“Halo One-One, this Cyclops Two-One, we are approaching check point Bakersfield.”
“Roger, Cyclops Two-One, continue to the initial point as we work the sensor scan of the landing zone.”
Two Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters continue en route to the initial point. The flight is two minutes away from inserting 24 Marines intent on recovering a downed pilot. “Cyclops Two-One, the zone is winter and the chick is nesting on the bull’s-eye” indicates that no enemy activity is in the immediate vicinity.
“Roger, Cyclops is initial point inbound.”
The Super Stallions make a right-hand turn to set up for landing. Meanwhile, 24 Marines make final weapons checks and await the go signal to disembark for link-up with the downed pilot. A radio call, “Cyclops is safe on deck,” is made so that anyone monitoring the mission is aware that the recovery force made it safely to the pilot’s location. The Marines disembark the helicopters and begin to secure the landing zone. Immediately the Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personal (TRAP) platoon begins the prebriefed link-up procedures to recover the pilot. At the same time, Halo 11—two F/A-18 Hornets—circle overhead at 18,000 feet, training their electronic sensors on the surrounding area to ensure no one interferes with the activity below.
This scenario illustrates the complexities of military flight planning. Whether the mission is aerial delivery of paratroops or supplies, troop insertions, or bombs on a target, a fundamental constant remains: Thorough preparation and planning are essential for a safe and successful flight. Flight planners and aircrew conduct a mission analysis to determine requirements. Most of the time spent on the planning and evaluation process is dedicated to route analysis and the destination terminal environment.
Since flight planning can overwhelm even the most experienced crew, a systematic process streamlines planning and ensures that pilots cover essential details that reduce safety-of-flight hazards, such as obstacles or other aircraft—two items that can quickly turn a casual cross-country flight into a “Flight Lesson” scenario.
Instead, work backward from the destination to the departure point. The theory behind this reverse planning is that the destination requires the most familiarity and could quickly cause complications. Also, by working backward pilots can quickly calculate the fuel requirements and plan additional fuel stops, if needed, before a final route is chosen.
Route selection is the second factor. During this step, the lines connecting A to Z are chosen. Considerations influence how you want to fly, including terrain avoidance, such as the mountains; avoiding restricted airspace; or weather.
Choosing one route to avoid busy airspace might force you to accept flying through some unfamiliar areas or close to forecast poor weather. One route might require more fuel than the alternative, so always keep fuel requirements a priority. An alternate route is another good idea if unexpected weather occurs. Planning an alternate builds some familiarity and gives you an out in case the initial plan becomes unworkable.
Once the route is selected, individual checkpoints can be chosen. This is more important for VFR flight planning, but it is always a good idea for IFR plans as well, in case you want to cancel IFR and proceed under visual flight rules. One recommendation is to overlay your IFR route on a VFR sectional using the same general navigational aids. This is not always possible, but a good back-up nonetheless.
Checkpoint selection falls into two general categories: cultural (man-made) and natural (terrain). Examples of cultural checkpoints include roads, wind turbines, water towers, and towns. Terrain checkpoints could be rivers, lakes, ridgelines, hills, or mountains.
Choose points that are distinct and easily identified from a distance. For instance, when selecting a lake as a checkpoint in Minnesota—which is the land of 10,000 lakes—keep in mind that one lake might resemble the many other lakes along the route of flight. However, Mille Lacs Lake is a massive 200-square-mile lake in central Minnesota, making it easily distinguishable from the surrounding area.
Some areas might lack distinguishable checkpoints, so selecting other points that might not be on the planned route of flight, but are within five to 10 miles, could give you a clue that you missed your point or are off course. These are known as catching, limiting, or funneling features.
Navigating across deserts or farmland can be difficult at times because of the lack of contrast, so including a catching feature such as a major highway or river on your flight plan could prevent you from becoming lost. Like rivers, ridgelines or a series of hilltops are easily identifiable from the air. These terrain points make ideal funneling features that assist in finding the checkpoint. Perhaps a small pond is the only water along the route segment, but surrounding trees make it difficult to find the point. During the planning you notice that there are several hills close to the pond, so you make a mental note that aids in locating the checkpoint. You don’t have to fly over a checkpoint to use it; simply flying in the vicinity is just as good. I have used a checkpoint that was three to five miles off of my route, and I was able to use it to navigate successfully.
Hazard identification is just as important when choosing a good checkpoint. While you are selecting checkpoints, remember to scan two to three miles on either side of the route of flight for any hazards that could pose a risk. Hazards include not only towers and power lines but also special-use airspace such as restricted areas and military operations areas. Although civilian aircraft can operate in MOAs, pilots need to be aware that they may be used for maneuvering flight at high speeds and unpredictable altitudes. Most of the training is see and avoid, but the workload on aircrews sometimes makes aircraft detection difficult. Highlighting hazards in red on a chart is a great technique for quick orientation during the flight. During night flights, remember that red markings will not be visible if a red light is utilized to preserve night vision.
Map preparation and risk analysis are the final steps to successful planning. Map preparation is the actual creation of your route on the charts that you intend to use during the flight. In order to differentiate specific points, various shapes are used to indicate departure, destination, and checkpoints. Use the baseball home plate symbol to distinguish the departure location, while an equilateral triangle for the destination enables a distinguishing reference when a quick glance is needed. This enables reference without marking over any information such as frequencies.
There is a fine line between including too much information and too little. A good balance that usually works is insertion of doghouses. This is a technique military pilots use to note time, distance, and heading on charts without having to dig through navigational logs for the info, thus streamlining cockpit management. A doghouse is usually just as it sounds; the information is written inside with the magnetic heading at the top followed by the distance and time. The doghouse always points in the direction of flight. I simplify this by drawing a simple arrow with the information stemmed from the long axis.
Some final considerations to keep in mind might include the season, time of day, and weather. Lakes and rivers might be easier to see during the fall and winter versus the summer, because of foliage on the trees. In the desert, winter usually is the wet season, so what appears to be a river on a chart could be a temporary river or a body of water that is not always present.
Time of day also influences what pilots can see from the air. Late-day flights into the sun make it difficult to locate checkpoints because of glare. This causes increased fatigue. Weather has the same effect. Instead of focusing most of our attention on navigation, we could be more concerned with avoiding storms, or the haze we did not expect is making it difficult to find a road. Instead of locating the major highway we had planned on, we see a smaller road that you think is the highway. The haze reduces your scanning distance.
Navigational flight planning may seem overwhelming. A systematic process enables students to learn good flight planning techniques. When frustrations and difficulties associated with cross-country planning are reduced, the fun element returns to flying.
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