View Full Version : Well done F3 boys
Many thanks from Scottish ATC and a well done to the F3 crew (crews?) who helped out with shepherding a Beech 200 safely through busy controlled airspace and through IMC to a safe landing at Leuchars today. The aircraft lost all comms and transponder shortly after departure from Glasgow heading to an airfield in England, and presumably a lot of other electrical systems and instruments were U/S or were on the blink as well, requiring the aircraft to find some VMC to make a safe approach somewhere.
Of course, very little was known about what was happening and the Beech pilots intentions until the F3 was vectored to intercept, and this was followed by a shepherding task in bringing the aircraft to safety. As well as acting as the eyes of the ATC and SAR authorities.
There was of course some disruption to lots of other flights but I'm sure the pilots held on the ground or well out of the way in the air can understand that a safe solution and giving the F3 and his 'chick' plenty of space was the right course of action.
Hope the tab in the Leuchars Mess was suitably large from the lucky pilot :ok: (albeit the original shepherd might have been from Leeming ?)
High_Expect
28th Mar 2006, 18:02
Admitedly the F3 involved was from Leeming (landed at Leuchars) but certainly no free beers on in the mess... and no sign of said civi pilot.
Sounds like there should have been though. The guy involved was very lucky. More details to probably follow in the press.
Surely to be on the G'reg it would have to have some suction/issolated battery back up driven gyro attitude ref surely..?! anyone care to comment? :ugh:
threepointonefour
28th Mar 2006, 18:52
Sounds like an outstanding job from all involved.
Rapscallion
28th Mar 2006, 19:00
The civi pilot involved was certainly very lucky!
Though I suspect he didn't realise quite how lucky until the F-3 crew debriefed him about the possible consequences for no comms & non-compliant aircraft stumbling around in CAS...:hmm:
Very well done to the Leeming boys:ok:
SASless
28th Mar 2006, 19:22
If the "lucky" civi pilot had suffered a complete electrical failure or failure of all avionics....I would suggest his bigger worry was aircraft handling vice worrying about being mugged by the Crabs. I should think such a situation might be rather removed from "stumbling" about.
What happened to the concept of being "glad to have been able to help" another aviator in a time of distress. It would appear to me the offer of a pint to the guy who had just coped with a stressful situation would have been in order.....closely followed by a "thanks much for the help" offer of a pint or two.
The pilots involved may have had different plummage but they all had wings. Why is there such lack of bonding between aviators? Times must be achanging...and not for the better it appears.
Maybe we could interest the folks here at pprune in a new line of business....buy Fighter Jocks for what they are worth....sell them for what they think themselves worth...and get rich quick on the profits.
Rapscallion
28th Mar 2006, 19:56
Is that a bite??
No disrespect meant to the pilot concerned - he was apparently unwilling to accept assistance at first.
The F3 crew certainly were glad to help
Why is there such lack of bonding between aviators?
Maybe we could interest the folks here at pprune in a new line of business....buy Fighter Jocks for what they are worth....sell them for what they think themselves worth...and get rich quick on the profits.
There seems to be only one person trying to cause a divide between aviator bretheren here!:confused:
threepointonefour
28th Mar 2006, 20:12
Someone make my day and tell me that we (the service) have charged the civilian pilot for 'services rendered' and 'landing fees' at Leuchars!?
Now that would make me laugh!
PPRuNe Radar
28th Mar 2006, 22:52
Countered by the civvies charging the F3 for en route charges for flying in Controlled Airspace probably ;) :p
A good show though, nice one :ok:
victor two
29th Mar 2006, 00:56
I think Sasless summed it up perfectly actually. Spot on.
The military pilots get their agreed amount of thanks from the civilian world every month when their pay packet arrives anyway.
The Rocket
29th Mar 2006, 04:34
The military pilots get their agreed amount of thanks from the civilian world every month when their pay packet arrives anyway.
Surely this comment can only be a wind up. Have we found the antipodean southside?:rolleyes:
Anyway, well done chaps:ok:
The military pilots get their agreed amount of thanks from the civilian world every month when their pay packet arrives anyway.
Agreed? Surely you mean decided. It's not like we have a union to help us get what we're worth on the market... :ugh:
More details can be found here:
http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/news_0603_25.html
Job well done!
ppf :ok:
rats404
29th Mar 2006, 16:13
Good effort.
Shame the PR type who penned the piece for the website didn't get the work checked...
"..could be safely brought in to land RAF Leuchars...",
"...Flt Lt Threapleton, 54, explained:..."
"...we had more fuel than usual on board – about nine tones..."
"...The Beechlight was traveling at a speed much..."
"...Although highly trained an experienced, Tuesday's situation..."
hobie
29th Mar 2006, 16:29
Well the Pilot/Nav gave SkyNews a great interview in Live at Five and and Congratulations to all involved were passed on from the man! ... Jeremy Thompson .... :)
threepointonefour
29th Mar 2006, 18:42
"...Flt Lt Threapleton, 54, explained:..."
Aside from the gratuitous use of the colon, what's wrong there?
... I'd have put him at nearer 60!!!
'Wing Commander John Prescott'?:D
rolaaand
29th Mar 2006, 21:52
[QUOTE=Rapscallion]The civi pilot involved was certainly very lucky!
Though I suspect he didn't realise quite how lucky until the F-3 crew debriefed him about the possible consequences for no comms & non-compliant aircraft stumbling around in CAS...:hmm:
Very well done to the Leeming boys
Rapscallion I think the poor guy had more to worry about than the fact that he wasn't talking to anyone! I was the civil radar controller at the start of this incident. The co-incident loss of comms and transponder followed by the primary only contact taking a turn off the heading made me nervous immediately and we got D+D involved straight away. So far as I gathered( I was v. busy at the time) the mil. decided not to intercept on security grounds,however used the services of the F3 that was just starting it's sortie.
The F3 crew did a brilliant job in helping the BE20 get on the deck, because there was a very real possibility given the circumstances and the blanket of cloud over the country, that it would run out of fuel before the pilot found a hole in the cloud. Because Mode C was lost and I had no level information on radar I had to give some of the civil crews in the sector some pretty big reroutes around the contact but as everyone understood the gravity of the situation there were no complaints. Also stopped departures at various times from PK ,PF and PH to allow the F3 crew a free run of the airspace to try and get the BE20 to formate on them,which proved difficult because of the performance differential. From the original intercept by the F3 crew to getting these folk on the ground safely took over an hour of hard work from everyone involved-not least the pilot of the BE20 himself! It was one of those days at work where the best that can be said about it was that no-one died.Once again a hearty thanks to the F3 crew and to my colleagues at ScotMil for a successful outcome to a nasty incident.