• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) - Status

ea6bflyr

Working Class Bum
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Found the info below here:
New Island
Ford's island, the flight command center for the ship, is completely redesigned. It incorporates the latest technology in flat panel array radar systems and dual band radar.

The island is shorter in length, but stands 20 feet taller than previous aircraft carriers' islands. It is positioned 140 feet further aft and three feet further outboard than its predecessors.
 

brownshoe

Well-Known Member
Contributor
I am extremely jealous of today's newbies (w/ as A4sForever described "skulls full of cottage cheese"), who may someday drive the new F/A-35s off ships like FORD, with EM Cats & to never have the ship blow tubes on you as you roll into the groove. Was I born 60 years too soon.... Nah, I wouldn't change a thing, except I'd try harder to limit myself to only one wife!:eek:
*Apologize for the reminisce.:oops:
BzB:cool:

Shit, Hughie... come on down to hangar 67... Corky, Derf and I will get you 9400 LBS, scrounge up a huffer, a NC5 and get you airborne.:D
 

BusyBee604

St. Francis/Hugh Hefner Combo!
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
Shit, Hughie... come on down to hangar 67... Corky, Derf and I will get you 9400 LBS, scrounge up a huffer, a NC5 and get you airborne.:D
We'll take TA-4 "AD-477", throw you in the back throne w/ two barf-bags, and go do some "L'Ange Bleu" stuffs, no?:eek:
SqLdr Ross Donaldson RNZAF @ VA-44.jpg
BzB
 
Last edited:

brownshoe

Well-Known Member
Contributor
We'll take TA-4 "AD-477", throw you in the back throne w/ two barf-bags, and go do some "L'Ange Bleu" stuffs, no?:eek:
View attachment 13175
BzB

Been there and done it (PC of the month). Karg punished me! I didn't puke 'till we landed though. :) After that, drinks for me at the EM club that night were on some LT who stopped by and vowed to pay the next day. This shit wouldn't happen in the Navy of today though would it?;)
 

Pags

N/A
pilot
I'm sure they did, but I wonder about the GRF's OODs, etc., who find out that their "blind zone" after an ejection off the cat or while transiting the Lombok Straits extends to zero visibility within 1000 feet or so.
Not sure how the CVs do it, but on my LHD we would have officers on the flight decks talking to the bridge during sea and anchor. Also, gun mount crews had a net back to the bridge as well.
 

Renegade One

Well-Known Member
None
Not sure how the CVs do it, but on my LHD we would have officers on the flight decks talking to the bridge during sea and anchor. Also, gun mount crews had a net back to the bridge as well.
So..how many officers and Sailors were committed to "no vis over the bow"? When a secondary-conn-mounted wide FOV camera might answer all questions?

I get it…we still do multi-colored flag hoists and blinker-light signals as well, in the age of LPI secure voice-comms, yes? I LOVE you SWO (and disassociated aviation ship's company) guys/gals!
 

Pags

N/A
pilot
So..how many officers and Sailors were committed to "no vis over the bow"? When a secondary-conn-mounted wide FOV camera might answer all questions?

I get it…we still do multi-colored flag hoists and blinker-light signals as well, in the age of LPI secure voice-comms, yes? I LOVE you SWO (and disassociated aviation ship's company) guys/gals!
There was usually three or four of us, at least half qualified OODs, with range finders and radios talking to the Boss on the bridge. In addition, there was usually a senior SWO who kept an eye of the tugs to make sure things didn't get too funny.

We'd stake out positions on the flight deck and move about as needed to call distances to contacts and obstructions. Sure, it kept us from the rack, but such is the price of the disassociated tour. That and our Sailors were usually doing sea and anchor duties as well; rigging the stupid stanchions, putting up the jack, running elevators as needed for the brow, etc.

While we did have some cameras, they had a pretty grainy picture. So it was cheaper, easier, and more effective to have the air officers run around and provide a picture back to the bridge.
 

Renegade One

Well-Known Member
None
There was usually three or four of us, at least half qualified OODs, with range finders and radios talking to the Boss on the bridge. In addition, there was usually a senior SWO who kept an eye of the tugs to make sure things didn't get too funny.

We'd stake out positions on the flight deck and move about as needed to call distances to contacts and obstructions. Sure, it kept us from the rack, but such is the price of the disassociated tour. That and our Sailors were usually doing sea and anchor duties as well; rigging the stupid stanchions, putting up the jack, running elevators as needed for the brow, etc.

While we did have some cameras, they had a pretty grainy picture. So it was cheaper, easier, and more effective to have the air officers run around and provide a picture back to the bridge.
Christ on a Crutch...I rest my case. "Never let technology get in the way of 20-30 carbon-based life-forms doing God's work." [SWO 101, Chap 1, Para 1.]
 

helolumpy

Apprentice School Principal
pilot
Contributor
I remember when some Air Force DV's came out to the JFK to see flight ops. They were shocked (shocked, I say) that we had sailors writing backwards on a grease board down in Air Ops.

The joked how in the Air Force they had computer programs to do that instead of a sailor.

Fast forward to getting the first generation of computerized Air Ops tracking and it goes down on Day 2.
The flight schedule stops immediately.
The Boss has no idea who's in the air.
No one has an idea of how much gas available in the stack.

Day 3 we have sailors writing backwards again.

I realize they have it figured out now, but sometimes newer isn't always better!!
 
Top