European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 5, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Magazine met Tom Turp Tetard Etc of claw it Tel do butt left end Jack Rab Knan walk by from of Paa t Frankfurt Airport Faa s safety watch in Germany Sis photos and Story fit Dave a Didi t s 9 . On a Friday. Any Friday. A commercial Jelliner pushes away from he blocks at Frankfurt Airport bound Lor West Berlin. The grandmother in the coach Section and the businessman working on papers up front expect a routine Light unaware of potential hazards should heir flight stray from the prescribed air corridor Over he communist German democratic Republic. As thu commercial Jet climbs to cruising Altitude the . Federal aviation administration s Rockwell Sabe liner is taxiing Lor Takeoff from Frankfurt Enro Ute . Inside the twin engine modified business Jel two pilots and to electronic technicians ire up an assortment of computers recorders and radio receivers. They work for the Faa s flight inspection Field office at Rhein main As one of four such offices outside the Continental United states. The work the Faa team will do of we Brucken is identical to the work they have already Dono along the three Berlin air corridors flying patterns Over the navigation and instrument Landing systems to insure the accuracy of those systems. Their first priority is the air corridors. Then come tha . Military install Lions in Europe such As we Brucken a. On a Day with ceiling and visibility unlimited the accuracy of navigation aids might not be of great concern. But ask any Pilot making a sweaty Palm thicker than pea soup approach coming Down out of the log at 500 feet per minute and he will Tell you those approach signals bettor be right on the Money. The Sabe liner holds at the end of the taxiway because the flight computer is not functioning As it should and the Crew wants to re program it. We re in no hurry says Jack Robinson. Everything has to be working perfectly. Robinson is a Veteran of 27 years As an electronic Lech Iran. He does t talk a lot when he does you know he knows his work. Although the Light checks Are usually Mada by one technician and two pilots Robinson is aboard this align As supervisory Techert texan in charge to observe and coach Cliff Dobbs who is making his first run As a flight Check technician. The computer is re programmed and the Sabe liner departs for we Brocken. When it starts its run through the spiderweb of radio signals surrounding the air base Dobbs is busier than a baseball shortstop flipping switches pushing buttons making notes. Robinson is leaning Over the seat transferring Little bits of knowledge and experience into Dobbs Eaf things that can t be Learned from books. Things Hal come from years of Gul reaction to the collection of Dala coming Inlo the instruments. Dobbs already has seven years experience As an electronic technician on the ground but this is his first trip punching the buttons in the Backol the Sabe liner. We had three c-5a Galaxy aircraft parked in just the right spot on the apron at one base and they were big enough to throw the radio signals off Robinson says. And Soma Lhing like a Large Salt Deposit in the Earth or Large obstructions can also Afleck the the Sabe liner snakes Down Iho slender thread of radio beam then makes a steady pass 50 lest Over he deck above we Brucken s runway. Up in the front office of the plane pilots Tom Krouse and Sieve Sites share the workload with one of them flying As Pilot on the first Hall of the Check and the other taking the Helm of the second half. A flight Check can take ail Day maybe More depending upon the number of Nav aids to be inspected. There Are checks and re checks and any number of a half dozen patterns to be town. Sites is hand flying the Jet through is pattern rather than using the autopilot and All the Needles on All the gauges Are pinned right on the Mark the majority of Faa pilots i be town with Are better than average Saya Krauson one of seven pilots stationed in Frankfurt and a former air Force Pilot. They have to be better pilots because the results of their flying will verify the standards by which All other pilots will Fly when on instruments. During the flight Check the Faa team communicates directly Wilh the air Force electronic technicians on he ground who Are responsible for maintaining the instrument approach systems. If the equipment in t up to snuff the team will remain in the area while the ground technicians realign the gear. In extreme cases where transmitters can t be brought within tolerance. The facility is noted As unsuitable for instrument approaches and the air traffic control is notified so the information can be passed to pilots. We Don t have he authority to close Down an air base says Robinson if a base commander has a flight of fighters out there he can exercise the option of letting them land or diverting them to another the automatic flight inspection system apis aboard the aircraft tells Dobbs that one of the we Brocken transmitters is slightly off killer. As the Jel circles overhead the ground techs realign the equipment. On the next go around everything chocks out o.k., so the inspection team can Fly Home. Meanwhile the commercial Jel that departed Frankfurt in the morning has landed in Berlin its passengers unaware the Faa inspection team flying Over we Brucken had also flown the Berlin corridors weeks Belore Locking the apis onto the corridor navigational aids and certifying their accuracy. The afis developed by the Faa Many years ago replaced a system where a person on the ground used something similar to a Surveyor s transit to visually Monitor the path of the flight Check aircraft. The sophistication accuracy and Cost of the afis is such thai other countries contract with the Faa Lolly their commercial Fields and airways partially because they have no inspection system of their own but also to obtain coveted Faa Cert Licarion for their Fields. The Frankfurt inspection team May Fly As Lar As ascension Island 5.000 Miles away in the South Atlantic or Monrovia on the Western coast of Africa 1o accomplish that task. Since Faa standards for certification Are much stricter than any International standards having that certification can mean a healthy chop in insurance costs for an Airport among other things. And the Faa does t Budge on the standards. If a country wants us to certify its airfields commented one technician ii has to pass our inspection. That s All there is to doubt right checking Pic fat Wei Tup Wittor Robl Rmon it the to Nonong Sutton to Ord Faa itt sunday. October 1986 the stars and stripes Page 13 -,=-.-. To
