mountains and deep valleys as well as large
areas of sea.”
Greece’s fast jet pilots can train down to
300ft, provided they avoid restricted areas
such as tourist beaches and archaeological
sites. Cities and towns have to be over own
at a minimum of 3,000ft AGL.
Very Low Flight (VLF) areas, set aside
for this type of training and sited over land
and sea, are where military pilots can
practise low-level interceptions and evasion
manoeuvres with fewer restrictions.
All squadrons within the Hellenic Tactical
Air Force (HTAF) Command are issued a
set of pre-planned sorties called combat
pro le missions (CPMs). Each one is in a
booklet with a unique number – for example,
CPM725N – and they enhance safety
by reducing the risk of mid-air collisions.
Air traffic controllers are aware of CPM
numbers, which a pilot can refer to en route.
The CPMs are used daily for low- ying
training with routes through mountain
valleys, while others are plotted over at land
or the sea. This enables pilots to practise
navigation and terrain masking, though CPM
routes are not for low-level interception or
evasion exercises.
An experienced McDonnell Douglas F-4E
(AUP) Phantom II pilot said crews are not
restricted to using the pre-planned CPMs. “IfI need to see how effective the pilot or ight
leader is I can create a different mission,
and this is added to the next day’s ying
programme.”
An area of airspace will be reserved which
might be as large as 150 miles (241km) by 80
miles (129km) over land and/or sea. Twelve
hours’ notice must be given to book such
a sortie, in which a ight commander can
freely manoeuvre his aircraft or formation to
respond to a ‘hostile’ aircraft. For exercises
such as Iniohos, the standard CPMs are not
used – different routes are created across
Greece for diverse targets to be designated
by the mission planners.
There are no one-way valleys, as in
the United Kingdom Low Flying System
(UKLFS) – established to reduce the chance
of collision in busy areas – and Greek pilots
y on the basis of ‘see and avoid’ (as does
the RAF) to make sure they don’t get too
close to other military or civilian aircraft.
HTAF headquarters at Larissa Air Base
monitors and controls all low-level ights,
warning if necessary of any con icts. As
a double-check, air bases contact each
other to make sure their ying programmes,
worked out the day before, do not overlap.
Flights planned at shorter notice,
perhaps as little one hour before take-off,
are still sent through to HTAF, which willcheck if there’s any con icting traffic. If so,
the aircrew can offer to re-time their sortie or
submit a new route.TERRAIN MASKING
“Low-level ying is a skill not easily learned
or retained – it requires regular practise
using proven techniques and procedures
that evolved over time,” says the F-16 pilot.
He describes the cockpit routine when
ying fast and low: “You should focus on the
near rocks, then the far ones, to plan ahead;
then check six [look behind] for your mate,
then look at the instruments and HUD. It’s a
circular motion around the cockpit.”
Adding to the challenges, it’s common,
where the ground lacks features, to lose
focus of the horizon especially when ying
over the sea.
When pilots reach their rst HAF
squadron for conversion training to a
frontline aircraft type they are taught low-
level terrain masking – as opposed to terrain
following techniques learned previously. With
the latter, an aircraft will pass over a rise
in the ground in level ight, which will incur
negative ‘g’. For terrain masking, pilots avoid
ying over mountains, instead ying either
side of the summits to take advantage of
the blind sectors where ground-based air
defences and radar cannot see their aircraft.
The technique to cross a ridge is to pull
up and pass over the crest almost inverted
at 135°, with positive ‘g’, and push the nose
down while reducing thrust in the descent
on the other side to maintain the speed
required for the mission. This reduces, by
three or four times, the period the jet is ‘sky-
lined’ above a ridge – lowering the chance
of being detected by the scan of an enemy
radar from either the ground or the air.
Pilots in pursuit of a low- ying aircraft
employing terrain masking are often unable
to lock-on with air-to-air missiles due to their
systems being confused by the ground. For
example, heat-seeking missiles can have
difficulties because of increased humidity
close to the surface.
Humidity can also make it difficult to see
the horizon over the Aegean Sea and can60 Aviation News incorporating Jets December 2018
This 338 Mira F-4E(AUP) is at low level in
the Peloponnese mountains. Low-level
strike is this squadron’s primary role
with 60% of sorties own down to 300ft.A fully swept Tornado GR4
in a 67 ̊ wing con guration
more suitable for high
speeds. For slower ying
(including landing and
taking off) 25 ̊ is
selected and there
is a third setting
of 45 ̊.