Some things I have learned about flying here
Flying here is more like flying in the Congo than it is like flying in the States, even though there are a lot of bases well run by the American military, you still have to be careful and keep some things in mind.
Save that fuel. Start saving that fuel from the beginning of the flight and don't stop till you shut down. It isn't as bad as the Congo but things can still happen. You may think you have everything planned out when somebody blows a tire on the runway and closes your destination. Then as you approach your alternate they tell you you can't land because the airfield is under attack, or the lights went out, or there is a C-130 with no radios wandering around. There you are a long way from the next field and maybe you'll make it and maybe you won't. Save that fuel.
Dust can come on very quickly and they don't predict it all that well. When it does come on bad you it can get very low over a big area and last a long time. You may have to go a long way to land. This is where saving fuel comes in. Keep an eye on the weather at your field, learn how the dust comes on as best you can and if you start worrying about if you should go back, go back.
Don't try to land in a haboob. They are sort of like loosely packed moving mountains and airplanes don't do well in them.
Don't do any work without a TCAS/TCAD. The military controllers are fine fellows, try hard and are always helpful but sometimes they lose track of airplanes. Use the box to keep an eye on the airplanes around, above and below you. And listen to what is happening on the freq. Over time you will learn what to expect next. If you do these things you won't be surprised too often.
When you are surprised and have to maneuver to avoid another airplane, remember you only have to miss by a little bit. Don't get excited and throw the airplane into a situation worse than the one you were trying to avoid.
Drones are good at going where they say they are going and being where they say they are if all the trons are doing what they are supposed to be doing. If they aren't, God alone knows where that thing will go. You should keep this in mind.
There really are, honest to goodness, people down there who want to kill you, even if it will hurt you mother's feelings. They are watching you and everything you do. If you fly like you fly in the States, exactly on every centerline, going precisely over the top over every single charted point, making those nice long hyper-smooth airliner type final approaches, you are being predictable. If you are predictable they are going to start thinking about taking a shot at you. And if they do, they may hit you, which would hurt your mother's feelings. If possible, mix things up a little, courses especially. The procedures the military has established have been established with exactly that in mind. They allow you to make yourself a harder target.
The further you are away from the ground the harder you are to hit. So get away from the ground as quick as you can and stay away as long as you can.
None of the above is license for you to throw the airplane around the sky and make it do things it wasn't designed to do. You can be a hard target and stay quite comfortably within the envelope of even our old pokey civilian airplanes. If you play around you might kill yourself and then God won't let you into heaven.
If somebody does shoot at you, don't get so excited you fly the airplane into the ground or lose control. Airplanes are hard to hit and it doesn't take much to ruin a calculation.
In bad weather, fly the approaches as charted. Bad weather means you can't see the ground which means people on the ground can't see you which means you are an unprofitable target.
Practice instrument approaches in good weather even if it takes longer and the guys in the back are miffed because they won't get to the gym as soon. Weather can be good for a long period of time and then one day, boom! Real low, real bad, real fast and you had better be in practice.
Learn the landmarks, cities, river valleys and big roads in case you lose all your coms and nav and have to make it home the old fashioned way. People really did find their way before GPS existed, or radios even. I am always surprised at the number of guys who don't believe looking out the window is part of the job description.
Be careful when making an approach early in the morning just before the sun comes up. Everything is grey at that time, the ground, the roads, the runway. That thing you want to land on can be very hard to pick out from its surroundings.
Remember what you are here for, to help the soldiers. So no matter how tedious and dreary things get do your flying as best you can all the time.
That is all I can think of now.
I thought of one more thing. Just because it hasn't happened lately or hasn't happened to you or somebody you know doesn't mean it won't happen to you in the next 35 seconds. "It" is always out there waiting for you to be lazy or inattentive. That goes for flying anywhere.
Save that fuel. Start saving that fuel from the beginning of the flight and don't stop till you shut down. It isn't as bad as the Congo but things can still happen. You may think you have everything planned out when somebody blows a tire on the runway and closes your destination. Then as you approach your alternate they tell you you can't land because the airfield is under attack, or the lights went out, or there is a C-130 with no radios wandering around. There you are a long way from the next field and maybe you'll make it and maybe you won't. Save that fuel.
Dust can come on very quickly and they don't predict it all that well. When it does come on bad you it can get very low over a big area and last a long time. You may have to go a long way to land. This is where saving fuel comes in. Keep an eye on the weather at your field, learn how the dust comes on as best you can and if you start worrying about if you should go back, go back.
Don't try to land in a haboob. They are sort of like loosely packed moving mountains and airplanes don't do well in them.
Don't do any work without a TCAS/TCAD. The military controllers are fine fellows, try hard and are always helpful but sometimes they lose track of airplanes. Use the box to keep an eye on the airplanes around, above and below you. And listen to what is happening on the freq. Over time you will learn what to expect next. If you do these things you won't be surprised too often.
When you are surprised and have to maneuver to avoid another airplane, remember you only have to miss by a little bit. Don't get excited and throw the airplane into a situation worse than the one you were trying to avoid.
Drones are good at going where they say they are going and being where they say they are if all the trons are doing what they are supposed to be doing. If they aren't, God alone knows where that thing will go. You should keep this in mind.
There really are, honest to goodness, people down there who want to kill you, even if it will hurt you mother's feelings. They are watching you and everything you do. If you fly like you fly in the States, exactly on every centerline, going precisely over the top over every single charted point, making those nice long hyper-smooth airliner type final approaches, you are being predictable. If you are predictable they are going to start thinking about taking a shot at you. And if they do, they may hit you, which would hurt your mother's feelings. If possible, mix things up a little, courses especially. The procedures the military has established have been established with exactly that in mind. They allow you to make yourself a harder target.
The further you are away from the ground the harder you are to hit. So get away from the ground as quick as you can and stay away as long as you can.
None of the above is license for you to throw the airplane around the sky and make it do things it wasn't designed to do. You can be a hard target and stay quite comfortably within the envelope of even our old pokey civilian airplanes. If you play around you might kill yourself and then God won't let you into heaven.
If somebody does shoot at you, don't get so excited you fly the airplane into the ground or lose control. Airplanes are hard to hit and it doesn't take much to ruin a calculation.
In bad weather, fly the approaches as charted. Bad weather means you can't see the ground which means people on the ground can't see you which means you are an unprofitable target.
Practice instrument approaches in good weather even if it takes longer and the guys in the back are miffed because they won't get to the gym as soon. Weather can be good for a long period of time and then one day, boom! Real low, real bad, real fast and you had better be in practice.
Learn the landmarks, cities, river valleys and big roads in case you lose all your coms and nav and have to make it home the old fashioned way. People really did find their way before GPS existed, or radios even. I am always surprised at the number of guys who don't believe looking out the window is part of the job description.
Be careful when making an approach early in the morning just before the sun comes up. Everything is grey at that time, the ground, the roads, the runway. That thing you want to land on can be very hard to pick out from its surroundings.
Remember what you are here for, to help the soldiers. So no matter how tedious and dreary things get do your flying as best you can all the time.
That is all I can think of now.
I thought of one more thing. Just because it hasn't happened lately or hasn't happened to you or somebody you know doesn't mean it won't happen to you in the next 35 seconds. "It" is always out there waiting for you to be lazy or inattentive. That goes for flying anywhere.
posted by Carl at 6:50 PM
2 Comments:
your should send this to the dentist/officer who wont fix your tooth ...
it wasn't his fault. he has to do what he is told. it is just a characteristic of the big army when they think there isn't much happening, then they get back to the really important things. they'll probably start having guys paint rocks next.
none of this is new. look Bill Mauldin's cartoons from WWII and read things about VN. the army is ever the same.
i got my tooth fixed by the way. i got a ride down to the big, big base near the capitol city and a Russian or maybe Ukrainian dentist fixed it. there is a clinic down there for us contractor types. it seems to be staffed mostly by people from the old soviet bloc.
another one of those ironic instances of the American war effort being dependent on the ex-soviets, along with all the Antonovs.
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