Excellent saga, Scott. Much appreciated. Ted ----- Original Message ----- From: "Scott MacLean" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Georgetown Crew Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "MacLean List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 11:34 PM Subject: Nevermore
> Nevermore by Cdr. Dave DeLance > > Anyone who has spent time at NAF Atsugi, Japan knows all about the ravens. > Thousands of them, caw loudly and raucously, from the golf course to the > flight line. They wake you every morning and are still at it every evening. > > Early last month, I could have sworn I heard one whisper "Nevermore." > > I'm a Navy C-9 pilot, a 20-year commander in the Navy Reserve who also > flies as a captain for an airline. My time is nearly equally split between > my civilian and military jobs. I spend months each year in Japan or Italy, > flying passengers and cargo for the Navy. > > Last month, we were tasked to fly from Atsugi to Phuket, Thailand, stay > overnight, fly a leg to pick up a SEAL platoon, bring them back to Phuket, > spend another night, and then return them to their forward deployed home > base in Guam. This was an unusual but not unheard-of mission for a C-9. > > The entire mission went fine all the way back to Phuket on the second > night. Gas started to become an issue when we had both of the SEAL det > crews and their combat cargo on board. That extra weight limited the amount > of fuel we could carry to about 30,000 pounds-four and a half to five > hours' worth. > > Three tropical depressions were beginning to stir things up in the Far > East. One was up north, to the west of Korea; it wasn't a factor. But one > was sitting just to the west of the Philippines and slowly drifting east > toward Manila. The third, named Samoi, was spinning up to the northeast of > Guam and sliding northwest. Its projected track would keep it 200 miles > north of the island. It would soon accelerate, unforecasted, to super > typhoon status. > > Phuket, Thailand, is an international resort (where the movie "The Beach" > was filmed), so while overseas communication was expensive, it wasn't > impossible. Worried about the weather, I made several long-distance calls > to our scheduler and various weather agencies around the area. We managed > to identify an alternate airport for Manila and decided to press on with > the mission. We would beat the first typhoon into Manila with a day to spare. > > With the SEAL team on board, we departed Phuket airport early that morning. > About 200 miles into the flight, the first thunderstorms started to appear, > and we switched on the weather radar. It didn't work. > > It had tested fine on the ground, and it had tested fine in the air, but it > wouldn't show us the storms. We made the only decision we could and turned > around to get it fixed. We carry our own mechanics with us, and an hour and > a half later, back on the ground in Phuket, we found the broken wire... > Again we fueled the aircraft and started off, now more than two hours late. > > The weather into Manila was dicey but manageable. We used the radar to > skirt the worst of the storms on our way in from the west, and we found > clearer weather as we approached the field. The leg took three hours and 40 > minutes, and we landed with 6,500 pounds of fuel, just above the legal > planning limit of 6,000 pounds. > > Again we refueled. We were losing daylight by flying east and it was now > dusk in the Philippines. Again, I hauled out my credit card and called to > recheck the weather. There was a chance of light rain later that evening in > Guam, but we should have no real problems. The next leg was projected to > last three hours and 20 minutes, so we were confident we'd have fuel to > spare. There are two major airports on Guam, even though it is a small > island. This is important for a C-9, because almost every time we fly to an > island, we don't have enough fuel to go anywhere else. > > That was certainly true this night. This leg was business as usual, legal > by every naval aviation regulation. I would have flown it with my family in > the back. > > We took off in the deepening twilight, maneuvering to avoid the storms that > the radar picked up with increasing frequency. A commercial pilot talked to > us on an air-to-air common radio frequency; told us he had just taken off > from Guam and that we should have no problems. We pressed on, oblivious to > the havoc Samoi would soon unleash. > > We approached Guam at 10 p.m. There was no ATIS (automatic weather > broadcast)--the field had closed because of the worsening weather. > > Approach control was still up and running. We arrived overhead with 7,500 > pounds of gas, about what we had expected but certainly not enough to go > anywhere else. > > Typhoon Samoi had slowed and moved south. Counterclockwise, swirling bands > of severe thunderstorms had begun to fill in on its backside. > > Though the storm center was 150 miles to the north, the typhoon encompassed > an area 600 miles across and 1,200 miles long. > > Both airports in Guam have long, dual runways that run from northeast to > southwest. The wind that came roaring in with those backfilling storms was > almost straight out of the west, at times reaching 80 knots. Those > treacherous winds kept us from shooting an ILS approach. A precision > approach would have placed us well outside the tailwind limits for the > aircraft. > > We set up for the TACAN 24, non-precision approach to Anderson Air Force > Base. It comes in over the ocean, crosses a cliff several hundred feet high > and touches down on the runway atop the cliff, less than a half-mile from > the edge. On a clear day, it can be an eye-opener. On a night like this, it > can kill you. One wind shear downdraft at the wrong time and not only will > you not clear the cliff, you might never see it coming... > > If you've ever had to pull your car to the side of the road during a heavy > downpour you can relate to the conditions that night. Now imagine yourself > moving at 150 miles an hour and not being given the luxury of stopping. > > The rain was horizontal. We could not see three feet ahead let alone the > half-mile that is required to land from that speed. On the first approach, > an 80-knot wind shear took our speed from 150 to 230 knots in two seconds. > A go-around was mandatory. > > The second approach featured a little less wind shear. The radar was now > showing nothing but red on the 30-mile scale. We don't even fly through red > normally, let alone land in it. According to Approach Control, we had been > over the end of the runway both times, but we never saw a thing. Fuel was > now 5,000 pounds. > > I was ready to start bending the rules because I had to get closer to the > ground to have any chance to land. I opted for a downwind ILS, landing in > the opposite direction. We began the approach with the autopilot locked on > ILS despite the out-of-limit winds. The GPS showed a 40-knot tailwind (the > limit is 10), but I was out of ideas. At around 250 feet, we got the one > that always gets you in the simulator: the minus 40-knot wind shear. You > instantly lose the airflow over the wings that keeps you airborne. The > aircraft can stall and fall and there is nothing you can do about it. Our > airspeed went to around 100 knots. We would have died if it had reached 95. > I clicked off the autopilot and shoved the throttles to the stops, trying > to initiate the textbook wind shear recovery on the edge of control. I > actually saw runway lights at one point. But we couldn't land with that > combination of airspeed, wind shear, and visibility. We would have crashed > on the runway. We went around again. > > I got clearance to Guam International, 20 miles away. The fuel was now > 4,400. We declared minimum fuel. Approach asked for "souls on board," and > we knew that was so they could tell the rescue teams how many bodies to > look for. The controller said his radar showed the weather getting worse. > > We were cleared for our fourth approach, a VOR/TACAN 24 (another non > precision approach) to Guam International. So far, all the approaches had > been backed up by the copilot using homemade GPS approaches, and he was > calling out centerline deviations. I had been flying real instruments, not > computer-generated ones. Approach called the position of the actual terrain > obstructions (to our left) and gave us unofficial help for centerline > although he did not actually have "precision radar" and could not "legally" > do it. I recognized his calls for what they were and started cheating 50 to > 100 feet on the minimum descent altitudes. We still couldn't see anything > forward. We went around again. > > The TACAN (DME) went out of service sometime during the go-around, so we > were cleared for the NDB (at best approximate) approach to runway 24, the > only one left for us to use... The fuel gauge read 2,800 pounds. > > Going around is not recommended below 1,500 pounds in the C-9 because the > deck angle may cause the engines to flame out. We turned on all the > fuel-tank pumps, even in the empty tanks, and opened the fuel cross-feed. > > We had been over the end of runway every time, we just hadn't been able to > see. We went around for the fifth time... We had enough gas for one or two > more tries. I tried to decide what to say in the voice recorder right > before we crashed. > > As we asked for early turn-in vectors to the NDB, the crew chief (whose > birthday was that day) asked, " OK guys, what are we going to do now?" I > decided to couple up the NDB approach on the GPS computer with the > autopilot--an unauthorized, untested technique that allows the computer to > fly the aircraft without outside reference. I flew to 100 feet below the > approved minimums on autopilot-altitude hold. This allowed me to look > outside without concentrating on the instruments. We drove in and caught > our first break, a gap in the waves of thunderstorm cells rolling across > the island. We saw the ground, and, for the first time, saw the runway at > three-quarters of a mile. > > I immediately clicked off the autopilot and dove to 100 feet to avoid any > possibility of going back into the clouds. We were still in moderate rain. > In close, I pushed it over. We picked up a 40-knot wind shear 30 or 40 feet > from the end of the runway. I continued to push the nose down, willing to > have it hit if I had to, but I managed to level out at five feet and, > incredibly, ended up with a smooth touchdown. The antiskid released several > times as we hydroplaned on the rain-soaked runway. > > We stopped on centerline with 3,000 feet remaining. We sat there for a > minute. Then the torrential rain closed back in, and I could not see to > taxi. The fuel was 2,000 pounds. Riotous applause erupted from the back. > > They had known we were in trouble, but only the three of us in the front > knew we only had enough gas left for one more pass. > > Thirteen civilian airliners had received the same weather report as we did > that night. They all started out expecting to land at Guam, and they all > carried enough fuel to divert to Tokyo, Manila or Okinawa. In other words, > they had an extra 30,000 pounds of gas. That's what we had started with. > All 13 diverted to their alternates, some before an approach and some > after. We were the only aircraft who made it in that night (or the next 24 > hours). > > Around midnight, as we pulled into the gate, our crew chief looked round > the cockpit and said, flatly, "Well, it looks like I survived another > birthday." > > We parked with 1,700 pounds of fuel. The APU flamed out 4-5 minutes later. > We actually had less than 500 pounds of usable fuel remaining on touchdown. > Will I ever fly around the Far East with the Navy again? > > Absolutely. > > Will I ever fly to an island destination that has a tropical depression > nearby? Not on your life. Sometimes even your best isn't good enough. Three > days later, we made our way back to Atsugi. As we shut down and walked away > from the aircraft, I turned around. Sitting all by himself, up on the tail, > was a big, old black raven. I could swear he winked at me and whispered, > "Nevermore". > _______________________ > Scott MacLean > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ICQ: 9184011 > http://www.nerosoft.com > >
