USNI News Video: New Navy Helo Tech Taking Danger Out of Low Visibility Flying
By: Heather Mongilio
July 12, 2022 9:09 PM • Updated: July 13, 2022 9:48 AM
NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md. – Lt. McMillan Hastings and Lt. Ethan Hahn attempted a near-impossible feat of flying – landing their MH-60R Seahawk on a moving destroyer in a fog that brought visibility down to practically zero.
Compared to the acres of deck on an aircraft carrier, the flight deck of an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer is only slightly larger than the circumference of a Sea Hawk’s rotor blades and margins are tight. When adding low visibility and a pitching deck, safely landing on a destroyer is among the hardest jobs for a helicopter crew. The conditions for the landing would make it a “suicide mission,” the pilots said.
But the pair calmly landed on the flight deck as easily as on solid ground, as the superstructure of the destroyer emerged just feet in front of the helicopter. Then, they left the simulator.
The difference for Hastings and Hahn was they were using Adaptive Shipboard Guidance and Recovery Display (ASGaRD) – one of two prototype landing aids for low-visibility landings under development at Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division.
In the last decade, the Navy and Marine Corps have had 15 Class A helicopter accidents in low visibility, resulting in 36 deaths.
https://news.usni.org/2022/07/12/usni-news-video-new-navy-helo-tech-taking-danger-out-low-visibility-flying
