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You Can't Land Here! [Approach](Approach Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) lying Growlers out of Whidbey has many benefits. One is racking up flight time on transits to and from NAS Oceana during our East Coast airwing's exercises. I got to fly one of these transits, so it was turning out to be a good month for flight hours. After the large force exercise (LFE), my electronic warfare officer (EWO) and I planned to return to NAS Whidbey Island by three-legging it with stopovers at Whiteman AFB and Hill AFB. However, after we looked at the weather, our plan wouldn't work because of thunderstorms sweeping through the Midwest. We amended our route to take a more southerly path via Little Rock AFB. The weather report called for ceilings above mins projected to stay about the same if not slightly improve over the course of the day. Weather at our planned alternate of Columbus AFB was projected to be 1,800-foot ceilings with unlimited visibility - great. Also, the civilian field in Little Rock is only 12 miles to the southwest and would be a suitable field to land at case we couldn't go to the AFB for reasons other than weather. A quick check of the NOTAMS showed no issues with either airport. However, we noted that there were degraded firefighting capabilities for big-wing aircraft at Columbus AFB. This didn't concern us, because we regularly see this kind of NOTAM at AFBs in Washington. It has never prevented the use of those airfields. After completing the flight planning and getting our weather report, we gathered our pubs and briefed. Both of us were eager to get home, but we made sure that "get-home-itis" did not influence our decision-making. Our route required that we carry a lot of pubs. Because of space constraints, we couldn't fit two copies of each pub, so we took one of each less-likely required pub. After briefing, we reviewed and signed the aircraft discrepancy book (ADB), dressed, then loaded the jet. On startup, we got an MU LOAD caution, which indicated a problem with our mission card. This was quickly troubleshot by the ground crew, a benefit of flying a common platform with our airwing. We thought this was probably our hiccup for the mission and happily pressed on home. I've always enjoyed cross-country flights. You get a great view of the changing landscape traveling across different regions. As we flew over Memphis I reminisced about my time in T-45s flying cross-countries through there (good BBQ!). As we started to get closer to our first destination, we tuned up ATIS. The field reported 200foot ceilings and 1.5 mile visibility. This wouldn't have been a problem had we been in one of the Growlers that have civilian ILS, but currently only the expeditionary squadrons are equipped with those. We figured that conditions are the civilian field would be the same, but we verified it anyway. No surprise, they were calling for the same thing. Being about 80 miles from our destination we tuned up Columbus ATIS. The weather was 1,800-foot ceilings and unlimited visibility. We informed center of our intent to proceed to our alternate. As ATIS continued to play in the background, it stated they were conducting instrument approaches to the field and to expect the ILS. They have multiple TACAN approaches, and (with the current weather) we figured the visual approach was also an option. We got into approach airspace and got the switch. They told us to expect the ILS, and we responded by requesting one of the TACAN approaches. They said they were unable, but their reason was unintelligible over the radio. We then requested the other TACAN approach. They also denied that for the same unintelligible reason. After going back and forth a couple times with approach, my EWO and I still couldn't make out their transmission. We decided not to press the issue and told them of our intent to cancel and proceed with VFR flight-following to the field. As we got closer to the field the weather looked more like "few or scattered" at 1,800 feet than the ceiling they were calling, so we felt comfortable with our decision. At about 10 miles from the field, we got a call from approach. "Rook 31, Columbus approach, we just got a call from base ops, you can't land here." Pucker factor skyrocketed. We talked for a second and concluded that the problem must have been that we didn't have a PPR (since it was our alternate). My EWO responded by reminding them that we were executing our alternate flight plan due to our destination being below weather minimums. Apparently the PPR was not the issue, it was the firefighting capability. They responded that because of the degraded firefighting capability, base ops would not accept us landing there. Based on our gas, we were not emergency fuel, but we were approaching min fuel. I remember once stopping over in Memphis in a T-45.1 had seen Rhinos there, so I was confident that they not only had contract fuel, but that they were also familiar with the F-18 platform. I immediately told my EWO that we should go to Memphis, and he agreed. Since we were VFR, I quickly put in a turn toward our fourth field option. We contacted ATC and informed them of our intent to head to Memphis International. We decided it would be best for us to also declare "min fuel" to make ATC aware of our fuel situation. Another great benefit of flying a Growler is that I don't have to fumble through four feet of chart in my two feet of space in the cockpit. My EWO and I had great crew coordination. Through this whole process, we had to deal with the fact that each field was on a different chart/pub. Having an EWO to quickly look up information allowed me to focus more on avoiding the scattered clouds. I could fly a fuel-conservative profile without having to worry about what page of a pub the approach is on or finding the correct frequency for Memphis ATIS. I had the Tennessee approach plate in the front, so I threw the plate to my EWO in the back. He tuned up ATIS and weather at Memphis: essentially VFR with showers in the vicinity. After receiving our center pick-up and listening to the weather at Memphis, we felt a lot better. Memphis was landing south, and we were coming from the south. Not ideal, but the vectors we received allowed us to generate a radar map of the airfield. Since the large airport had three parallel runways, I wanted to drop a designation on the runway we were landing on as a backup. About the time we were abeam the field, we noticed a rain cell parked in the approach corridor. We also got a call from ATC saying the field just went IMC and to expect the ILS. Memphis only has ILS approaches which didn't matter in a T-45, but in our ILS-lacking Growler it became an issue. We could see the field. It looked like the cell, which we could just see through, was about three miles north. We discussed that we were not yet at emergency fuel, but any deviation from our current course of action would put us in one. It's common knowledge in the community that when you're in extremis, an instrument approach (known as the Hornet-one approach) can be shot using an accurate air-to-ground designation and flying a calculated glideslope. We had already generated the map and were feeling comfortable with the designation. We decided that the risk of shooting this type of approach - should the rain cell be thicker than we anticipated - far outweighed the risk of deliberately putting ourselves in an emergency. If we needed to, we would fly the courseline from the designation, and we would mitigate the risk by complying with localizer altitudes. We would only do this if we could see the ground and no aircraft were on parallel approaches. WE CONTINUED ON OUR PRESENT path and dialed in the appropriate courseline. As we started our turn back toward the field, ATC issued us clearance for the approach. Visibility to the field was obscured by the cell, but we could still see the ground. In the cell, visibility continued to decline. However, by the time we were inside two miles, I could make out the field and soon thereafter I could distinguish the runways. We landed, but before we could breathe a sigh of relief, we got slapped in the face with an ERASE PENDING indication. In our attempts to rectify our original MU LOAD caution, we had to reset our mission computers, which also restores many of the default settings in the jet. One example is the setting on whether the mission card and/ or memory unit erases on touchdown (default) or when manually told to do so after holding the memory card. Boxing the HOLD ALL setting is a check usually done early on in startup, but after our troubleshooting, both my EWO and I failed to recheck this setting. THIS FLIGHT TAUGHT ME MORE than I could list. You can never over-plan. I never would have thought we'd end up at an airport that was fourth on my list of options, potentially having to go to an unknown fifth. Don't rely on NOTAMS for the whole picture. I never would have thought that degraded firefighting capability equated to us not being able to land at that airport. For a moment, we debated declaring an emergency and landing at Columbus anyway, but with having just flown over Memphis and having previous experience landing there, I felt more comfortable with that course of action. Take every pub you might need. We had packed every nook and cranny in the jet with all the stuff required for our trip. We had our bags for the week, JMPS laptops, hard drives, the cross-country pack, and the ADB. We almost hadn't taken a Tennessee approach plate because of limited space, and it was not our intended destination or alternate. The Hornet-one approach, though not a real approach, is a great backup to published approaches. I am not suggesting substituting the Hornet-one for an ILS, but other articles have described how this procedure was used in combat during a sandstorm with successful results. Our circumstance was not as dire because we could see the ground, thus making a contact approach. Performing the Hornet-one, outside of a simulator, gave me a lot a confidence in the capability of the jet and my ability to fly the approach. Crew coordination is key. My EWO for this flight was our XO; as a new pilot to a squadron, it can be intimidating. My squadron has a great command climate in that rank or position does not degrade our crew coordination. Once the motors start turning I'm just "pilot" and he is just "EWO." At about 10 miles from the field, we got a callfrom app7'oach. "Rook 31, Columbus approach, we just got a call f7'om base ops, you carit laTidhere." BY LT OMAR SANUSI SANUSI FLIES WITH VAQ-137. (c) 2014 Superintendent of Documents |