Procedures, SARTIME, NAVADMINs
- A Tomcat pilot recounted a 1995 uncommanded rudder oscillation after takeoff, improvising controls to maintain flight. - Aviation-safety guidance also reminded pilots to file and cancel SARTIME so someone knows the flight plan if trouble occurs. - MyNavyHR's NAVADMIN roundup included readiness and cyber training orders, underscoring that administrative discipline supports operational readiness. ( )
Aviators spend hours on engines, weather and fuel, but the system still depends on one basic step: making sure someone knows the plan. (flightsafetyaustralia.com) Australia’s Flight Safety magazine said on April 21 that some flights must have a “flight notification,” and that can mean a formal flight plan, a nominated search-and-rescue time, or a flight note left with a responsible person. For instrument flights, night visual flights beyond 120 nautical miles, remote-area flights, and some controlled-airspace or overwater trips, that notice is required before departure. (flightsafetyaustralia.com) The article said a SARTIME is the time when search-and-rescue action starts if the aircraft has not arrived, and it stressed that pilots also have to cancel it after landing. CASA standards officer Murray Collings said even a short radio call to tower can satisfy the rule for some visual flights in Class C or D airspace because it gives air traffic services the route, location and intentions. (flightsafetyaustralia.com) That procedural point sits alongside a very different kind of flying story: a former F-14 Tomcat pilot described a 1995 takeoff emergency in which the jet developed an uncommanded rudder oscillation and he had to improvise with other controls to keep it flying. The account circulated this week in an aviation video post, reviving a case study in how crews fall back on training when the airplane stops behaving normally. (x.com) The same week, MyNavyHR’s public message library showed how much of military readiness runs through paperwork and recurring orders rather than cockpit drama. As of April 21, NAVADMIN 093/26 covered communications-security monitoring, NAVADMIN 092/26 ordered updates to Navy Family accountability and emergency contacts, and NAVADMIN 084/26 set the fiscal 2026 Cybersecurity Awareness Challenge requirement. (mynavyhr.navy.mil) Another current Navy message, NAVADMIN 264/25, laid out the 2026 Physical Fitness Assessment cycle and said commands must conduct physical training every workday. MyNavyHR’s physical-readiness page says that program is meant to build the health, stamina and fitness needed to support command missions and operational readiness. (mynavyhr.navy.mil; mynavyhr.navy.mil) The Navy’s annual common military training list makes the same point in administrative language. A 2024 NAVADMIN replacing the older “general military training” label said the required modules come from congressional and Defense Department directives, while a 2026 message listed insider-threat awareness, cyber awareness, operations security, sexual-assault prevention, suicide prevention and records management among the mandatory topics. (mynavyhr.navy.mil; mynavyhr.navy.mil) MyNavyHR says its online NAVADMIN and ALNAV library covers messages from 2017 to the present, a public archive of the orders that shape how sailors train, report, test and account for themselves. The through-line between the Tomcat scare, the SARTIME reminder and the latest NAVADMINs is procedural: when something breaks, the outcome often turns on what was filed, briefed, practiced and remembered before it did. (mynavyhr.navy.mil; flightsafetyaustralia.com)
