Question for mil pilots: DIY IFR approach legality in emergencies?

[Fareastdriver]

On the North Sea the procedure for ILSs was that the PF (Pilot Flying) would fly it to the ILS decision point and then call "Decide." At that point the PNF (Pilot Not Flying) would confirm that he had the runway visual, would take over control and land the aeroplane.

On 'difficult' days the call was;

Deeeeeeeeeecccccccccccccccccccccciiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiidddddddddddddddddddde.

[Dundiggin']

PPPPPP.........

On helicopters any crewman worth his salt would have a basic Decca (old days) or GPS Tans template ready for any diversion or IFR type let down to anywhere relevant to the sortie.

The basic letdown would commence 5 miles from the TDP allowing for a 3 degree per mile letdown starting at 1500', 5 miles out, 300' per mile descent. Height adjustments would be made to the template to take in Ht of TDP and adjustment made to get QFE from RPS. If no RPS then QFE worked out using map contours.. Those Ht adjustments were then added to template hts for 3 degree approach.

Plot position of aircraft, work out heading to start point say about 7 miles out, plot final approach heading (into wind with a bit of luck).

Position aircraft about 7 miles out, adjust for wind and begin letdown at 5 mile point using modified hts. This used to work beautifully for me in every case except for one day when the Decca lanes went tonto and we were 1.5 miles rt of track. 'twas a Decca problem not mine - honest! Bloody Decca thank God for GPS!

Crewmen were expected to demonstrate this procedure on check rides.

[Shackman]

Ahhh.. the Decca Letdown with the 3 degree glidepath was actually a relatively easy approach to fly, so long as it was more or less into wind; but beware the pitfalls of being one lane out. Recovering to Manston from a job with a cloudbase somewhere near the deck we were shooting the usual Decca approach (Manston had no aids available at this time) all was going well until I saw a red light come out of the murk at the same height. A rapid application of power took us just over the cooling towers of Richborough Power Station - now long gone - at which point the Nav apologised for being one lane left of track!

Of note we also practiced a similar self radar let down in the MR Shackleton using the ASV 21 radar, which in the hands of most of the operators could 'see' a runway and give us a distance talk down. The only problem was we had to be visual by about 400 ft so as to lower the undercarriage before touchdown (this action immediately raised the retractable radome, and thus halted the talkdown).

[Exmil]

Zero viz approach

Many years ago, down south, we were airborne as a single F4 from MPA. Wx forecast was white, prob grn, tempo ylo in showers. We pulled up over west Falkland half way through the sortie to check the wx and discovered it was red in a zero viz blizzard that wasn't moving. No AAR was available so we endured until it became obvious we were going to have to do some proper crew work as the approach aids wouldn't get us to a legal decision height (200 ft for rating) at which we could see the runway. Having been crewed together for a while and both having been there a few times we set the radalt to 100 ft and did an IAA - the radar was good enough to pick up some features. Nothing seen - reset to 50 ft. Nothing seen, reset to 30 ft. Still nothing seen. Radalt at 20 ft and knowing what the obstructions were and being able to see the threshold above us on the radar we came up the (very slight) valley from the west. We agreed first to see a light shouts "light". One flashed past the stbd tip so we dumped it on the deck. We had to wait for someone to walk out in front of the "follow me" landy feeling for the lights with their boots because viz was 10-20ft. Can't recall who the auth was; all we got were a few looks from the rest of the guys along the lines of "ballsy, but you walked away from it". Groundcrew commented "I'm surprised you didn't flame out - there is no fuel in this jet". Don't remember anyone saying either "you broke the rules" or "well done". Still remember thinking "you know; we're pretty good".

[Darvan]

On both the Vulcan and Buccaneer the navigator was authorised to provide an Internal Aids service to the pilot by conducting an ATC-style talk down to the appropriate airfield MDH. With skill, the talk down could be as accurate as a PAR at a familiar airfield where the runway threshold could be identified with accuracy on the H2S or Blue Parrot (i.e. Waddington or Lossiemouth). I am pretty sure an Internal Aids was also in the RtoA for a GR1 and is currently permitted for the GR4.