Posted on 02/21/2012 12:52:03 PM PST by navysealdad
This is very unnerving, landing with deck pitching 30 feet, at night, low on fuel. Incredible. You will never forget viewing this. I have seen a lot of aviation videos but the two videos below are undoubtedly the best. Turn on your sound. I guarantee this will definitely hold your attention.
(Excerpt) Read more at angelfire.com ...
THey will send up another plane with external tanks and refuel.
The problem is then they have another one to get down.
The ship I was on had two gyros, one digital and one analog. What nobody seemed to know was when the boat turned on it's jammer it robbed the digital gyro from the meatball, which then reverted to the analog gyro. That analog gyro couldn't keep up with the average wave motion of a bath tub. We had a really bad recovery one night and then somebody figured it out.
FlyNavy.
God bless them, every one.
Tatt
Thanks for posting. Absolutely incredible!
God bless 'em all, those kids.
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ping
Not all the time.
During the Vietnam war, they fitted a Navy pilot going "Downtown" Hanoi with a heart monitor. His heart rate went up when he was launched. Once in the air, his rate went down. It increased again when he went feet dry. His heart rate went higher still when he reached the SAM belt. His heart rate decreased when he egressed the SAM belt. It went lower still when he went feet wet. It then climbed to a rate higher than it been during the flight when he was in final for a night recovery on a pitching deck.
I will say that when the pilots walked by after night ops on the way to the Ready Room, the pits, crotch and backs of their flight suits would be dark with perspiration, and as they carried their helmets, their hair was usually dark, wet, and plastered to their skulls.
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Wet diaper awards where not uncommon with very little or no onus attached.
Good videos. Now imagine you were back in the year 1821 and suddenly you were catapulted 191 years into the future onto a working U.S. aircraft carrier. I should think you would be most amazed observing flight operations on a modern carrier from the perspective of having lived in the year 1821. Now imagine going back to 1821 and trying to tell everybody what you just saw. No doubt you would be cast into an insane asylum.
Especially if you are low on fuel with no available divert.
Pucker factor, indeed.
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Add to that, if you have to eject, the chances of being spotted among the white caps and spray is close to nil.
Now talk pucker factor!
Every once in a while I win one.
ATC here
The problem is...if the weather is bad enough to make landing difficult, refueling can also be difficult.
I used to work on the D-704 buddy stores, and we had one come back one time where the drogue basket looked like it had been pushed inside a giant garbage disposal. It was twisted and mangled beyond recognition.
I think the plane had reached bingo fuel and had to divert to Sigonella, and they had to fly a team of people to Sigonella to replace the canopy because it was so gouged up they didn’t want to risk flying it.
Sending up another plane isn’t always the answer..:)
Thanks, sweetie!
Carrier ops are the most fun I ever had with my clothes on!
Night carrier ops were not quite that much fun, but, any landing you can walk away FRom is a good one!
The roll, pitch, heave, yaw, and sway wasn't on a flight deck ...but IIRC, night flying and single malt Scotch was involved. Clothing and instrumentation was optional. :)
USS Saratoga, 1985, southern Med. Our aircraft were mixing it up with the Libyans over the Gulf of Sidra, no shots were fired that night, that would come later in the week. After chasing off the Libyans our pilots had to return to a dark, pitching deck in bad weather. I’m told we were at Emcon alpha and the ACLS was turned off. All of the pilots made it back on-board but an A-7 had such a hard landing that its main landing gear was bent at odd angles, it had to be dragged out of the landing area and finished the cruise in hanger bay 1 with a bullseye painted on it’s tail.
That night, the ship’s Captain, a former F-14 pilot came over the 1MC and told the crew about the day’s events. He then apologized to the ship’s chaplain for what he was about to say. He told us that when he was in pilot training a very senior aviator told him that there are three things that are best in life: 1) A good “bowel movement”. 2) A good orgasm. 3) A good night carrier landing. And if the night is dark enough, and the deck is pitching enough, you can have all three at the same time.
I do believe you have captured the essence of the program!
LOL!
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