East Coast ASW crews often go there for their torpedo weapon-drop qualifications. I didn t anticipate any problems, because I d been preparing for this flight for years. I d never even experienced an emergency. Perhaps you ve guessed I was about to do just that. Normally there are several aircraft from different squadrons, each with their own aircrews who need to complete quals.
Some aircrews finish early, some late.
The weather, mission-system problems and target run times all factor into when you will launch and get your chance on the range. Foreclosure Uniform, the range controller, called and said that the crew in front of us was ahead of schedule, so we should get going. When we got on the range, we learned that the crew in front of us had been delayed, and we had to RTB to refuel. We were back on the range 45 minutes later, tracking the target. We were just about to finish a textbook example of how you are supposed to localize, track and attack a target when Foreclosure Uniform withdrew our request for weapons release.