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C-17 lands short at Dover


Butters

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Not to my knowledge.

As for you second question, API line set for 3.0 would be a steeper GS than the 2.5, so trying to line the API, FPV and PAPIs wouldn't work.

Foul on the 1st answer.

And I realize that...but following ILS guidance would still bring them on the appropriate glidepath.

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Foul on the 1st answer.

And I realize that...but following ILS guidance would still bring them on the appropriate glidepath.

Again I don't know for sure, there may have been a squadron brief but nothing OG wide to my knowlege, I managed to get my hands on the safety report.

True, until he took over visually and the API was aiming short.

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Let's not get into the nuts and bolts of the incident. I quoted the item about the glideslope to express that in an air force that demands perfection, they need to change the culture and accept that small errors will be made. TACC takes you right up to the edge without batting an eye. And they rationalize some of that through perceived mitigation: For TACC, a AF Base with an ILS is a no-brainer. Long legs over the ocean are regarded as rest. I keep seeing the ORM pop up, but what was the mission detail that would've raised a red flag under the present criteria? The circumstances were pretty mundane up until the last minute.

Which secondly comes to the crew complement. Were they ready to do this, or not?

Question for other MWS: What is an augmenting pilot's qualification? On the C-130, I've heard its another AC. True?

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KC-10 is two ACs and a copilot. I think the C-17 are the only gomers who augment with an AC and two copilots.

Same for -135s. Good to see that the different rule is working out well for the C-17s.

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What if the PNF started checking the things the PF set, like the glideslope for example? If that's too drastic, maybe the PF could verbalize what he's setting or something like that. Would that help? Maybe we could make that a rule...

Nah...it's probably the ORM thing. Let's keep going with that...nothing to see here.

Bendy

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So, I'm not an expert in the C-17, but I'm pretty sure that every pilot is taught ETCA in UPT.

Establish

Trim

Crosscheck

Adjust

So unless the glide slope is drastically different from the standard 3 degrees and has a crazy short final, I would think the "C" and "A" would take care of minor deviations. Straight up poor airmanship.

*break break*

ORM tools are ridiculous. Ours doesn't even include air refueling... you know, the most dangerous thing we do in the airplane.

Not that obvious. Because of unique design characteristics, the C-17 in landing configuration flies on the "backside" of the power curve and the controls are "reversed"-- that's why you flare with power. I think this guy did what most crossflows guys do when they are still getting used to C-17... he reverted to flying "frontside" when the aircraft was configured for backside.

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A normal C-17 approach is an AOA approach. Pitch for airspeed, power for glidepath. We also have an autotrim mode that holds a set deck angle, which means your airspeed is normally shacked. Setting this is required for visual approaches but not instrument approaches. This seems to create a tendency for airspeed to drop out of crosscheck and fixation on the flight path vector. Since we almost never practice approaches without autotrim, well, you can see how it could cause a problem...

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