Degree of difficulty
aural NDB
Flew many a VAR approach, agree with George in it being "not too bad".
That's an aural range approach. If you flew them accurately you got a steady tone in the headset, drifting into the “A” quadrant resulted in hearing that, same for the “N”. It was only the A amd N overlapping that gave you the steady tone. That was called riding the beam. Over the station was the cone of silence, which entered into the popular culture and that’s where the idea came from on those old “Get Smart” shows.
We used to train in war surplus Link trainers that had those approaches and of course thought ourselves just average if we could fly them. ILS on the other hand was more tricky which says a lot about the quality of simulation in the Pleistocene era.
We used to train in war surplus Link trainers that had those approaches and of course thought ourselves just average if we could fly them. ILS on the other hand was more tricky which says a lot about the quality of simulation in the Pleistocene era.
Every approach an NDB, or occasionally a VOR, with a circle-to-land. Day and night, often with terrain. Those were the days!
Nowadays, an engine inop Cat 3B no DH approach, autopilot, auto thrust, peering through a HUD. Piece of cake!
SWH will agree with me that getting the calls right is the hardest bit.
Bank running in Cessna twins around western NSW in the mid nineties. No DME (didn’t have it ... ), no GPS (couldn’t afford it), no autopilot or wx radar (what are they?), and no experience (well, we all have to start somewhere!).
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Thanks for all the replies. I think the jury has decided.
Along the way, though, these gave me a laugh:
Along the way, though, these gave me a laugh:
your "chairman" is in danger of going blind from too much- you get the idea.
“there were , three engines out in the 747 the first officer was only new to the company and we had no fuel, had to do an NDB raw data, the only thing on the ASI was the makers name, the cloud was below the landing minima and due to the unforecast typhoon, we had to circle around through driving rain, severe turbulence and land on the unlit secondary runway, but we arrived at the gate five minutes early!”
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Circling Approaches At Night
I am showing my age here but have to admit that circling approaches at night in IMC to a destination OCTA without DME must be one of the most dangerous procedures.
Any procedure that provides for a straight in approach is preferable.
Most of us who started out in GA charter or Reg 203 operations RPT will understand.
One thing that most of the new generation of pilots may not know is that the British pioneered the Cat 1 and above operations with the Trident 1c in the 1960's. This was later designed into Concorde.
Many years ago I asked an employee of the Department of Changing names to explain why most of the approaches were designed to put you into a circling approach once visual. He explained that the rationale was to place you in a position where you could follow the traffic pattern to conform with GA aircraft.
I wonder how many pilots remember the blue and yellow sectors on the VAR/VOR analoge instruments.
Or the old ADF frequency selectors that were akin to finding an AM radio station. Co channel interference, night effect and the ADF needle pointing to electrical activity created by CB's.
The bottom line is that any form of straight in approach had got to be easier than circling.
Any procedure that provides for a straight in approach is preferable.
Most of us who started out in GA charter or Reg 203 operations RPT will understand.
One thing that most of the new generation of pilots may not know is that the British pioneered the Cat 1 and above operations with the Trident 1c in the 1960's. This was later designed into Concorde.
Many years ago I asked an employee of the Department of Changing names to explain why most of the approaches were designed to put you into a circling approach once visual. He explained that the rationale was to place you in a position where you could follow the traffic pattern to conform with GA aircraft.
I wonder how many pilots remember the blue and yellow sectors on the VAR/VOR analoge instruments.
Or the old ADF frequency selectors that were akin to finding an AM radio station. Co channel interference, night effect and the ADF needle pointing to electrical activity created by CB's.
The bottom line is that any form of straight in approach had got to be easier than circling.
Luxury...GA charter circling approaches in a light twin on a dark and stormy night had the ultimate dangers.. One pax chundering down the back of your neck, and the other 4 pissing their pants
SB.
SB.
