CHIEF WARRANT OFFICER 2 LARONN HORTON
F Troop, 1st Aviation Regiment
Fort Riley, Kansas
Throughout my career as an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operator, I was fortunate to never experience a near-miss or mishap. While this may be considered one of my greatest accomplishments, I cannot take full credit. I attribute much of my success to the many lessons learned from noncommissioned officers (NCOs) at the smoke pit.
These Soldiers often engaged in what I called “story time,” and even though I am a nonsmoker, I was always out there to glean whatever knowledge was available. During my time as a junior Soldier, I must have heard hundreds of stories at the pit. Some were meant to relieve the stress of the day and garner laughter, while others could be used as valuable teaching points. One story stood out above the rest and made a lasting impression on my career — how taking shortcuts and neglecting procedural guidance almost resulted in a mishap.
One early Monday morning at an undisclosed unit, a team of Soldiers was sent out to conduct a runway survey. This task was something these Soldiers were accustomed to performing weekly. While going through the procedures, they quickly realized they left their compass in the hangar. Procedural guidance states that the task of obtaining a runway azimuth is to be completed using a standard-issue lensatic compass. At that moment, these Soldiers were faced with what should have been a no-brainer. They could do what they knew was right, or they could do what the NCO referred to as the “easy wrong.” They chose the latter.
Instead of having a runner retrieve the compass, one Soldier decided to shoot the azimuth via a compass app on their phone. After completing their assigned task, the team returned to flight ops with the survey data. The azimuth was subsequently published on the daily mission card and input into the aircraft's system data as usual. Later that morning, the flight crew arrived, received their mission brief and proceeded to the shelter, where operations continued like any other day.
The flight crew launched the aerial vehicle (AV) and conducted their training mission successfully without any warnings, cautions or advisories. It wasn't until they were cleared for final approach that an issue arose. While attempting to recover the aircraft, the system performed an auto-abort, and the AV waved off its approach. The crew, having experience with abort procedures on the system, called air traffic control and requested clearance to realign the AV for another approach. However, once again while on final, the aircraft was unable to acquire and waved off. This happened seven times and became more and more alarming, as the longer the aircraft stayed aloft, the greater the probability of fuel starvation.
The crew continued to troubleshoot the situation, and flight leads were notified. Hearing the aircraft wave-off several times, a crowd formed at the shelter as others began to aid in the troubleshooting procedures. Once all efforts were exhausted, another NCO suggested having the survey team return to conduct a supervised survey to verify mission data.
The survey team returned, but this time they had the required compass in hand. They repeated the survey procedures and discovered the original azimuth obtained from the compass app was off by at least 8 degrees. The AV’s automated landing system uses specific data from runway surveys to perform safe landings. Because the azimuth was off by several degrees, the aircraft could not acquire what it perceived to be the runway centerline, resulting in multiple aborts. After the issue was realized and the Soldiers disclosed their decision to use the app rather than the lensatic compass, the correct data was input. The aircraft was safely recovered on the very next attempt.
The NCO explained how everyone present knew just how lucky they were to have resolved the issue without losing the aircraft. I remember thinking just how valuable the lessons learned from this incident were. Something so simple nearly cost the unit an aircraft and their reputation as well as changed the perception of integrity throughout their ranks. These Soldiers learned the hard way that procedural guidance exists for a reason. Blatant ignorance or neglect, especially for a reason as simple as to save time, has second- and third-order effects. We must remember that it’s always best to do the hard right rather than the easy wrong.