OK season vets I am just starting out and it will be along time till I can decide for my self. Do any of you guys ever let the autopilot trap you? I know the Hornet will get you back on to the ship if you let it, so have you guys ever let it? Are these computers reliable to adjust to the ever changing conditions?
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Automatic carrier landing?
- Thread starter GTodd
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Hope some of the guys that know the newer equipment will roger up to this question. As for the S-3 and all the other aircraft of its generation no one I knew ever did a Mode I autoland to the deck when he could fly it himself. I saw it twice. I was in CATCC (ATC on the ship) when an A-7 had a fly away ramp strike at night. I was priviledge to hear the discussion on how to handle the emergency. We were not blue water ops and the divert wasn't that far away. Concern for damage to hydraulics in the smashed tail area led Air Ops (an A-7 guy) to bring the guy back aboard. On his first pass the poor guy was so shaken that the LSO didn't let him get inside 3/4 mile. He was given holding instructions and messed them up. Because they wanted to bring the guy back and didn't think he was up to it, they had him latch it up and had the computer bring it aboard. Second time was when I was airborne with two other Vikings and an E-2 above the arctic circle in March. Water temp was about 30 degrees and it was dark. Weather was ceiling 0 feet, obscured, viz about 300 feet. We had launched into that with lots of gas. The other two S-3s and E-2 were from the previous mission and were running out of gas because they couldn't get back aboard. The two War Hoovers got gas from a rescue tanker but the E-2 can't refuel in flight. There were 3 CVs in the area for this huge cold war exercise right off the Soviet coast. Since we had gas we made approaches to all the CVs and never broke out. The E-2 doesn't have ejection seats. They bail out and get strewn out for miles in the ocean. In this case the water temp and darkness ment sure death before rescue. With enough gas for maybe one pass and bailing out not an option, the Hawkeye was sent to the ship with the biggest most stable deck and they did an autoland to the deck. The E-2 crew said the deck just appeared in front of them and they trapped before they could do anything. My crew, the other two Vikings and two A-6 tankers (they had to launch a second because the first gave all his gas to the S-3s)went to Adak AK over two hours away. A friendly USAF AWACS gave us vectors and woke up the Adak airfield people for us. Weather in Adak was crappy too. Almost didn't get in there. On landing the other two Viking crews had been airborne for over 6 hours wearing wet suits and sitting on hard ejection seats. As you see the system worked well even in the older aircraft. It was simply considered a last resort, not an everyday procedure. Sorry for the long sea storys. I think it makes the point though. Hope it didn't scare any of you wannabes away.
HornetDrvr
Registered User
Most guys won't do a Mode 1 if they can help it. However, the Mode 1A is pretty popular with quite a few dudes. In other words let the computer fly most of the way and then break out at the last second for your own landing. CAG may at times dictate Mode 1's but that is more to test the system out then because it is necessary. As Wink has stated for the most part it is used for emergencies when it looks like the pilot, for one reason or another, isn't going to be able to hack it.
My recent experience has been that the senior hornet drivers are the only ones who use the Mode I. (Normally on dark nights). Most CAG's don't allowed nuggets to do a mode I approach. Auto throttles are used much more frequently. The S-3 has a new digital flight control system that allows us to fly Mode IA approaches again, but I don't know many people who are going to use it. It's nice to know it's there for a emergency, but that's it. Pilots don't trust the computers.
Both the E-2 and C-2 have ACLS but don't have the capability for a mode 1 approach. I don't think I would trust one even if I had the capability. My scariest carrier landing occured in during the day in a torrential downpour and like Wink's story, by the time I saw the lens and deck, I made a wing dip and trapped. No way I would have used a Mode 1. Mode 1A, probably but since I fly the biggest, oldest POS on the boat, why waste my time dreaming.
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