Weather Question

[AvroGuy]

How often will a fighter fly in low IFR conditions? I know they are all weather jets and everyone flys on an IFR flight plan. I just know reall deal that fight sorties get canx due to weather. Heavies go more often then not. Most of our crew were CAT II qualified in the E-3. I just want to know how often you fighter types go out in IFR conditions shoot an ILS to mins. I know that there is no need to fly if you can't see your target but what about home base being IFR and target/AOR VFR.

 

[ExAF]

It Depends

Don't know what the current guidance is since I've been retired for a while now, but there used to be peacetime and wartime mins. In training you had to get special clearance to fly if wx was below 300-1 or pilot cat mins which varied by pilot experience (whichever was higher). For actual combat missions, it was pilot category mins, which for most experienced pilots was usually approach mins. If you could get airborne (approach mins or takeoff alternate) and the wx at the target allowed employment, you went. How often you shot approaches to mins was merely dependent on how often it was necessary.

 

[AdlerDriver]

How often will a fighter fly in low IFR conditions? I know they are all weather jets and everyone flys on an IFR flight plan. I just know reall deal that fight sorties get canx due to weather. Heavies go more often then not. Most of our crew were CAT II qualified in the E-3. I just want to know how often you fighter types go out in IFR conditions shoot an ILS to mins. I know that there is no need to fly if you can't see your target but what about home base being IFR and target/AOR VFR.

Last I knew mins for experienced fighter guys in the USAF are 300/1. In Germany we were allowed to go to published mins (200-1/2) at home station. Cat 2/3 are obviously not an option since we don't have an autopilot. After flying a few cat 2 and 3 approaches in the civilian world with RVRs at mins, 300/1 seems pretty high at face value. Correction - after watching the autopilot fly the cat 2/3 approaches. Hand flying, single seat at 150+ knots, it didn't seem very high at the time.

To answer your question. In the winter in Germany, we would fly an ILS to mins on a daily basis to get back after a mission. The biggest factor that determined if we flew or not was if there was some clear airspace to fight in. Since we don't drop bombs, we didn't need to see the ground/target. We just needed some airspace that would allow us to comply with the training rules for cloud clearances/visible horizon, etc. As long as we had that, a legal alternate and mins at home, we flew.

These days with GPS guided JDAMs, a strike could probably be conducted completely IFR as long as you could land after you were done.

 

[AvroGuy]

thanks guys..

 

[Scrapdog]

How often will a fighter fly in low IFR conditions? I know they are all weather jets and everyone flys on an IFR flight plan. I just know reall deal that fight sorties get canx due to weather. Heavies go more often then not. Most of our crew were CAT II qualified in the E-3. I just want to know how often you fighter types go out in IFR conditions shoot an ILS to mins. I know that there is no need to fly if you can't see your target but what about home base being IFR and target/AOR VFR.

Mins in the US are 300/1 for fighters. Fighter sorties will get canx most often on the conditions in the airspace. Usually if it's crappy at the home drone, it's usually schmeg in the airspace as well. And since a fighter needs clear airspace to conduct its mission (unlike a heavy that flies from point A to B for its mission most of the time), there's no point in taking off in sh!tty airspace conditions to burn 10 grand of jet fuel and get no training accomplished. If the wx is mins at the home drone but clear in the airspace (and there is a suitable alternate since most fighter sorties end on fumes), you bet you'll see fighters flying full up.

Best of luck in the CRJ 700...

 

[AvroGuy]

Mins in the US are 300/1 for fighters. Fighter sorties will get canx most often on the conditions in the airspace. Usually if it's crappy at the home drone, it's usually schmeg in the airspace as well. And since a fighter needs clear airspace to conduct its mission (unlike a heavy that flies from point A to B for its mission most of the time), there's no point in taking off in sh!tty airspace conditions to burn 10 grand of jet fuel and get no training accomplished. If the wx is mins at the home drone but clear in the airspace (and there is a suitable alternate since most fighter sorties end on fumes), you bet you'll see fighters flying full up.

Best of luck in the CRJ 700...

When I was in turkey we did a few weather check flights buring around 90 gs for the mission. It preddy crppy becuase we were off the ground before many were even at the office. Oh well.. all good times. Thanks for the well wishes. The CRJ is alright. Would be better if we had the HUD. Then we could do hand flown CAT III aproaches.

take care..

 

[guppygoshawk]

USN goes down to 200-1/2 for precision Mins for single-piloted A/C. We'll take whatever we can get at the boat.

 

[AlbieF15]

Like Adler, flew in Europe where published mins were the rule. I flew in AK prior, and thought I knew about flying in bad weather. After several weeks (no kidding) of flying approaches down to published mins or maybe on a good day 300-400 foot overcasts, I realized Europe was "different". Flying approaches to mins got to be routine.

 

[AvroGuy]

OK, one more question, AF min are 300/1 with a few exceptions. can pilots qualify to go lower to cat II FAA mins? In the E-3 we could and it was all hand flown. I think they called it pilot CAT I & II. We were all steam guages but the fighters have HUDs and some jets have some form of thermal imaging (FLIR) by one name or another. Can you go lower?

 

[paulsalem]

What do fighters use for ani-ice (if any)? Bleed Air?