Getting Buffed.

[Sbob]

PART TWO.

And now, without further adieu, its time to climb down the ladder into The Black Hole of Calcutta. Its time to meet the real stars of the show. After all, if The B-52 can't get from point A to B (with a re-fueling and a bomb run along the way), what good is it?

We'll start off with the navigator, known as NAV or in the AC's case, "Hey, NAV..where ARE we?". The NAV, like the CO, is usually one of the newer members of the crew. The NAV's primary duty is keeping a running D-R (dead reckoning) track of the plane through out its sortie in the air while plotting enough nav fixes to keep the whole show on its rails. It sounds over-whelming and, at first, it is. Its up to the NAV to become a "good NAV" and a "good NAV", well, knows how to cheat. The B-52 is too big and too fast to use regular navigation tools and skills. Treat this plane like a Cessna and you will wind up behind the curve. So, what's the difference between a "good NAV" and a "great NAV"? A "good NAV" knows how to cheat. A "great NAV" knows how to cheat and make it look legit. What's the difference between a "good NAV" and a "bad NAV"? Two minutes, a NAV who gets off track by more than two minutes won't be a NAV for long. THIS is part of the experience that will make your head hurt. Luckily, we'll be using that ACS-GPS V2 gauge to fill in for most of the NAV's duties. There's a reason I'll keep harping on building up your Situational Awareness, you have to almost "feel" what this plane wants to do. The best news is, you will get there. All of a sudden, the Universe will open up and want to shake your hand. That light bulb will blink on and you'll know.
Wrapping up on our NAV, while many pilots would say that Nav Wings means "dropped wanna be pilot", the truth of the matter is that many NAVs made it out of collage with a tougher degree than their upper deck counter parts. Lots of class time and labs, lots of calculus, lots of burning the midnight oil, lots of reasons to have it effect their eye sight. Once again, the NAV is one of the junior members of the crew, usually a freshly-minted leutenant. Their seat is on the right side of the lower deck, facing forward.

Last of all for the crew dogs is the Radar Navigator, Bombardier, or RNAV. Big surprise, the RNAV started out in the seat to their right. After a couple of years of shaking hands with the Universe and learning how to cheat, the former NAV goes through some in-house squadron training and gets up graded to be The Master Of The BNS (aka Bombing and Navigation System). The RNAV gets the bigger Radar screen and the spindle-like BNS joystick. The RNAV also gets a LOT more switches to flip and is in charge of making sure all the stuff hanging on the pylons or in the bomb bay gets dropped at the precise millisecond. The RNAV also controls the Radar's output power and antenna gain and tilt.
Its a big job and the RNAV and NAV have to work well as a well-oiled and efficient team. Our typical RNAV is a captain or possibly a major.

While a crew doesn't need to be best friends, they DO need to be a family. Crew Dogs tend to be a close-knit group who will spend years working together as a team.

A new B-52 crew will start out as Non-Rated, NR-(followed by a number). Its the one-and-only goal of an NR crew to move up the ladder to being Rated, R-(followed by a number). Getting that R rating will mean training flights, usually at least three after they get to their home BW, where the crew proves they can work as a team and also get along. Being able to refuel and hit a target, on time, is the bulk of this training. The final NR training flight will also include "the I folks", an Instructor Pilot, Instructor EW, and Instructor RNAV. This flight is like "shooting for score" and the pressure is definitely ON. If our NR crew doesn't get the thumbs up from the "I folks", all of them, its back to square one. Messing up that check ride can come down to missing something trivial, the "I folks" don't mess around.

NOTE: THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS PUBLICALLY AVAILABLE AND NOT CONSIDERED CLASSIFIED.

Once the "I folks" have given their blessings, the final job for our intrepid NR crew is to get their targets and tankers in SAC's portion of the SIOP (Single Integrated Operation Plan). This process sounds very basic, it has to. The RNAV and AC (two man rule from here on out) will be given a set of tanker tracks and target locations. The targets are mainly somewhere in the Warsaw Pact and/or the People's Republic of China, depending on the base's location. Along with these locations will be the crew's H Hour Control Line (HHCL), a location and time after the Alert code has been given. At some point between the Alert code and prior to crossing the HHCL, the crew must expect either a Recall code or a Go code. A valid Recall code means "turn around and head for home". A valid Go code, and ONLY a valid Go code, means "cross the HHCL and proceed to your assigned targets". Anything in-between and the crew will be expected to hold behind the HHCL, for as long as possible. And, that's it.. Who knew that the end of the world could be this simple?

At this point, our (still but oh so close) NR crew gets together for flight planning and to prepare a detailed briefing on their SIOP mission. Once prepared, the crew (the whole crew) will deliver their briefing to a small audience containing the BW's Co., The general for the BW's numbered Air Force (something like 5th Air Force), and maybe a general from Offut AFB's "targeteers". This audience can, and usually does, ask ANY question related to anything in the crew's part of the SIOP, SIOP general procedures ("two man rule", "no lone zone", etc.), bomb loading procedures, DETAILLED target analysis and attack/evasion plans, flight plans, enemy capabilities (how to beat a SAM), etc., etc., etc.
If the audience gives their thumb's up, its time for a quick round of beers and a quicker check of the BW's Alert Force Roster. They did it, they are now an R rated crew. From here on out, our R crew will spend (usually) three weeks per month planning and flying training missions (figure one training flight per week) and one week per month on Alert duty. We'll get into how training flights get assigned and the perils of Alert Duty in a later post.

 

[ViperPilot2]

Well, looks like it's time to.build up a basic Training Route using VOR's in the vicinity of Mather and start out in the Intruder! See how close I can fly in Timed fashion to each VOR then back to Base!

Keep the 411 coming, Bob! Any suggestions are helpful as always, like you've been doing!

 

[Sbob]

Go easy on the timed stuff for a little while more.
Just go out and bomb around in the country side, then make sure you can still find Mather visually.

Basic navigation in this thread is going to be a little...odd.
You should have noticed by now that I'm avoiding VORs and NDBs like the plague.
If anything, I'll use them to simulate a search or fire control Radar.

The only VOR that's important will be the one at your home base.
The ILS for your home base is also important. But the real BUFF has a really good Radar under its nose cowling, which it uses for, well, everything.
I'm guessing they even use it to heat the in-flight meals.
We'll use the ILS because we have to, its really standing in for the Radar that's keeping the lower deck warm.

VORs are fine for long distance flights, but let's say that you're flying direct from Fairchild AFB in Washington to Andersen AFB on Guam with a re-fuel somewhere north of Hawaii. Now what?

One other quick example to what kind of FS world we live in.
Load something fast but sturdy. Now, use the main Map function to position your plane about 100 nMi south of the geographic North Pole.
For starters, it ain't easy. The North Pole is more of a concept in FS, but you can do it.
Now, take off and try to fly over the Pole. This is where things really start to get freaky.
At some point (roughly 80 miles south of the pole) you wind up doing a "wall slide" around an invisible cylinder, so you just can't get there from here. Its impossible. I haven't tried it yet, but I think the same thing happens at the South Pole.

If you've flown in DCS and used an AWACS, you should be familiar with "Bullseye".
Its an arbitrary point on the map that should change from mission to mission.

This is also the basis of a form of navigation called "GRID".
If you want to know what a REAL headache feels like, try learning Grid.
I had to learn an offshoot of Grid back in Inertial Nav school, let's call it "Grid Adjacent" and it was no picnic.

The good news is that your NAV (ACS-GPS) already knows how to do Grid in the FS world.
Just be aware, especially during long over-water or Wayyy Up North flights that things might not be what they seem.

I came up with a flight that borrowed a couple of those "canned" IR flights.
The idea was to take off from Fairchild, do some low level stuff over Canada, then aim for the Eielson AFB target range in Alaska before following the coast back to Fairchild. I think I took off at about 10 PM, local time.

Something really cool happened. While I was over northwestern Canada and heading for the border with Alaska, the sun started to rise. Then it dipped back down. Then it tried to rise again and made it about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way up. Then it dipped again. Then it (finally) rose and stayed up. This took about two hours of flight time. It was like FS(2002) was saying "Thanks for sticking with it, here's some eye candy."
This is the fun part of flying a long parabolic course at low level. Stuff just happens.

 

[Sbob]

So, let's get back in the "T-37" again.
It probably feels like I'm beating the horse, but for your next flight I want you to use the FS map to find a VOR or NBD near Mather.
Don't worry about tuning the radio, just fly toward it and try to spot the darned thing from the air.
See it yet? How about now? You basically need to be right over the darned thing to see it.

FWIW, its easier to spot an NDB than a VOR, but not by much.

Now, tune the radio to the same nav aid and try it again.
The pointers are telling you where it is and where to look. How close do you need to get before you can see it on the ground?
Using what the radio tells you, how easy is it to miss?

If you're at 500 to 1,000 feet AGL, it feels low. Look to the side and you're still pretty high up.

The nav radios are fine for longer flights, but they will let you down if you trust them too much.

BTW, I'm giving you a ton of latitude on these flights.
In truth, I want you to a get a little lost at times.
Try to recognize what it feels like when you start to get lost, so you won't do it later.
Were you fixated on the gauges too much? Were you fixated on something else? Maybe making up your grocery list for next week?

Have fun this weekend, bomb around Mather if you need to and have a good time.
I'll outline some VFR flights in the "T-37" ( A to B and back to A stuff) and then we'll need to do some short "ground school" stuff with ACS-GPS.
After that, its on to the T-43.

 

[Sbob]

Sorry for jumping around, but something showed up in my YouTube feed today and its worth sharing.
Click the "watch on youtube" line.

There are (were?) a bunch of these old "found footage" and PSA videos floating around and you can use them to figure some stuff out.
Note the segment of the B-52 taking off. This is known as an "unstick". The B-52 doesn't take off or land like anything else you've flown.
The B-47 is close, but the B-52 has its own way of doing things. We'll dig deeper into this later, but the B-52 doesn't "rotate". It gets to its pre-calculated take-off/unstick speed and it will be able to launch itself with minimal movement of the flight yoke. The BUFF's wings are solidly mounted at an upward angle, much like an F-8 Crusader with the flaps fully down. This had to be filmed in the mid 1970's. Note the old Dodge pick ups and how most aircraft are "bare metal" but some have the NATO cammo paint.