Carrier Landing

[Tom-D]

Thought You might enjoy this

 

[SkyHog]

sooooo cool.

 

[Dave Krall CFII]

Nice.
What was the aircraft type?

 

[Sleek-Jet]

S-3 Viking... I think...

 

[Henning]

Thought You might enjoy this

Cool, thanks.

 

[Checkout_my_Six]

Nice.

 

[deafsound]

I was wondering if the camera was going to go crashing thru the windshield

 

[JohnAJohnson]

Just curious, can modern carrier planes land and/or take off if the carrier is dead in the water?

 

[AdamZ]

Very cool thanks Tom!

 

[Teller1900]

S-3 Viking... I think...

Gotta be. Of the side-by-side seating carrier aircraft, it can't be the A-6 or EA-6, because the windows are the wrong shape and it doesn't have the HUGE fuel probe sticking off the nose. The E-2C and C-2 greyhoud (two versions of the same plane) are turbo-props...that doesn't sound very turbo prop to me. S-3 is the only one left that I can think of (thing sounds like a giant deafening vacuum). Anything I'm missing?

Just curious, can modern carrier planes land and/or take off if the carrier is dead in the water?

I'm pretty sure so...it's just nice to have it moving because it gives them a lower relative speed, and I would have to imagine it makes the wind more predictable and direction of the ship more controllable. There's a bunch of Navy guys on here who, I'm sure, are about to tell me how wrong I am...

 

[poadeleted20]

Yes, that sound is uniquely characteristic of the S-3 -- and why it's called the "Hoover" in the fleet. Also, watch the meatball drop below the datums, turn red, and flash as he crosses the ramp -- betcha that pilot's butt was bleeding profusely after the LSO's debrief of his "ease gun at the ramp." I almost swallowed my gum the first time I watched it and heard the engines spool back and the ball sink as he crossed the ramp. Had I been in the right seat, I suspect it would have taken a skilled team of proctological surgeons to extract the seat cushion from my anus.

And no, if the carrier's dead in the water, no fixed wing flight ops. Even if there was enough natural wind over deck for the aircraft to operate (minimum WOD for the slowest planes we had when I was doing this was around 20 knots), the boat needs about 5 knots or so through the water to maintain steerageway -- the ability to keep the boat pointed in the desired direction. Otherwise, the ship could drift in heading as the aircraft approached, with disasterous results.

 

[Frank Browne]

Yes, that sound is uniquely characteristic of the S-3 -- and why it's called the "Hoover" in the fleet.

Yes, the same engines that power the A-10 Thunderbolt II I believe.

 

[poadeleted20]

Yes, the same engines that power the A-10 Thunderbolt II I believe.

Correct -- the GE TF34 (military designation), aka the CF34 (civilian designation) in the Canadair/Bombardier Challenger.

 

[Frank Browne]

I love the sound of high bypass ratio turbofans in the morning...sounds like...victory.

 

[Tom-D]

and why is it called the "Hoover" in the fleet.

Because it carries 4 dirt bags../

 

[Tom-D]

Also for those of you that have time in them there ia monument for you at Ault Field..

A6E 152907

EA6B 158036

check your log books, your ride may be on a post

 

[Richard]

Just curious, can modern carrier planes land and/or take off if the carrier is dead in the water?

Kirby Chambliss did it a couple weeks ago. His Extra 540 is carrier qual'd.

 

[KennyFlys]

Sweet memories! I've not been around much the last couple days while out terrorizing Atlanta roadways.

Indeed, it's a Viking. I was an avionics tech on one for almost three years with VS-31 out of Cecil Field, FL. At the time, we deployed on the Ike. I'm not sure what boat they are on now.

I spent many lovely moments up in the right seat either working or for a while there, I was trying to get turn-up qualified with a friend who was an AD. They declined me as there was no logical reason for an avionics tech to be qualified to start an engine. (There was if he knew how to fly and knew the avionics in the bird! )

The GE TF-34 was unlike any other engine I'd heard. Fondly called the "War Hoover", I thought of it as an over-sized, Cessna Skyhawk with turbofans hanging off the wings.

Those engines were just large enough to comfortably relax in the intake when on watch ashore. We'd walk between the engine and fuselage fore and aft of the engine during idle but not even close at throttle up for cross bleed or more. The exhaust was narrow so we'd duck under only about six feet behind or so. But, the bypass flow on throttle up made that impossible.

I was once working on a Sunday after the ADs had finished an engine swap. The OD came out and about seven of us climbed into the cabin with him. The only qualified plane captain was stuck with startup procedures on the outside. We went out to the runway and did several runs with speeds getting up to 70 KIAS. I can't recall V1 but it was on the edge, I'm sure. Only three other seats besides the pilot's but we kept encouraging him... "Go, go, go!" I think Mr. Spencer was tempted but he wanted his Navy career to last a bit longer.

It's been upgraded substantially since I worked on it. It would be impossible not to. One of my systems was the Sperry Univac AYK-10 General Purpose Digital Computer. With all that system ran, including FLIR, MAD, sonabouys, analysis software, etc, I swear it was still no more powerful than a Commodore 64.

They used to be called "Air Anti-Submarine Squadron" but either the change of the cold war or maybe political correctness, they are now called "Sea Control Squadrons." But, harmless they were never... at the time, it carried three different model of nukes in its two bombays and a variety of missiles, rocket launchers and guns on the wing pylons. But, the most common were wing tanks for an extra 300 gallons of JP-5. Occasionally, there were storage pod that were big enough to set up a small home in; over twice as much space as any enlisted man had for a rack area in berthing.

There was no afterburner on launch and no loud run-up on power during the trap. But, it was the sweetest sounding bird to me.

Edit: I added a few pictures I had from my old squadron a few years back.

 

[Lawreston]

Cool!!

There's no video in the following, but I pass it along. It was sent to me by my former next door neighbor, USN(Ret).
**********************************************************

Here is a story about a gutsy pilot.

Just another day at the office!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

F18 NIGHT CARRIER EMERGENCY

Hey, I felt the need to share with you all the exciting night I had on the
23rd. It has nothing to do with me wanting to talk about me. It has
everything to do with sharing what will no doubt become a better story as
the years go by.

So, there I was... Manned up a hot seat for the 2030 launch about 500 miles
north of Hawaii (insert visions of many Mai-Tais here). Spotted just forward
of the navigation pole and eventually taxied off toward the island where I
do a 180 and get spotted to be the first one off cat I (insert foreboding
music here). There's another Hornet from our sister squadron parked ass over
the track about a quarter of the way down the cat. Eventually he gets a move
on and they lower my launch bar and start the launch cycle.

All systems are go on the run-up and after waiting the requisite 5-seconds
or so to make sure my flight controls are good to go (there's a lot to be
said for good old cables and pulleys), I turn on my lights. As is my habit,
I shift my eyes to the catwalk and watch the deck edge dude, and as he
starts his routine of looking left then right, I put my head back. As the
cat fires, I stage the blowers and am along for the ride.

Just prior to the end of the stroke there's a huge flash and a simultaneous
boom and my world is in turmoil. My little pink body is doing 145 knots or
so and is 100 feet above the Black Pacific. And there it stays - except for
the airspeed, which decreases to 140 knots. The throttles aren't going any
farther forward despite my Schwarzzenegerian efforts to make them do so.

From out of the ether I hear a voice say one word: "Jettison." Roger that! A
nanosecond later, my two drops and single MER - about 4500 pounds in all -
are Black Pacific bound. The airplane leapt up a bit, but not enough.

I'm now about a mile in front of the boat at 160 feet and fluctuating from
135 to 140 knots. The next command out of the ether is another one-worder:
"Eject!"

I'm still flying so I respond, "Not yet, I've still got it."

Finally, at 4 miles, I take a peek at my engine instruments and notice my
left engine doesn't match the right (funny how quick glimpses at instruments
get burned into your brain). The left rpm is at 48% even though I'm still
doing the Ah-Nold thing. I bring it back to mil. About now I get another
"Eject!" call.



"Nope, still flying."



Deputy CAG (Carrier Air Group) was watching and the further I got from the
boat, the lower I looked. About 5 miles, I asked tower to please get the
helo headed my way as I truly thought I was going to be shelling out. At
this point I thought it would probably be a good idea to start dumping some
gas. As my hand reached down for the dump switch I actually remembered that
we have a NATOPS prohibition regarding dumping while in burner. After a
second or two I decided, "hell with that" and turned them on. I was later
told I had a 60 foot roman candle going.

At 7 miles I eventually started a (very slight) climb. A little breathing
room. CATCC chimes in with a downwind heading and I'm like: "Oh. Good idea,"
and throw down my hook. Eventually I get headed downwind at 900 feet and ask
for a rep. While waiting I shut down the left engine. In short order I hear
"Fuzz's" voice.

I tell him the following: "OK Fuzz, my gear's up, my left motor's off and
I'm only able to stay level with min blower. Every time I pull it to mil I
start about a hundred feet per minute down."

I continue trucking downwind trying to stay level and keep dumping. I think
I must have been in blower for about fifteen minutes. At ten miles or so I'm
down to 5000 pounds of gas and start a turn back toward the ship. Don't
intend to land, but don't want to get too far away, either. Of course, as
soon I as I start in an angle of bank, I start dropping like a stone so I
end up doing a 5 mile circle around the ship. Meanwhile, Fuzz is reading me
the single engine rate-of-climb numbers from the PCL based on temperature,
etc. It doesn't take us long to figure out that things aren't adding up. So
why the hell do I need blower to stay level!?

By this time I'm talking to Fuzz, (CATCC), Deputy CAG (turning on the flight
deck) and CAG who's on the bridge with the Captain. We decide that the thing
to do is climb to three thousand feet and dirty up. I get headed downwind,
go full burner on my remaining motor and eventually make it to 2000 feet
before leveling out below a scattered layer of puffies. There's a half a
moon above which was really, really cool. Start a turn back toward the ship,
and when I get pointed in the right direction, I throw the gear down and
pull the throttle out of AB. Remember that flash/boom! that started this
little tale? Repeat it here. Holy ****! I jam it back into AB and after
three or four huge compressor stalls and accompanying decelleration, the
right motor comes back.

This next part is great. You know those stories about guys who dead-stick
crippled airplanes away from orphanages and puppy stores and stuff and get
all this great media attention? Well, at this point I'm looking at the
picket ship at my 11 o'clock at about two miles and I say on departure freq
to no one in particular, "You need to have the picket ship hang a left right
now. I think I'm gonna be outta here in a second." I said it very calmly but
with meaning. The LSO's said that the picket immediately started pitching
out of the fight. Ha! I scored major points with the heavies afterwards for
this. Anyway, it's funny how your mind works in these situations.

OK, so I'm dirty and I get it back level and pass a couple miles up the
starboard side of the ship. I'm still in minimum blower and my fuel state is
now about 2500 pounds. Hmmm. I hadn't really thought about running out of
gas. I muster up the nads to pull it out of blower again and sure
enough...flash, BOOM! Damn!

I leave it in military and it seems to settle out. Eventually, I discover
that even the tiniest throttle movements cause the flash/boom thing to
happen so I'm trying to be as smooth as I can. I'm downwind a couple miles
when CAG comes up and says "Oyster, we're going to rig the barricade."

Remember, CAG's up on the bridge watching me fly around doing blower donuts
in the sky and he's thinking I'm gonna run outta JP-5 too. By now I've told
everyone who's listening that there's a better than average chance that I'm
going to be ejecting - the helo bubbas, god bless 'em, have been following
me around this entire time.

I continue downwind and again, sounding more calm than I probably was, call
paddles. "Paddles, you up?" "Go ahead" replies "Max," one of our CAG
LSO's.

"Max, I probably know most of it but you wanna shoot me the barricade
brief?" (Insert long pause here). After the fact, Max told me they went from
expecting me to eject to me asking for the barricade brief in about a minute
and he was hyper-ventilating. He was awesome on the radio though, just the
kind of voice you'd want to hear in this situation. He gives me the brief
and at nine miles I say, "If I turn now, will it be up when I get there? I
don't want to have to go around again."

"It's going up now Oyster, go ahead and turn."

"Turning in, say final bearing."

"Zero-six-three" replies the voice in CATCC. (Another number I remember -
go figure).

OK, we're on a four degree glide slope and I'm at 800 feet or so. I
intercept glide slope at about a mile and three quarters and pull power.
Flash/boom! Add power out of fear. Going high. Pull power. Flash/boom! Add
power out of fear. Going higher. (Flashback to LSO school....All right
class, today's lecture will be on the single engine barricade approach.
Remember, the one place you really, REALLY don't want to be is high. Are
there any questions?) The PLAT video is most excellent as each series of
flash/booms shows up nicely along with the appropriate reflections on the
water. "Flats," our other CAG paddles is backing up and as I start to set up
a higher than desired sink rate he hits the "Eat At Joe's" lights. Very
timely too. [note: wave-off lights - a guts-ball decision]

I stroke AB and cross the flight deck with my right hand on the stick and my
left thinking about the little yellow and black handle between my legs. No
worries. I cleared that sucker by at least ten feet. By the way my state at
the ball call was 1.1. As I slowly climb out I say, again to no one in
particular, "I can do this."

Max and Flats heard this and told me later it made them feel much better
about my state of mind. I'm in blower still and CAG says, "Turn downwind."
Again, good idea. After I get turned around he says, "Oyster, this is gonna
be your last look, so turn in again as soon as you're comfortable." I lose
about 200 feet in the turn and like a total dumb**** I look out as I get on
centerline and that night thing about feeling high gets me and I descend
further to 400 feet. I got kinda ****ed at myself then as I realized I would
now be intercepting the four degree glide slope in the middle.

No **** fellas, flash/boom every several seconds all the way down. Last look
at my gas was 600-and-some pounds at a mile and a half. "Where am I on the
glideslope Max?" I ask ask and hear a calm, "Roger Ball."

I know I'm low because the ILS is waaay up there and I call "Clara." Can't
remember what the response was but by now the ball's shooting up from the
depths. I start flying it and before I get a chance to spot the deck. I hear
"Cut, cut, cut!" I'm really glad I was a paddles for so long because my mind
said to me, "Do what he says, Oyster," and I pulled it back to idle. The
reason I mention this is that I felt like I was a LONG FRIGGEN WAYS OUT
THERE - if you know what I mean (my hook hit 11 paces from the ramp, as I
discovered during FOD walkdown today).

The rest is pretty tame. I hit the deck, skipped the one, the two, and
snagged the three and rolled into the barricade about a foot right of
centerline. Once stopped my vocal chords involuntarily yelled "Victory!" on
button 2 (the 14 guys who were listening in marshal said it was pretty cool.
After the fact I wish I had done the Austin Powers' "Yeah Baby!" thing.) The
lights came up and off to my right there must have been a ga-zillion
cranials. Paddles said that with my shutdown you could hear a huge cheer
across the flight deck. I open the canopy and start putting my **** in my
helmet bag and the first guy I see is our Flight Deck Chief, huge guy named
Chief Richards and he gives me the coolest look and then two thumbs up. I
will remember it forever. Especially since I'm the Maintenance Officer. I
climb down and people are gathering around patting me on the back when one
of the boat's crusty yellow-shirt chiefs interrupts and says, "Gentlemen,
great job but fourteen of your good buddies are still up there and we need
to get them aboard." Again, priceless.

So there you have it fellas. Here I sit with my little pink body in a ready
room chair on the same tub I did my first cruise 10 years and 7 months ago.
And I thought it was exciting back then!

P.S. You're probably wondering what made my motors **** themselves and I
almost forgot to tell you. Remember the scene with the foreboding music?
When they taxied that last Hornet - the one that was over the cat track -
they forgot to remove a section or two of the cat seal. The [flight mishap]
board's not finished yet, but it's a done deal. As the shuttle came back it
removed the cat seal which went down both motors during the stroke. During
the waveoff, one of the LSO's saw "about thirty feet" of black rubber
hanging off the left side of the airplane. The whole left side, including
inside the intake is basically black where the rubber was beating on it in
the breeze. The right motor, the one that kept running, has 340 major hits
to all stages. The compressor section is trashed and best of all, it had two
pieces of the cat seal -one about 2 feet and the other about 4 feet long,
sticking out of the first stage and into the intake. God Bless General
Electric!

P.P.S. By the way, the data showed that I was fat - had 380 pounds of gas
when I shut down. Again, remember this number as in ten years it will surely
be claiming, FUMES MAN, FUMES I TELL YOU!

Oyster out...
- - - -
This is a good story that describes what most of us don't see/hear about
from those out there on the pointy tip of the spear. Sleep well at night
because the good guys are out there keeping things safe for us here at home.

 

[Ghery]

Impressive. I'm glad he got it back on deck in one piece. Hell of a story.

 

[bjohnson]

Cool!! There's no video in the following, but I pass it along. It was sent to me by my former next door neighbor, USN(Ret).

I didn't need a video too see it.