Above right:
Maj Amanda
Coonradt uses
the sextant to
mitigate the risk
of the LC-130’s
unreliable
compass around
the North and
South Poles.
Right: The
scope of the
AN/APN-241
radar showing
the flags at
Raven Camp as
the Hercules
approaches the
strip.
Below: LC-130Hs
on the apron at
Kangerlussuaq.reach the heading we need. We take a
position off the sun every two minutes
while the aircraft tries to stay as level and
straight as possible.’Ski ops
Garren described the approach co-
ordination between aircrew: ‘Approaches
require special aircrew training, as we
approach at a shallower angle at 1.3°. It
doesn’t sound much of a change from
3°, but when you are a mile out at 150ft
[45m] that sight picture is quite different.
‘Once we have flown the ARA there is a
co-ordinated kind of sing-song between
pilot, co-pilot and navigator where the
pilot will say at two miles they have the
skiway so will continue the decent. Now
the pilot will be solely looking inside
the aircraft at the instruments, pullingback on the power to start the shallow
descent at 300ft [91m] per minute with
the co-pilot talking them on to the
final approach.
‘The reason for one person to be
continually looking inside the aircraft is
the transition from outside to inside the
cockpit. On a clear day maybe it won’tMaj Amanda Coonradt, a navigator,
explained the use of the sextant: ‘The
sextant is really old, and believe it or
not the aircraft doesn’t have a reliable
compass — it has ‘whiskey compass’
[magnetic], which is unreliable in the
North and South Poles.
‘When the pilot can’t rely on the
instruments the navigator will continually
be doing the math, and there is a lot
of math for a 109th navigator. I will be
continually looking through the sextant,
doing math, looking through the sextant
and repeat. If we are flying above
72° north or 60° south, all of the lines
converge, so that’s where the grid system
comes into use, making it nice and easy
by putting the world on a flat surface
with 90° corners.
‘Because the pilot can’t rely on the
headings I will be doing more math and,
while looking through the sextant, telling
the pilot to continue turning until we109TH AIRLIFT WING | UNIT REPORT
January 2018 http://www.combataircraft.net60-69 Ski Herks C.indd 65 23/11/2017 11:50