Travis Arnold
Omaha TRACON
8
Omaha TRACON (R90) NATCA member Travis Arnold is an
experienced controller. He served in the United States Air
Force from 2001-2007, during which time he deployed
to Iraq twice. In February 2008, he became a civilian
controller at Des Moines ATCT before transferring to R90
in January 2009.
On Dec. 13, 2014, Arnold was working the Lincoln sector
at R90. The weather was IFR with 800-foot ceilings and
eight mile visibility, which warranted all arrivals into Lincoln
be ILS. N4120S was being vectored for the ILS approach
when Arnold noticed the pilot seemed to be struggling
with the headings he was given. Arnold initially thought the
winds were causing the discrepancy in the headings the
pilot was flying, and he quickly issued corrective headings.
When the pilot was near the final and cleared for the ILS
runway 18 approach, Arnold once again noticed that the
pilot passed across the final approach course. Arnold
immediately made the pilot aware of this and issued
a corrective heading again to get the pilot turned back
towards the localizer. Even though the pilot acknowledged
the turn, Arnold knew something was not right.
After the pilot called Arnold to ask if he knew what was
happening, Arnold asked the pilot if his gyro was working.
The pilot responded he was receiving crazy readings from
his instruments.
Arnold decided to turn the aircraft back towards Lincoln
by issuing no-gyro turns to the pilot. He advised the pilot
he was a little higher than the last assigned altitude, but
wanted to make sure the pilot was straight and level prior
to issuing the no-gyro vector. The aircraft was.
Within seconds of issuing a turn, Arnold noticed the aircraft
was descending below the minimum vectoring altitude. He
issued a low altitude alert and instructed the pilot to climb
