S4201

Old T4301

Bring a SAR TACAID (if you can find one) and the shipboard student approach plates to this brief. The flight will include one or more of the SAR patterns, a windline rescue, and a shipboard approach. We have no operational ship TACANs, so the instructor will just save a point in the GPS and you will fly a "TACAN" ship approach in NAV 2. You can save your current position in the GPS by hitting "Save" "Enter" "Direct" "Enter", which is useful when conducting your SAR patterns.

Know the course rules to/from the east bay. =Ditching=

DITCHING—POWER ON
Procedures:

1. Passengers and crew - Alert 2. Shoulder harness - Locked 3. Mayday - Transmit 4. Transponder - Emergency 5. Perform normal approach to hover/taxi 3 to 5 feet above water 6. Doors -Jettison 7. Nonessential personnel - Execute Emergency Egress 8. Helicopter - Move, Safe Distance Away 9. Vertical landing - Perform 10. Twist grip - Close 11. Collective - Increase slowly to Max. Pitch 12. Cyclic - Maintain Helicopter upright as long as possible 13. Emergency egress - Execute 14. Life vest - Inflate (when clear of helicopter)

DITCHING—POWER OFF
Procedures:

*1. Autorotate *2. Shoulder harness - Lock

If time and altitude permit:

*3. Mayday - Transmit on guard *4. Squawk - EMER *5. Doors - Jettison

WARNING:

Do not abandon helicopter until rotor blades have stopped. Do not inflate life vest until well clear of the helicopter.

*6. Underwater egress Execute

=Shipboard Approaches=

See your shipboard approach plates.


 * LHA: Normally equipped with Tacan, NDB, asr/par, and SGSI
 * Case I: no IMC conditions anticipated on any portion of an approach.
 * Weather mins of 1000 and 3 required.
 * Report a “see you” when visual contact is established.
 * Case II: during daylight when IMC conditions encountered by flights during descent
 * VMC of at least 500 and 1 exists at ship.
 * Positive control shall be utilized until the pilot reports “see you.”
 * Case III: below case II mins.
 * Apply to single aircraft only and precision radar shall be used when applicable.

CV: Aircraft Carrier.

A Primary Marshal approach is a TACAN navigation procedure used to effect a safe letdown to an air capable ship in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC).

Procedures:

1. Hold at primary marshal as directed by radar control. 2. When cleared, pilot shall proceed to IAF using radar vectors, TACAN information, or from holding as depicted 3. The pilot shall report “commencing approach” and complete landing checklists (6Ts) 4. Proceed to final approach fix and report “Landing Checklist complete right/left seat landing” 5. PRIFLY shall reply “cleared to land” and the pilot shall begin a descent to arrive at the missed approach point (MAP) at the minimum descent altitude (MDA) 6. With a SGSI installed, pilot shall report visual acquisition of SGSI to the ship and complete the approach based on SGSI and LSE signals.

(Radials for IAPs aren't set in stone but are relative to the ship's direction of movement.)

=Lost Plane Procedures=


 * 1. Confess.
 * 2. Climb.
 * 3. Conserve.
 * 4. Communicate.
 * 5. Conform.
 * 6. Consult local area maps.

Land if necessary and ask available persons for information.

=Stab/trim failure at low altitude= Just like if you had this failure at altitude, only problem is now you are lower, and in a flight regime where control is even more important. You are no longer at 1000 feet, you are at 200, so losing 50 feet might be a bigger deal. Optimally, you can execute a controlled wave-off to give yourself time to troubleshoot, or perhaps bingo to an easier (bigger) landing site. Eg, cancel the approach to the air-capable ship and return to the CV/Gator, or perhaps a nearby land facility.

=Use of GPS during SAR= At the outset of a flight the GPS can be used to mark the dimensions of your search area (four corners). It can also be used to mark your datum, and when you find the target to mark their postion. Just like with the SAR sim, you can use the GPS to help you out a lot, especially since you won't be dropping smoke on this flight.

Save, Enter, Direct, Enter, to put current location as your waypoint.

=Flight in restricted Visibility over water= Might actually be better than restricted visibility over land because when you are over the water, you know that you won’t run into towers, buildings, etc. Keep in mind that at sea, hitting a ship in your group can still be a serious factor, especially if you lose visibility during a visual approach.

=Radar altimeter failure= Troubleshoot, check circuit breakers, it might be just your gauge or it could be the antennae and therefore both are busted. If both are busted, ensure you have an adequate safety buffer between you and the water to account for the BarAlt's inaccuracies (it can be up to 75' off and still be legal, then add in fluctuating local pressure, then add in slight lag, and you probably want a good 150-200' buffer).

=Inadvertent IMC over water= Might actually be better than restricted visibility over land because when you are over the water, you know that you won’t run into towers, buildings, etc. You have all around you to maneuver, including up and down, to find VMC. Otherwise, you can use the same procedures as normal for IIMC, though there's obviously no need to "climb to a safe altitude and turn away from all known obstacles" unless you actually know you're in an area with something to actually run into.

=ELVA approach=

See plate.


 * 1. Conducted to an air capable ship which has weather below approach mins. Considered an emergency procedure. Only used when inadequate fuel to bingo to GCA/CCA equipped airfield or aviation ship.
 * 2. Skill of controller, accuracy of information displayed to controller, pilots' flight proficiency are primary factors which affect quality of an ELVA.
 * 3. Gunfire control system provides most accurate real time tracking and use used on most ELVAs
 * 4. Required radio transmissions from controller are based on helo range from ship.
 * 5. Initial approach pattern must be executed so that aircraft reaches four mile gate position at 400’ and 70kts.
 * 6. Final approach will commence at 400 and 70. Final controller must have approach plotted and have radar control of A/C prior to four-mile gate
 * 7. For standard approaches, final approach course will be the ship’s BRC minus the flight deck approach angle.
 * 8. Heading corrections on final should not be more than 5 °, if possible using half standard rate turns.
 * 9. For missed approach, A/C will make 30 ° turn to left (right for port approach) and climb 400 feet and be vectored back into the ELVA pattern.
 * 10. If equipment malfunctions, or limitations preclude ELVA procedures, an emergency approach or ditching may be considered.

"You're flying a poor-man's PAR, using equipment never intended for that purpose, manned by a guy with no idea what he's doing. Good luck!"

=SAR Patterns= Same as in S4001, go look them back over. Note that not everything you learned from the sims guys is written in stone (just like everything else). So when you come across that fishing boat floating aimlessly, don't immediately start off with a creeping line search: unless you have some idea of when/where he fell off, you may be better served by just doing a parallel search up and down the wake a few times before you move to something else.

Parallel Patterns
Description:


 * Used for a large search area where only approx initial position is known and equal probability the target is anywhere in the search area.

Procedures:

1. Enter four user defined points in the GPS (corners of the search area) 2. Enter search area abeam one of the waypoints with an offset equal to ½ S   3. Fly to point abeam furthest adjacent corner waypoint. 4. Turn to reenter Search Area abeam waypoint and offset 1½ S

Creeping Line Patterns
Description:


 * Specialized version of parallel. Used when probable location of the target is thought to be on either side of a line between two points and there is more chance of the target being in one end of the search area than the other.

Procedure:

1. Use same procedure as parallel search but enter at the waypoint nearest probable location of search object. 2. After entering, fly abeam nearest adjacent waypoint offset by ½ S


 * As in the sims, have your copilot/IP keep track of where you are, your timing, and which direction you should be turning: your focus should be not crashing into the water.

Square Patterns
Description:


 * Used to search small area where some doubt exists about the Initial Position.
 * Provide more uniform coverage than a sector search and may be expanded.
 * Expanding square search if start from DATUM and go outward.

Procedure:

1. Enter DATUM into the GPS as user-defined waypoint. 2. Turn to nearest cardinal radial. 3. Start clock. 4. Use TK function to determine crab to track the radial 5. Track outbound until reaching desired S   6. Note time, and turn right 90 ° SRT 7. Start clock. 8. Upon reaching time for first leg, turn right 90 SRT 9. Start clock. 10. Use twice initial timing. 11. Repeat.


 * Again, have your copilot/IP keep track of your timing/leg-lengths. You've got water to worry about.  If you do want to keep track yourself, you fly each timing twice.  That is, you fly S, then S, then 2S, then 2S, then 3S, then 3S, then 4S, and so on.

Sector Patterns (V)
Description:


 * Used when Initial Position is reliable or Search Area is not extensive and a concentrated effort is desired at DATUM because target is hard to detect.

Procedures: 1. Enter DATUM as user-defined waypoint in GPS. 2. Turn to nearest cardinal heading. 3. A 60° search is usually used making nine equal legs (so each turn should be for 120° to the right). 4. Upon reaching search radius, turn right and execute a point to point solution to the next inbound radial. Intercept radial and track inbound. 5. Upon reaching search area radius, turn right and repeat. 6. To determine distance traveled in a sector search, multiply radius by 9. 7. To determine total time for a search, divide distance traveled by speed.

Gouge:

1. Fly over your datum, have your copilot hit save on the GPS. 2. Turn to a cardinal heading, make sure you are in OBS mode and NAV 2. 3. Fly for two miles. 4. When you make your first right turn: Turn to the fourth (120° to the right) numbered heading. That will be your point to point. 5. Have your co-pliot twist in the second (60 degrees) into your HSI. 6. When your HSI centers up, turn and track inbound. 7. Don't be above drawing this thing out before-hand on a kneeboard card.

=SAR TACAID=

Check a Navy SAR TACAID out in book issue. If you don't have it yet study you can find it here: TACAID.

Designed so a pilot can start at the front of the manual and work towards the back, finding all the info needed to execute a search. Written on the premise that it will be used only for a short-notice SAR scenario. Not as much detail as SAR Manual (sort of like our PCL is a quick-reference version of NATOPS). Time is the most critical element in SAR The three major constraints to time are:


 * Fuel, Hours of daylight, Human body’s ability to absorb conditions of exposure.

Always assume survivors are incapacitated. Must wisely manage time.

INITIAL POSITION: probable location of the object for which we are searching. Two main sources of noise/uncertainty to the Initial Position:


 * 1. Position error: Represents the accuracy of the Initial Position.
 * 2. Movement error: Represents the effects of Drift.
 * a. Aerospace Drift: Aircraft glide, ballistic trajectory, parachute drift. The last two can be found in the SAR TACAID.
 * b. Maritime Drift: Leeway, sea current, wind current, tidal current. Use of datum marker buoy is most accurate way to determine these. Can ask a ship for their set and drift. NAVY SAR MANUAL has leeway of various objects.
 * c. DATUM: Initial position corrected for movement over time.
 * d. Whether or not you will find object largely dependent on two things. Choosing an appropriate Coverage Factor and precisely flying an appropriate search pattern.