No Flaps, No Slats, No Problem
By LCdr. Chris Dobson
his is the story of a very strange flight— one that we thought only could happen in the simulator. Operating off the coast of Guam under blue-water flight rules, our Prowler crew found ourselves in a multipleemergency scenario that culminated in a no-flap, no-slat approach to the ship. It was our first day out after a port visit to Guam. USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) and CVW-5 started a light flight schedule for unit-level training and preparations for CV night currency. We were scheduled for a lateafternoon surface-search-coordination (SSC) mission. The brief was straightforward, but because this was our first flight out of port, we spent extra time on boat emergencies. When briefing “emergency recovery considerations,” I usually don’t get too involved with all the possibilities. But, I will remind the crew to coordinate with the ship, and not to take any irreversible actions (dumping fuel or blowing down the gear) until everyone understands the game plan for getting us aboard. I carry a kneeboard version of our type-wing, SOP emergencyrecovery matrix, and I usually refer to it when coordinating with a tower or CATCC rep. We enjoyed a beautiful June day in the tropics. We 28
had case I weather with a few scattered cloud layers. We launched, and I scanned the integrated position indicator (IPI) from my seat as ECMO 1. The pilot raised the gear, and we had three up and locked. We completed our clearing turn, as we accelerated past 185 knots. “Flaps and slats,” was the next thing I heard. I glanced outside to watch the slats start to move up the starboard wing’s leading edge. The slats stayed down, and I didn’t hear the pilot say, “moving left,” so I thought there was a delay in moving the flap lever. I looked at the IPI, and to my surprise, I saw the flaps briefly barberpoled, with the horizontal stab already shifted to the clean configuration, then the flaps indicated up. The slats however, still indicated out. The pilot told the backseaters that we had a problem with the slats. He immediately reduced power to keep us below the 250-knot-airspeed limit for extended slats. A quick scan of instruments and circuit breakers revealed no other problems, and we decided to troubleshoot while overhead the ship. I explained our problem to the tower rep and told him our intention was to troubleshoot overhead and recover at our normal time. As we passed 9,000 feet, on our way to 14,000, the slats started moving up the Approach
