Hi,
we had a discussion about the Case III Marshall order or behavior.
Lets say as a flight of 4 planes you get your Marshal pattern from 6k ft to 10k ft with according racetracks (15 miles + your given height). Then u get your pushtimes.
Now the lowest Plane commencing on his pushtime to the CV, what do the other 3 Planes do?
Circle further on, on their height, or do they descend to the next lower pattern?
If thats the case, did they do that by their own, or only when ATC is giving order to do so?
edit: And is every Plane at the exact time (+10sec) over his commencing point on his racetrack?
would be nice to get some clarification about that. Thanks in advance
Yup, you’ll stay at your assigned altitude. Goal is to be inbound at your assigned DME, 250kts, and pushing over for your descent at the time they give you.
Yeah, we use some rules of thumb to arrive on time. Target 300kts ground speed on the HSI, it’ll be somewhere in the upper 200s in the HUD but you wanna reference the HSI for speed while holding in this case.
300 means you’ll travel five miles every minute with about two minutes for the turn inbound. As a technique I like to drive out to 35-40 miles if airpspace allows until I intercept the timing and turn inbound.
The last mile or two I’ll use to slow down to 250 in the HUD so that you arrive at the DME at the correct speed. If I really jacked up my timing problem and I’m using speed to catch up, it’ll take about the last five miles to slow down.
I can go into more technique on how to plan it out later but those are the basics.
So the offset from the runway/carrier at the break, speed at break, G’s during the break turn, speed/alt for the downwind, and bank angle for turn to final (30 degrees) are all the same for a VFR airfield landing and a Case I carrier landing.
If I do it right (and don’t get me wrong, I usually can’t), I should roll out on either on centerline of the runway or right over the wake of the ship. But, to get myself in the right place a good carrier approach, I should actually cross the wake during my turn to final and complete my turn offset to the right of the carrier’s center line so I’m lined up with the extended centerline of the angle landing area.
So theoretically, to get in the right spot for a landing at an airfield vs carrier, one of two things would need to happen, wouldn’t it? Either 1) airfield break turn is wider/carrier break turn is tighter or 2) airfield turn to final is tighter/carrier turn to final is wider. But per procedures there are no differences.
Does all that make sense? What am I missing?
Would have been easier to explain with pictures or a whiteboard…
Well, one difference is that the carrier is moving.
As far as i know, for the carrier return the turn to final gets progressively slower so you end up on glideslope. For me it boils down to the sight picture. If you are aware of where you are in the turn, you will instinctively make the right corrections.
