C130 Carrier Landing

room to spare. what they really need is those RATO's like the Blue Angels C130 has
 
This was done twice. The aircraft commander was the same on both flights. He also holds (or at least held) the record for the highest number of traps.
 
Talk about pucker factor. That'd be awsome with the RATOs, but I can't imagine the weapons people below deck would like that idea too much.
 
Talk about pucker factor. That'd be awsome with the RATOs, but I can't imagine the weapons people below deck would like that idea too much.
There's nothing on the O-3 Level but officer staterooms, offices, CIC... oh, and the Skipper's cabin. Fire away at that deck!

:D
 
There's nothing on the O-3 Level but officer staterooms, offices, CIC... oh, and the Skipper's cabin. Fire away at that deck!

:D


Hey, wait a minute. The O-3 level is where I worked!!


I used to hate hearing ordinance skittering across the deck directly over my head. :eek:
 
Last edited:
Hey, wait a minute. The O-3 level is where I worked!!

I used to hate hearing ordinance skittering across the deck directly over my head. :eek:
So was my avionics shop but it was starboard outboard, just forward of the island. The outer hatch was only eight feet from our shop door. We were safe. :D

To my knowledge, only John McCain ever dropped a bomb on the deck. :)
 
Thats cool!! Not too surprising tho when you consider the payload it can haul and she was probably empty.
 
From http://www.codeonemagazine.com/archives/2005/articles/apr_05/nohook/index.html

The KC-130 weighed 85,000 pounds on the first landing. Thereafter, landings were made in progression up to a gross weight of 121,000 pounds. At maximum weight, which set the record for the largest and heaviest aircraft landing on a US Navy aircraft carrier, Flatley and Stovall used only 745 feet for takeoff and 460 feet for landing. One landing at a weight of 109,000 pounds required 495 feet to stop, and that was in a heavy squall. On the last takeoffs, the crew didn't even back up-they simply took off from the point on the deck where the aircraft stopped.
.
.
.
Flatley was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, a difficult award to earn anytime, but especially in peacetime. He spent the rest of his Navy career in fighters. Even though he didn't have a tail hook on the KC-130F, he counts his eighteen landings in a Hercules among his 1,608 traps, which puts him in the top ten of the Navy's all-time carrier landing list.


More background info at http://www.theaviationzone.com/factsheets/c130_forrestal.asp

Altogether, the crew successfully negotiated 29 touch-and-go landings, 21 unarrested full-stop landings, and 21 unassisted takeoffs at gross weights of 85,000 pounds up to 121,000 pounds.
 
Last edited:
That's truly incredible. I wonder if they used a tug to roll the plane back, or did they just powerback it?
 
Even though he didn't have a tail hook on the KC-130F, he counts his eighteen landings in a Hercules among his 1,608 traps, which puts him in the top ten of the Navy's all-time carrier landing list.

I saw the last eight on the USS Saratoga. One day he hopped in an F-14 and did eight back to back traps. Each and every one of them was the 3 wire IIRC. I guess when you're a Rear Admiral, you can take a jet out any time you want. :dunno:
 
I saw the last eight on the USS Saratoga. One day he hopped in an F-14 and did eight back to back traps. Each and every one of them was the 3 wire IIRC. I guess when you're a Rear Admiral, you can take a jet out any time you want. :dunno:
Saratoga? A boat I've not heard of in a while. You're sure dating yourself.
 
Tops on the all-time list is LCDR Art "Critter" Critser, USN (ret), a former squadronmate of mine in VA-52, with 1888. Next closest is CDR John R. "Lites" Leenhouts with 1,645. And folks, 243 traps is a lot of traps -- ain't likely anyone will ever top Critter, whose record can be compared only to Cal Ripken's.

Numbers courtesy of the Tailhook Association.

Ron Levy, 116 traps
 
I guess tail hooks catching a wire above concrete do not count. :no:

I used to watch that at Whidbey Island were we were able to sit pretty close to the approach end. But the site from the crows nest beats it all, particularly at night.
 
I guess tail hooks catching a wire above concrete do not count. :no:
That is correct, and I've got three of those above and beyond my 116 "real" traps. However, T&G's on the boat do count, even though the hook is up, although, IIRC, bolters (unintentional T&G's due to landing past the wires) do not (I may be corrected on this).
 
That is correct, and I've got three of those above and beyond my 116 "real" traps. However, T&G's on the boat do count, even though the hook is up, although, IIRC, bolters (unintentional T&G's due to landing past the wires) do not (I may be corrected on this).
Here's one for ya... What's the maximum deck pitch and roll before they call off flight ops?
 
Ron, I thought you were an FB111 guy. Obviously I had your svc record mixed up with someone else. Since you were out earning traps, I'm guessing you were flying something other than McNamara's erstwhile all-purpose/all-services plane off a carrier. Intruders?
 
I understand the Flatleys are 4 generations of naval aviators, including one WWII ace...

I saw the last eight on the USS Saratoga. One day he hopped in an F-14 and did eight back to back traps. Each and every one of them was the 3 wire IIRC. I guess when you're a Rear Admiral, you can take a jet out any time you want. :dunno:
 
249 traps - all from the back seat where you just sit and pray "God, don't let the guys up front f- up!"

Ron, T&G count? Looking at the old logbook, I see we did track and total T&G and bolters ... add in 119 T&G and 8 bolters ...

flipping thru the pages I see why my butt still hurts every April ...


.......... /ARR/T&G/BOL
7-APR-80 / 1 / 2 / 0
9-APR-80 / 1 / 6 / 0
9-APR-80 / 1 / 10 / 0

good ol' CQs
 
249 traps - all from the back seat where you just sit and pray "God, don't let the guys up front f- up!"
My one cat shot was sitting in the last seat, facing aft toward the ramp in a C-2 Greyhound, basically the same bird as yours but probably a lot less comfortable.

It was indeed an experience! Anticipation is a killer from each little change.
 
Gosh, I really love my 10000'+ of paved, non-pitching landing surface!:yes:
 
Gosh, I really love my 10000'+ of paved, non-pitching landing surface!:yes:
That's why you're Air Force and not Navy. :D

Even my private pilot training and subsequent flying was mixing it between a C-152 and some P-3s.
 
So, where do you find out what civil aircraft have landed on a carrier? I have wondered if a set of 3 old carriers "parked" on long cables in the Pacific, could make GA flights to Maui safer. 2000NM total, so 3 would give you legs of 500NM. Refueling, and rest stops? Perhaps something for Trump to do, with cabins set up as a floating hotel.:cheerswine: Casino well beyond the 3 mile limit.

I seem to remember that during WWII the navy considered some big floating islands for aircraft, made of a combination of sawdust and glue. Or was is sawdust and ice. Huge, like for the B-29's, as an alternative to the costly taking of the Pacific islands for airfields. Just tug them into place and you are in business.
 
Last edited:
So, where do you find out what civil aircraft have landed on a carrier? I have wondered if a set of 3 old carriers "parked" on long cables in the Pacific, could make GA flights to Maui safer. 2000NM total, so 3 would give you legs of 500NM. Refueling, and rest stops? Perhaps something for Trump to do, with cabins set up as a floating hotel.:cheerswine: Casino well beyond the 3 mile limit.

Someone has already thought of this. Haven't you heard??

http://www.aero-news.net/news/commb...08e887a-8e66-4a41-b9f7-841264c95005&Dynamic=1
 
Here's one for ya... What's the maximum deck pitch and roll before they call off flight ops?
That's up to the captain, based on what's going on. They'll call things off a lot sooner for training command carquals than they will for "nuclear combat toe-to-toe with the Rooskies."
 
Ron, I thought you were an FB111 guy.
Nope -- never been SAC-umcised. My F-111 experience was all in the tactical air forces (USAFE and TAC), after I was called up from flying RF-4C's in the Air Guard, which was after I got out of the Navy and went back to grad school.

Obviously I had your svc record mixed up with someone else.
Probably not -- see above.

Since you were out earning traps, I'm guessing you were flying something other than McNamara's erstwhile all-purpose/all-services plane off a carrier. Intruders?
Yes. AFAIK, there's only one pilot who ever flew an F-111 off a carrier, and he refused to do it again, after which the Navy's part of the TFX program was terminated and they started designing the F-14 around the AWG-9/Phoenix radar/missile system that was supposed to go in the F-111B.

BTW, I helped set fire to about the only remaining F-111B airframe at China Lake in the mid-90's as part of a weapons vulnerability test.
 
Back
Top