Super carrier in pitching seas

[Mark Jackson]

Not sure if any of you have seen this on YouTube but it is quite something.  I'm glad that the carriers that I have been on have all been stable.

 

https://youtu.be/SoPBLLdzjNA

[Jack]

most impressive, thanks for sharing.......

[AlbertD]

Videos like this sure give an appreciation for the aviators and crew on the decks that do one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.

[LSP_Ron]

That was really good. Thanks for posting.

[easixpedro]

I’ve known Dodo (the Marine Hornet bubba) since we were 18 and in NROTC (though he did PLC). Great American, flying for Delta now that we’ve pretty much all retired.

 

Pitching decks are no joke. The closest I’ve ever come to dying is during pitching deck recoveries. You know it’s bad when you can see the screws coming out of the water...

-Peter 

[JeepsGunsTanks]

4 hours ago, Mark Jackson said:

Not sure if any of you have seen this on YouTube but it is quite something.  I'm glad that the carriers that I have been on have all been stable.

 

https://youtu.be/SoPBLLdzjNA

 

That's some crazy stuff, to think a 70,000 ton plus ship can move around that much.  That's from the PBS Carrier documentary if I recall right.  They sent a crew out on the Nimitz for a whole cruise including into the Persian Gulf. 

 

Interesting tidbit, the Squadron Commander for VF-41, Commander David "Sex" Fravor, who lands that his F-18 like a boss at the end of the video, ("Glad to be here"), is the same pilot who was making the rounds recently on all the TV shows, because he recorded a UFO sighting while flying an F-18. He was on Tucker Carlson like a week or two ago to talk about it. 

 

For anyone who has not watched the PBS Carrier series, you can watch them here. 

https://www.pbs.org/weta/carrier/full_episodes.htm

19 minutes ago, easixpedro said:

I’ve known Dodo (the Marine Hornet bubba) since we were 18 and in NROTC (though he did PLC). Great American, flying for Delta now that we’ve pretty much all retired.

 

Pitching decks are no joke. The closest I’ve ever come to dying is during pitching deck recoveries. You know it’s bad when you can see the screws coming out of the water...

-Peter 

 

 

Man its that's cool you knew Dodo, the flightless bird! 

[ade rowlands]

That PBS series was great.

[Troy Molitor]

Thanks for sharing this.  Most impressive video.  

[Collin]

CV-62 was a bundle of fun in particular sea states. Much different than bigger deck boats. She also had a pronounced Dutch roll in addition to the deck pitch. Indy LSO’s were great at timing the deck, but I’ve been on both extremes looking over at my pilots asking WTF after the deck either unexpectedly pitched up or down on us.  In-flight engagements after the deck falls away yet the hook still catches, those you don’t forget. Daytime was bearable. Nighttime, I’ve climbed out of the jet and told the PC to give the pilot a few minutes....his knees are still shaking. 

 

Cheers

Collin

[nmayhew]

interesting some of the pilots call the carrier 'the boat' and not the ship??

 

i always thought subs were boats, anything else was a ship

[easixpedro]

40 minutes ago, nmayhew said:

interesting some of the pilots call the carrier 'the boat' and not the ship??

 

i always thought subs were boats, anything else was a ship

You are correct.
 

Naval Aviators call it the boat though...I think mostly to annoy the surface warfare types. Kind of like the Brown Shoes vs Black Shoes (aviators wear brown uniform shoes and everyone else wears black). Couldn’t tell you why, it’s just something we all do.

[John1]

I found it interesting how the CO and pilots made it clear that they were pretty apprehensive about flying in those conditions and (while still keeping it professional) questioned the need for flight ops that day.   An aspect of carrier ops that you typically don't see in films like this.   

 

I also found it impressive how the CO opted to pull one his less experienced pilots for a night flight in those conditions and fly in her place.  That's the definition of leadership. 

 

BTW, that CO was the pilot who had that encounter over the Pacfic with those UFO / "tic-tacs" a few years later.   

Edited August 1, 2020 by John1

[Collin]

On 7/31/2020 at 9:17 AM, nmayhew said:

interesting some of the pilots call the carrier 'the boat' and not the ship??

 

i always thought subs were boats, anything else was a ship

Boat is the term we use around other aviators. While airborne and talking to controllers (E-2, or surface), she is “mom” or “mother”. 

 

Collin

[JeepsGunsTanks]

I've been on a Naval Aviation Kick for some time. Easixpedro's, excellent book Bloody Sixteen kicked it off. Then I read through Dan Pedersen's Topgun book. Both really great reads on one how the air war over Vietnam and dependence on missiles and high tech gadgets almost sunk the Navy over Vietnam, and how the Navy fixed it.  There are a lot of really interesting backstories intertwined in these books and I was looking for something similar. 

 

I had bought: Tomcat!: The F-14 story by Paul Gillcrist, and it was a really interesting read with great photos. The story about how they conned the Shaw of Iran into buying the F-14 by loading the Demo Jet with JUST enough fuel to fly the demo and land, so it had the best possible power to weight ratio is worth the price of the book alone. 

 

I looked up Rear Admiral Paul T. Gillcrist to see if he had any other books, and he did.   

Feet Wet: Reflections of a Carrier Pilot and Vulture's Row: Thirty years in Naval Aviation. 

 

I've finished Vulture's Row, and went right to Reflections since Vulture's Row was so good. The man can tell a good story and lived through a lot of amazing thing. He learned to fly on prop jobs, was and instructor in one of the last FAGU(fleet air gunnery units)units before they were disbanded because missiles made dog fighting a thing of the past. He went to test pilot school and while testing the buckeye,  had to eject and was almost killed. Swindled his way back on flying status and flew F-8s over Vietnam. He witnessed some amazing stuff, like and F-8 pilot ejecting underwater and living to tell about it.  He makes a lot of the stories you read about here and there, more personal, because he knew the pilot in a lot of cases.These books much like Topgun and Bloody sixteen also really drive home just how hard being a carrier pilot was back then even when someone wasn't shooting at you.

 

If you have an interest in the subject, grab these books, Paul died back in 2014, but the man lived one hell of a life.

 

I'm moving on to Battle-Tested, Carrier Aviation in Afghanistan and Iraq by Rebecca Grant next.