Chinook - Still Hitting Back 3 (Merged)

[walter kennedy]

Funny how working through the basics brings to light little gems: can you believe that waypoint H is about 1km east of a village called Curran and waypoint B is about 1 km east of a village called Corran – just a different letter – the Curran to Corran track!
Another thing about the letters is the sequence of the waypoints: there were 5 waypoints entered manually into the SuperTANS for this flight (extra to the “library” for the theatre) and these were:
H Curran
A LZ (on the Mull)
B Corran
C Ft George
D Inverness A/P
(Last 2 from memory just now, its the first 3 that are of interest here.)
Odd sequence of letters? Well we have had discussion about planning and as far as I can gather, Lts K & T did the basic planning for the sortie and then Flt Lt Tapper took it over and did some more and said that he and his crew had done extensive training for it. A conclusion of the discussions between Lts K, T, & Tapper was that the only option was LL VFR (fuel & alternates, remember the posts on this?). Now if you were planning a safe, routine VFR LL from Aldergrove to the Great Glen with some dubious weather around, you would avoid the Antrim Hills and the Mull (on the day, the weather would not have to have been much worse and the Antrim Hills route would not have been on). The route Aldergrove to H and then along 028 mag track to B would have avoided any high ground until the Great Glen and, with the wind coming from the south, they would have had some nice scenery for the passengers as they flew close along the clear shore of Jura – check out the diagram!
So I suggest that someone asks Lts K & T if they thought they had done all the necessary planning with the following waypoints:
A Curran
B Corran
C Ft George
D Inverness
But Flt Lt Tapper and his crew had been doing extensive training for this sortie?!!
And we know he took the 027 radial from Aldergrove all the way to the position of waypoint change – only a matter of hundreds of metres from a claggy shore. The 027 radial (with the VAR back then) from Aldergrove VOR site went directly to the position of a waypoint on the Mull – obviously not using the VOR all that way but the SuperTANS would have given that track with that waypoint (Mull) selected.
So I suggest that Flt Lt Tapper added the waypoint on the Mull to the initial plan – but although he obviously had his own reason for going there, weather may have prevented him crossing the Antrim hills and so he prudently kept waypoint A Curran – but again, what to do about a nice sequence of letters? - presumably the preferred path would go A, B, C etc so the waypoint on the Mull was designated A and the safer LL starter was re-designated H so his SuperTANS had loaded:
H Curran
A LZ on the Mull
B Corran
C Ft George
D Inverness
And the route on the diagram I posted, 027, is what they took.
Flt Lt Tapper's HoSI still had 028 on its course setting: I had addressed this on a previous post; having done whatever the business was at the Mull, they would have had to have turned back to sea (remember they had planned only for LL VFR) and by keeping 028 on his HoSI they just had to turn roughly north west and run out until they reached the track of 028 mag to waypoint B (Corran) - waypoint B was selected on the SuperTANS and so the track bars would have been a guide just like turning onto a VOR radial in VOR nav - which not only got them back to the nice clear scenic run along Jura and getting around the approach to Mac runway but also, if you look at the trapezoid tracks in that diagram, they would have not, in their diversion to the Mull, have extended their flying distance, time nor schedule from the initial planning – I believe that they changed waypoints where they did so as to have this set up in the SuperTANS, so that they would be ready for the turnaround back to sea, presumably no longer needing the Doppler/GPS nav computer for whatever it was they were doing on the Mull.