Word: radar
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Three days after the Libyan raid last week, French fighter-bombers struck the Libyan air base at Ouadi-Doum, knocking out an elaborate radar complex. The Libyans were caught by surprise because the French, flying almost at dune level, had escaped radar detection. The following day Libya responded with an aerial attack on the small town of Kouba Olanga, just south of the 16th parallel...
There are other problems. Pilots bringing the B-1B to treetop level found that the ground-tracking radar, designed to keep the plane from slamming into hills, was inadequate. The system jerked the B-1B up and down, causing considerable internal stress. Fuel consumption turned out to be enormous, particularly when the pilot kicked in the afterburner to accelerate through enemy defenses, raising doubts whether the plane can even reach its targets. So many difficulties emerged in flying the aircraft that some 40% of the training missions have had to be scrubbed...
While relations between controllers and pilots usually remain professionally courteous, there are subtle tensions between the two groups. Christine West, a controller hired just after the strike, works in the New York radar-control facility. West is proud that "we do pretty close to twice the amount of work with half the staffing we had before the strike." But she is critical of many pilots. "We have their lives in our hands, but they relate to us like we were the enemy," she says. "It can be stressful when you're taking insults on a frequency and you have...
...same center, complains that pilots talk too often on their radios and do not listen carefully to the controllers. When any pilot close to a control center presses his mike button, it blocks other nearby flight crews from hearing the controller. "It is not unusual to sit on a radar position and have a pilot respond that he's blocked over and over again," says Morris. "Radio discipline has become atrocious...
Designed by the FAA and built by both Allied Bendix and Sperry/Dalmo Victor, TCAS II uses a transponder to interrogate as well as answer another plane's radar beacon by sending out information on its position. When two planes are on a potential collision course, onboard TCAS computers alert the pilots with flashing lights, voice messages and a radar screen display showing the planes' relative positions; the computers even indicate up or down evasive action. Following the Cerritos tragedy, the FAA ordered that no aircraft be allowed into the terminal control area above major airports without an altitude-signaling transponder...