j1b3h0
Line Up and Wait
In the summer of 1981, with about 650hrs, I worked as a copilot/mechanic for an outfit in Anchorage, Alaska. Flew a recently surplus Navy C-117 or R4D-8 and a Curtiss C-46. To be fair, I was about 85% mechanic and 15% copilot. Mostly, we flew fish - fresh salmon, from King Salmon to Anchorage, and then shaved ice (with which to pack fish) back to King Salmon.
We once got a charter to fly tons of gold mining equipment from Anchorage to Yakatat, on the southeast coast of AK in the C-117. After fueling, (and oiling) we spent considerable time loading all kinds of odd machines and hardware into the airplane. Given the typical summer Alaska rainy weather, we filed IFR.
My first surprise was when I picked up the clearance: A SID off Anchorage that led us toward Portage glacier, then amber airways to Yakatat. Okay, they mean ADF airways. Really? Well, it just so happened the C-117 had two very swanky ADF recievers on the overhead panel. The 'coffee grinder' type. Old airplanes like the Douglas had big radios in the belly connected to the tuning head in the cockpit. In theory, the pilots would tune the frequency utilizing the BFO: The Beak Frequency Ocillator, while listening to the ADF, one would dial it in 'til the tone (while selected in BFO) was at its lowest frequency, then listen for the NDB identifier, then note or confirm azimuth on the RMI (Radio Magnetic Indicator). I understood the technique, even if I'd never actually done it.
So, we launch and are IMC prior to 1,500ft. The flight goes along fine...until the amber airway part. Whenever I tuned the radio with the BFO and audio ID, we didn't get any azimuth...on either radio. As you might imagine, we were in a non-radar environment. When I found a station with good azimuth, we had no way to identify it. We got hoplessly lost, and eventually turned south over the ocean, and descended until we saw the water, at about 150ft. We were about 10 miles north of Johnstone Island, 40 miles south of Cordova. We landed in Cordova and I then had to hand-pump (from 55gal drums) 450gals of avgas in the 117. Took 35minutes.
Moral of the story: Check Nav radios on the ground.
We once got a charter to fly tons of gold mining equipment from Anchorage to Yakatat, on the southeast coast of AK in the C-117. After fueling, (and oiling) we spent considerable time loading all kinds of odd machines and hardware into the airplane. Given the typical summer Alaska rainy weather, we filed IFR.
My first surprise was when I picked up the clearance: A SID off Anchorage that led us toward Portage glacier, then amber airways to Yakatat. Okay, they mean ADF airways. Really? Well, it just so happened the C-117 had two very swanky ADF recievers on the overhead panel. The 'coffee grinder' type. Old airplanes like the Douglas had big radios in the belly connected to the tuning head in the cockpit. In theory, the pilots would tune the frequency utilizing the BFO: The Beak Frequency Ocillator, while listening to the ADF, one would dial it in 'til the tone (while selected in BFO) was at its lowest frequency, then listen for the NDB identifier, then note or confirm azimuth on the RMI (Radio Magnetic Indicator). I understood the technique, even if I'd never actually done it.
So, we launch and are IMC prior to 1,500ft. The flight goes along fine...until the amber airway part. Whenever I tuned the radio with the BFO and audio ID, we didn't get any azimuth...on either radio. As you might imagine, we were in a non-radar environment. When I found a station with good azimuth, we had no way to identify it. We got hoplessly lost, and eventually turned south over the ocean, and descended until we saw the water, at about 150ft. We were about 10 miles north of Johnstone Island, 40 miles south of Cordova. We landed in Cordova and I then had to hand-pump (from 55gal drums) 450gals of avgas in the 117. Took 35minutes.
Moral of the story: Check Nav radios on the ground.