Keep your head on a swivel...

one time i found myself standing in the yard at approximately half the radius from the house as the dogs chain. dog was steaming at full speed and full extension in my direction. chain was pulled tight. i tried to do what those guys did, but didnt jump quite high enough. ouch.

good situational awareness there though.
 
That is amazing that the person managed to jump the cable. Any ideas how fast it would be flying back at them:?

TangoWhiskey said:
(When did this event occur? Did the pilot make it? I thought they went full afterburner at the catch and should be able to recover from a cable snap....)
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Yes, you can see him eject. They do go full power (not sure about afterburners or not, but I know they throttle up on landing) but the plane had slowed too much from the arresting cable to be able to take off again. They can get back up if they miss the cables though.
 
I wonder if someone underneath set the recoil too stiff or too soft? I think they have to pre-set the recoil pressure on the cables under the deck while the a/c is on final. The setting varies from a/c to a/c depending on weight, etc.
 
It almost looks like the nose gear hit a cable - look at how the nose drops pretty steeply. That would make it tough to accelerate to t/o speed when the nose is captured by the cable and driven down like that.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Not one, but TWO of these carrier deck folks were paying attention enough to jump the snapped cable...

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7f3_1223843637

(When did this event occur? Did the pilot make it? I thought they went full afterburner at the catch and should be able to recover from a cable snap....)
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They can recover from a bolter, a miss of the cables. The catch and break uses up way too much energy.
 
I was on a destroyer taking on fuel from a tanker at sea when a cable broke. The cable was stretched between the 2 ships to carry to fuel line. It came around so fast you could not do anything but blink. It took a buddies hat off but did not touch him. He bought beer when we got liberty.
 
Flyfishingpilot said:
I would hate to eject right into the path of a carrier.....
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I agree, but your chances are better than going down in the plane. The wake off the bow would just push you away from the ship. Hopefully! The props are the last thing to worry about if you stay afloat. They usually have a chopper in the air to pick up over boards during recovery ops. Not that it happens that often, but it does happen with certain regularity.
 
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Flyfishingpilot said:
I would hate to eject right into the path of a carrier.....
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The landing portion of the deck is offset from the keel line of the ship, so they would be off to the side to begin with. Like Geico said, certainly better than trying to stay with the plane!
 
I saw this same video well over a year ago so it's been around a while.

When an aircraft is catapulted, it's computed weight would be used to set the steam pressure so the the launch is exactly as needed, not too light to end up in the water but not so strong as to tear away the launch bar or nose gear where it is attached.

Likewise, upon return the remaining fuel and payload (unused weapons, sonabouys, etc.) are calculated resulting in a landing weight. That weight is used to set the tension in the arresting gear engines. Aircraft are supposed to go to max power upon touching down in case of bolter and remain so until it's certain they are slowing down. I'm suspecting this guy relaxed power as normal while the tension was still on the wire.

I've seen aircraft trap and be nearly at full power while barely moving at the max travel of the wire. Those I can remember most doing this was the Tomcat.

The wires are replaced at regular intervals between so many traps but I can't recall the number. It wasn't a lot of use, however; under a couple hundred traps. The goal was always the three wire so if it was caught even a third of the time, that gets it replaced every couple weeks or so.

I've got a ton of pictures stuffed away of traps, mostly at night but the camera I had back then was not so great. It might be interesting to dig them out and see what's worth scanning for a post.
 
Teller1900 said:
The landing portion of the deck is offset from the keel line of the ship, so they would be off to the side to begin with. Like Geico said, certainly better than trying to stay with the plane!
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Here are a few good images of how a carrier deck is laid out...

79207522ps8.jpg

I'm not sure but the number appears to be 59 which would make it the USS Forrestal.

cv63jap.jpg

This is the USS Kitty Hawk, CV-63. She's due to be decommissioned this next January. She'll finish her life not far from Tom in Puget Sound Naval Ship Yard. The sailors are spelling, ""Hajimemash!te Nippon." Any guesses? I had to fake out the spelling thanks to the hall monitor. :)

lineup.jpg

Straight down the deck of an unknown boat from something on approach. There a some Intruders parked on the aft starboard side for Ron. :) Oh, and those to the left are "Maverick's" choice.



I wanted to make the above full-size but it was going to be overwhelming so I left it as thumbnail to allow you to see the detail. This is the USS Nimitz, CVN-68. A supply ship is along side for "UNREP" or Underway Replenishment of food, supplies and fuel. I had seen this done only at night at a steady cruise which made it all the more dangerous. You can see where some pallets were staged on the flight deck and possible maintenance taking place. I would guess this was taking place shortly after heading to sea and before the Air Wing flew aboard.

One young seaman was lost overboard off the Ike during one of its UNREP details. Seaman Valley was never recovered. I remember his name well as we all made jokes about how he was probably off sleeping somewhere. Even the ship's Captain Clexton was calling his name on the overhead. It's one of those events you remember where you were when man overboard was first announced. I was in the back of a Viking, staying nice and cool while pulling components of the computer. Between the APU and cooling fans, we heard nothing so a shop guy had to come grab us for muster.

I'll finish with one of the better planes aboard carriers... ever! :)

deck_20070716144548.jpg


Though, Greg may disagree so in honor of him....

getthumbnail

Looks manly, eh? :)
 
KennyFlys said:
Looks manly, eh? :)
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Hey, nothin wrong with the turbo-prop. Remember, it's better to screw your way along than suck and blow!

I swear the S-3 is one of the loudest idling planes I've ever seen! Doesn't it use the same engines as the A-10?
 
KennyFlys said:
This is the USS Kitty Hawk, CV-63. She's due to be decommissioned this next January. She'll finish her life not far from Tom in Puget Sound Naval Ship Yard. The sailors are spelling, ""Hajimemash!te Nippon." Any guesses? I had to fake out the spelling thanks to the hall monitor. :)
Click to expand...

Isn't it something like "Nice to meet you, Japan."?
 
Teller1900 said:
Hey, nothin wrong with the turbo-prop. Remember, it's better to screw your way along than suck and blow!

I swear the S-3 is one of the loudest idling planes I've ever seen! Doesn't it use the same engines as the A-10?
Click to expand...
I don't know what the Warthog has but the Viking uses GE TF-34s. The intakes were perfect size for curling up in to relax while on watch.

I never thought it was that loud. When you go into the cabin, you're right next to the intake. In fact, you're so close there's no way in San Francisco you'd want to pass by and enter at greater than idle.
 
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