Carrier SOPs

[Flyco]

After last night's multiple attacks on the carrier, from a variety of directions, I suggest it is time to set down some SOPs.

I have just flown a timed circuit from Launch to Landing (a 3-wire !!), and recorded the whole proceedings - these were my timings:

0:00 Launch
0:03 Airborne, climbing, throttling back to around 93-95%
0:21 Levelling at 600 ft at around 0.7 nm Tacan from Stennis
0:30 Tacan range 1.0 nm - started 30 degree level(ish) turn
1:15 Rolled out downwind on 175 degrees - at 580 ft
1:29 Abeam Stennis Tacan
1.33 Started Finals turn at about 5-10 degrees past Tacan abeam bearing
1:56 Approx half way round finals
2.08 Closing on centre-line at 0.9 nm on Tacan
2.12 0.8 nm on Tacan
2.20 Rolling wings level at 0.6 nm on Tacan
2.39 Touch-down

I was looking for good evenly-spaced points to make calls. With the whole circuit taking well under 3 minutes, I suggest that we should limit it to 4 calls at a maximum. I am inclined to suggest the following:
1. 'C/S Launch' - as the catapult fires.
2. 'C/S Upwind' - halfway round the upwind turn)
3. 'C/S Finals' - as you start the finals turn
4. 'C/S Ball' - between 0.6 and 0.5 nm tacan range.

For joining aircraft there should be call at 3 nm range 'C/S Joining', and C/S 'Breaking as the break is begun - this replacing the 'Upwind' Call. A joining aircraft should start his break early or late (between 0.5 and 2.0 nm Tacan range) to take account of the position of other aircraft in the circuit.

Needless to say calls should be concise and at the correct position. I am not convinced that we need to include fuel.

Before going any further. I would welcome the views of other members.

[Neil Willis]

The correct call is to simply state you have the ball visual at 3/4 mile from the carrier, and the call consists of your side number; aircraft type; either ball (when visual) or clara (when you are not visual with the ball) and your fuel state (i.e. 2.5 meaning 2500 pounds). Hence "405 Hornet Ball 2.5"

The call is made in response to the LSO asking you to "call the ball". They will also call when you are at the 180 (1.1 to 1.2 Nautical miles abeam of the round down).

The LSO of course also talks you down with very specific calls.

Other than that, you should make no other calls whilst in the pattern, and spacing is established by breaking at the correct intervals when joining the pattern.

Of course we fly a little more chaotically than that, so I see no reason not to adopt your calls when we are practicing case 3 landings, just for clarity and to avoid conflicting. Spacing should be a minimum of 45 seconds according to USN procedures. I would also add "Foul deck" and "Deck clear" when making a successful trap, and when you have cleared the landing zone.

[Flyco]

That seems to be OK then. I don’t think that in practice, especially with more than 2 or 3 in the closed pattern, many of us could guarantee to take less than 2:45 from launch to touch-down.

I suggest we aim for a minimum of 3 minutes from launch to touchdown, which will fit in 4 aircraft at a spacing of 45 secs. I suggest we also build in a requirement to clear the closed circuit for a full Case 1 rejoin after anyone has had 3 missed approaches/rollers/bolters.

I will draw up a draft SOP along those lines.

1. I will go for a minimum distance of 1.0 nm on Tacan, before the upwind turn may be commenced, and a maximum of 1.5 nm. A small extension upwind is the best way of making a one-off adjustment to in-circuit spacing, but we don’t want to have our circuits starting to look like cross-country navexes.

2. I will make the distance out on the downwind leg 1.2 nm (plus or minus 0.1 nm.

3. The final fixed point will be the start of the finals turn, which I will set at a maximum of 20 degrees from the abeam using the carrier’s Tacan. Each degree is around 1sec, and I would not want to see anyone going further than 20 seconds past the carrier’s stern. Five to ten seconds is the ideal and every 5 second beyond that is going to add up to 15 seconds to the time to touchdown. That will inevitably force the guy 50-55 seconds behind to have to go-around, or extend even further (more cross-country navexes).

Will everyone let me know if they see any problems with the above proposal, or if they have any suggestions for improvements. I want to keep it as short as practical, and cover only the procedures - not the techniques.

EDIT: Sorry, one additional point. When we are using an LSO, he will make the call TO the aircraft about to start his finals turn, and the aircraft will be required to start his turn within 10 seconds or go around.

[Neil Willis]

For practice, an extended groove is probably something we can accept, but one of the critical points about a Case 3 recovery is to minimise the time spent on approach by making the final turn as tight as possible. Anyone who is deemed to be "long in the groove" would be told to go around by either the air boss or LSO.

So, ideally, we should all be aiming to make the turn from the 180 as early as possible, but to increase the capacity of the pattern, this might be relaxed a little. You are absolutely correct when you say any extension of the pattern should be made in front of the carrier. I believe in reality, the visual reference to make the turn is seeing daylight through the rear hangar door rather than being perpendicular to the round down, but this feature doesn't yet exist in the simulation.

Bottom line with the turn to finals should be to keep it as short as possible, and you should never be beyond around 1 mile behind the ship on Case 3 recoveries. How we relax that in practice however ought to be determined by how proficient people are at getting into the sweet spot regarding the glide slope as the longer you are in the groove, the more accurate you can be. I found myself turning inside other pilots a lot on Thursday because of the extended groove, so we must all try and stick to the numbers regardless of whether we run a long or short groove to make the pattern work well of course.

[Flyco]

Attached is my initial attempt at producing some F-18 carrier landing SOPs. I am afraid they do seem to be turning into an instructional guide rather than pure SOPS.

Nevertheless, I will publish this first shot, to get views from members. Please do not be inhibited - as if!

I will be supplementing them with an annotated circuit diagram in best RAF QFI Whiteboard fashion.

Case III will follow. It will be more detailed but a little more straightforward - if that doesn't sound too ridiculous.

[Thomas Loeffelmann]

Ref. CNATRA P1238(REV. 7-01) PAT
Carrier Qualification Flight Procedures

Page 41
2. Do not descend below 300 ft AGL without acquiring
ball.

Page 24
WARNING: Never descend below 300 ft AGL without the ball.

[Neil Willis]

A couple of points Alan. Is the 250 kts airspeed correct for the hold when it becomes 350 kts when joining the pattern and starting the break?


The calls are incorrect as they stand. When the LSO says "Call the ball", the correct response is (Side number i.e. 405) Hornet (assuming you're flying an F/A-18) Ball (if the ball is visible, or Clara if it isn't) 3.1 (fuel in thousands and hundreds of pounds) for example "Four Oh five Hornet Ball three point one".


And most importantly, it is essential in a Case 1 recovery that the turn to finals is made very shortly after you fly perpendicular to the round down. This will keep the pattern tight enough to minimise the landing. A cardinal sin is to be too long in the groove, in which case the pilot would be waved off to recommence. If recoveries are to be efficient, an absolute minimum time should be allowed to recover each aircraft.


It is wise to emphasise spacing in the pattern too. the second ship should be at the 180 when the first makes his ball call. the third should be turning onto the upwind, and the fourth, commencing the break turn, giving a 45 second gap between them. If a pattern needs to be extended, it should only be done in the upwind portion of the circuit, and never downwind.

I suggest all landing practice is carried out using the VFA117 mission template as there are some very pertinent calls made to each pilot in the pattern - the 180 "Paddles contact", if you get too long in the groove, a wave of instruction "You're so long in the groove an airbus cut you off, go around", and finally on entering the groove "3/4 mile call the ball" to which the pilot makes his only call - the ball call. It will ensure everyone turns in promptly and doesn't take too long about recovery.

Three versions of the recovery mission are attached, with the BRC of 270 degrees. Each mission has a different combination of wind and carrier speed ensuring the minimum of 25 knots over the deck. Carrier TACAN is 74X.

VFA113LSOv2.miz

(433.99 KiB) Downloaded 204 times

VFA113LSOv2 +15 knot wind.miz

(436.02 KiB) Downloaded 203 times

VFA113LSOv2 +25 knot wind.miz

(434.05 KiB) Downloaded 203 times

[Flyco]

To take your points in order.

I could find no quoted figure for the Case I/II hold speed. I went for 250 because that is the speed for the hold for a Case III hold. If you put the speed up to 350 for the 2000 ft hold, it makes it more difficult to stay within the max 5nm diameter hold, without overbanking. It also uses more fuel. All that said, there is no problem with defining it as 350 kias.

The problem I foresaw with using the side-number (which I presume is the aircraft ‘tail number’) Is that, at present, DCS uses the formation call sign e.g. Enfield 1-1. If, or when, they introduce the specific carrier ATC, they revert to side-numbers then I agree that is what we should use. For the moment we do most of our carrier work without an LSO, and, I suspect that most members will not know what their side-number is. Ok, they could look using the external view, but I can foresee extra confusion. Converting from formation call signs to side-numbers when we join the carrier is going to be problematic.

Because the round-down is at 9 degrees to the ship’s fore-and-aft axis (the BRC), if the turn is begun at exactly 10 degrees beyond the TACAN abeam bearing (90 degrees to the BRC), and provided that the aircraft is approximatelym1.2nm abeam the carrier, that will be within 1 or 2 seconds of the correct position. We should certainly define the turn point as aligned with the round-down, but I don’t see a problem with telling members that they can get a very accurate estimate from using the TACAN bearing.

As for maintaining the correct 45 seconds separation, that was the reason I suggested using additional positional calls. At present, there is only one call - at the ball. I take around 2:50 sec for a full circuit - with 4 in, that is rather less that 45 seconds separation.

I will hold off on changes until we get some additional inputs. But I don’t think we are very far apart.

[Mutley]

why all the confusion over side numbers etc i thought we agreed on using our group numbers ie 258 hornet etc

[Neil Willis]

No confusion, but according to USN doctrine, side numbers are used. It is simple enough to allocate a side number to each pilot, but the distinction is there. C/S on ops, side number on approach. How DCS World will interpret things in the new ATC system remains to be seen of course.

I'll try and delve a little deeper into holding pattern speeds. I am sure there is a detailed breakdown of the entire procedure in a video made by an ex-Hornet jockey.


I mentioned the long in the groove thing because it is an area that most people seem to be very lax on at present, and we need to improve.


Providing we all keep our eyes peeled and stick closer to the correct pattern, we should be able to maintain spacing purely visually. There is no harm making extra calls if needed to keep things safe of course. SOPs should however state the correct methods, and exceptions would be better briefed as part of the pre-flight if they stray from doctrine.

We're definitely not far apart on what's been written so far, and I guess it is all really down to a little polish now.

There is a typo too - it is ICLS, and not ACLS (Paragraph 5 line 3)