[ QUOTE ]
[What's the topography in *your* area?
Do you have any computerized terrain avoidance gear in the A-10 or is it all charts, personal knowledge, and situational awareness?
[/ QUOTE ]
Topo depends on where we operate: South/central is mainly flat, but as you get to the north/northeast, mountainous. With no specialized gear, it's 1:50 and 1:100 maps, SA, and knowlege. Can really be a pain in the a$$. One night, was providing illum with parachute flares under a solid overcast with zero illum under. Couldn't hang around under the overcast because an AC-130 had to take that space. So to drop the flares, a descent had to be made through the overcast, pop out below, drop the illums, then climb back through, all while remaining within a 3-4 mile radius of the target. This necessitated a 30-40 degree dive through IMC, ending up underneath in rain. Each time I dropped through, it was painful, since the previous flares were still illuming the clouds, which washed out the HUD and was spatial D inducing, causing me to end up below at @35 degrees nose down and anywhere from 30-70 degrees of bank with about 10 seconds to recover to straight/level, find the target in the combo dark/illum/rain below, make the drop, avoid Spooky orbiting in the same area, and pop up back through. Not fun at all. But that's the way around here...VFR in IMC everywhere, as needed, no real IFR rules around here.
[What's the topography in *your* area?
Do you have any computerized terrain avoidance gear in the A-10 or is it all charts, personal knowledge, and situational awareness?
[/ QUOTE ]
Topo depends on where we operate: South/central is mainly flat, but as you get to the north/northeast, mountainous. With no specialized gear, it's 1:50 and 1:100 maps, SA, and knowlege. Can really be a pain in the a$$. One night, was providing illum with parachute flares under a solid overcast with zero illum under. Couldn't hang around under the overcast because an AC-130 had to take that space. So to drop the flares, a descent had to be made through the overcast, pop out below, drop the illums, then climb back through, all while remaining within a 3-4 mile radius of the target. This necessitated a 30-40 degree dive through IMC, ending up underneath in rain. Each time I dropped through, it was painful, since the previous flares were still illuming the clouds, which washed out the HUD and was spatial D inducing, causing me to end up below at @35 degrees nose down and anywhere from 30-70 degrees of bank with about 10 seconds to recover to straight/level, find the target in the combo dark/illum/rain below, make the drop, avoid Spooky orbiting in the same area, and pop up back through. Not fun at all. But that's the way around here...VFR in IMC everywhere, as needed, no real IFR rules around here.
