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How low can you go?
- Thread starter Dawgfan
- Start date
Texan
Why enemy pilots dont sleep well
Chubby said:
say what you will... those guys can fly. I've seen 4 / 5 man squads flying LOW formations through the mountains in southern France, and I'll be the first to say that these guys are slick.
Nothing quite like waking up just after dawn to the sound of 4 Mirages screaming by at a couple hundred knots and close enough to throw things at.
That was way cool. That kind of flying takes some real balls. DOes NATOPS allow for flying that low?
AllAmerican75 said:
NATOPS, sure. OPNAV 3710, T&R Manual, etc, probably not.
I can't speak for other communities, but for the most part, stuff like that isn't part of 3710 or NATOPS (as stated), but is delineated in various T/M/S SOPs and training rules for various type of missions/flights. I think Hornets can do 200 ft, and Prowlers can do 500 ft.(used to be able to do 200 until certain USMC hotshots fvcked it away for the rest of us - thanks). Just out of curiosity, where do other communities have these kinds of operating limitations spelled out and what are they?phrogdriver said:
Brett
Interesting, I never knew what the P-3 limits were, although we would spend a lot of time at 300 & 1000 for various ASW missions and rigging. The lowest I ever went in a P-3 was flying with our skipper in Kef. I was comfortably perched atop the APS-115 RT in the flight station as we bounced in the GCA pattern at BIKF when our skipper spied some kind of ship he wanted to check out. He canceled and took it down to 90' on the RADALT (why, I have no idea - commander's prerogative). Good times.makana said:
Brett
Altitude limits were in our SOP for us (Wing). 50' day, 100' night (goggle), 200 night (unaided). They actually readjusted things fairly recently to include goggle limits, which was nice, since people on goggles had been needing to fly lower for a several years rather than entering a REALLY slow coupled approach to get down while covering a boarding team. Actual real world procedures were different of course. 
We actually did a bit of raging over Saudi in Desert Shield where there were no rules.....at least not like the states. Basic SOP was "don't ask". I have some shots buried away with Tomcats at 30-50'. The ship actually released one that made cover of Proceedings in 1991 with Tomcat at approx 70' as determined by our intel gurus...CAG was supportive so we went for it. We did a lot of tail chasing and no holds barred low levels from Red Sea. The terrain was amazing and population almost non existent. A few gosts got scared now and again though.
Another treat was Oman where there is a canyon nicknamed Star Wars Canyon. Air Wings typically had to set the only rule of determing flow because everyone and his brother headed there and raged through it like the earlier generations did in the states in the Grand Canyon. Quite something to engage their Hawker Hunters or Jaguars flying at 15' (saw a pair fly under a taxiing C-130 at Masirah...even saw shots of that later from another episode....apparently a common stunt by former Brits flying for Oman). One of them briefed us prior to DACM and when we asked about the hard deck, he stomped his foot and said "that's the deck, mate". We all got letters allowing us to maneuver down to 5K, and verbal nod to "chase" as low as we needed to go, which we did and had mucho fun. Those were the days....
Another treat was Oman where there is a canyon nicknamed Star Wars Canyon. Air Wings typically had to set the only rule of determing flow because everyone and his brother headed there and raged through it like the earlier generations did in the states in the Grand Canyon. Quite something to engage their Hawker Hunters or Jaguars flying at 15' (saw a pair fly under a taxiing C-130 at Masirah...even saw shots of that later from another episode....apparently a common stunt by former Brits flying for Oman). One of them briefed us prior to DACM and when we asked about the hard deck, he stomped his foot and said "that's the deck, mate". We all got letters allowing us to maneuver down to 5K, and verbal nod to "chase" as low as we needed to go, which we did and had mucho fun. Those were the days....