What Five Aviators Missed LT SHAWN GORDON
he first time signing for a plane as a Patrol Plane Commander (PPC) is akin to taking the family car out for the first time after getting your driver’s license. Sure, you have met all the requirements and filled out the forms. However, your performance during that first time behind the wheel can set the expectations for a long time to follow. Once you pull out of the driveway, everything that happens rests solely on your shoulders. If you come back with a traffic ticket, your confidence (and that of your parents) can vanish into thin air. On my first time “behind the wheel,” I had a close brush with disaster. My first flight as PPC was a typical P-3C Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) mission
over the Horn of Africa. I’d completed three similar flights in the week prior acting as a Patrol Plane Pilot (PPP, or 2P), a role that I’d been performing for more than a year during my upgrading syllabus. These three flights reinforced three major points about flying in this area. First, the airspace around our base of operations is dangerous. Local controllers are difficult to understand and frequently use non-standard terminology. A lack of functioning ATC radar only exacerbates this situation. Second, all U.S. air operations at the field are given a “slot time” for takeoffs and landings. This process helps de-conflict arriving and departing aircraft and reduces the load on the controllers. Third, on our prior deployment, slot times might as
A U.S. Navy P-3C Orion assigned to the “Gray Knights” of Patrol Squadron Forty Six (VP-46) taxis down the runway in prepa-
ration for take-off. (U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate Airman Chris Otsen)
July-August 2015
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