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NORDO- What would you have done?

C

C. Brenden

Well Known Member
Yesterday, I had an F18 come into KIWA from CA. He had filed, and was flying the ARLIN STAR. I vectored him off the arrival and was going to give him direct IWA in a few minutes (as is normal practice for jets arriving at IWA). I had issued the pilot a descent and he was descending to 11,000. A couple of minutes later I noticed the pilot turned about 45 degrees back to the left and rejoined the ARLIN STAR. I called him numerous times and called on 243 guard freq with no results. He was now NORDO. I informed PHX approach and the pilot later established comm with PHX. My supervisor asked me if I thought the pilot should call on the telephone back to us. I thought the pilot did exactly what was expected (even though it was confusing before I realized he was NORDO) and all was well.
What would you have done? Believe me, not everyone does as good a job as this pilot when faced with similar situations.
 
I would think that, as per 91.185, if he was on a vector to KIWA, he would proceed direct to KIWA and not rejoin the STAR. (I presume your vector off the STAR specified either a "vector for KIWA" or "expect direct to KIWA" as part of the initial vector off the STAR??)
 
NORDO

As I understand your post the pilot was on a vector, not cleared to KIWA. The normal sequence of action for a NORDO pilot is, as cleared, as expected, as filed, in that order. His actions were correct in my view. I encourage my students to file an arrival procedure when available to avoid confusion. The important thing is that his intentions were clear allowing you to respond accordingly.
Dwight Smith CFII
 
I can give you a perspective form a Military pilot on the Army side. Our training and flight planning has always had a bit of an emphasis on lost commo. We file our route/ETE to the IAF for the approach we expect to fly, ensure we receive a complete clearance, EFC times for holding etc. When a vector off route is received with no specific instructions on what is to follow, in the event of lost coms we return to the planned or last cleared route.

Sounds like he did about what I would have done. Did he give you a flash or two on the transponder as a courtesy? I've had a similar event, once I realized it I had time to ident a time or two before turning direct to the next fix. I figured by that time he'd been trying to contact me and knew what was coming.

In my situation, coms were recovered on another freq, we discovered that there was a list of VHF frequencies buried in the maintenance manual that were known not to work! Once we discovered that issue we just went UHF for those.
 
C. Brenden said:
Yesterday, I had an F18 come into KIWA from CA. He had filed, and was flying the ARLIN STAR. I vectored him off the arrival and was going to give him direct IWA in a few minutes (as is normal practice for jets arriving at IWA). I had issued the pilot a descent and he was descending to 11,000. A couple of minutes later I noticed the pilot turned about 45 degrees back to the left and rejoined the ARLIN STAR. I called him numerous times and called on 243 guard freq with no results. He was now NORDO. I informed PHX approach and the pilot later established comm with PHX. My supervisor asked me if I thought the pilot should call on the telephone back to us. I thought the pilot did exactly what was expected (even though it was confusing before I realized he was NORDO) and all was well.
What would you have done? Believe me, not everyone does as good a job as this pilot when faced with similar situations.
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Did he squawk 7600? If you couldn't get him on guard there are a number of issues from no kidding radio failure (very rare in the Hornet) to switchology (99% of the time this is the problem).

What he SHOULD have done, if VFR was land. That said in any tactical aircraft that's easier said than done. Sounds like he did what he was supposed to. Cleared, expected, then as filed.

Did you lose separation at any point?
 
Return to route

Since I didn't tell the pilot to expect direct KIWA (as I admit I should have) he correctly returned to his previously cleared routing. I think he was busy working the problem and hadn't had time to change his TX to radio failure. I'm sure he would have given a few more minutes. No loss of separation to worry about.
 
I've worked my fair share of SHUTR aircraft but I was huddled inside the house this weekend during ABQ's record snow fall! Say Hi to "chicken killer" next time you come through !
 
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