Poor weather conditions, brought about by the impending
arrival of tropical storm 'Butchoy' in Philippine territory, has forced the
cancellation of the planned FA-50PH "Fighting Eagle" light-interim
fighter aircraft high-speed opener pass for the Air Force's 69th founding
anniversary Tuesday.
"The planned high-speed opener pass of the FA-50PHs was
cancelled due to the storm threat and low cloud ceiling (over Clark Air Base,
Pampanga)," said Philippine Air Force (PAF) spokesperson Col. Araus Robert
Musico.
Initially, the PAF planned to conduct a FA-50PH high-speed
opener pass as the opening salvo of its 69th anniversary program followed by a
flight of propeller trainers in figure "69" formation.
Meanwhile, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)
spokesperson Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla, a rated pilot himself, said in case
of poor weather, safety is of paramount concern hence the need to cancel the
air manuevers.
"In all flight operations safety is paramount, if the
safety of the aircraft, and of pilots, or lives are put at risk along with the
equipment the safety will supercede any consideration," he added.
Padilla also explained since the FA-50PHs are optimized for
high-performance flight and visual flight rules (VFR), it will have difficulty
in operating low visibility and heavy cloud conditions unlike the
turbo-propeller powered aircraft which are designed to low-to-medium level
conditions and equipped with instrument flight rules (IFR).
IFR flight depends upon flying by reference to instruments
in the flight deck, and navigation is accomplished by reference to electronic
signals while VFR refers to a set of regulations under which a pilot operates
an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to
see where the aircraft is going.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=901132
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