Stupid Questions about Naval Aviation (Part 3)

[Flash]

How many happy families are there in Naval Aviation?

A lot of divorces?

Yes.

 

[Recovering LSO]

My bad.

Unrelated stupid question: is it hard to adjust to landing on normal runways after being on a carrier?

You can feel lower and closer to the runway the first few times back since you're looking at MUCH larger sight picture/landing area than you've grown accustomed to over the past 6,7,8,9, or 10 months...

 

[Griz882]

42

If my neighbors are any measure that number is approaching 41.

 

[Caesium]

Thanks for your responses.

I don't know if this is the thread for this, but I was wondering; how come France uses catapults like we do but every other country (correct me if I'm wrong) uses ski jumps? Is it just a cost thing or do they genuinely prefer ski jumps?

 

[Flash]

...I don't know if this is the thread for this, but I was wondering; how come France uses catapults like we do but every other country (correct me if I'm wrong) uses ski jumps? Is it just a cost thing or do they genuinely prefer ski jumps?

Mainly cost and complexity. France actually uses US-made catapults since it made little sense for even the French to design and build just two catapults on their own. Catapults are relatively complex and also require a lot of maintenance, something that a lot of countries don't do very well. Two other factors is they need a lot of space, something that most of the smaller carriers most other countries operate don't have, and the deck has to be strengthened to accommodate them, something most of the jump jet carriers can't handle. Finally you have to design an aircraft that can handle the stress of a catapult launch, even more of a challenge than designing one that can handle a carrier landing.

P.S. The Brazilians also have catapults on their carrier, an old French one, but it isn't operated much at all.

 

[wink]

You can feel lower and closer to the runway the first few times back since you're looking at MUCH larger sight picture/landing area than you've grown accustomed to over the past 6,7,8,9, or 10 months...

I had an experience where lack of field take off currency was nearly disastrous. Flew off the boat after about 5 months of ops to transit to the PI. Made a gas stop in Singapore. To keep a long ( and instructive ) story short, I won't explain how we ended up with a significant power reduction at MRT during a form take off, with dash 2 on our wing. No roll and go for the shit hot US Navy War Hoover crew taking off behind Mirages in view of the Singapore AF Academy. Had no sense of proper acceleration after months of cat shots. And no, we didn't calculate our anticipated roll and count the boards even though we were near max gross ( did I mention we were a shit hot crew). Dash 2 had power to spare and asked us for more, but had no where to go himself. We barely cleared the fence, started to dump gas at barely 300 feet, all over some farmer's crops while dash 2 went wide passed us like out of a cannon, reformed, on the port side and told us we were on fire. Pretty sporty. The pilot did an awesome job with just a couple knots to spare coming around for the field gear and heavy as hell. Lots more to it, including the two subsequent minor international incidents that precipitated. Our skipper was great. Our careers survived. We inspired a NATOPS note. Point here is, take offs back on the beach are obviously different, and while we focus on the risk associated with a cat shot, you can't afford to take your head out of the game just because it is ops normal with 10k+ feet of runway ahead. We nearly balled up two Vikings with full crews during a deployment.

 

[danpass]

I remember the first time I watched Top Gun and saw a Tomcat landing on the runway in the film and thinking to myself 'how are they going to stop?'

lol, ignorant 13 year old thinking carrier planes could only function off carriers.

 

[insanebikerboy]

I had an experience where lack of field take off currency was nearly disastrous. Flew off the boat after about 5 months of ops to transit to the PI. Made a gas stop in Singapore. To keep a long ( and instructive ) story short, I won't explain how we ended up with a significant power reduction at MRT during a form take off, with dash 2 on our wing. No roll and go for the shit hot US Navy War Hoover crew taking off behind Mirages in view of the Singapore AF Academy. Had no sense of proper acceleration after months of cat shots. And no, we didn't calculate our anticipated roll and count the boards even though we were near max gross ( did I mention we were a shit hot crew). Dash 2 had power to spare and asked us for more, but had no where to go himself. We barely cleared the fence, started to dump gas at barely 300 feet, all over some farmer's crops while dash 2 went wide passed us like out of a cannon, reformed, on the port side and told us we were on fire. Pretty sporty. The pilot did an awesome job with just a couple knots to spare coming around for the field gear and heavy as hell. Lots more to it, including the two subsequent minor international incidents that precipitated. Our skipper was great. Our careers survived. We inspired a NATOPS note. Point here is, take offs back on the beach are obviously different, and while we focus on the risk associated with a cat shot, you can't afford to take your head out of the game just because it is ops normal with 10k+ feet of runway ahead. We nearly balled up two Vikings with full crews during a deployment.

The takeaway is that dash-2 did his job. Since there was no fat chick around all he had to do was tell you that you were on fire.

Well done dash-2, well done.

 

[Caesium]

Which Navy/USMC aircraft have toilets onboard? I assume the P-3/P-8 etc family does, any others?

 

[SynixMan]

Which Navy/USMC aircraft have toilets onboard? I assume the P-3/P-8 etc family does, any others?

Does a Gatorade bottle count? Or relief tube?

 

[wink]

The takeaway is that dash-2 did his job. Since there was no fat chick around all he had to do was tell you that you were on fire.

Well done dash-2, well done.

Also got himself back on the deck asap before we fouled the only duty runway with a run out arresting gear, no nose wheel steering or hook retract.

 

[Caesium]

Does a Gatorade bottle count? Or relief tube?

I'm afraid not. Has to be something you can expel solid waste in.

 

[CommodoreMid]

Which Navy/USMC aircraft have toilets onboard? I assume the P-3/P-8 etc family does, any others?

P-3 has a honey pot and the R2D2 urinal, but the first rule of the honey pot is that you don't use the honey pot. P-8 has a legit shitter.

 

[Brett327]

I presume there's a piece of blue fluid GSE that services that system?

 

[CommodoreMid]

Yup.