IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) Over the Adirondacks
One of the places we used to go and train on night vision goggles (NVG’s)was the Adirondack Mountain area of upstate New York. For those from the western United States they don’t think they are mountains but that is what they are officially labeled as on the maps. Their bases start at about fifteen hundred feet above sea level and their tops are just a little over four thousand feet. Not gigantic mountains but they aren’t new kids on the block like the ones in the west.
The Adirondacks have some nice lakes and streams so it was always fun to go up those areas on weekend training exercises. Our night NVG missions were at night and most often in the wintertime. Navigating on NVG’s can be challenging because everything is green, the field of view is limited and distances are difficult to judge so going in the mountains offered good training for the pilots just getting used to the goggles.
One of the first nights I went to the Adirondacks on goggles was as a second ship in a flight of two. The flight was lead by an instructor that had been flying goggles and the area longer than I had. It was a cold winter night and there were some snowstorms in the area. Before the flight we decided that we would alternate lead and let each one of our pilots practice navigating in the mountains. When we reached the training area I took the lead and let my pilot navigate.
After about a half an hour of leading the way through valleys and up draws we decided it was time to change. The snow was coming down and we were not certain if the weather would hold for us to go too much longer. I found a spot to let the other aircraft take the lead and let him go by. I transferred the controls to my pilot and let him fly while I navigated for a while.
The weather continued to get worse and worse. In order to keep the other aircraft in sight we had to stay within a hundred feet of him because the snow was limiting our ability to see. Navigation became almost totally impossible because we couldn’t see hardly anything. We tried to stay in the valleys but it is hard to tell if you are climbing when you can’t see very far. In a helicopter you can slowly climb and not even know it. After a few more minutes it became clear to me that we could no longer continue the mission.
I called the lead aircraft and told him I thought we should turn around and try to find our way back out of there. He wanted to continue for a bit longer and see if it got better ahead. That was not likely in my opinion but we continued. It didn’t get better – it just got worse. After about ten minutes more the lead instructor agreed we better turn around and try to find our way back out of there. We were able to find our way back out and back home that night but we continued to train in those types of conditions.
About a month later I was back in the Adirondacks training on NVG’s as a lone ship. Upon reaching the training area we descended to right on top of the trees and started our navigation course. The night looked like that previous experience with snow and blowing cold. I was doing the navigation and letting the pilot fly the aircraft because the pilots needed to be trained to perform both tasks.
It was a dark night and the only way we could see was to look out the side of the aircraft where the very small green light on the side of the aircraft illuminated a very short distance. We carefully inched our way along. As we came up a draw we suddenly went totally into a thick snow squall and couldn’t see anything outside of the aircraft. When the aircraft would go into a thick cloud or snowstorm on NVG’s the only thing that can be seen through the NVG’s is a bright green glow around the aircraft as the small amount of light from the aircraft’s position lights is reflected by the moisture.
So there we were in a green glow and unable to tell where the mountains, trees or anything else was. In a second or two we could run into any obstacle and be crashed on the mountainside. If we survived the crash we would have to survive the cold and any injuries at least until morning before any rescue efforts could be launched. The situation was not good.
When a helicopter gets into this type of situation the best thing to do is go forward slowly while climbing as fast as possible to clear any obstacles ahead. The hope is that you climb fast enough to avoid hitting anything in front of you. The pilot pulled all the power the aircraft had and set a speed of about forty knows. We were climbing very rapidly but time seemed to stand still as we waited to see how our luck would be.
After we passed through four thousand feet I began to think we might make it. I took the controls briefly and had the pilot turn our transponder to the emergency frequency. (That would alert the radar folks that we had an emergency) At six thousand feet I told the pilot to ease off on the power and pick up a little more speed. We were still in the snowstorm and couldn’t see outside of the aircraft. Soon we started a turn to the south and headed for home. The next thing was to try and make radio contact with approach control and tell them why we had set our transponder to emergency.
After several calls to approach control I still had not gotten them to answer me. Our climb continued and as we approached ten thousand feet we broke out of the snowstorm. The stars were clear and we could suddenly see for miles. The emergency was over and we had not run into anything. One more night we get to go home. We set the transponder back to the normal code.
When I got closer to home I was able to make contact with approach control. I asked them if they ever saw my emergency code on the transponder or heard my radio calls. They said they never saw the code and never heard my radio calls. Had we gone down in the mountains no one would have even known until hours after we went down. We were too far from base to have those radios work to give us help. We were going in weather that was too risky and risky also because of flying a single ship. After that night we stopped flying single ships into the Adirondacks on NVG’s. And we set stricter weather limitations. The risk had been too high.
We can get too far from home. We can swim too far from shore or go beyond where we can make it back. Most all aircraft accidents are not caused by one single factor. When accidents are investigated the finding is that more than one thing was overlooked by the aircrew or someone on the ground. Then when one more thing than can be handled by the aircraft or crew goes wrong the accident is the result. We had many things going against us that night in the Adirondacks but were fortunate that we escaped alive. It is best not to push things to their very limit. When we do we leave no room for the unexpected which we must expect to happen. Those who don’t leave some room for or prepare for the unexpected will get caught with a bad surprise sooner or later!
The Adirondacks have some nice lakes and streams so it was always fun to go up those areas on weekend training exercises. Our night NVG missions were at night and most often in the wintertime. Navigating on NVG’s can be challenging because everything is green, the field of view is limited and distances are difficult to judge so going in the mountains offered good training for the pilots just getting used to the goggles.
One of the first nights I went to the Adirondacks on goggles was as a second ship in a flight of two. The flight was lead by an instructor that had been flying goggles and the area longer than I had. It was a cold winter night and there were some snowstorms in the area. Before the flight we decided that we would alternate lead and let each one of our pilots practice navigating in the mountains. When we reached the training area I took the lead and let my pilot navigate.
After about a half an hour of leading the way through valleys and up draws we decided it was time to change. The snow was coming down and we were not certain if the weather would hold for us to go too much longer. I found a spot to let the other aircraft take the lead and let him go by. I transferred the controls to my pilot and let him fly while I navigated for a while.
The weather continued to get worse and worse. In order to keep the other aircraft in sight we had to stay within a hundred feet of him because the snow was limiting our ability to see. Navigation became almost totally impossible because we couldn’t see hardly anything. We tried to stay in the valleys but it is hard to tell if you are climbing when you can’t see very far. In a helicopter you can slowly climb and not even know it. After a few more minutes it became clear to me that we could no longer continue the mission.
I called the lead aircraft and told him I thought we should turn around and try to find our way back out of there. He wanted to continue for a bit longer and see if it got better ahead. That was not likely in my opinion but we continued. It didn’t get better – it just got worse. After about ten minutes more the lead instructor agreed we better turn around and try to find our way back out of there. We were able to find our way back out and back home that night but we continued to train in those types of conditions.
About a month later I was back in the Adirondacks training on NVG’s as a lone ship. Upon reaching the training area we descended to right on top of the trees and started our navigation course. The night looked like that previous experience with snow and blowing cold. I was doing the navigation and letting the pilot fly the aircraft because the pilots needed to be trained to perform both tasks.
It was a dark night and the only way we could see was to look out the side of the aircraft where the very small green light on the side of the aircraft illuminated a very short distance. We carefully inched our way along. As we came up a draw we suddenly went totally into a thick snow squall and couldn’t see anything outside of the aircraft. When the aircraft would go into a thick cloud or snowstorm on NVG’s the only thing that can be seen through the NVG’s is a bright green glow around the aircraft as the small amount of light from the aircraft’s position lights is reflected by the moisture.
So there we were in a green glow and unable to tell where the mountains, trees or anything else was. In a second or two we could run into any obstacle and be crashed on the mountainside. If we survived the crash we would have to survive the cold and any injuries at least until morning before any rescue efforts could be launched. The situation was not good.
When a helicopter gets into this type of situation the best thing to do is go forward slowly while climbing as fast as possible to clear any obstacles ahead. The hope is that you climb fast enough to avoid hitting anything in front of you. The pilot pulled all the power the aircraft had and set a speed of about forty knows. We were climbing very rapidly but time seemed to stand still as we waited to see how our luck would be.
After we passed through four thousand feet I began to think we might make it. I took the controls briefly and had the pilot turn our transponder to the emergency frequency. (That would alert the radar folks that we had an emergency) At six thousand feet I told the pilot to ease off on the power and pick up a little more speed. We were still in the snowstorm and couldn’t see outside of the aircraft. Soon we started a turn to the south and headed for home. The next thing was to try and make radio contact with approach control and tell them why we had set our transponder to emergency.
After several calls to approach control I still had not gotten them to answer me. Our climb continued and as we approached ten thousand feet we broke out of the snowstorm. The stars were clear and we could suddenly see for miles. The emergency was over and we had not run into anything. One more night we get to go home. We set the transponder back to the normal code.
When I got closer to home I was able to make contact with approach control. I asked them if they ever saw my emergency code on the transponder or heard my radio calls. They said they never saw the code and never heard my radio calls. Had we gone down in the mountains no one would have even known until hours after we went down. We were too far from base to have those radios work to give us help. We were going in weather that was too risky and risky also because of flying a single ship. After that night we stopped flying single ships into the Adirondacks on NVG’s. And we set stricter weather limitations. The risk had been too high.
We can get too far from home. We can swim too far from shore or go beyond where we can make it back. Most all aircraft accidents are not caused by one single factor. When accidents are investigated the finding is that more than one thing was overlooked by the aircrew or someone on the ground. Then when one more thing than can be handled by the aircraft or crew goes wrong the accident is the result. We had many things going against us that night in the Adirondacks but were fortunate that we escaped alive. It is best not to push things to their very limit. When we do we leave no room for the unexpected which we must expect to happen. Those who don’t leave some room for or prepare for the unexpected will get caught with a bad surprise sooner or later!
posted by Bruce | 10:19 AM
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