Today military aircraft are trained to land not only on smooth tarmac, but also on grass or even on sandy beaches. here is one training exercise in Pembrey Sands Air Weapons Range. The beach is long and when the tide is out very wide it is ideal for Natural Surface Landings (NSL). So a Lockheed C-130J Hercules C.5 can easily land. The ground control team marks out the runway with day-glo orange banners. A rectangle of four banners is approximately 100 yards by 60 yards indicating the touchdown point. Three fire engines and support vehicles were positioned at the mid-point (something which probably wouldn’t exist in a real mission). It required 5 approaches with the last one being successful for the C-130 to land.
Full Gallery here : http://www.aviationcv.com/pilot-forum/Thread-Lockheed-C-130J-Hercules-Beach-Landings
By: Amarok - 18th July 2014 at 13:50
I wonder what extra training they need to be able to do this ?. Above and beyond landing on any other non-paved surface ?
I suppose it’s a day out at the seaside ? 🙂
When I was at Lyneham in the 70’s once a year was the beach landing, the training was not just for the pilots (they are fully trained at Lyneham / Brize on various landing scenarios) it was primarily to teach the pongo’s on how to set up, control and protect a landing ground and from our point of view (RAF Maintenance) we had to also to protect the U/C and lower fuse from damage.
I know these days they get plenty of ‘Desert Landings’ in Afghanistan etc But during the Cold War we had zero desert strip landing experience so Dorset Beach was ideal training ground
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By: AlanR - 17th July 2014 at 09:38
The point is to train crews who have not done it before.
I wonder what extra training they need to be able to do this ?. Above and beyond landing on any other non-paved surface ?
I suppose it’s a day out at the seaside ? 🙂
By: AviationCV - 17th July 2014 at 08:25
Hey Guys,
what do you think about this article ?
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By: Steve Bond - 16th July 2014 at 15:14
The point is to train crews who have not done it before.
By: AlanR - 16th July 2014 at 10:03
Then someone has to clean them up afterwards, and wash the salt water off.
I don’t quite see the point, other than to say “we can do it”. Which has already been proved.
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July 16, 2014 at 9:29 am