Days of heavy fog at Misawa put
damper on air-to-ground training
By Wayne Specht, Misawa
bureau chief
Wayne Specht / Stars and Stripes
A U.S. Navy C-12 Huron aircraft emerges from the fog Thursday and taxis in front of
Misawa’s passenger terminal. Foggy conditions at the northern Honshu installation
have thwarted the flying schedules of American and Japanese fighter aircraft all week. |
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — A low-pressure system may chase away
the heavy layer of fog that has wreaked havoc with military training flights here this
week, said Japanese weather forecasters.
The fog, called yamase or east wind by the Japanese, settled over the
Pacific coastal areas on Monday in Aomori Prefecture.
Weathermen blamed easterly winds flowing onshore over the cold waters
of the Pacific for the foggy conditions, a seasonal occurrence here.
“It really kicked our behinds,” said Marine Maj. Michael
Orr, a pilot and operations officer with the Fighter Attack Squadron-212 Lancers, from
Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station, Japan.
A cadre of 28 Marine ground workers came to Misawa on May 14 in
advance of Iwakuni’s F/A-18 Hornets for two weeks of air-to-ground training at Ripsaw
range, 12 miles north of the base.
Some of the planned missions were unexpectedly delayed.
“We got in some air-to-air missions while we waited for the
range to open, but last Friday a grass fire at the range shut it down,” said Orr.
“Ripsaw is the only scored range in Japan; we have no alternate ranges to go
to.”
Then the fog rolled in, and pilots couldn’t even see the range.
Meanwhile, ceilings over Misawa rose to only about 500-600 feet, then
dropped to less than 300 feet when the sea fog layer thickened daily late in the
afternoon.
“We need alternate airfields to land when Misawa’s minimum
ceilings drop, and we didn’t have that at Hachinohe or Chitose Air Base on Hokkaido
either,” Orr said. “It’s frustrating to us. We spent a fair bit of money,
time and effort to get our people up here.”
The Hornets returned to Iwakuni on Wednesday without dropping a
training bomb.
Air Force F-16 flying operations also were affected by the fog.
“We haven’t flown all week,” said Lt. Col. David
Wilmont, deputy commander at the 35th Operations Group.
He said experienced F-16 pilots need minimum ceilings of 300 feet,
and at least a mile visibility, for safe operations. Ceilings and visibility were below
those most of the week.
Japan Air Self-Defense Force operations at the 3rd Air Wing also were
canceled, so pilots opted to train in simulators, a defense force spokesman said.
Not affected by the fog were U.S. Navy P-3C anti-submarine warfare
aviators at Misawa who fly missions over large expanses of Sea of Japan waters.
Japan Air System, the only commercial carrier serving Misawa,
operated scheduled flights normally.
Hiroshi Chida contributed to this report.
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