Nick Tselepides 1 Posted October 20, 2003 The following article describes a real experience with an EA-6B Prowler. The reason I bring it to you attention is that you can simulate this experience in FS2002 if you have Rich Hogen's Arrestor Cables Add-On and his Carriers and if you arrange your settings in the Failures Options, your Time as Night, etc. I did this in my game and I had the andrenalin flowing, boltered a couple of times, trapped on the 3rd-it was a hair-raising experience, to say the least. The article follows: "Just Another Night At The Boat" By Lt Kenneth M. Masson It was my first night CQ in two and a half years. All in all, I was feeling pretty good taxiing up to the cat. The deck was pretty steady except for some dutch roll, and proof of the almighty, there was a full moon with scattered cloud cover. You would be hard pressed to find better conditions for a few night traps. I had two PXOs flying with me for some "uneventful" night traps in the Prowler. I was as close to happy about night traps as you can get, that is until the cat stroke. "Good shot, good shot……S-t!" Just after rotating at 145 knots, the jet got extremely mushy as if I had lost a motor. Immediately, I raised my gear and scanned the tapes. I hadn’t lost a motor but my IPI (integrated position indicator) had completely barberpoled. My flaps were blowing back and my stabilizer was shifting clean at 145 knots (40 knots less than minimum flap retraction speed!) Silence… "I got it, I got it" as we laboriously climbed away from Neptune’s grasp. On climbout, we tried to take stock of our predicament. No trim caused extremely heavy stick loads. There were over fifteen popped circuit breakers ranging from AOA to slats. With the help of the commander in the back seat, we identified all popped c/b’s and read through all the checklists that had any possible relevance to our situation. Since the NATOPS didn’t cover this emergency precisely, we used our best assets; common sense and aircraft systems knowledge. In order to regain control of our flaps and stabilizer, we selected emergency flaps and slats. This shifted our flight controls back to full throws establishing much needed control at slower airspeeds. With no certain means of confirming our configuration, we elected to do a fly by. In accordance with NATOPS our minimum controllable airspeed plus 10 knots was 136. At 126 knots, the jet would roll off to the left as the nose fell through. Although 136 knots seemed like a good compromise, the jet was still prone to roll off in response to lateral stick inputs but it was controllable without the more extreme stick forces at 150 knots. We got three important pieces of information from the low approach: line-up was going to be very tough with the dutch roll and the jet’s tendency to roll off, our gear was indeed down, and my arm was getting tired. After talking over our options, we decided to give the boat a shot until reaching our dirty bingo of 6200#s. With no AOA, limited lateral control, a higher than normal approach speed, our approach was going to be difficult. The first approach: I got to a good start at 136 knots on and on. It wasn’t enough! As I fought line-up and stick forces, I started to drop the tough inside/outside airspeed scan. As a result I was way overpowered at the ramp at 145-150 knots. "Bolter, Bolter." Time to regroup. The second approach: We split up the scan duties to better allocate our cockpit resources. ECMO1, CDR Ott, was to call out airspeeds all the way down. I was going to concentrate on line-up and glideslope exclusively. We hoped the new strategy would pay off because I was tired and we were trick or treat. "665 Prowler ball, 6.3" "Roger ball, 27 knots, you’re on glideslope and a little overpowered." The LSO’s response was golden! It was AIRPAC Paddles and he was going to lip lock my glideslope. Meanwhile ECMO1 was holding a perfect cadence, faster for greater than 136 knots and more urgent for slower speeds. I struggled with line-up but forced my scan to keep moving while taking in the aural cues. Crossing the ramp, "You’re a little overpowered…attitude!" We were aboard on the three wire. What a relief! Taxiing out of the landing area, the two constant speed drives overheated as a result of more popped circuit breakers. We shut down where we were and egressed from "Christine". Over the next two hours with help from our maintainers and NATOPS, we pieced the puzzle together. Going down the CAT stroke we had an electrical fire that burnt through our top deck relay wire bundle creating our strange assortment of failures. In the end, although a little luck can go a long way, a through and methodical approach to the situation enabled a happy ending. We used the assets at our disposal; experience, NATOPS, the ship, LSOs and solid crew coordination. While the new XOs did get meaningful boat experience, it was anything but uneventful. Oh well, just another night trap! --------------- Article taken with all due acknoweledgemts from http://www.safetycenter.navy.mil/media/app...ticles/0250.htm Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
