‘We ended up extending our time on station by almost four hours until the relief airplane arrived. Total flight time almost thirteen hours!’ Ross Hall, former US Navy P-3 Orion NFO.
The P-3 Orion is a four-engine turboprop, land-based, long-range, anti-submarine warfare patrol aircraft.
To conserve fuel during its long-range patrols over land and sea, the P-3 can operate with one of its four engines shut down. This allows for extended missions lasting over ten hours. The number one engine, or furthest from the fuselage on the port side, is the engine that is shut down. This action also reduces engine smoke, allowing for better surveillance viewing from the port aft window.
Ross Hall, former Naval Flight Officer (NFO) on P-3 Orion anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft, remembers on Quora.
‘Operating out of Iceland, our P-3 was tracking a Soviet submarine in the Norwegian Sea. We already had engine #1 loitered, which was standard procedure during our nine-hour flight. We were operating in EMCON (emissions control), so were not transmitting. We were, however, monitoring the regular broadcast from our base, which informed us that our sister aircraft, due to relieve us on station, had been delayed. “Extend on station as long as practical” was our new order.
‘“Loiter number four”, and we shut down our second engine.
‘Our aircraft shuddered, as we settled into a low-speed, high angle of attack loiter. We ended up extending our time on station by almost four hours until the relief airplane arrived. Total flight time almost thirteen hours!
‘Occasionally, the hours of boredom are punctuated by sheer terror, or occasionally by sheer bliss – I recall many occasions where fantastic events unfolded in front of my eyes: aurora borealis; adiabatic winds over a glacier; mountainous seas crashing over the flight deck of an aircraft carrier; exotic ports of call; the suicide of a friend and colleague; watching a fading tropical thunderstorm in a drunken haze.’
Hall concludes;
‘Looking back, I am most amazed at the profound responsibilities our nation lays at the hands of young, inexperienced people, and how they rise to the challenges presented to them. I consider myself very fortunate.’
Photo credit: U.S. Navy
