Controller was flawless with his job! No excess transmissions, gave the pilot exactly what he needed and was very clear. I have been involved in many emergencies in 30+ years ATC-retired.
You can hear the laser focus of that controller in his voice. His annunciation was perfect, and he clearly had his entire being focussed on bringing the jet in. You’ve got to wonder whether he had PIC time himself. Superb.
@@D.E._Sarcarean WTH are you yapping about? You didnt know that all air traffic audio is recorded by the FAA? Its recorded by a DALR or NVR system. Wondering how I know....because I maintain the systems. ;)
Has anyone seen an actual debrief of this event? Would love to check that out. Sounded like the pilot was asking for the GPS coordinates so he could create a waypoint for the field that would at least give him some situational awareness and a rough course line to follow toward the landing end of the runway. So he’s crunching numbers into his up front controller, spinning his course needle, while monitoring his FPAS (flight performance advisory system) for his time remaining fuel, all while doing his best to stay cucumber calm, hoping to see the runway ahead. Gear down, flaps full, and he nailed it! What a stud! Kudos to that controller too. Outstanding performance and professionalism! 🤙🏼
@@ButmunkieOG If they get a bad rep, it's from people who don't know anything about the pilots themselves. They're all incredibly humble, and calm, they fly the way they do, because their jets can do it, and htey're trained for it, lol. But they don't let no hot shots become fighter pilots, they'll get themselves killed. It requires a very high level of respect for the aircraft, and knowledge of their limitations. GLOC is no joke.
My god what a Chad ATC controller ! Perfection. The very height of professionalism. A man who knows his business. The pilot was great of course but you can tell that controller was bound and determined to safe that pilot. God bless you sir. I'm ever in trouble, you are who I want on the other side of that radio.
Wowww... goosebumps listening to the last couple minutes of ATC talking to Empire11. You can hear the tension and emotion in his voice. I'm sure hearing that the plane was on the ground was a major adrenaline dump.
Civilian pilots take note, when you are low on fuel you declare an emergency ! Too many pilots have died by being scared/reluctant to declare an emergency. This is how a truly professional pilots acts and reacts.
I remember (a long time ago) the very reluctance you speak of, right after I got my private license. I did all my training at a rural uncontrolled airport and therefore had very minimum radio work. If I had it to do all over again I would have done all my training at a bigger, controlled airport.
Fantastic Video! I was a controller both in the USAF and FAA and this brought back lots of memories of working emergency aircraft in both the tower and using Ground Control Approach Radar (GCA). This controller did an outstanding job. What most people don't know is anytime a controller goes to a new location he must memorize a massive amount of information about the local area, approaches, airways, airports, etc. You don't have time to look up data when you have only seconds to give information to a desperate pilot.
Perfect surveillance approach provided to Empire11, all correct information though the military uses more standardized comms. I can't speak for USAF but USN practices ASR (surveillance, non-precision) and PAR (surveillance precision approach, includes glide path) regularly both at the ship and at the field. At the field it is usually for air traffic controller training, highly valuable for both controllers and pilots. Maybe things have changed since but we were still doing them in 2011. FLY NAVY!
We did the same in the Army for our helicopters, usually as you say for controller training. We did circuits at Hunter Army Airfield for about an hour in a 58C just being talked onto the approach by the controllers as though we had a malfunctioning gyro compass, and they would just start issuing commands of "come right, come right, come right, hold course, come left" until we'd get to DH and go around. Boring as hell but, hey, flying is flying.
@@ImpendingJoker heck yeah the no-gyro was a thing. If the weather was good we would actually pull the circuit breakers for the gyros so the pilot would have no choice but to obey ATC: "turn left" "stop turn" "turn right" "stop turn". We knew they could get us runway-in-sight at DH even if none of our onboard instruments worked.
Forty years ago I had an air force base close by and used to train doing PAR precision approaches where controller gives heading and altitude instructions down to the runway.
For the Archie League Medal of Safety Awards, any chance the pilot is presented with a fresh set of drawers or maybe a repair kit for the bite marks left on the pilots seat? I bet there are some amazing stories told at the ceremony, put them all in a book and I'd buy one. I've really been enjoying your videos, such a treat and privilege to hear not how important of a job an Aircraft Controller's job is, that goes without saying, but being able to listen to the experience of what an Aircraft Controller has, the exchange between the pilot and the Controller, and the relief of those two individuals of a successful landing is what makes your videos so unique and appreciated. I'll leave the unsuccessful ones alone. Thank-you for the time and editing you put into these videos. I will add that The best eavesdrop (as it were ) I've had the opportunity to enjoy was the full length audio of the communications of a B-52 strike on Hanoi during Linebacker II I think it was. If you have any of something along that line, I doubt anyone would complain about not being recent. Again, thanx for the privilege to listen.
Thank you so much for your kind words and support! I'm glad you enjoy the videos and find value in the unique perspective they provide on the critical and often intense interactions between pilots and air traffic controllers. It’s true that behind each successful landing are stories of skill, quick thinking, and teamwork that deserve recognition. Thank you again for watching and for taking the time to share your thoughts. Your feedback means a lot and motivates us to continue bringing these stories to life. Stay tuned, and I hope to keep bringing you more of the content you enjoy! I will surely do some research on the B-52 strike on Hanoi.. we did work on some WW2 bomber audios before and we have plans to work on WW2 audios in future as well. Lets see
Which I don't understand. I'm not very knowledgeable on these things but I thought that F18s used ILS to help guide them in to carriers. EDIT: Ah ok ACLS is its own separate thing
@@TeeDee87 yes you are right, didn't; look at the airport but that airport has ILS on all runways also the 30L I believed he landed on. So did the Spirit of St Louis airport according to Foreflight. The controller offered the Vortec or TACAN (this is military) which is a "simple" instrument (like a VOR or DME) to get a bearing to the airport. All airplanes, even Cessna's have these on board and work on VHF. Apparently either due to high workload or malfunctioning equipment, the plane was not able to operate it. And ILS is also nothing more then a guiding instrument in its simplest form.
The written GPS coordinates at 3:51 of the video shows min and seconds, but the audio description is using a decimal, which are not minutes at all. Those are two different locations! The audio is describing the remaining partial minute in decimal form, but then the audio confuses the discussion by calling them seconds. The units are not seconds at all, they are minutes in decimal form. I wish they wouldn't mix up units like that, it could cost a life one day.
I immediately thought the same thing. When he reads off "nine zero seconds" and "eight six seconds" I'm thinking those aren't seconds, they're fractional minutes! In this case it's obvious they're not seconds because you can't have more than 59 seconds, but it would really be confusing if the factional portion of the coordinate was less than 60 because it can be completely ambiguous as to whether you're talking about seconds or fractional minutes.
That’s exactly what he was doing. With the lat/long the pilot could use his air to ground radar to designate the approach end of the runway and make his own instrument approach. I had to do that one time going into St Louis. Not quite as low on fuel as him though.
Great job, controller. But that airplane should have been able to find its own way to land at Lambert (KSTL). That’s where every F/A-18 ever made took its first flight. McDonnell Douglas/Boeing built every one. I used to watch them out of my office window that overlooked the flight ramp. Prior to about 2005 or so, the MO ANG flew their F-15s (also built at Boeing in St. Louis) from Lambert. Frequently, the ANG would take off in a 2x2 four ship sortie. They’d climb immediately to get out of the airport traffic pattern and their noise would set off the car alarms in the Building 1 parking lot. Good memories. So glad to see my Hornet make it back to fight another day.
@@GreatDataVideos Exactly. He is used to giving VHF frequencies. All VORTACs have a TACAN channel also. Classic excitement in an emergency. Pilot says I don’t have VHF.
I've heard this complaint before. The Navy needs to start putting some capable avionics into their jets. They can't fly an ILS or RNAV approach. That's a problem.
F/A-18 does not have an ILS system, it has an equivalent system ACLS that's compatible with carriers but it can't use normal ILS systems so precision approach either, always wondered whether it would be that difficult to incorporate a system into the aircraft. Either way great work from the ATC and pilot, under stress keeping it absolutely clear and conscise. Got the job done brilliantly!
Maybe a few others caught it, but ATC gave the coordinates of the field incorrectly. Noticed it immediately when I heard "90 seconds" and "86 seconds" - clearly degrees decimal minutes, NOT seconds. ATC did a great job otherwise though!
It doesn't matter if you are flying a military fighter jet, a giant passenger plane, a single-engine ultralight or any other airplane. If you are in genuine trouble, don't be afraid to ask ATC for help, a big part of their job is to ensure that every plane in the sky gets on the ground safely.
Not sure why he couldn’t shoot the vortex approach. All vortacs are paired with a tacan frequency. All he needed was the tacan frequency and that would have given him both the azmuth and DME to the airport. Give him the final course and step down altitudes and he could have flown it.
😂 vortex… the military jets like -18s and -16s don’t have a VOR receiver, just a TACAN and yeah, they’re paired up but a fighter pilot doesn’t have time or space to look up the paired channel. The controller needs to say “TACAN channel 121X”
😂 vortex… the military jets like -18s and -16s don’t have a VOR receiver, just a TACAN and yeah, they’re paired up but a fighter pilot doesn’t have time or space to look up the paired channel. The controller needs to say “TACAN channel 121X”
@@tringalij spellcheck knows better. VORTAC approach should be able to be used with vectors and a TACAN receiver even if a VOR fix is required to be “legal”, but in an emergency where the alternative is giving the jet back to the tax payers, it is worth the risk. Yes, I am familiar with Navy fighters. Some of the A-4s we flew did have a VHF and ILS/VOR receiver. In any case the pilot should have asked for the tacan channel, we didn’t carry a lot of pubs lie tanker guys did. We couldn’t fit all that in the cockpit.
@@tringalijwe actually DO have the time to look that up normally.. in this specific situation, maybe not so much. Sounds like this happened before iPads were introduced, too...
Imagine losing a $50 million dollar airplane and maybe a pilot because it didn't have a few thousand dollars worth of avionics installed to land in bad weather at civilian airports.
It’s incredibly frustrating how little certified FAA avionics military aircraft have. Being restricted to tacans and UHF frequencies hamstrings us a lot.
@@Joe-bm4wxI think a lot of it has to do with you would have to be able to turn it off and on easily in flight preferably and it has to be removable from the plane if you are a warplane in a war you don't want something that talks back to the ground like ILS (if I am right it's pings both ways)
Someone explain to me the quality of the audio on this channel. The controller is so clear on the first segment. Are these re-enactments or ATC tapes? There’s no way these are air-checks pulled out of the air.
The F/A-18 Super Hornets being produced are currently on block 3. Block 3s are quite the jump in technology and their cockpits are very different from block 2 and even more so from the block 1s and baby hornets. The older block 2s are being upgraded to block 3-ironically some of which are being done at Lambert. However the time of this incident was before the first block 3 first entered service.
People have no idea the number of times that air traffic controllers pulled the rabbit out of the hat and provide emergency approach services to military aircraft only to be told by management that it was your job.
Hornet-1 arrival. Use the radar to paint the runway, designate it, then fly a 3 degree approach down to legally 200-1/2; but lower of you got no other choice.
From the FAA website.... For reasons peculiar to military or naval operations (unusual siting conditions, the pitching and rolling of a naval vessel, etc.) the civil VOR/Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) system of air navigation was considered unsuitable for military or naval use. A new navigational system, TACAN, was therefore developed by the military and naval forces to more readily lend itself to military and naval requirements. As a result, the FAA has integrated TACAN facilities with the civil VOR/DME program. Although the theoretical, or technical principles of operation of TACAN equipment are quite different from those of VOR/DME facilities, the end result, as far as the navigating pilot is concerned, is the same. These integrated facilities are called VORTACs. TACAN ground equipment consists of either a fixed or mobile transmitting unit. The airborne unit in conjunction with the ground unit reduces the transmitted signal to a visual presentation of both azimuth and distance information. TACAN is a pulse system and operates in the Ultrahigh Frequency (UHF) band of frequencies. Its use requires TACAN airborne equipment and does not operate through conventional VOR equipment.
The F/A-18 is primarily used on aircraft carriers, where landing is often performed using the Carrier Instrument Landing System (CATS) or a combination of visual cues and radar assistance. This system is made for the specific conditions of carrier landings, where space is limited and the environment is dynamic. I imagine the military would’ve thought that with this training an, ils would’ve made the aircraft weight more and hindered its weight and or speed.
F-18’s use TACAN, ICLS and ACLS (UHF). It meets their needs for carrier and military airfields. (ICLS and ACLS are used for carrier landings). As they operate on UHF there is no way for the pilot to tune to a VHF frequency which is why the pilot said (unable). Keeping in mind this is from 2012.
Many foreign militaries that fly the Hornet have retrofitted civilian VOR and ILS to their planes. It was not specified if this was a legacy model or Rhino, but the avionics are largely the same. The pilot could have taken that VORTAC approach, but he needed the DME channel when the controller gave him the VOR frequency. Not sure why he did not ask. There's also VHF ADF onboard but it is a direction finder, not a VOR receiver, and thus it is inherently inaccurate. This was in 2013 so I assume the plane was also capable of shooting a so-called Hornet approach which is basically flying off GPS to coordinates onto the threshold.
he must have misspoke, the f-18's fuel capacity is around 1700 gallons, and if an f-18 had 7000 gallons of fuel in it it would have a like 7000 cubic foot fuel tank
It doesn’t happen that often but just like commercial jets occasionally it does happen and it’s almost always due to poor weather conditions as was the case here. Diverting to an alternate, a missed approach, and then another missed approach uses a ton of fuel. Fighters as is have a limited fuel capacity which is why they, essentially, constantly cycle through taking turns on the tanker. As if having limited fuel capacity isn’t bad enough the engines suck down the most fuel at low altitudes which is obviously where missed approaches happen. This is why he said he needed to climb to 10,000 - get up in the thinner air and then he can power glide back down.
Controller was flawless with his job! No excess transmissions, gave the pilot exactly what he needed and was very clear. I have been involved in many emergencies in 30+ years ATC-retired.
Not quite flawless, there was religious nonsense at the end.
@@Dr.Ian-Plect What nonsense? "Thank the good Lord?" All praise to Jesus. Always.
@@chukulan Yes, that's the mythological tripe I was referring to. All praise to rationality and evidence-based thinking. _Always_
Muted.
@@Dr.Ian-Plect Aww, running from truth? Rationally, you explain how something arises from NOTHING. You explain away the information theory for me.
Well it sounds like he messed up the Lat/Long, but I guess the pilot figured it out.
What a stud of an ATC. Knowledgeable, professional, understanding, and working with the pilot. I love this stuff. 🙏🏼
Welcome to St. Louis
Thank you for flying Bad Ass Air
EWR needs controllers like this, hoooooooly moley this guy did a STELLAR job!
A stud 😂😂😂❤
You can hear the laser focus of that controller in his voice. His annunciation was perfect, and he clearly had his entire being focussed on bringing the jet in. You’ve got to wonder whether he had PIC time himself. Superb.
Agree 100%. But enunciation not annunciation(announcing something)
The professionalism from both pilot and ATC was most impressive!
Outstanding ATC!
The audio is faked.
@@D.E._SarcareanNo it's not. I know the pilot and that is his voice. I don't know the ATC so his could be fake but I doubt it. You are fake
@@D.E._Sarcarean WTH are you yapping about? You didnt know that all air traffic audio is recorded by the FAA? Its recorded by a DALR or NVR system. Wondering how I know....because I maintain the systems. ;)
Former pilot and FAA controller here. Much admiration for this controller.
Has anyone seen an actual debrief of this event? Would love to check that out. Sounded like the pilot was asking for the GPS coordinates so he could create a waypoint for the field that would at least give him some situational awareness and a rough course line to follow toward the landing end of the runway. So he’s crunching numbers into his up front controller, spinning his course needle, while monitoring his FPAS (flight performance advisory system) for his time remaining fuel, all while doing his best to stay cucumber calm, hoping to see the runway ahead. Gear down, flaps full, and he nailed it! What a stud! Kudos to that controller too. Outstanding performance and professionalism! 🤙🏼
Without ILS yeah he would be setting a waypoint as his marker. Pilot is a master with his F18
They all get a bad rep as cocky sons of bitches... But you do kinda have to give it to them lol.
@@ButmunkieOG If they get a bad rep, it's from people who don't know anything about the pilots themselves. They're all incredibly humble, and calm, they fly the way they do, because their jets can do it, and htey're trained for it, lol. But they don't let no hot shots become fighter pilots, they'll get themselves killed. It requires a very high level of respect for the aircraft, and knowledge of their limitations. GLOC is no joke.
That ATC controller was phenomenal, send him to the instructor course, fantastic job.
Beautiful job by everyone there, including the pilot who advised everyone of his status without hesitation.
My god what a Chad ATC controller ! Perfection. The very height of professionalism. A man who knows his business.
The pilot was great of course but you can tell that controller was bound and determined to safe that pilot. God bless you sir. I'm ever in trouble, you are who I want on the other side of that radio.
Awesome job by ATC and the F18 pilot.
Wowww... goosebumps listening to the last couple minutes of ATC talking to Empire11. You can hear the tension and emotion in his voice. I'm sure hearing that the plane was on the ground was a major adrenaline dump.
I feel like I had some of those same emotions. Just massive relief when reported on the ground safe.🎉😮
should have no emotion
Civilian pilots take note, when you are low on fuel you declare an emergency ! Too many pilots have died by being scared/reluctant to declare an emergency. This is how a truly professional pilots acts and reacts.
I remember (a long time ago) the very reluctance you speak of, right after I got my private license. I did all my training at a rural uncontrolled airport and therefore had very minimum radio work. If I had it to do all over again I would have done all my training at a bigger, controlled airport.
@@demiurgiacI think it is important to remember that you can always take additional lessons with an instructor at any point
I actually worked with Brandon Gasser’s wife who is a nurse. A-1 pilot. Excellent job.
Excellent job indeed.. best regards to the couple!
sure you did. i'm also george clooney
@@Digitalgems9000Brandon's wife is a nurse because my wife works with her
@@Digitalgems9000 Hey, George. Enjoy you in the movies, but stop being a dickhead on the interwebs.
@@Digitalgems9000 go away numb nuts
Atc is an impossible job, and this guy was right on. My uncle was atc/AF bird col. And our pilots are some of the best🇺🇸🤛
Except for the F16 pilot that ran off the runway at OshKosh
Couldn't ask for a better ATC. well done
These two were incredible to listen to.
Just a incredible save of aircraft. ATC and Pilot exceptionally skilled. ATC saved the day.
Cool and calm on both ends. Great video.
Thanks! I hope you enjoyed the content as much as we enjoyed creating it
The audio is faked.
Thank you for posting. This was in our local St Louis media for a while but then couldn’t find it the last few years. Thank you again!
You are welcome!
Fantastic Video! I was a controller both in the USAF and FAA and this brought back lots of memories of working emergency aircraft in both the tower and using Ground Control Approach Radar (GCA). This controller did an outstanding job. What most people don't know is anytime a controller goes to a new location he must memorize a massive amount of information about the local area, approaches, airways, airports, etc. You don't have time to look up data when you have only seconds to give information to a desperate pilot.
Incredible performance by the controller and pilot. Excellent communication. This is how it’s done
Incredible clear communication, well done
Gotta love NavalAir! Calm, cool collected pilot and controller. That’s how it works! Great job!
Perfect surveillance approach provided to Empire11, all correct information though the military uses more standardized comms. I can't speak for USAF but USN practices ASR (surveillance, non-precision) and PAR (surveillance precision approach, includes glide path) regularly both at the ship and at the field. At the field it is usually for air traffic controller training, highly valuable for both controllers and pilots. Maybe things have changed since but we were still doing them in 2011. FLY NAVY!
We did the same in the Army for our helicopters, usually as you say for controller training. We did circuits at Hunter Army Airfield for about an hour in a 58C just being talked onto the approach by the controllers as though we had a malfunctioning gyro compass, and they would just start issuing commands of "come right, come right, come right, hold course, come left" until we'd get to DH and go around. Boring as hell but, hey, flying is flying.
@@ImpendingJoker heck yeah the no-gyro was a thing. If the weather was good we would actually pull the circuit breakers for the gyros so the pilot would have no choice but to obey ATC: "turn left" "stop turn" "turn right" "stop turn". We knew they could get us runway-in-sight at DH even if none of our onboard instruments worked.
Hard to find surveillance approaches anymore.
What a great job this controller did.
dude that was AWESOME. ATC has nerves of steel. what a guy.
wow .. exceptional atc and pilot .. keeping cool ,, good outcome
I hope you enjoyed the content as much as we enjoyed creating it
You could hear the pilot calming down as he recognised that the controller had his back. Great work from both.
Forty years ago I had an air force base close by and used to train doing PAR precision approaches where controller gives heading and altitude instructions down to the runway.
amazing the ATC guy, WOW, i have no words.
Flying is dope. Flying a fighter jet i envy. BEING A ATC makes all that possible ❤❤❤❤
Outstanding always keep calm and a clear head.🇺🇸
"You know what? Let me get this Empire 11. This has been a debacle."
😂 I can only imagine what preceded this.
For the Archie League Medal of Safety Awards, any chance the pilot is presented with a fresh set of drawers or maybe a repair kit for the bite marks left on the pilots seat? I bet there are some amazing stories told at the ceremony, put them all in a book and I'd buy one. I've really been enjoying your videos, such a treat and privilege to hear not how important of a job an Aircraft Controller's job is, that goes without saying, but being able to listen to the experience of what an Aircraft Controller has, the exchange between the pilot and the Controller, and the relief of those two individuals of a successful landing is what makes your videos so unique and appreciated. I'll leave the unsuccessful ones alone. Thank-you for the time and editing you put into these videos.
I will add that The best eavesdrop (as it were ) I've had the opportunity to enjoy was the full length audio of the communications of a B-52 strike on Hanoi during Linebacker II I think it was. If you have any of something along that line, I doubt anyone would complain about not being recent. Again, thanx for the privilege to listen.
Thank you so much for your kind words and support! I'm glad you enjoy the videos and find value in the unique perspective they provide on the critical and often intense interactions between pilots and air traffic controllers. It’s true that behind each successful landing are stories of skill, quick thinking, and teamwork that deserve recognition.
Thank you again for watching and for taking the time to share your thoughts. Your feedback means a lot and motivates us to continue bringing these stories to life. Stay tuned, and I hope to keep bringing you more of the content you enjoy!
I will surely do some research on the B-52 strike on Hanoi.. we did work on some WW2 bomber audios before and we have plans to work on WW2 audios in future as well. Lets see
@@Flight_Followeryeah, that sounds fascinating. I’d watch that
Great ATC thank you gents.
John B747,757,767,777 etc etc
STL ATC is awesome best ATC i’ve encountered so far
absolutely clutch performance from the controller
ATC read out decimal minutes as seconds, but apart from that, he was awesome.
That was damn smooth
I was an ATC at Scott from 1984 to 1988.... good times
Great ATC 👏🏼
Yup great ATC indeed!
THIS is how it's done. Well done.
High tech F18, fast, deadly, expensive, rugged, but no ILS onboard so it can't land in bad weather like even a Cessna 172 trainer can do.
Which I don't understand. I'm not very knowledgeable on these things but I thought that F18s used ILS to help guide them in to carriers.
EDIT: Ah ok ACLS is its own separate thing
Not all airports have ILS capabilities. The plane sure has it
@@philippewits5203STL sure as ballsack has ILS
@@philippewits5203 International airport in St. Louis doesn't have ils.... I don't buy that.
@@TeeDee87 yes you are right, didn't; look at the airport but that airport has ILS on all runways also the 30L I believed he landed on. So did the Spirit of St Louis airport according to Foreflight.
The controller offered the Vortec or TACAN (this is military) which is a "simple" instrument (like a VOR or DME) to get a bearing to the airport. All airplanes, even Cessna's have these on board and work on VHF. Apparently either due to high workload or malfunctioning equipment, the plane was not able to operate it. And ILS is also nothing more then a guiding instrument in its simplest form.
The written GPS coordinates at 3:51 of the video shows min and seconds, but the audio description is using a decimal, which are not minutes at all. Those are two different locations! The audio is describing the remaining partial minute in decimal form, but then the audio confuses the discussion by calling them seconds. The units are not seconds at all, they are minutes in decimal form. I wish they wouldn't mix up units like that, it could cost a life one day.
I immediately thought the same thing. When he reads off "nine zero seconds" and "eight six seconds" I'm thinking those aren't seconds, they're fractional minutes! In this case it's obvious they're not seconds because you can't have more than 59 seconds, but it would really be confusing if the factional portion of the coordinate was less than 60 because it can be completely ambiguous as to whether you're talking about seconds or fractional minutes.
Wonder if he was just plotting in his latitude and longitude into the weapons system as a tracking backup.
That’s exactly what he was doing. With the lat/long the pilot could use his air to ground radar to designate the approach end of the runway and make his own instrument approach. I had to do that one time going into St Louis. Not quite as low on fuel as him though.
Wow nice job
I'm not a pilot or controller but if its a VORTAC its a VOR and TACAN. In this case 121X.
Bravo
Great job thats why they make the big bucks
Great job, controller.
But that airplane should have been able to find its own way to land at Lambert (KSTL).
That’s where every F/A-18 ever made took its first flight. McDonnell Douglas/Boeing built every one.
I used to watch them out of my office window that overlooked the flight ramp.
Prior to about 2005 or so, the MO ANG flew their F-15s (also built at Boeing in St. Louis) from Lambert. Frequently, the ANG would take off in a 2x2 four ship sortie. They’d climb immediately to get out of the airport traffic pattern and their noise would set off the car alarms in the Building 1 parking lot.
Good memories.
So glad to see my Hornet make it back to fight another day.
Controller should have gave him Channel 111 which is the Tacan channel for the VORTAC at Lambert. (Cardinal)
There is a TACAN 30L approach for STL, but I would guess that the controllers don't handle that much military traffic.
@@GreatDataVideosThe thing is, they do... Boeing has a ton of Eagles and Hornets out of STL, but perhaps they aren't used to the Hornets working IFR.
@@GreatDataVideos Exactly. He is used to giving VHF frequencies. All VORTACs have a TACAN channel also. Classic excitement in an emergency. Pilot says I don’t have VHF.
I've heard this complaint before. The Navy needs to start putting some capable avionics into their jets. They can't fly an ILS or RNAV approach. That's a problem.
F/A-18 does not have an ILS system, it has an equivalent system ACLS that's compatible with carriers but it can't use normal ILS systems so precision approach either, always wondered whether it would be that difficult to incorporate a system into the aircraft. Either way great work from the ATC and pilot, under stress keeping it absolutely clear and conscise. Got the job done brilliantly!
Glad to hear all went well. But the irony of the last name Gasser😂.
Imagine this at Kennedy. “Yeh buddy you got yourself into this mess”
Surveillance approach = Radar assisted.
Tower gotta be prior military. Comms were very clean.
Maybe a few others caught it, but ATC gave the coordinates of the field incorrectly. Noticed it immediately when I heard "90 seconds" and "86 seconds" - clearly degrees decimal minutes, NOT seconds. ATC did a great job otherwise though!
It doesn't matter if you are flying a military fighter jet, a giant passenger plane, a single-engine ultralight or any other airplane. If you are in genuine trouble, don't be afraid to ask ATC for help, a big part of their job is to ensure that every plane in the sky gets on the ground safely.
Don’t fly with the call sign “one one”
Now thats how you treat an emergency
Not sure why he couldn’t shoot the vortex approach. All vortacs are paired with a tacan frequency. All he needed was the tacan frequency and that would have given him both the azmuth and DME to the airport. Give him the final course and step down altitudes and he could have flown it.
😂 vortex… the military jets like -18s and -16s don’t have a VOR receiver, just a TACAN and yeah, they’re paired up but a fighter pilot doesn’t have time or space to look up the paired channel. The controller needs to say “TACAN channel 121X”
😂 vortex… the military jets like -18s and -16s don’t have a VOR receiver, just a TACAN and yeah, they’re paired up but a fighter pilot doesn’t have time or space to look up the paired channel. The controller needs to say “TACAN channel 121X”
@@tringalij spellcheck knows better. VORTAC approach should be able to be used with vectors and a TACAN receiver even if a VOR fix is required to be “legal”, but in an emergency where the alternative is giving the jet back to the tax payers, it is worth the risk. Yes, I am familiar with Navy fighters. Some of the A-4s we flew did have a VHF and ILS/VOR receiver. In any case the pilot should have asked for the tacan channel, we didn’t carry a lot of pubs lie tanker guys did. We couldn’t fit all that in the cockpit.
@@tringalijwe actually DO have the time to look that up normally.. in this specific situation, maybe not so much. Sounds like this happened before iPads were introduced, too...
I don't understand the coordinates as spoken. Is the controller reading DD°MM'SS" ("seconds") or DD°MM.MM ("point")?
How did he get to such a low fuel situation in the first place?
Storm and diversion from his originally scheduled landing site.
We're not gonna talk about the fact that the pilot in the first segment is named GASSER?!?!? hahaha
Props to ATC... scary that this is a USAF FIGHTER pilot.
This controller saved lives that day - that is for sure - not only in the F-16 - but potentially on the ground had he needed to punch out.
Hornet. Not Air Force. Navy
Imagine losing a $50 million dollar airplane and maybe a pilot because it didn't have a few thousand dollars worth of avionics installed to land in bad weather at civilian airports.
No ILS in a hornet bc we have ACLS for the boat. Now we have RNAV which is a big improvement.
It’s incredibly frustrating how little certified FAA avionics military aircraft have. Being restricted to tacans and UHF frequencies hamstrings us a lot.
@@Joe-bm4wxI think a lot of it has to do with you would have to be able to turn it off and on easily in flight preferably and it has to be removable from the plane if you are a warplane in a war you don't want something that talks back to the ground like ILS (if I am right it's pings both ways)
@@sqike001tonILS is a receive only navaid. The aircraft does not transmit anything to the LOC or GS.
@@TheFreeman17 I stand corrected
Waiting for ATC to ask - "How many souls are on board"
I think I just held my breath for 8 minutes
Someone explain to me the quality of the audio on this channel. The controller is so clear on the first segment. Are these re-enactments or ATC tapes? There’s no way these are air-checks pulled out of the air.
@@ScottBrandt the recordings are sourced from various ground aviation enthusiast receivers.
I heard SDR software radios remove the static, not sure all the details
I'd be interested to learn the navigation capability of an F-18. 400' overcast and 2.5 miles viz is yawn material for the jet I fly...
The F/A-18 Super Hornets being produced are currently on block 3. Block 3s are quite the jump in technology and their cockpits are very different from block 2 and even more so from the block 1s and baby hornets.
The older block 2s are being upgraded to block 3-ironically some of which are being done at Lambert. However the time of this incident was before the first block 3 first entered service.
1700lbs of fuel equates to 10 mins run time? Light flying?
Quietly amused that a pilot named Gasser experienced a fuel emergency
People have no idea the number of times that air traffic controllers pulled the rabbit out of the hat and provide emergency approach services to military aircraft only to be told by management that it was your job.
It's not?
@@genegadeyou missed the point.
This is the 3rd or 4th incident involving an F-18 bingo fuel situation, in less than a month.
Hornet-1 arrival. Use the radar to paint the runway, designate it, then fly a 3 degree approach down to legally 200-1/2; but lower of you got no other choice.
I know nothing about this. Why did he keep missing the approach?
400ft ceilings are probably below the minimums for that TACAN approach. Most TACANs are like 500-600 IIRC and he didn't have the runway by then.
@@erobbin144 thanks goose 🙄
Civilian pilot here - shocked to hear these jets don’t have ILS capability. Can anyone in the know chime in with info?
From the FAA website.... For reasons peculiar to military or naval operations (unusual siting conditions, the pitching and rolling of a naval vessel, etc.) the civil VOR/Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) system of air navigation was considered unsuitable for military or naval use. A new navigational system, TACAN, was therefore developed by the military and naval forces to more readily lend itself to military and naval requirements. As a result, the FAA has integrated TACAN facilities with the civil VOR/DME program. Although the theoretical, or technical principles of operation of TACAN equipment are quite different from those of VOR/DME facilities, the end result, as far as the navigating pilot is concerned, is the same. These integrated facilities are called VORTACs.
TACAN ground equipment consists of either a fixed or mobile transmitting unit. The airborne unit in conjunction with the ground unit reduces the transmitted signal to a visual presentation of both azimuth and distance information. TACAN is a pulse system and operates in the Ultrahigh Frequency (UHF) band of frequencies. Its use requires TACAN airborne equipment and does not operate through conventional VOR equipment.
The F/A-18 is primarily used on aircraft carriers, where landing is often performed using the Carrier Instrument Landing System (CATS) or a combination of visual cues and radar assistance. This system is made for the specific conditions of carrier landings, where space is limited and the environment is dynamic.
I imagine the military would’ve thought that with this training an, ils would’ve made the aircraft weight more and hindered its weight and or speed.
F-18’s use TACAN, ICLS and ACLS (UHF). It meets their needs for carrier and military airfields. (ICLS and ACLS are used for carrier landings). As they operate on UHF there is no way for the pilot to tune to a VHF frequency which is why the pilot said (unable).
Keeping in mind this is from 2012.
@@SeligTiles thanks!
Many foreign militaries that fly the Hornet have retrofitted civilian VOR and ILS to their planes. It was not specified if this was a legacy model or Rhino, but the avionics are largely the same.
The pilot could have taken that VORTAC approach, but he needed the DME channel when the controller gave him the VOR frequency. Not sure why he did not ask. There's also VHF ADF onboard but it is a direction finder, not a VOR receiver, and thus it is inherently inaccurate.
This was in 2013 so I assume the plane was also capable of shooting a so-called Hornet approach which is basically flying off GPS to coordinates onto the threshold.
WOWWWWW!!! I need a drink! Thanks all.
Wonder why he missed the first approach?
Weather... sounds like it was at or below TACAN minima.
That was def a nail biter even though I already knew the outcome was going to be good. phew!
@1:56 "Empire 11, *executing* missed approach."
Even at no fault of his own he's going to have tons of paperwork to do for this incident
What does "cleared for the option" mean??
Touch and go, stop and go, low approach, executing the missed, or full stop.
Only a bad pilot puts himself in this position. Period.
Your subtitles have a lot of little mistakes in them...
That pilot is in deep shil after an oversight like that.
What was Brandon Gasser's callsign?
Sugar nipples
Great video. I will subscribe
Thanks for the sub!
Damn, that's an expensive air-conditioning malfunction...
Brandon GASSER. An apt surname
Is there an app that puts voice as text ?
This is hilarious
Are you from Stoke ? Is your name Ralph ? Did you once used to be a tiler ??
If it's you Ralph...... You left your balloons mate !!
They are in the shed
1700 lbs fuel, damn, how many gph for a fa18?
7000 ish gallons per hour. With Afterburner you would double that
he must have misspoke, the f-18's fuel capacity is around 1700 gallons, and if an f-18 had 7000 gallons of fuel in it it would have a like 7000 cubic foot fuel tank
You'd think a ton of fuel would not be an emergency.
Our American pilots are bad azz.
'I only have 1700 pounds of fuel left'
If hes low on fuel why is he wasting it to climb?
“Extreme emergency?” The rest of the world says Mayday…
It wasn't a May Day, it was in April.
Why did he need to climb to 10000 ft?
Fuel efficiency is better up there. Down at let's say 2000' it's just a fuel pissing contest 😂
Why are all these fighters declaring fuel emergencies? Do the gauges not work?
It doesn’t happen that often but just like commercial jets occasionally it does happen and it’s almost always due to poor weather conditions as was the case here. Diverting to an alternate, a missed approach, and then another missed approach uses a ton of fuel. Fighters as is have a limited fuel capacity which is why they, essentially, constantly cycle through taking turns on the tanker.
As if having limited fuel capacity isn’t bad enough the engines suck down the most fuel at low altitudes which is obviously where missed approaches happen. This is why he said he needed to climb to 10,000 - get up in the thinner air and then he can power glide back down.
Burn rates in a fighter are exceptionally high. At max range, a Hornet is burning 7000+ lbs per hour, with a max internal capacity of 14,400ish.
@@C420sailorPerhaps while flying at max speed or on afterburner, but I can’t imagine the burn rate being that high during lower speeds.
@@SodaAnt7it can easily be twice as high as in 10.000' ... it's not just the engines, it's drag due to the much denser air as well.