"Creeping Jesus" Approach
 

I am wondering how this term arose, describing an approach where the aircraft doesn't intercept a point on final to fly a straight line to the threshold, but rather follows a tractrix to make an asymptotic path to the threshold.

Apparently I flew some of these when doing flapless approaches from the back seat of a Macchi. Mainly because the visibility was so poor, it was the only way to see where we were going.

In the old days where there was a big piston in front of the pilot a curved approach was quite common. Old films about the Pacific War show that carrier borne aircraft did it as well.

Not exactly answering the question but the F-4U Corsair was prone to fatal stalling/spinning on final due to the asymmetric effect of the huge prop. I read somewhere that the RN alleviated this problem by conducting a curved approach to the carriers. Guessing this improved visibility as well as improving the airflow over the wind prone to drop.

Or as my QFI used to say to me "stalking the runway using all available cover".

and from an unexpected direction

I remember a 230 Sqn pilot getting told off for not making sufficient use of cover then approaching a deployed site.

MACCHI MB326H Flapless Approach Circuit Diagram from the RAAF Flight Manual Jun 1973.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c52816a76b.gif

I think we all understand the various rationales for the technique - AC is asking where the term "creeping Jesus" arose from?

Sinbad, do you recall when the "corporal stripes" on the runway were done away with?

I don't recall seeing 'corporal stripes on the runway during my RAAF training days' (some 50+ years ago now). They were not used at NAS Nowra from 1969 until at least mid 1974. Perhaps some old runway photos may show them in the RAAF bygone era? By GOSH by GOLLEE a Wal Nelowkin photo of Point Cook in 1972. LAVERTON just north of Point Cook had the stripes in 1965, also a WALLY photo. What a nice chap indeed.

Photo later shows the stripes still there in the 1990s.... FROM: http://www.radschool.org.au/Books/An...ng%20Point.pdf

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....aabdab5a1a.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e789c4ebbf.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....2025413ec5.jpg

Sorry, staying OT …. As an RAF ATCO, those chevrons are new to me. Please elaborate on their purpose!

It appears that Creeping Jesus refers to a Roman Catholic ‘seeking to make a public display of religiosity in a manner which seems hypocritical and simply for show’. Perhaps someone - maybe an instructor with a religious bent - deemed this type of approach unnecessarily showy.

Indeed. It was in the Puma days at Gütersloh. I was filming the helicopter's approach to the site and I think boss was disappointed that I kept the aircraft in frame throughout. Something about not enough use of hedges and trees.

I see that now, and "By the end of the 20th century, the term had evolved somewhat away from a purely religion-focused term to one levelled at any public display presumed to be totally hypocritical."

I thought it came from the practise of new RC priests prostrating themselves fully before the alter on ordination. As low as you can go....

Amazing anyone would use such language even in the lat 20th Century..

The origins are from sanctimonious worshippers slowly going around the inside wall of the church doing their novenas at each station of the cross, praying iously, whilst looking over their shoulder at the altar and those seated in the pews.

Compare it to flying the various stages of a circuit whilst not looking ahead, but over your shoulder at the runway instead…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creepi...rigins_of_term

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stations_of_the_Cross

My basic PPL instructor at Sleap, the late, great Adam Wojda, ex-Polish and Royal Air Forces, taught me what he called fishtailing on final approach, used, he said, by piston-engine fighter pilots to keep the runway in sight.

It was an exhilarating and fun manoeuvre even in an Auster, side-slipping from 500 ft towards the threshold with full flap and a trickle of power for 10-20 seconds to one side, then changing rapidly to the other side, 20 seconds, change again and so on until straightening out at 30 ft to land. The difficult part was staying on the centre-line all the way down. I don't think it was called "Creeping Jesus", though.

He also taught me curved approaches that involved side-slipping all the way round the 180 degree turn from 800 ft downwind to the threshold at 30 ft, as a good way to get down quickly. That was fun, too, but you needed to know there wasn't anyone getting too close on final.

It’s interesting that this kind of approach often leads to a landing half way down the runway (or several landings...)

First use of “tractrix” that I’ve seen on PPRuNe. Congratulations!

MPN11,think the chevrons maybe " if you ain`t on the ground by here,it`s time to go-around".....

Tend to agree sycamore, the Macchi circuit posted by Spaz would even seem to suggest it was the aim point though, long way down the runway if so.

'megan' & 'sycamore' have jogged me memory somewhat. I reckon both Point Cook & Laverton have the chevrons as suggested 'if you have not landed before them by now then go around'. Both these airfields were used by new WINJEEL pilots with some doing some weird landings initially. Even in the CT4 days at Point Cook the chevrons were in use (I think Laverton had closed by then perhaps).

'asturias56' got the creepy jeebus idea correct methinks. It descrcribes a LOW SLOW flapless landing [do the LIMBO 'how low can you go?'] that would not be for the faint hearted because it would be BAD. 'megan' would know R/W 03 at NAS Nowra having a well cleared fairly level under run. One of my few HAIRY landings in a Sea Venom was carried out there on a hot windless hot day in 1969. I got too smart attempting to land on the numbers in a flapless approach but got LOW & SLOW & UNDERPOWERED to have a heart stopping full power throttle bash that probably kept me from touching down in the dirt and I full stopped instead of doing a roller (telling ATC as I did it). They shirley would have wondered about the dust cloud but on this occasion & AFAIK did not report me. :-) The nose up attitude was high indeed making viewing the runway that much more difficult. (Deck Landing necessitated a low 400 feet tight circuit with thankfully the ball in the mirror being visible about halfway round base, with the Observer calling the airspeed in one knot increments in the RAN SEA Venom Mk.53. That was not my experience flying solo when they did not embark in 1969. Graphic from 805 line book.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d7635dbff1.gif

Clever cartoonist, that one!

Corporal stripes 1500 feet to run (or behind you).

The pic of Laverton brings back memories. Operating ARDU Canberras and Sabres from there was fun.

My Scottish girlfriend, from North Ayrshire, uses 'Creeping Jesus' to describe my elderly mother with Alzheimers, who wanders around the house silently, and listens to conversations from the other side of doors. Therefore an alternate meaning is, 'Always close by and making no sudden movements'?

Reading the 'Origins of the Term' paragraph of the Wikipedia entry, key bits are 'in sight of everyone' and 'moving quietly'.

This description emphasizes the slowness. Creeping to the cross

Sat in back of a Saab into Wellington some years ago with the boss, who used to fly Blunties for the RNZAF.
"Military pilot up front," he said.
"How do you know?" asks I.
"Cos he's flying a curved approach."
Whether that was true or not - probably due to ferocious Wellington crosswinds - our hero then promptly flew through the extended centreline!
Now I know why you military lot fly such weird circuits with rounded edges - so you can all see over your Merlin or Griffon, keep an eye on the field and not stall, spin.
But I've never heard creeping Jesus... must be a RAN, RAAF, RAF thing.
The things one learns here...

At the joint Australian/Malaysian base at Butterworth Malaysia, Orion detachment aircrew in the dorms invariably woke to a tepid cup of tea placed beside each bed by 'CJ', 'Creeping Jesus'. You got it whether you wanted it or not, and a levy had to be paid to a 'Mr Tan' who employed him.

As in the 230 aircrew line book:

“I hear Lex has just had a bird strike!”

”Serves it right for standing up!”

Seem to recall back in the sixties anyone wearing brothel creepers was called a creeping jesus, might be just a senile memory at work.

OMG that brings tears to my ears. I've not heard that term since then. :-) BLUE soft-soled suede shoes - ELVIS Luvs 'em. :-)