Tech hones RNZAF skills
Simon Maude enjoys an eyeopening experience with night vision.
Long before terrorism ruined it for kids, I remember being welcomed to the cockpit by friendly airline pilots. Here I am again – only this time I’m watching 40 Squadron’s Hercules Shadow 01 crew prepare for deployment to the Middle Eastern and standing in the rattling cockpit of an RNZAF Hercules, feet planted, arms braced as a ghostly green nighttime Blenheim Airport rushes toward me.
We’re plunging at a 20-degree dive – rather like descending New Zealand’s steepest road, Dunedin’s Baldwin St, while strapped to a Mack truck bonnet. But it’s oddly all right, because, clutched to my eyes, are night vision goggles that let me scope the blacked-out runway.
The night vision googles (NVGs) are each worth tens of thousands of dollars and are vital in helping Air Force crews work harder in typically difficult and dangerous night conditions.
Squadron head Wing Commander Andy Scott says these Bravo 6 training exercises help aircrews use ‘‘tactical’’ airfield approaches – a nicely understated term that effectively means making steep, last-minute dives on to runways to avoid ground fire or coping with unlit, natural disasterhit airfields.
These crews soon put what they’ve learnt in training exercises into practice. In June, another squadron Hercules and 34 air and support crew flew out of war-torn Afghanistan – a centre for terror network Al Qaeda which is easily capable of downing aircraft with missiles.
Deployment security precautions mean Shadow 01’s crew can’t be named, but its six flight crew happily showed off their new goggles during an 800km crosscountry return flight out of Auckland’s Whenuapai Air Force Base. Shadow 01’s baby-faced captain slipped in commentary before bursts of intensely choreographed concentration.
‘‘Our take-off and landing performance is a lot better... the NVGs 100 per cent improve nightflying... You definitely need to be dialled in to the aircraft and know what you’re doing.’’
Normal torch light destroys night vision gear’s effectiveness so the crew around me are all wearing tiny ‘‘finger lights’’ to dart over maps and switches – because each NVG’s retina-like sensors contain more than 6 million light receptors to amplify the tiniest shred of light, Shadow 01’s cargo hold can be illuminated by a peasized camera bulb.
While the flight deck crew keeps the aircraft on course, the cargo hold loadmasters practice spotting outside threats through portholes.
The NVGs help here too by enhancing the flare of missile launches and arcs of tracer rounds and the engine exhaust from Hercules’ four turboprop engines looks like white hot streaks. The exhaust, which on a clear day leaves an oily, kerosene-laden trail across the sky, is a magnet for heatseeking missiles but, the crew explains, can be dampened through skillful throttle work to reduce the chance of the aircraft being spotted.
Back in the cockpit, Intercom chatter between pilot, co-pilot, navigator and flight engineer ramps up as a visiting American Air National Guard Hercules pilot from Reno, Nevada runs commentary.
‘‘We’re descending four times as fast as a commercial airliner would... See that radar altimeter gauge? The navigator’s calling off altitude so we don’t go splat!’’
A frantic tap and gesture has me bracing my free hand on a cockpit seat.
Despite the rate of our descent, we seem to float on to the tarmac and savage braking cuts our landing to little over 300 metres – if not for the pilot’s warning I’d surely have been face-first into the dashboard.
Now that’s a cockpit experience this 80s kid certainly never had flying with friendly commercial pilots.
You definitely need to be dialled in to the aircraft and know what you’re doing.