skidkid said:
Wati a minute, what do you use to judege closure if not the Gogs? Are we talking small boy pattern or any pattern? I use the gogs to get closure rate going to the LPDs (smallest baot Ive done thusfar). .
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Color coded answer, because I am sick of grouting and painting.

Doppler calls, DME (how fast its ticking off), and visual if conditions allow it.

DDG/CG/FFG types. Small boys with the standard up the stern approach, or the 30 degree starboard approach on the Flight1 DDGs

LPD. Big deck for us. Pussy. :D
 
Hmmm yeah right up the @ss of a ship would be tough to judge closure. We sent some guys out to a CG to get current (take what you can get sometimes) I didnt go along but heard it was interesting

Doppler is for pussies (smiles simulated)
 
skidkid said:
Wati a minute, what do you use to judege closure if not the Gogs? Are we talking small boy pattern or any pattern? I use the gogs to get closure rate going to the LPDs (smallest baot Ive done thusfar). A good vigilant scan can pick up closure and realtive motion so lang as you scan the entire ship not just a point. Sometime you can get nice alt and closure refrences from seas with some chop to them, the glassy calm seas are the most dangerous.
I am of the goggle on almost no matter what school of thought, there ae times as mentioned in really bright urban areas and taxiing at some really bright fileds (we are still flying when taxiing) and flying inst in the clag that I am in favor of Goggle removal I will usually have one pilot leave them on though.
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Have another beer, Skid... ;)

The problem, on goggles or otherwise, there is zero reference except a point of light, maybe two if you're on goggles. We use the groundspeed (doppler) to judge closure. At about 1/2 mile, you change from groundspeed calls to closure calls, so you want to be at a 50 knot or so closure at .5 DME, 40 knots at .4, etc. Inside/about a 1/4 mile, you switch over to a visual approach like you're saying. If the ship is going faster, the approach is actually easier because you don't have to slow down as much.

The typical standard approach for a small boy is a little different (if memory serves) from the LHA/LHD approaches. There's still three different directions, but they're more oriented for the 45 degree approaches to the back of the ship w/ a third that goes up the gut, which what we use for any ship w/ a RSD (trap) on the deck. Otherwise we use the 45 degree approach (for example, on a Flight I DDG).
 
Doppler is how we navigate. The birds that have GPS don't always work, and about 1/3 of our birds don't even have it at all..

CGs are "fun" becasue of the "burble" off of the superstructure. I prefer the FFG from a landing standpoint. DDGs are nice, but the 3 degree sloped deck (TOWARD THE HANGAR) is not my favorite idea.
 
gregsivers said:
Night is also my favorite time to fly. I'll second the comment about radios being quieter making it more relaxing. One of my night contacts in primary was during a full moon; taking off from Corpus Intl and flying out over the city to the working area and up to Rockport was fascinating. Its a much different way of looking down. One detractor is that depth perception goes down a bit from day. On the river run in Jax one night I had to haul a$$ to squeeze in between 2 P-3s doing touch and gos. Still pretty fun though, doing 120 only 250' above the river.
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I used to watch you guys doing that when I worked in the Jax Landing downtown, getting mad envious. It looks fun as hell.
 
Zilch said:
I used to watch you guys doing that when I worked in the Jax Landing downtown, getting mad envious. It looks fun as hell.
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It is. Especially when flying by the skyscrapers downtown and realizing they're taller than you are.
 
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