F-35B/C Lightning II (Joint Strike Fighter)

[ChuckMK23]

And let's be honest, terminal radars aren't going away.

The official FAA presentations I saw were pretty clear that the direction is to dispense with ground based radar for separation services in the national airspace system - now when that will happen is the question. But seriously - I'm tempted to use the word "negligence" if you guys can't do LPV RNAV approaches and file /G and have in cockpit traffic and WX. Its almost core to IFR airworthiness at this point.

And it's tiresome to hear "its not part of our mission" - when in fact only a small portion of flight hours are flown deployed doing the "as designed" mission. Most of your flying (by hours) is in the US national airspace system I think. Call out your leaders in these NHA forums/flag panels for this mindset.

 

[ChuckMK23]

In other news - our AF brethren funding F-35 demo team...

https://theaviationist.com/2018/11/...-demo-team-announced-for-2019-airshow-season/

 

[nittany03]

In other news - our AF brethren funding F-35 demo team...

https://theaviationist.com/2018/11/...-demo-team-announced-for-2019-airshow-season/

Yawn. Jet goes to airshows. Film at 11.

 

[HAL Pilot]

The official FAA presentations I saw were pretty clear that the direction is to dispense with ground based radar for separation services in the national airspace system - now when that will happen is the question. But seriously - I'm tempted to use the word "negligence" if you guys can't do LPV RNAV approaches and file /G and have in cockpit traffic and WX. Its almost core to IFR airworthiness at this point.

If you mean LNAV/VNAV RNAV I might agree with you. But most 121 air carriers are not authorized LPV approaches so I don’t see the military needing them.

 

[Brett327]

Its almost core to IFR airworthiness at this point.

No it’s not. That’s a ridiculous statement.

 

[azguy]

I'm not smart enough on Mode 5 implementation, but it looks like it may be compatible with at least some ADS-B functionality.

Don't know anything about a/c nav- but concur (from the ship side) that Mode 5 brings Mode S capability and we can pull up a window that shows us (what I understand to be) ADS-B data.

 

[Gatordev]

But seriously - I'm tempted to use the word "negligence" if you guys can't do LPV RNAV approaches and file /G and have in cockpit traffic and WX. Its almost core to IFR airworthiness at this point.

I fly an IFR bird now that has neither -In or LPV approach-capability. It's not the end of the world.

 

[Python]

The official FAA presentations I saw were pretty clear that the direction is to dispense with ground based radar for separation services in the national airspace system - now when that will happen is the question. But seriously - I'm tempted to use the word "negligence" if you guys can't do LPV RNAV approaches and file /G and have in cockpit traffic and WX. Its almost core to IFR airworthiness at this point.

And it's tiresome to hear "its not part of our mission" - when in fact only a small portion of flight hours are flown deployed doing the "as designed" mission. Most of your flying (by hours) is in the US national airspace system I think. Call out your leaders in these NHA forums/flag panels for this mindset.

I agree with you that the “its not part of our mission” is tiresome. But it not negligence nor core to IFR airworthiness. All TACAIR jets, and training command jets, are flying IFR with no issues despite missing much of that stuff. Hell, the Rhino got LNAV MDA minimums for the first time a couple of years ago and the Hornet is just getting it now. Of course, I agree it would be much better if they caught up to the civil world with in flight traffic and weather...but it’s by no means a requirement.

I do fly GA and flew civilian before the Navy and I’m familiar with the new systems coming online. I understand their advantages and how they are becoming ubiquitous in the civilian world. The military is still flying IFR without a hiccup and there’s no indication they won’t be able to until they catch up.

 

[ChuckMK23]

I fly an IFR bird now that has neither -In or LPV approach-capability. It's not the end of the world.

IFR equipped (most EMS helos are) or does your FOM actually permit IFR operations?

 

[Treetop Flyer]

My airline operates over 4000 flights a day. Zero of those flights involve LPV

 

[WhiskeySierra6]

The official FAA presentations I saw were pretty clear that the direction is to dispense with ground based radar for separation services in the national airspace system - now when that will happen is the question. But seriously - I'm tempted to use the word "negligence" if you guys can't do LPV RNAV approaches and file /G and have in cockpit traffic and WX. Its almost core to IFR airworthiness at this point.

And it's tiresome to hear "its not part of our mission" - when in fact only a small portion of flight hours are flown deployed doing the "as designed" mission. Most of your flying (by hours) is in the US national airspace system I think. Call out your leaders in these NHA forums/flag panels for this mindset.

I fly out of Whidbey which, by my estimation, has an above average amount of instrument meteorlogical conditions. I fly an aircraft that is equipped with a civilian ILS and RNAV capability. I can count on one had the amount of times I've had to use it in Whidbey. I have lost training due to terminal weather exactly zero times. I have not launched to terminal weather exactly zero times. I'd prefer NAVAIR takes the money available for precision approaches and fixes OBOGS, gets NGJ sooner, or improves my warfighting ability in any metric. Just my personal opinion formed by my personal experiences.

 

[Jim123]

LPV > /G

The former occasionally adds some flexibility with another runway choice when there isn't an ILS available. The latter is increasingly important for efficient long range IFR navigation in federal airspace- when DME-DME or radial-DME random nav doesn't allow certain STARs, or it isn't available (gaps in navaid reception or service volume), or if your airplane simply isn't equipped with such avionics...

/G is important and not having it can be inconvenient, but it's not a show stopper, not yet anyway.

 

[Farva01]

I fly out of Whidbey which, by my estimation, has an above average amount of instrument meteorlogical conditions. I fly an aircraft that is equipped with a civilian ILS and RNAV capability. I can count on one had the amount of times I've had to use it in Whidbey. I have lost training due to terminal weather exactly zero times. I have not launched to terminal weather exactly zero times. I'd prefer NAVAIR takes the money available for precision approaches and fixes OBOGS, gets NGJ sooner, or improves my warfighting ability in any metric. Just my personal opinion formed by my personal experiences.

Shack.

Get this guy some wings!

 

[Gatordev]

IFR equipped (most EMS helos are) or does your FOM actually permit IFR operations?

In effort to be more precise... Most EMS helos are IFR equipped (but that's fairly new), some are IFR certified, and some are certified and allowed to be flown IFR (per GOM). What I fly is the latter. The whole IFR fleet is LNAV MDA only.

 

[ChuckMK23]

Ou

In effort to be more precise... Most EMS helos are IFR equipped (but that's fairly new), some are IFR certified, and some are certified and allowed to be flown IFR (per GOM). What I fly is the latter. The whole IFR fleet is LNAV MDA only.

Our BK-117 B2 and BO-105 were both IFR equipped in 1998 and we had one of the first IFR gps for enroute nav. Our day VFR mins were 700/2 which in an urban environment with terrain of hills and valleys was not great. No NVD either. Airline pilot uniforms and headsets, no nomex or helmets.