More on FOTI / A-6 Radar Displays

Nick Coleman,

Got back my copy of FOTI this weekend and turned to the segment you mention.

From Coonts' narrative, the route sounds a bunch like the OB-16 route.
IIRC, OB-16 started in northern Oregon and ended at the B-16 nuclear
bullseye at NAS Fallon, NV. The early legs of this route took one into the
canyons of the John Day River system, including one particular canyon that
runs almost exactly N-S. After watching canyon walls go by for about 20 nm,
the terrain begins to broaden and you change course to roughly SSE for a ~70
nm leg to Harney Lake. The few charts I saved of this area confirm the
existence of some low hills and shallow valleys along this otherwise
flattening route. I would guess these are the hills Coonts was visualizing
as threats to Jake and Morg when he wrote this segment.

(For those among you who are limited to the likes of a Rand-McNally road
atlas, the route starts at a little burg named Kimberly which is about 60 nm
SSW of Umatilla, OR.)

There's no specific thing that Coonts mentions in his narrative that would
cause Morg to scream for a pull-up. Morg has just put his head back into
the hood, so he is not looking at the pilot's VDI. (Neither apparently is
Jake, since he is not maintaining the 1,000 feet of clearance he has cranked
into the VDI's offset impact bar.) Since Jake is viewing SRTC on the VDI,
Morg is limited to a PPI display on his DVI. Morg may have noted a
way-too-strong radar return too close-in for comfort. Or maybe things just
"didn't look right" to him, the sound of that little voice we all carry
within us. Or maybe this was just some artistic license taken by Coonts.

Night or IMC conditions are absolutely the most demanding environment for
low-level flight. Jake clearly has let his scan deteriorate away from the
SRTC info and (as the narrative states) dwell too much upon other things
like engine instruments and fuel state. Unless you're heading directly for
a canyon wall, your radar altimeter readings do not deteriorate from 1,000
feet to 100 feet in only an instant.

Coonts' narrative is one of many good examples of the value of having two
pairs of eyeballs sitting side by side for attack work. For low-level, all
wx ops this was the gold standard of that era. The
situational awareness such an arrangement facilitates - and demands - of
both pilot and B/N undoubtedly saved many a mission, bird and crew.

--
Mike Kanze

"It was like being a rat living under a bowling alley."

- Willem Dafoe, commenting on what it was like to sleep in a compartment
just below the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.