Radio Jammer in ATL Airspace, Part 1 & 2

[Retired W4]

At the suggestion of MDF4. Kind of long, so 2 parts. Stay with me.

In the late 90's I was active duty with B Co., 2nd Bn., 228th Avn, an Army Reserve Aviation unit at Dobbins ARB flying the Army's newest jet aircraft, the UC-35 (Citation 560 Ultra). On this particular day I was tasked to fly a General and staff from Dobbins to Mississippi for a tour of some old civil war site. Read that "Boondoggle". There was a front moving through the area with imbedded thunderstorm scattered throughout. My reservest co-pilot that day was the supervisor of operations/maintenance inspectors at the Atlanta FSDO (Flight Standards District Office). After closely examining the current and forecast weather conditions I decided we could safely depart the Atlanta area and make our way through the weather while complying with all Army and FAA regulations.
Upon contacting Atlanta Departure Control we were assigned altitudes and headings in order to avoid all the incoming and outgoing aircraft in the sector, while at the same time avoiding the thunderstorms that were present. The frequency was very busy. My radar indicated that our current heading assignment would put us into one of the build ups so I requested a right turn for weather avoidance…No response. I repeated my request with no response from ATC. At the time we were below 10,000 feet and as such, restricted to 250 knots or less. ATC expected aircraft of our type to be at 250 on departure unless they requested otherwise. We were getting pretty close to the storm so, after a check of our TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) to make sure we were clear of other aircraft I made an emergence declaration of a right turn that would keep us clear of the thunderstorm and avoid possible extreme turbulence, all the while climbing to our previously assigned altitude. A few minutes later, ATC did contact us. After a brief discussion we were assigned a new heading and altitude. At approximately 14,000 we broke out on top of the cloud layer, in the clear, with a monster thunderstorm safely off to our left. Stay tuned.

 

[Retired W4]

Radio Jammer in ATL Airspace, Part 2

All seemed fine for a moment, but then the hair on my arms stood up and I had this really odd physical feeling. A lightning bolt came out of nowhere and struck the aircraft. A quick cross check of the instrument panel showed all was well except we had no more weather radar displayed. I turned around to check on my passengers only to find them very agitated and disturbed. They didn't know how lucky they were.
The weather ahead was clear, blue and 22 so I continued the mission after calling our operations to arrange maintenance personnel to come to MS to check the UC-35 out. The rest of the flight was uneventful except for the General, who was getting irate. Poor baby.
The lightning strike hit the radome, skipped along the bottom of the fuselage and exited out the tail light. No damage was done to the engines or flight controls.
Several days later my co-pilot told me of a rogue individual with some very interesting equipment who was operating in the Kennesaw area. He was arrested by the FBI a short time later. He also told me that the word of the jammer would be withheld from the public so as not to create a panic by people flying commercially.

 

[vt_shooter]

I'd say you demonstrated superior pilot judgement!

 

[MDF4]

For those that understand air Ops' will fully understand the intensity of RetiredW4s' post. We had a saying on USS Boat, referring to a salute, that would apply to Retired's account, but I can't use it on the SWF.

 

[Hair Trigger]

"See and Avoid" always trumps ATC conversation, when they don't respond to you. The plane still has to be flown, and the controller is the only one who is stationary while everyone is waiting on them.

My son-in-law is a CFII in one of the busiest airspaces in the US, and he says many times he can't wait for ATC to tell him what to do, when he's under MIA Class B and there are four other airports and their traffic up there with him, and the Cumulonimbus are like pinball posts all over South Florida.

looking forward to Part 2

 

[Retired W4]

"See and Avoid" always trumps ATC conversation, when they don't respond to you. The plane still has to be flown, and the controller is the only one who is stationary while everyone is waiting on them.

My son-in-law is a CFII in one of the busiest airspaces in the US, and he says many times he can't wait for ATC to tell him what to do, when he's under MIA Class B and there are four other airports and their traffic up there with him, and the Cumulonimbus are like pinball posts all over South Florida.

looking forward to Part 2

Looks like Part 2 disappeared. No explanation.

 

[Hair Trigger]

Looks like Part 2 disappeared. No explanation.

I found it, it's a separate post. Thanks for the story. If you have more "there I wuz" flying stories, put them up, I'm a huge aviation fan.

 

[MDF4]

Retired, I have a question that is off topic. One of my favorite movies is Mel Gibsons', "We were soldiers." In your opinion, was the depiction of helicopter support realistic? It seemed to be realistic but only those, like yourself, could make that call.

 

[SMSgt]

Not a flying story, but I can identify with the "strange physical feeling." I was walking into our squadron maintenance building one day after lunch and felt like a tingle all over my body. A bolt of lightning struck the parking lot light post about fifty feet away. I made the fifty-yard dash to the building in about four steps.

 

[Retired W4]

Retired, I have a question that is off topic. One of my favorite movies is Mel Gibsons', "We were soldiers." In your opinion, was the depiction of helicopter support realistic? It seemed to be realistic but only those, like yourself, could make that call.

As I remember Mel's 1st Cav stuff in the Ia Drang valley was pretty close, unlike Oliver Stone's abomination. Strangely, Stone was with the 25th ID at the same time and place as me. The 25th was one of our main customers. He should have known better.

I probably posted this before. Crusader smoke ship, "Smokey". Rick Scheffing and I were the last one to fly it, in support of the 25th.

Side note to the Admin folks. Thanks for consolidating Part 1 & 2.

 

[Hair Trigger]

Retired, I have a question that is off topic. One of my favorite movies is Mel Gibsons', "We were soldiers." In your opinion, was the depiction of helicopter support realistic? It seemed to be realistic but only those, like yourself, could make that call.

I have a 1st cousin who was 1st Cav, a bit later (1969) than the movie setting, but he was also in the Ia Drang Valley. He's just started opening up about his time over there, and from what I gather from things he's told me, the depiction shown in We Were Soldiers... is pretty accurate. He won't watch movies like that, or Platoon, etc. He says he lived it, no point in watching a cheap reenactment.

He tends to downplay the dangers and make light of dire situations, he's just like that. He was awarded a Bronze Star for falling out of a helicopter, to hear him tell it, but his citation reads a bit differently. Story is, his chopper was coming into a hot LZ, he was the M60 gunner for his platoon and had swung his feet onto the skid, with a couple of belts around his neck and the MG slung, ready to step off. They took fire and the pilot aborted and started to swing around. He says he lost his balance and fell off; now he's on the ground, lots of people shooting at him and the chopper, the only thing he can do is shoot back. He was cited for jumping off and laying down suppressive fire to permit the landing to take place, or something like that. I imagine one of the less hairy things he did while there. He was wounded in an ambush a couple of months later and still has issues with the injuries today.

 

[MDF4]

Thanks Retired, I presumed as much. The museum that I was once affiliated with held a meet and greet with chopper veterans of SEA era. They were really a great bunch of guys told a lot stories of their harrowing [in country] experiences.