Chugaqlug2
I wish you would stop posting twisted versions of the scenario I have tried to describe – it should not be necessary and correcting wastes time.
<< … you propose that they miscalculated their position by putting all their faith into "the equipment" before making a "cowboy" high speed approach into an IMC obscured LZ, ...>>
I believe that I have described the conditions a bit differently (see recent previous posts).
Calling a fast approach “high speed” shows a misunderstanding of the manouevre – why not ask your colleagues or others in aviation what it implies for rotorcraft.
Many pilots approaching decks of frigates or oil rigs regularly put their faith in a TACAN for judging their closing range – it is so important to know the range exactly and it is so easy, even in clear weather, to misjudge it visually.
If they were misled somehow by the data they were receving and thought they had ½ mile or more to go than they actually did, then they were denied the common practice of having a loadmaster stick his head out of the window – you see, they were still way over 120 kts air speed as they crossed the shoreline, which, I suggest, would mean that the window was still shut; had they got down to 80 kts or less (which they could have done with ½ mile more coasting with the drag washing off their speed) then it would be expected that the loadie was looking out and would have seen the detail of the shoreline better as it approached – as it was, everyone was looking through perspex – the pilots concentrating on looking for the LZ threshold ahead as the shoreline (at their altitude) was lost under the nose – it would have come up unexpectedly rapidly and the loadie may only have recognised just how close they had got to it as it passed by to the side – this would have left a maximum of 5 seconds to alert the pilots and for them to react (on the track they took, shoreline to impact less than 9 secs less the 4 secs of evasive manouevre).
Beagle
<<Perhaps the flying saucer which landed Wally's little green men with their wacky wirelesses caused a rift in the space-time continuum? >>
Why are you afraid of calling the equipment by its proper name? Why don't you acknowledge when it came into service and how it was used? Are you saying that you are unaware of the presence at the time at Macrihanish of an American SF unit that was equipped and practiced in the use of said equipment?