Deck Clear,
(All about Practise and Training) I hear you 5 x 5 - the question is - WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO TRAIN TO DO and WHAT WILL YOU PRACTISE.
You will appreciate that the only acceptable visual refrences at night, which all offshore pilots have little trouble getting on the deck thereafter, is the Rugby Ball shape of the deck lights.
CONSIDER THIS:
At the bottom of an ILS we are only allowed down to 200 feet AGL (Absolute minimum) - and yet when we get there (day or night) the required visual refernces are very easy to interpret, lead in lights, horizon afforded by airport infrastructure, runway lights etc - BUT MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL we have a gazzilion yards of tarmac in which to bring our sensible stable flight speed (80 KIAS) to a gentle stop.
Compare that to a Night ARA at minimums. MDH is Deck + 50 feet.
Perf Class 2 says Deck + 40 Feet for the ideal Committal.
We now have effectively a decision height of 50 feet at the point that the only acceptable visual refernces are present, ie the Rugby Ball.
80 KIAS at the point where the references are avialable to us is simply not an option- Try 25 KIAS Max!!!! That might just work.
Oh and you only have 10 feet of space to fly in as the Committal must be 40 foot above the deck. (The f****in Puma is nearly 25 feet high)
I fully agree with all you say, but, when a Pilot (without a fully formed rugby ball in his windscreen) elects to de-couple and fly manually to try and find the deck, he is the last piece of swiss cheese in a very long list of cheeses. He better be up to it cos history has proven that at least 8 of our bretheren have proven otherwise.
Time has come to get some common sense back into our flying at night.
Simply by moving the point in space, where the only acceptable visual references are availabale (The CTB) further back, and higher up is the only way we can stay speed stable until the CTB.
1. MDH for all Night approaches should be 400 feet or Deck + 200 feet.
2. No descent allowed AT ALL below MDH - until the CTB is reached.
3. Speed parameters TYPE SPECIFIC defined.
4. Intervention parameters DEFINED
5. Intervention policies - MANDATED
6. Automatics - MANDATED
If we are going to train and practise we should be doing it with procedures that actually have a cat in hells chance of working.
At the moment training more and practising more simply reduces the chances of the very last cheese hole (ie ME!!!) in the accident chain from lining up and IN DOING SO consigns the entire fate of the crew and passengers into solely human hands in an environment which humans are very fallable, using procedures and minima which all too often now have allowed that fallability to be exploited.
Time for some real changes - for the better I think.