Scudrunners

How many zero zero landings have you been forced to do and in what conditions?


I have had to do them in zero zero in fog, zero zero in blowing snow and zero zero in blowing sand.


The sand was by far the most dangerous.

Twice that I can think of, both on floats, and both because of my lack of experience and stupidity at the time.

Once was landing on a lake early in the morning with fog, it turns out that just because you can see through it vertically, doesn't mean you can see through it horizontally. The second time was due to pushing daylight and landing at night on a lake. Fast forward a decade or so, and I would have told the company to pound sand on both trips, slept at the camp, or returned to base. There's no need to put yourself in those situations.

E

[quote]There's no need to put yourself in those situations. [/quote]


Unfortunately there are times you get into those situations due to where you are flying and where to.


Bottom line training for and being competent in landing zero zero makes it easier and safer should you have to.

I agree, mine just happened to be through inexperience and stupidity on my part.

E

I have been around for a while, not as long as chuck but likely in the top ten or so. I have never done a zero zero landing. I have landed in so pretty shitty wx but never in zero zero. I could always see a little bit at sometime in the approach. I also can say I have had very few missed approaches and lets say minimums in certain areas are subject to personal review  ;) but true zero zero -- nope

It would be rare to have to land zero zero when flying in controlled airspace flying sked runs.


However it does happen in areas of the world where poor to no weather reporting, forecasts and great distances are the problem.


Zero zero in blowing snow, blowing sand and ice fog were my zero zero experiences....all of them in sparsely settled areas.

[quote]It would be rare to have to land zero zero when flying in controlled airspace flying sked runs.[/quote] - I'm also including all my experiences in the north right up to and including the north pole. Zero Zero touchdowns are not what I would consider a total zero/zero approach. I have done this many times in blowing snow for the last 50 feet or so but at sometime did actually see the runway. In foggy conditions I always at least saw the enough clues to know where I was for the last few feet to complete the landing. I have actually only been jammed up once in my career to where I had to land and there was no place else to go. Where else but Iqaluit. The wx was not zero zero but 2001/2 but winds out of the south at over 40kts. It was a non issue but the f/o took some convincing and even tried to fly the approach until it was obvious he had not adjusted his thinking to maintain the glide slope.

I do white out and brown out landings fairly often in the helicopter. We practice for such contingencies.


In an airplane, I've only ever hand flown to Cat 1 mins. I've done (monitored) auto lands a few times. I don't think that counts...