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Scariest Day/Night Flying
- Thread starter phrogpilot73
- Start date
NavyLonghorn
Registered User
Something to note:
Nearly every video ive seen of a near miss with a GA aircraft invole a road or river!
Be especially vigilant when crossing those bad boys low.
Question with regards to response to potential mid-airs. On intersecting paths, and you see a potential for a mid-air is there a set response? Meaning, if he's left I go high, and if he's right I go low? Thus keeping both from going high and still remaining in a collision path?
Chubby
Active Member
Easy VFR checkpoints. You don't have to be Magellan to follow an Interstate to where you're going.
IFR = I Follow Roads
or
If the weather's too bad to go IFR, go VFR . . .
I keed, I keed.
MasterBates
Well-Known Member
Nittany, you sure you are not a helo guy? That's how we file/fly with out abhorrent lack of instruments, and abilty to fly at 300 AGL.
(Yeah, I know the Prowler/Intruder/Scooter can go lower than that, but we do it without massive noise complaints)
(Yeah, I know the Prowler/Intruder/Scooter can go lower than that, but we do it without massive noise complaints)
Actually, that was just a dig on the idea of Joe Bubba Private Pilot going interstate to interstate at 1000' under a 1500' ceiling . . .
Standard Flight Rules are in effect here, if you are on the right of the other A/C, he is expected to go behind you, however, in the real world, you may not know if he sees you and it is your responsibility to avoid him, so doing whatever it takes is the right answer.
Midrats-4ever
New Member
My scariest night
My scariest night was the night I thought I was gonna miss midrats due to the usual number of bolters by the jet guys.
My scariest night was the night I thought I was gonna miss midrats due to the usual number of bolters by the jet guys.
I'll throw in mine. Last cruise we had a man overboard right before sunset with weather moving in. So of course we ended up with 3 helos airborne looking for the guy. By the time the birds start hitting redlight, the weather had turned to 0'-0' and it was dark. You couldnt see any of the helo spots from the island. I remember reading about the smoke light approach off the back of a boat and thinking "damn it would suck to have to do one of those", of course I had never talked to anyone who had even seen one and never thought I would see one myself. Turns out that you cant even see smokes at night over water in that weather. (Though they were throwing smokes and flares off the back of the boat like crazy.) CATCC kept trying to vector the helos in with results like "I can hear you out there somewhere, keep coming foward." and "I think there might be a hole overhead, can you hover at 1000' and do a vertical descent?" Though the best was "611 I can hear you... descend...come left some...come back...come back a little...come left....waveoff!" When the call from the crewman was "thats the tower on your left! Sir, the TOWER is at our 9 oclock, dont go left!!!" Not a fun night. Luckily one bird was able to make it to a field to land and the ship finally found a hole big enough to land us in. Turns out that CATCC was working surveillance approaches without telling us, because the radar was down.
The rest are typical approaches to the back of a small boy at night with bad weather when suddenly we are over the deck ready to land, and everything goes black because someone on the boat screws up. But I think every helo pilot deals with something similar at some point.
The rest are typical approaches to the back of a small boy at night with bad weather when suddenly we are over the deck ready to land, and everything goes black because someone on the boat screws up. But I think every helo pilot deals with something similar at some point.
Did you or anyone else do a doppler to the ship and then just drive in? I've heard of others doing that, and it was always a trick I kept up my sleeve, but never had to use it. Just curious how successful it might actually be.
Never found the guy who went in. Had to call off all the searching till sometime the next morning and spent the next 2 days looking.
The XO was flying one of the birds that night and actually discussed doing a doppler approach and dialing in the pots. The unanimous vote from the boat was no. Though none of us liked the idea of being below lower than the island with approach vectoring us in like they were. After the near collision with the tower, we called off approaches till the weather got better. They even called for a helo rep to the LSO platform because it got so bad. Had the boat not been lucky and driven into a hole, the doppler approach probably would have happened.
The XO was flying one of the birds that night and actually discussed doing a doppler approach and dialing in the pots. The unanimous vote from the boat was no. Though none of us liked the idea of being below lower than the island with approach vectoring us in like they were. After the near collision with the tower, we called off approaches till the weather got better. They even called for a helo rep to the LSO platform because it got so bad. Had the boat not been lucky and driven into a hole, the doppler approach probably would have happened.
A couple come to mind for me-
In a P-3- Flying into Kodiak at night with a 50kt + tail wind and touching down at about the 3 board, then waving off.... Yikes! From my seat I could look over my shoulder at the stbd over wing hatch and see trees waayyy too close. There is more to that story.....
In an SH-60- Coming into a hover in the PG, at night with no horizon, feeling the aircraft shudder, and hearing/seeing the pilots wrestle with the aircraft to keep us out of the water... We were heavy, it was hot, and after we established a hover the wind did a 180........ Then, to top the flight off, listening to and backing up two pilots who's conversation went like this..
Pilot- "Leans"
Co-Pilot "I have control"
Pilot- "You have control"
Followed by-
Co-Pilot- "Leans"
Pilot "I have control"
Co-Pilot "You have control"
Repeat..
They diverted much of the airwing to terra firma that night. Supposedly one aircraft had a 2' hole blown in it's wing from a lightening strike.
The thing that got me was, if someone had punched how the HELL were we supposed to get them? Oh well, we were standing by in any case. Maybe we could have pulled it off, glad we did not have to find out.
In the SH/HH-60, the crew in the back only have an altitude and airspeed indicator.
In a P-3- Flying into Kodiak at night with a 50kt + tail wind and touching down at about the 3 board, then waving off.... Yikes! From my seat I could look over my shoulder at the stbd over wing hatch and see trees waayyy too close. There is more to that story.....
In an SH-60- Coming into a hover in the PG, at night with no horizon, feeling the aircraft shudder, and hearing/seeing the pilots wrestle with the aircraft to keep us out of the water... We were heavy, it was hot, and after we established a hover the wind did a 180........ Then, to top the flight off, listening to and backing up two pilots who's conversation went like this..
Pilot- "Leans"
Co-Pilot "I have control"
Pilot- "You have control"
Followed by-
Co-Pilot- "Leans"
Pilot "I have control"
Co-Pilot "You have control"
Repeat..
They diverted much of the airwing to terra firma that night. Supposedly one aircraft had a 2' hole blown in it's wing from a lightening strike.
The thing that got me was, if someone had punched how the HELL were we supposed to get them? Oh well, we were standing by in any case. Maybe we could have pulled it off, glad we did not have to find out.
In the SH/HH-60, the crew in the back only have an altitude and airspeed indicator.