Pitching Deck Landings at Night

[Jim Koepke]

I think this is from a ten hour PBS program called Carrier.

Maybe someone else will know more about this.

Quality programming about the quality members of our U.S. Navy.

Part One:
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=4gGMI8d3vLs

Part Two
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=S0yj70QbBzg

[Peter Stahl]

Amazing stuff and most of these guys have been landing on these carriers for a long time. I have a Nephew that is a controller on a carrier, I'll have to ask him if they've done this before.

[David Dockstader]

That is the whole reason I spent 20 years as an AIR FORCE pilot! It's hard enough landing on a runway that isn't moving up and down 40 feet! And then to have the @#)(*#@! thing move away so you have to go find it in the middle of the ocean. Thanks, but no thanks.

[Kent A Bathurst]

whoooaaaa buddy.......there are some folks out there with much bigger brass ones than I have.............

[John Pratt]

It is truely amazing that we have 25 or 26 year old young people that can can rise to the occasion like that. Across the services we really do entrust these young men and women with a tremendous amount of responsibility and they always rise to the occasion. Even when your in the service you sometimes forget what we are actually asking these young people to do. Hat's off!

[Joe Angrisani]

That is the whole reason I spent 20 years as an AIR FORCE pilot! It's hard enough landing on a runway that isn't moving up and down 40 feet! And then to have the @#)(*#@! thing move away so you have to go find it in the middle of the ocean. Thanks, but no thanks.

My brother flew F-18s for the Navy. Amazes me that HE did all that carrier stuff (on the Coral Sea and the America). I still have a hard time because I see the partying trouble maker when I think of him, not Lt Cmdr Pitchingdeck.

But the reason I pulled out David's quote (above) is that I never never never thought I would hear an Air Force pilot admit the Navy guys were better. :p

[Joe Angrisani]

It is truely amazing that we have 25 or 26 year old young people that can can rise to the occasion like that....

Or younger.....

[Jim Rimmer]

I once heard a Navy pilot describe night carrier landings this way: "If you want to experience just a little of what it is like, try this. Put a postage stamp on the floor in the middle of your living room. Now climb up on the back of your sofa and have someone turn off the lights. Then jump out there and lick that stamp."

My son is a Navy helicopter pilot and I've seen him land a helo on a pitching deck. They watch a gyro mounted horizon bar on the ship rather than try to follow the deck. Then they basically hover about 6 feet off the deck. There is a fellow pilot in a plexiglass bubble in the flight deck watching and when they are lined up correctly with a hydraulic clamp/hole (about 3 ft square) he gives the command DOWN, DOWN, DOWN and they slam it to the deck. There is a probe beneath the helo that goes in the clamp/hole and the clamp locks in preventing the helo from rolling off the deck. And they do this at night, too.

As was said, pretty amazing young people.

[Charlie Reals]

More pucker factor than the best of carnival rides. Iv'e known a lot of carrier pilots and sad to say I agree with you Joe I have to separate what they did from how I saw them relax for lack of a better term.
I take nothing away from them, they have brass weblos.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

When I was in Boy Scouts, a local optometrist and pilot taught the Aviation Merit badge. What he did was teach an avaition ground school. He promised anyone who aced the final exam got to fly his private plane. Myself and 2 others flew that little Piper.

I once conned someone a lot smarter than I into going into the Navy instead of waiting for a call from the Air Force by making this statement after he had applied to the Air Force.

Anybody can land a plane on a 10,000 foot runway. I was in Boy Scouts when I landed a plane on runway. Now...lets make that runway 1200' long....200' wide....you are doing 120 knots..... it's moving 30 knots into a 30 knot wind. You have a hook on your rear and you are going to try to snag one of 4 cables but just in case you miss...you will land full throttle and flaps so that maybe you can come around and try again. and God forbid the sun gets down before you do.....

I would have loved to experienced a carrier launch.......I don't know that I care to experience a carrier landing.........

One carrier pilot I know told me if you aren't scared during a night time landing, you could get killed.

[Joe Angrisani]

......Now...lets make that runway 1200' long....200' wide....you are doing 120 knots..... it's moving 30 knots into a 30 knot wind.....

The landing area is a helluva lot shorter than 1200'. :)

[Jim Rimmer]

The landing area is a helluva lot shorter than 1200'. :)

Yep, carriers are typically ~ 1100 ft long and the cables are in from the stern aways. But even if it was 1200 ft, it's quite a feat. :eek:

One of my son's assignments was as the "Shooter" on the Ike. The Shooter is the guy in the yellow shirt communicating with the pilot and controlling the launch. Pretty exciting but dangerous, too. He told me he was blown of his feet more than once.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

My apologies.....the Nimitz class is 1,092 feet long and with a 9º offset, the landing area of the deck is shorter. The width of them is 254' however.

My point was it's harder to hit than a runway...The runways I worked around in my 6 years of air traffic control maintenance in the US Navy were a LOT longer!

The newer of this class only have 3 wires BTW......

[Belinda Barfield]

Amazing stuff!

Hate to veer OT here but I thought you all would get a chuckle from my blonde moment. Every time I see this thread title I laugh at myself. Jim when you first posted it I looked at the title, and thinking building things, I was quite puzzled. I thought to myself, "What are deck landings and why would you pitch them, especially at night?"

And now back to your scheduled thread.

[Joe Angrisani]

My brother has made the comment (half joke, half truth) that it's like landing sideways on the runways we see from our 757 seats. :)

[David Weaver]

After watching that video, all I can think is "better them than me", but there were days in my youth when I would've liked the challenge.

Those days went away with the first kid.

I know a lot of guys like Joe's describing. Whatever it takes for them to blow off steam in the case of stuff like this, go ahead! My hat's off to them. Some of the guys I know seemed to me like they had a screw loose (before) but first, that probably helps - you have to have a screw loose to land on one of those pitching decks in the dark, and second, i'll bet that loose screw tightens up (along with something else) and they get focus right away when the situation gets that tense.

If you've ever been in a near accident that you can see it coming, or you almost get hit by a falling tree or whatever, you know what that moment of clarity is like! I'll bet these guys get a lot of clear moments!

[Jim Rimmer]

Ken F can probably confirm, if you're on or near a Navy base, you can spot a carrier pilot a block away just by the way the walk and carry themselves.

Also, carrier landings are called Carrier Controlled Approach or CCA, also called controlled crash approch.

GO NAVY, BEAT ARMY

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Jim,

I worked ATC maintenance at NAS Meridian, MS and NAS Kingsville, TX from 1970-1976. These two bases were part of the Navy's Pilot Pipeline and until Vietnam was over, flight ops ran for 22 hours per day. To meet FAA maintenance requirements, we had to perform 1 hour of preventative maintenance on each of the 2 GCA (Ground Control Approach0 or PAR (precision approach radar)...same equipment just a different TLA.

You are right but it was easier to tell the jet jockeys by the 280Z's or what ever the current models were then that they drove. Unforturnately they thought they should be able to drive like they flew.

I didn't see a carrier until I rode the USS Carl Vinson from San Francisco to Bremerton around Thanksgiving of 2000.

[Tim Janssen]

Interesting!
When I go to the link, I get a message that says: "This video contains PBS content and has been blocked in your country because of copyright issues"
Too bad!

Tim

[Jim Koepke]

When I go to the link, I get a message that says: "This video contains PBS content and has been blocked in your country because of copyright issues"
Too bad!


Maybe you can find a different posting on YouTube or other site.

jtk

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Jim,

My wife rode the USS Carl Vinson from Pearl Harbor, HI to San Diego, CA to Bremerton, WA in January 2002. Our youngest son was a ship's company officer aboard it.

She and I agree that if you ever have doubt about the younger generation you need to get on one of these Tiger Cruises. I rode it in Novermber of 2000.

There are still a lot of hard working, highly intelligent, highly educated young kids in the current younger generation.

Think of this.....working on the flight deck of a carrier is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world and IIRC the average age of those working there is around 20 years of age. Incredible!