Who's on Final? - landing military aircraft

During my initial Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) and Carrier Qualification (CQ) in the training command in Kingsville, Texas, I'm sure my class had as many comical stories to tell as any other. Each of us made the usual mistakes, and those of us who were unfortunate enough to get caught by our trusty LSOs were appropriately fined for our flubs--a good-spirited, but firm reminder to stay focused on our training and pay close attention to detail.

We were finishing up our FCLPs at NAF Orange Grove in the T-45. We had been bouncing for weeks, and this night period was not much different than any other. The weather was perfect, and the visibility great. As always, we had a thorough LSO and NATOPS brief. We were improving in leaps and bounds in our landing practice, and our confidence was increasing with every pass.

Everything was fine until we departed Orange Grove. Normally, the prevailing winds are out of the southeast, and we would depart Orange Grove for NAS Kingsville on a direct course that would set us up for a straight-in to the parallel runway 13L-13R. This night the wind was out of the northwest, so NAS Kingsville was using Runway 31. A slight difference, hardly worth pointing out in detail during the NATOPS brief. Kingsville Tower was busy controlling normal training flights and landing practice on 31L. So the LSOs told us to make a visual straight-in approach to a full stop on 31R.

We took off as four VFR singles, each following the bird in front back to home field. I was third in line. Lead flew directly toward Kingsville, and the rest of us kept our noses on the strobe ahead, blindly following him home like we had done every day since we started FCLPs. When lead realized that he was going to have to drastically change course to set himself up for the initial for runway 3 l, he arced around Kingsville to the initial. As lead flew an indirect route to the initial, Dash 2 continued to fly the most direct route toward lead, quickly reducing their interval.

Lead got clearance to land and made an uneventful, straight-in approach to a full stop, with Dash 2 close on his heels. That's when the fun began. Communications with tower quickly got complex. Every aviator knows how busy the radios can get with parallel runways, a full pattern on the left, and four solo students making approaches to the right. As lead rolled down the runway, Dash 2 realized that he had eaten up too much of the space between them, and decided to make a 360 to the right for spacing. He wasn't able to get a word in over tower frequency because of the busy traffic on the left, so he told us his intentions on our tactical frequency.

As Dash 3, I saw that if he were to complete that maneuver, and if I didn't change course or speed, we would have wound up in very nearly the same piece of airspace on final. I came back to him on tactical and asked him to extend downwind, because I was set up perfectly on final. He did, and everything looked fine from my perspective. I asked tower for clearance to land. Tower had received our side-numbers in order from approach, and hadn't seen or heard anything from Dash 2, so they were expecting him before me. Here's the play-by-play:

Dash 3: "Tower, Two-Oh-Three, on final for 31R, full stop."

Tower: "Two-Oh-Two, check wheels down, clear to land 31R."

Dash 3: "Tower, Two-Oh-Three, three down and locked, understand cleared to land on the right."

Tower (in a slightly higher pitch): "Two-Oh-Two, cleared to land on the right!"

At this point I found myself over the approach lights, at less than 500 feet, slightly faster than on-speed, preparing to wave off if I didn't get clearance to land. I was a little peeved that the guy in the tower felt like he had to tell me I was 202, not 203.

Dash 3: "Tower, Two-Oh-Two has turned downwind, this is Two-Oh-Three, over the rabbit lights, do I have clearance to land?"

After a brief stutter from tower, we heard Dash 4: "This is Two-Oh-Four, I'm landing."

Then, still at an uncomfortably low altitude, left hand on the power lever, a fraction of a second away from adding power and climbing, wondering where 204 was, all of a sudden I saw 204 no more than 10 to 12 feet over my head! His right mainmount was at my 3 o'clock, and his left mainmount was at my 9, and I was blinded by the bright reflection of my strobe off his fuselage. Then I knew why the tower voice was changing. I'll bet all they could see were two taxi lights converging at the approach end of the runway.

Well, 204 was much faster than I was, and it didn't take much to get out of his way. Had I waved off a second sooner, bent metal would have been inevitable, and I was in no position to eject. I took it around the right side, and 204 landed safely. Tower, then called us (202, 203, and 204) and asked us to phone them when we were safe on deck.

My fun wasn't over yet. Still a little shaken from the near-miss, I was having trouble climbing with full power and good airspeed. I started wondering if I had ingested something in my engine. Just as I was checking my engine instruments I realized ... speed brakes! I popped them in, took a deep breath, calmed down, and landed after Dash 2.

As I was walking to the PR shop to get out of my gear, the pilot of 204 saw me and asked with a chuckle, "What's the matter with you? You look like you've seen a ghost! By the way, do you know why the tower wants us to call?" He didn't even know what had happened. He must have known something was wrong, but assumed it was someone else making a mistake.

Looking back on this, it's easy to pick out a few things that are easy to correct. Don't lose sight of your interval, keep tower informed of your intentions, don't land without clearance, and, of course, use the correct waveoff technique (speed brakes in).

We could have done a little more to prepare tot that flight back to homefield. We had flown the route to Runway 13 as least 10 times before, but it couldn't have hurt to brief airspeeds and altitudes and any other variations (such as switching runways). No item is so simple that you can overlook it, or assume everyone knows it. Also, where was the RDO? Did he know we were inbound? Could tower have done more to help? In hindsight, I'm glad tower didn't wave me off any sooner. Above all, confidence is good, but when you get an indication that something is not right, don't assume it is someone else's problem. I don't like paying fines any more than the next guy, but what I wouldn't have given for an LSO on station that night.

Lt. Smith flies with VAW-115.

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