Manual

than you are.LSO RATING: Once you have beensuccessfully brought back aboard ship,the LSO must rate your approach. He islooking at things like approach speed,proper descent rate, AOA, and wingposition on touchdown.He will give each one of your landings ascore between one (1) and four (4). Ascore of (1) means you have someserious work to do on your landings. Afour (4) rating means you could probablyland on the back of a postage stamp.The Carrier Landing difficulty setting(Standard, Moderate, or Authentic Mode)has a lot to do with how severely yourlandings are critiqued.“TRAPPING A WIRE”: The end result ofthis highly regulated approach pattern isto have your wheels touch down on thedeck right where you (and the LSO) wantthem to. If you follow the prescribedglideslope, your landing hook will catchthe third arrestor cable (second to lastwire). This is known as “catchin’ a 3-wire”.It signifies a perfect landing.Trapping the first or second wire meansyour aircraft was a little low in theglidepath and hit the deck early. Trappingthe 4-wire means you waited a little toolong to touch down. Even so, hooking the4-wire is better than a bolter (missing thewires altogether).OPTIMUM LANDING CONDITION: Toreceive the best possible LSO rating, youshould attempt to achieve the followingoptimum landing conditions;1. Wings Level2. Airspeed: 135 knots maximum ontouch down3. Glideslope: 3 0 descent on finalapproach4. Nose-high Flare: rear wheels shouldmake contact first5. Landing Hook: should snag the #3wire (second from thelast arrestor cable)Wasn’t that easy! Good weather anddaytime landings are a snap. Now let’s trya few Low Visibility approaches - landingsthat take place during periods of badweather or total darkness.Low Visibility ApproachesNot every mission you are assigned isflown in good weather. Sometimes it canget downright nasty out there, especiallyin the North Cape. Marginal weatherconditions make just flying rather dicey,never mind trying to shoot a goodlanding. There are times when the carrierwill be socked-in by low lying clouds thatobscure the flight deck.When low visibility conditions exist, thenormal approach pattern is not used.Instead, pilots are given clearance tomake straight in approaches. Rather thanfly a racetrack pattern around the carrier,pilots line up with the stern of the carrierand are brought down immediately.Because you won’t have the luxury ofbeing able to see the carrier, theseapproaches require you to place aninordinate amount of trust in yourinstruments. Without visual cues to guideyourself, you will be at the mercy of yourHSD and VDI‘s Course DeviationIndicator.LOW VISIBILITY MARSHAL POINT:Things take longer during periods of lowvisibility because aircraft are movedaround more cautiously. The Air Boss andATCs demand greater separationdistances between aircraft for safetypurposes. Therefore, poor visibilityincreases the likelihood that you will besent to a Marshal point prior to landing.Marshal Point B, the holding area directlybehind the ship, is the only one of thethree points used during low visibility OPs.It is positioned at least 15 nm behind theship. An additional mile is added for 1,000