F-16 systems and such
I have to go with OKIE on his posts. I may have flown the jet earlier than he did, but even the real old jets from the mid-80's had excellent radar, and normal procedure was to have it in air-to-air mode when down low for approaches.
The system allowed one simple switch on the throttle to go to an auto-acquisition mode and pick up almost anything +/- 5 degrees vertical and 15-20 degrees left/right. Further, pressing another button on the throttle you could slew the search pattern left/right and up/down. On my leading edge flap failure video you will hear tower telling me about a transport on long final while I was on a loose base leg. I begged off telling tower that I had my hands full ( severre structural damage) but still flipped the switch and slewed left. POW! Locked up the C-141 and got a visual.
So I have a feeling this guy had a bad radar or was in the ground map mode. Nevertheless, he could have easily got a lock with one switch but didn't. Don't like it, especially when plenty of warning of a potential conflict and an easy switch action.
Okie also points out the use of the family model or a chase plane. I flew hundreds of chase hours and had the radar in the air-to-air mode 95% of the time when practicing instrument approaches.
Lastly, Viper VMC down low is like 250 knots IAS for instrument patterns until gear down. And you still have 3 or 4 gees available!!!
Something smells here about the procedures by both pilots, but ATC seems to have done a good job with warnings and advisories.
Last edited by gums; 19th Jul 2015 at 17:05.
Reason: grammar