November 2012 - Indian Airforce

of ac and requested the pilot, who was the Flight
Commander of the fighter Sqn, for vectoring
the ac for JLD. This was negated by the pilot. I
could see two ac still operating in sector and one
leaving the sector. The ac which was leaving the
sector was on a North Easterly course, instead of
a North Westerly course as required for overhead.
On the pretext of passing Runway and QNH, I
cross checked the position of ac with homer.
As no other flying was on, I was certain that the
pilot was going in the wrong direction. I had not
identified the ac on Radar. As the ac was going
away from base and getting closer to the ATS
route, I mustered my guts and asked the Flt Cdr if
he would like to be Radar Vectored for JLD. This
time he reluctantly agreed. As ours was a Primary
Radar, I asked for the heading of the aircraft and
gave a left turn by 70 degrees for identification.
The pilot was surprised and reconfirmed if it was
a left turn and that too by 70 degrees. The same
was confirmed by me. Thereafter he did not
speak much on R/T. After landing I got a call from
the Flight Commander. He first thanked me and
said that he had selected an incorrect waypoint
in his navigation system and hence was actually
setting course for a different base. In addition
he said that he was slightly low on fuel as well.
So, that day with this quick fifty, I contributed
significantly towards our team and it was a winwin
situation for all. This episode taught me to
monitor ac regularly even when they were not
being Radar Vectored.
Yet Another Useful Knock. This time, the
venue was the same but the type of ac was
Jaguar. Two ac had gone to sector and changed
over to SU. Within no time both changed over
back to Radar and I was informed by No 1 that
No 2 had an emergency. They were coming in
for a priority rejoin off a descending circuit. After
informing the tower to initiate primary alarm,
I continued monitoring the R/T calls of No 1
who was asking the No 2 for his ac parameters.
I asked the formation leader if he would like to
be vectored for a JLD. This was overruled by the
leader. Meanwhile the SFS in tower told me to
be more careful with respect to No 2 as he had
just become ‘Operational’ on Jaguars and that he
should be made to land ASAP. During our training
on Radar it was grilled into us that emergency ac
must land ASAP unless the pilot had an intention
of holding due to some reason. But in this case the
leader had resorted to a mode of recovery which
was longer. Though I was a little apprehensive, I
gathered the courage and piped up on R/T “.........
(Name) from present position Radar letdown will
be a shorter vector than descending circuit.” I do
not normally use a pilot’s name on R/T or question
the pilot’s decision in an emergency as he/she
may be preoccupied with taking quick decisions,
but this day I did it anyway. The leader agreed
and after identification I vectored No 2 followed
by No 1. Run to touchdown was reduced by
approx 25 miles in this mode of recovery. After
landing the leader informed me that due to No
2’s problem it did not strike him that JLD would
have been a better option. So yet again I was
satisfied with my contribution to the safety of our
ac.
Hat Trick. Another location, dark night,
single engine ac and night flying was in
progress. Fighters were airborne for 1 vs 1 and
maintaining with SU. SU had changed them
over to the training frequency for the exercise.
As other ac had become U/S before departure
and the workload in Radar was less, I decided to
monitor the frequency of SU, though I had no
obligation to do so. I was trying to make sense
INDIAN AIR FORCE 2 0 1 2 N o v e m b e r Aerospace Safety 9