rrpilot
Member
I remember reading that this made USS Shangri La the Navy's only ship named after a fictional reference..
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The Great Cats and Dogs on Aircraft Carriers Thread . . . with F-16 insanity!
- Thread starter zab1001
- Start date
I remember reading that this made USS Shangri La the Navy's only ship named after a fictional reference..
Now RADM Flatley (Ret) spoke with my NROTC class at The Citadel my senior year. I've never been more riveted by a speaker in my life. We watched a video of then LCDR Flatley making those landings/takeoffs while he narrated the whole thing.
He told us about that squat switch trick and how the a/c basically stopped in midair when reverse pitch was used in conjunction with the massive headwinds coming over the deck.
F-ing amazing. I met him again while I was stashed there between primary and advanced. He ribbed me about being an E-6 guy, but he was very helpful and gave me the name of a guy he knew in the community. All-around awesome man. A real example for us aspiring aviators.
The Flatley Family legacy in Naval Aviation began with his father, Jimmy Flatley who was a premier fighter tactician along with Thach. In fact, it was Jimmy Flatley who coined the more popular term for the Beam Defense Maneuver pioneered by Thach to allow the less nimble F4F-4 Wildcat to take on the aerobatic Zero fighter. Flatley named it the "Thach Weave".
Thach after baptism of fire and validation of the Beam Defense maneuver at Battle of Midway.
Both Thach and Flatley became legends in their own time and had significant impact on fighter design and tactics throughout WWII. Flatley's story is told very well in Reaper Leader.
Flatley earned title of Reaper Leader when he founded and named the "Grim Reapers" in WWII charging them with the motto: "Mow 'em down!"
Flatley in a F6F Hellcat after moving from CO of Grim Reapers to CAG-5 aboard USS Yorktown
Both Flatley and Thach on to win their flags. Thach had four stars on his before retiring and Flatley had three. It was fitting that his son also win his wings of gold and not only fly fighters, but wear the Grim Reaper patch that had been adopted by VF-101. Later as a test pilot at Carrier Suitability branch of the Strike Test Directorate (now VX-23), he was selected to carrier qualify the C-130. At heart, he was a fighter pilot.
LCDR Flatley launched from USS Forrestal during epic C-130 carrier qualification
Note: His son "Seamus" also won his wings of gold and wore the Grim Reaper patch before taking command of the VF-154 Black Knights and taking them to OIF where they disembarked from USS Kitty Hawk to operate as part of a Special Operations Joint Task Force ashore.
When VF-101 was disestablished in 2005, the Grim Reaper flag was returned to the family where Seamus keeps a close eye on it. The Navy JSF FRS has requested to adopt the heritage of the Grim Reapers and I'm willing to bet there will be two Flatley Naval Aviators there to present it when that happens.
flamingo navy
New Member
C-130 carrier landing
The pilot of the C-130 that made the carrier landing was Jim Flately. I later served with him after he picked up his flag. He always credited that event as a major career enhancement in his rise to flag. That definitely helped but I remember him as a great guy to work for and a guy that every aviator I served with admired for his stick and rudder skills
The pilot of the C-130 that made the carrier landing was Jim Flately. I later served with him after he picked up his flag. He always credited that event as a major career enhancement in his rise to flag. That definitely helped but I remember him as a great guy to work for and a guy that every aviator I served with admired for his stick and rudder skills
I think the mishap you are referring to is this:
The F-16 story is BS. The only story that was even remotely close was an A-7 that landed on the wrong carrier during the Desert Storm. Following a strike an A-7 entered the break for the SARA and rolled onto final. The Tower and LSO couldn't raise the pilot and assume he was having an emergency so they let him land.
When the Corsiar pilot got on deck, he saw a bunch of F-18's since CAG-17 had already transitioned; his CAG hadn't transistioned yet!
The SARA eventually shot him off so he could land on the correct ship, but not before every squadron put a shitload of zappers on the A-7.
Close, but Air Boss realized what was happening because Sara and JFK had swapped positions earlier than scheduled. The whole tower was giggling with excitement at possibility of catching the Corsair and made sure they still had settings for the A-7, which was on JFK freq so Boss wouldn't be able to talk to him anyway (LSO is on same freq). The pilot, a senior LCDR named "Devo" wondered where all the Hornets came from as he taxied out of the LA and only then realized he was on Sara. He looked on his kneeboard for Sara's tower freq and checked in with the Boss who welcomed him aboard.
At conclusion of Desert Storm, CAG-17 flew over to JFK for Foc'sle Follies and presented Devo with a Saratoga 1 Trap patch (Centurion patch with zeroes removed).
Note: the almost loyal wingman almost trapped on Sara as well but realized his error in time to waveoff.
Before anyone thinks how could that happen....there have been cases of aircraft from Nuke carriers landing on "steam" ships and vice versa. Even saw our sister squadron enter the break over a Brit Through-Deck Crusier mistaking it for JFK.
Trapping aboard the 'wrong' carrier was not all that uncommon in the Gulf of Tonkin, back in the day. With three or four carriers operating closely within the confines of the Gulf, they overlapped 12-hour flight ops shifts. Thus a launch of alert-5 fighters from an "off-duty" carrier usually resulted in those F-4s trapping aboard another carrier, rather than returning to their launching carrier. This avoided waking everybody up after a long 14+ day in the middle of their night, and going to flight ops and an off-duty deck re-spot for the launching carrier.
Then there were some stories of NORDO guys and with a loss of Nav. who cautiously descended below an undercast – hoping they were feet-wet
– and looked for any carrier that happened to be in a recovery mode.... regardless of being their own carrier! (necessity)Finally, with three and briefly for a time, six carriers operating in the same restricted waters (far north of Yankee Station and up above Vinh during Linebacker II in the below image), and with overlapping flight ops, some guys did indeed inadvertently land on the wrong carrier. All steaming in the same area, it was almost like aircraft carrier close-call bumper cars or games of chicken out there.
Nevertheless, in all the cases above, regardless of circumstance, the orphaned aircraft were always festooned with zaps, etc. Some things never change.
jason0231
1835 USNR/IRR
ALCON,
I am not an aviator (not even close) but I found this old thread pretty interesting. As a young Marine stationed at MCAS El Toro, I remember being regaled by the (true!) story of LCpl Foote and the stolen A-4 Skyhawk, and the (apocryphal, I think) tale of the C-130 mechanic who launched his '68 Chevy (or whatever it was) into the side of a mountain while drag-racing with a JATO cargo-strapped to his roof.
Anyway, this thread got me Googling and I was interested to learn that the F-16 was originally considered for carrier use ... read all about it here.
Best,
Jason
I am not an aviator (not even close) but I found this old thread pretty interesting. As a young Marine stationed at MCAS El Toro, I remember being regaled by the (true!) story of LCpl Foote and the stolen A-4 Skyhawk, and the (apocryphal, I think) tale of the C-130 mechanic who launched his '68 Chevy (or whatever it was) into the side of a mountain while drag-racing with a JATO cargo-strapped to his roof.
Anyway, this thread got me Googling and I was interested to learn that the F-16 was originally considered for carrier use ... read all about it here.
Best,
Jason
Holy shit, this has got to be the biggest thread resurrection I've ever seen. Mr. Vice, I have a point of order regarding jason0231...
It's an entertaining read though.
One of my squadron mates has a story about how he came in for the overhead at not one, but TWO incorrect aircraft carriers before finally finding the ship he was supposed to land on. He didn't trap on them, but was gear/flaps down for the first one before he realized something was amiss. Ended up bingo on the ball for the correct ship and trapped. Kind of amazing really, 3 carriers operating in the same general area is pretty rare.
It's an entertaining read though.
One of my squadron mates has a story about how he came in for the overhead at not one, but TWO incorrect aircraft carriers before finally finding the ship he was supposed to land on. He didn't trap on them, but was gear/flaps down for the first one before he realized something was amiss. Ended up bingo on the ball for the correct ship and trapped. Kind of amazing really, 3 carriers operating in the same general area is pretty rare.
I hate this one, and it's been circulating on facebook again. It's one of the "cursed three", along with "chem trails" and "UFOs" that have the capacity to make ordinary people suddenly know more than experts, and become immune to all forms of argument.
Maybe the internet is trolling you.