Fast Jet Drivers

[semirigid rotor]

A question for those driving something fast and pointed. As a HEMS pilot operating around the UK, I have heard a rumour that if the weather radar is switched on and transmitting there is a a better chance of you "seeing us" before we see you, right or wrong?

Generally the radar will only be on if we are IFR, but if it helps with VFR see and avoid - every little bit helps.

[jayteeto]

In my military helicopter days, we used to fly around with all sorts of electronic kit. We quite often detected fast jet terrain following radar well before we saw the jet. Switch it on, you never know, it might just save your life...

[16 blades]

This would only be true if the aircraft is fitted with RWR...and it's powered up, which is unlikely - we only tend to switch it on at places like Spadeadam. Applicable to any military type as well, not just FJ.

[Always_broken_in_wilts]

You have RWR and you fly round at low level with it switched off:eek: What a bl@@dy waste, unbolt it and send it to the other side of the airfield, we would certainly put it to proper use:ok:

all spelling mistakes are "df" alcohol induced

[Tombstone]

This would only be true if the aircraft is fitted with RWR...and it's powered up, which is unlikely - we only tend to switch it on at places like Spadeadam. Applicable to any military type as well, not just FJ.

If you guys only switch it on when going through the EWTR then I guess it's only on 3 times a year!! ;)

[Flt Lt Spry]

Detection depends on the frequency of your weather radar. If it operates on the same frequency as any Soviet equipment, then it should be in the correct range!

The SOP for jets fitted with RWR/RHWR is to fly around with them switched on to help detect other platforms with RF emitters. Additionally, when not using our own radar for anything specific, it is selected to wide scan to aid our own conspicuity and help fry our nuts good and proper.

I would suggest that flying with your weather radar switched on is probably the way ahead unless you have a good reason not to. If it is switched on, there is a small chance it may aid others detect your presence.

[Pontius Navigator]

If the kit is fitted and no one tells you to leave it off then it should be ON else how do you know if it will work?

You might not need it today but some poor sod who gets your plane tomorrow might get heartedly pissed off if he was the one to discover it was knackered.

We had this ince with a bombsight. Had a week's ranger intended for calibration totally f*cked up as the previous crew found it didn't work, switched it off, and did not report it u/s.

[BEagle]

The lazy sods who couldn't be ar$ed to do the pre-flight checks on the RWR (or even the HFs) on the Vickers FunBus always infuriated me! Guaranteed way for a captain not to start an AAR Cat check well if he couldn' be even bothered to run the Sky Grauniad checks. One AT dinosaur moaned that the RWR fan was 'too noisy' and didn't want it on.....

Similarly, even if only on a CT trip, there's no excuse for not getting a SelCal check in during the pre-flight checks. The person who might need it the next day for a few hours over the Atlantic (remember where that is?) and finds that it's tits-up will be ever so impressed to learn that the previous day's co-pilot was too busy drinking tea to bother with checking it and snagging it if it didn't work!

[PlasticCabDriver]

Have to agree with ABIW, I'm afraid, if you've got it, why not use it? Weather radars, TFR, other stuff, much of it gives an indication, and gives you a direction to concentrate your lookout. Try it, it works.

[semirigid rotor]

Thanks for the replies. It's on from now on.

[Lima Juliet]

Good plan...spread the word brother.

By the way if you have an I-band wx radar then it might show up on RWR/RHWR/DASS as something totally different - it depends how it was programmed. It might not recognise it at all or classify it as something totally different (with the same parameters). The only sure way of getting detection of the aircraft types that are concerning you is to get it put in the training program (Trg PFM) for your particular RWR/RHWR/DASS - those nice chaps and chapesses at Waddington.

LJ:ok:

[FJJP]

Sometimes you can't win. One trip I did as a new co-plt [experienced but on new jet], I read up the selcal procs. I did a check with Shanwick, and it worked a treat. However, flt deck noise was such that it wasn't used. When capt [pratt] heard the bing-bong, he went ballistic, rabbitting on about the system not being serviced, saving money on engineering costs, etc.

I didn't bother to respond; in fact I pretty well ignored what the clown said in the future [we've always done it that way] and would brook no discussion to try to take things forward.

Until GW1... He got a fright when he needed to think about the kit on board, and what it could do for us.

Anything you can do to see and be seen must be done.

Incidentally, semirigid rotor, why don't you make contact with your nearest FJ base. If you establish a liaison:

a) you might get a trip

b) you might get a liaison officer established who you could give a trip to

c) You could establish a regime where you get notification of exercises, intensive flying, routes, etc.

d) you could brief the pointy guys on HELMS ops, techniques, et al to give each other a better understanding of what's going on.

Just a thought...

[WeaselRN]

T'was less than two years ago that a fellow GR4 mate's GMR returns on our RHWR saved a mid air. missed by about 50 ft at 800kts + closure. All 4 of us are very lucky (although thats life flying brit mil see and avoid). The moral of the story is to generate as many ergs as possible and always have the listening kit up and running.

[L J R]

Who actually confirmed that the RWR was switched OFF on all FJ when not in Spad etc....??? - I beg to differ.......

[Green Flash]

Is there some sort of mini transponder jobber carried by gliders, mircolights etc??

[OCCWMF]

L J R - Not FJs I think....... summat a bit blunter. Aerodynamically speaking of course.;)

[semirigid rotor]

FJJP, Good idea, but as a floater pilot I operate from St. Mawgan to Inverness, as required - but I will mention it to the base pilots. Only the Scottish HEMS have weather radar, because there is a regular need to fly IFR (Scottish HEMS is 24/7), unlike the rest of the UK which is mainly, but not exclusively day only.

Too old to fly in a fast jet now, brain would not keep up, which is why, these days I stop and land rather than land and try and stop!

Green Flash, Gliders and hot air balloons do sometimes carry a portable transponder, but it is the exception rather than the rule, even if the glider is flying at FL 100+

Before anybody asks - yes I regularly fly rotary wing at FL 100. :}