? for the fighter pilots

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Brad W

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I was watching one of those youtube vids, a gopro mounted looking over the shoulder of a Growler pilot as he taxied on deck and launched...this one happened to be in the rain with storms on the horizon.

Set me to thinking about mounting up and deplaning on deck when it's pouring rain. Must be a real pain..... getting soaked before sitting in the jet with a wet seat on a long and hard flight....
and also how well are those jets set up to handle water on all the stuff inside?

How often does that sort of thing happen?

I did all my instrument flying in a high wing, so whenever I flew in the rain I had that nice wing to act as a canopy shelter when getting in and out.... so my experience is a bit skewed
 
It’s DRY at altitude… you don’t stay wet long.

On cross countries, gear up under the jet (low wings are still over your head), raise canopy, climb in, lower canopy FAST.

Hehe, once in a while the inflight refueling probe would leak in the S3… gallons of jet fuel running around (pouring out of the overhead) didn’t seem to hurt much… a little rain water ain’t a problem!

Kind of a nothing burger. Had a A4 stick FULL HOT once. I sweated myself wetter than falling in a lake could have made me.

Practical question!!

edit: how often… not common. At the field you’d wait for a shower to pass. On the boat, you go ON TIME. There are jets over head that gotta land and need the deck space. So while not common, torrential down pour, ya, you got wet! Lot of them leak statically so some water puddled up here and there, meh…
 
I watched that vid couple days ago. “Pail” or something like that is his callsign. Good vids.
 
At RAF Lakenheath we wore anti-exposure suits about 10 months a year because of the frigid temps of the North Atlantic. It rains in England…. A lot. I can’t count the number of times I arrived to my jet with the canopy full open and a huge puddle in the seat and floor when I climbed in. I stayed dry because of the suit but the jet was soaked inside and out. When we had 8mm video tapes to record our missions we used the O2 hose on PBG to dry out the tape recorders. It even worked sometimes.
 
Tools said:
It’s DRY at altitude… you don’t stay wet long.

On cross countries, gear up under the jet (low wings are still over your head), raise canopy, climb in, lower canopy FAST.

Hehe, once in a while the inflight refueling probe would leak in the S3… gallons of jet fuel running around (pouring out of the overhead) didn’t seem to hurt much… a little rain water ain’t a problem!

Kind of a nothing burger. Had a A4 stick FULL HOT once. I sweated myself wetter than falling in a lake could have made me.

Practical question!!

edit: how often… not common. At the field you’d wait for a shower to pass. On the boat, you go ON TIME. There are jets over head that gotta land and need the deck space. So while not common, torrential down pour, ya, you got wet! Lot of them leak statically so some water puddled up here and there, meh…
Click to expand...
How long does it usually take after the plane gets taken up from the Hangar Deck until Launch?
 
yep...that was it. I do which he'd chime in during some of those lulls and explain a bit...kinda monotonous watching him sit at idle for a long time and I thought it was funny that I was watching it..... like watching paint dry but better somehow.
 
Brad W said:
yep...that was it. I do which he'd chime in during some of those lulls and explain a bit...kinda monotonous watching him sit at idle for a long time and I thought it was funny that I was watching it..... like watching paint dry but better somehow.
Click to expand...

Which goes to show the veracity of ye ol axiom: "no matter how hot, somebody is tired of hitting it". I've made a pretty good living repurposing people's sloppy seconds in life
*checks siiiiiiixxx.....whew!....*

I meant airplanes and career job openings, come on people. :eek:;)

brk brk--

On the tac trainer side of things, we keep whatever paper products in the helmet bag, open and close lids in the rain as quickly as possible, then deal with strapping in once inside the pit. Humidity/dewpoints quickly fogs everything up, and like @Tools indicated, these early Vietnam war era relics leak statically when unpressurized, so you're climbing up a pond on the floorboard. Thankfully in primary training AETC we're never that pressed for launch, so waiting out 10 minute torrential downpour for drizzle conditions more conducive to ground ops is generally available.
 
Some bases do have canopies over the parking places. :D
 
luvflyin said:
How long does it usually take after the plane gets taken up from the Hangar Deck until Launch?
Click to expand...

It can take a while, but aircraft are usually brought up well in advance, of not left out on deck. You can’t fit the entire air wing in the hangar. Some stay on deck.
 
I used to fly out of NAS Meridian in MS. I often got out very wet, with nary a cloud in the sky. Seemed to be a side issue hardly worth a mention.

As far as the rest, moisture, avionics & the rest, that’s why a military certified toilet seat cost $600.
 
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