Originally Posted by
hihover
Shy, I believe you are confusing a few issues here to bolster your case that our "military are required to train to fly in extremely poor weather"...... We were not allowed above 150ft because the Phantoms, Jaguars and Harriers were allowed to fly down to 250ft. Nothing to do with training for bad weather. Expected to launch on a "TASK" when the cloud base was 200 ft and the visibility 800m is not quite the same as sending pilots out to TRAIN in extreme weather.
You are implying that military pilots are sent out specifically to train in poor weather, I disagree emphatically.
No, I'm not. The low flying limits were as Crab has stated (except we were often allowed down to 50' agl in transit, and that included all of the published training areas). For a "CAD" there was no "agl" limit, albeit with 10 metres MSC for lateral avoidance. 3 metres MSC was authorised for lateral separation from a pylon if hover taxying under wires (6/3/2). The weather limits were as I stated, irrespective of the reasons for a flight. There was no distinction between tasking and training. Obviously, there was no point in launching in extremely poor weather for most training purposes, but that is a different matter.
There is training value to be had when we get it wrong and end up in extremely poor conditions, and there are lessons to be learned, but no-one departs on any military training flight with that intention.
I agree on that point. Any pilot would be expected to make an in flight captaincy decision based on his personal experience, discretion obviously being the better part of valour. Having said all that, it wasn't uncommon for crews to be expected to recover to base in weather conditions that would make others in other flying roles want to hide under the bed.
I could have phrased it better but I think you are trying to split hairs in a point scoring exercise. I'll leave you to carry on.