Case III Recovery

[Neil Willis]

As the first stage of our training towards a good Case III recovery, we need to fill in a few details. It is a very complex manoeuvre, so to begin with, watch this video from Matt Wagner, which is based on the old Stennis, without the addition of comms.

It will give you the numbers to fly, and give a basic demonstration of what is required to fly the hold, descent, flying the arc, where and when to dirty up, and most importantly, rates of descent.

We will begin by getting into pattern flying in poor viz, and graduate up to night flying the numbers accurately. There is a lot to think about, with Case III. Commencing at the right time is one of the hardest parts, and we will cover that in detail later.

For the present, practice pattern flying by setting up a carrier at a cardinal heading (000, 090, 180 or270) then setting up at a 30 degree off radial, 25 miles and 10,000 feet. Orbiting on that hold point is no simple thing as the reference point will be moving down range at up to 25 knots. You should maintain 250 knots and 10,000 feet, orbiting on a racetrack around 2 miles long.

Once you have that clearly settled, continue into the descent at 4000 fpm, maintaining the 030 radial and 250 knots. Reduce the descent rate to 2000 fpm when you reach 5000 ft.

Practice those evolutions in good weather, then cloud, and finally darkness.

The rest we will cover later, but this will give you a good foundation to build on.

The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvlMHnL ... ex=16&t=8s

[Jack Crammer]

Hi Neil, when will we be training case III or just on our own?

[Neil Willis]

We will run a group session soon Jack. The practice leading up to that is just to get everyone used to night flight and instrument following.

We usually do all the group training on Wednesday nights. I’ll give you more information when we are all ready to go.

We landed in the dark on Tuesday, so next Tuesday’s mission will probably be the same.

If you want to get together when you have time, just let me know. I can be flexible, and I think Chris can be too.

[Flyco]

Not sure how current this is, but I used it while practicing Cat-III approaches in the F-18.

As you can see, I am a big kneeboard fan

[Neil Willis]

Thanks for that Alan, We will be poaching stuff from various sources and writing our SOPs and kneeboard checklists soon. Hopefully we will be able to get some very prototypical procedures down and get into some serious flying soon.

Initially, I personally need to round off some rough edges, and dial in my recoveries. It just takes a little time and practice.

[Flyco]

Couple of points about the Case III hold that I have gleaned from nosy-ing around.

Someone asked me what was meant by a 2-minute turn - suggesting that it was a turn which took 2 minutes to complete. In fact is is a Rate of turn - being that rate of turn that takes 2 minutes to complete a 360 degree turn - i.e. a Rate-1 turn in UK/RAF parlance.

A Rate 1 turn is achieved by using 25 degrees of bank at an IAS of 180 kias. Unfortunately, when you are trying to do it at 6000 ft and at 250 TAS, it requires significantly more than 25 degrees of bank. I will look up the formulae and come up with an AoB, that will give you a Rate-1 at 250 TAS and 600 ft - my guess is that it will be somewhere between 30 and 35 degrees. You could use the turn needle on the instrument panel, but they are notoriously inaccurate - particularly in DCS I have noticed.

[Flyco]

Just flown a quick test and at 6000 ft amsl and 250kias, you need 35 degrees angle-of-bank to hold a constant Rate-1 (i.e. a 2 min turn). You will need a higher angle-of-bank at greater heights (because the TAS increases for a constant IAS) but unless you get above 10,000 ft it will be around 35-37 degrees.

[Crowebar-892nas]

From Wikipedia “A standard rate turn is defined as a 3° per second turn, which completes a 360° turn in 2 minutes. This is known as a 2-minute turn, or rate one“. In the Hornet we have an instrument setup especially to fly standard and half rate turns. Set a DDI to support menu and press OSB 1 ‘ADI’ this displays EADI (Electronic ADI) towards the bottom you will see a row of 3 horizontal boxes, and a single box below them. Straight and level the single box is below the centre of the row of 3 upper boxes. As you bank the bottom box moves across horizontally. Bank to place the lower box below the upper box and then maintain that position is a ‘Standard rate turn’. Place the lower box between the centre and outer boxes so it’s sides align with the edges of the upper boxes and you are in a ‘half rate turn’. Also used for formation departures, turns etc

[Flyco]

That is called the ‘turn indicator’, and every DCS ac has one. Unfortunately, they are not very accurate, either in real life or in DCS.

[Crowebar-892nas]

I guess ultimately it is each to their own, as long as you get to the right place at the right time to commence.