Kitty Hawk in heavy seas

bbchien said:
Man, how do they keep the bird corrosion free?
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Washes in fresh water which were maybe once a month. Also, a huge part of maintenance was preventive corrosion control as well as corrective action. As an avionics tech, I spent six months with the corrosion control team. On every 56 Day Inspection, I'd take the protective tape off connectors, clean and re-wrap them along with cleaning connectors for the various racks "black boxes" slid into.

When my job was done, I'd often help out the airframe crew to remove corrosion and repair the area. It was a never-ending process for a sea-going squadron.
 
KennyFlys said:
Washes in fresh water which were maybe once a month. Also, a huge part of maintenance was preventive corrosion control as well as corrective action. As an avionics tech, I spent six months with the corrosion control team. On every 56 Day Inspection, I'd take the protective tape off connectors, clean and re-wrap them along with cleaning connectors for the various racks "black boxes" slid into.

When my job was done, I'd often help out the airframe crew to remove corrosion and repair the area. It was a never-ending process for a sea-going squadron.
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Whew, once a month?!? We wash down with fresh water after every salt water flight or at the end of each day!
 
Dave Krall CFII said:
Whew, once a month?!? We wash down with fresh water after every salt water flight or at the end of each day!
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I'm thinkin' ya don't have to make yer own water like the folks on the carrier.
 
Dave Krall CFII said:
Whew, once a month?!? We wash down with fresh water after every salt water flight or at the end of each day!
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Just how much fresh water do you think can be produced on a carrier? I never knew to be exact but according to one source, the desalinators produce 400,000 gallons a day. From that, 6,000+ sailors are provided drinking water, cooking, waste control and other miscellaneous needs such as aircraft washing. However, before anyone else gets a drop, the reactors get first priority.
 
Dave Krall CFII said:
That must be some expensive RO fresh water compared to the cost of jet parts!
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Ahhhh, the topic of making water...

Probably not RO water on a carrier, even a non-nuke like KH.

Waste heat watermakers where the way to go when I was involved (commercial offshore ops - 80's technology). Unfortunately we had an electrically heated, low pressure system. Operating it basically sucked from a manpower and materials point of view. Heating elements failing, water passages scaled off, rust on/in everything. Major pain.

Anyway, the mechanic was proud of every drop of water and no one better waste any of it. Of course the water we made was actually potable vs the stuff we could get from supply boats which was only marginally acceptable.
 
Wow, if that's a carrier, I bet it would be a whole lot of no fun being on a frigate in those seas.
 
flyersfan31 said:
Wow, if that's a carrier, I bet it would be a whole lot of no fun being on a frigate in those seas.
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My electrician (when I had the barge) rode destroyers in the Pacific. According to him when the carrier was having a rough time the little guy's ride was ok since they were on top of the swells rather than cutting through them.

I was just happy we were in the GOM and went to the beach any time a serious storm cropped up...
 
I was on the USS Midway (CV-41) in the SOJ during a typhoon. We had 80 foot waves and from our waterline to flight deck was 60 feet. It was quite a ride for about 3 days.
 
Clark1961 said:
My electrician (when I had the barge) rode destroyers in the Pacific. According to him when the carrier was having a rough time the little guy's ride was ok since they were on top of the swells rather than cutting through them.

I was just happy we were in the GOM and went to the beach any time a serious storm cropped up...
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My dad was on Destroyer Escorts in WW2 in the Pacific.

Talk about tiny...
 
flyersfan31 said:
Wow, if that's a carrier, I bet it would be a whole lot of no fun being on a frigate in those seas.
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It wasn't as rough as it appears in that video. Out of six returns to the states, only once did we not get delayed by a storm. If we didn't make morning tide, we'd have to wait much later to cross the tunnel into Norfolk. One time, I was fortunate to be sent off by a CH-46 with an advance team returning to Cecil Field.

We were on the third deck, about twenty feet above the waterline, aft-midship. It actually made sleep pretty comfortable for me, if we could sleep. Most were anxious for the off-load the next day.

A couple of those returns were pretty rough but still not as it appeared in the video. The one that bit us as a squadron was when a lot of gear was on the elevators to be lowered to the hangar deck for staging and off-loading the next day. The elevator was still at the flight deck. Water washed over the top and took our gear with it. The flight deck is about 90 feet above the water level. Our avionics shop and the electrical shop lost a lot of test gear. I have no idea how much value was there. We had to bum from another squadron for a few weeks after returning. Personnel lost their CPT word processor, supposedly costing around five grand. Fortunately, no records were lost as they were hand-carried down the ladder wells.

Sometimes, I'd like to experience one of those cruises again. Now, they have satellite phones for sailors to call home. Such luxury!
 
1981 cruise on Indy, we spent 205 days at sea out of a 210 day cruise. in The indian ocean with no wind, no waves, no ops. we just sat there in calm glassy seas and waited for some thing to happen.

talk about boring L----O----N----G days . I'll take rough seas and busy days any time.

Cell phones ? what the heck is that? it required 6 weeks to get a turn around mail from the wife. we numbered our letters so we could read them in sequence.

VW patrol was bad enough, but a do nothing cruise is worse.
 
KennyFlys said:
Washes in fresh water which were maybe once a month. Also, a huge part of maintenance was preventive corrosion control as well as corrective action. As an avionics tech, I spent six months with the corrosion control team. On every 56 Day Inspection, I'd take the protective tape off connectors, clean and re-wrap them along with cleaning connectors for the various racks "black boxes" slid into.

When my job was done, I'd often help out the airframe crew to remove corrosion and repair the area. It was a never-ending process for a sea-going squadron.
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My comment was more aimed at, "Why isn't that bird down on hangar deck A?"
 
Tom-D said:
1981 cruise on Indy, we spent 205 days at sea out of a 210 day cruise. in The indian ocean with no wind, no waves, no ops. we just sat there in calm glassy seas and waited for some thing to happen.

talk about boring L----O----N----G days . I'll take rough seas and busy days any time.

Cell phones ? what the heck is that? it required 6 weeks to get a turn around mail from the wife. we numbered our letters so we could read them in sequence.

VW patrol was bad enough, but a do nothing cruise is worse.
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I was there just before you ... Nimitz '79/80 ... only 144 days on Gonzo Station
 
bbchien said:
My comment was more aimed at, "Why isn't that bird down on hangar deck A?"
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Someone posted somewhere around the youtube site I think, that the helo just landed and was chained down - no time to wheel it over to an elevator, and I suspect the nobody would authorize running an elevator in those seas ... but what the heck do I know - my shoes were brown! :)
 
bbchien said:
My comment was more aimed at, "Why isn't that bird down on hangar deck A?"
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There isn't that much space. Heck, look at the size of the E-2 Hawkeye, alone. There were about 90 aircraft aboard with CVW7. It can get pretty crowded on both the flight deck and hangar deck.

The flight deck is about 4.5 acres. The hangar deck is about three acres, split up into three bays by huge fire doors. The clearance for the doors make it even tighter.

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KennyFlys said:
The flight deck is about 4.5 acres. The hangar deck is about three acres, split up into three bays by huge fire doors. The clearance for the doors make it even tighter.
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I have seen 130 aircraft on the hangar deck of ........... wait for it.





USS Coral Sea, (I have pictures) viggies and all.
 
bbchien said:
Man, how do they keep the bird corrosion free?
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Welcome to my world...on much smaller boats.... Corrosion free? Are you kidding? There is no such thing. What you do is continuous corrosion abatement evolutions. After enough years, you throw them away or build new metal.
 
Rotor&Wing said:
I was on the USS Midway (CV-41) in the SOJ during a typhoon. We had 80 foot waves and from our waterline to flight deck was 60 feet. It was quite a ride for about 3 days.
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What do you think it would be like on a 129' tug boat towing a drilling rig in the middle of the Atlantic in a hurricane?
 
Tom-D said:
I have seen 130 aircraft on the hangar deck of ........... wait for it.

USS Coral Sea, (I have pictures) viggies and all.
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What were they? Corsairs or Skyhawks? Gosh, they'd just about have to be with that many.
 
Henning said:
What do you think it would be like on a 129' tug boat towing a drilling rig in the middle of the Atlantic in a hurricane?
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Well, I thought this thread was about US Navy aircraft carriers and rough seas? Sorry, just can't see the similarity of a Navy Aircraft Carrier and a 129' tugboat towing a drilling rig.

Yo ho ho and all that stuff ya know..............:rolleyes:
 
Rotor&Wing said:
Well, I thought this thread was about US Navy aircraft carriers and rough seas? Sorry, just can't see the similarity of a Navy Aircraft Carrier and a 129' tugboat towing a drilling rig.

Yo ho ho and all that stuff ya know..............:rolleyes:
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You are right! We've never had thread creep on POA before... why let it start now? :rolleyes:

-Skip
 
Henning said:
What do you think it would be like on a 129' tug boat towing a drilling rig in the middle of the Atlantic in a hurricane?
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I think I'd rather be on the tug than on the rig. Wasn't that just about the way the first of the Gorilla's was lost? For some reason the rigs like to get lose and go for walkabout all on their own...and storm damage on a drifting barge isn't much fun at all.
 
I sailed the North Atlantic in a Polish ocean liner.

Of course, it was the North Atlantic in August.:)

But then again, it was a Polish ocean liner.:eek:
 
Rotor&Wing said:
I was slated to go out on that detachment with the Whale (EA-3) but got swapped and sent to Atsugi instead. My best friend was out there with you.
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I've never believed those things could actually fly. I suspect they were similar to helos since they were so dang ugly. Anvils are more aerodynamic, hence "all three dead."
 
Originally Posted by gkainz I was there just before you ... Nimitz '79/80 ... only 144 days on Gonzo Station
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My first duty station after my dad died was with VS-31. They had just come back from nine months in the IO on the Ike. "They won't be going back for a year", the detailer said. For a med cruise, that was true. We started work-ups six months after I arrived.
 
Rotor&Wing said:
Uhhhh....OK....whatever..... :frown2:
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Why would my comments be unacceptable to you? The A-3 weighed some 80,000 pounds with a full arms load. They did not have ejection seats so there was no escape. The one on the Ike was an EA-3 but I suspect it wasn't much lighter with the ECM gear onboard. Its wing loading was some twenty percent heavier than the Viking I worked on. I don't know what it still carried as far as weapons. I don't recall ever seeing any weapons carried externally nor ECM pods like the A-6 and S-3 could carry.
 
KennyFlys said:
I've never believed those things could actually fly. I suspect they were similar to helos since they were so dang ugly. Anvils are more aerodynamic, hence "all three dead."
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Haha, I'm on a trip right now with a guy who flew EA-3s and he seems to have survived.
 
Everskyward said:
Haha, I'm on a trip right now with a guy who flew EA-3s and he seems to have survived.
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I didn't say everyone died! But, survivability wasn't too great if you went into the drink, or down at all for that point. I'd be curious about its Vbg and glide ratio if he recalls.
 
KennyFlys said:
I didn't say everyone died! But, survivability wasn't too great if you went into the drink, or down at all for that point. I'd be curious about its Vbg and glide ratio if he recalls.
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Kenny,

I'll just leave it like this: You don't know what you are talking about and are looking quite foolish with your amateur analogy. :frown2:
 
KennyFlys said:
Why would my comments be unacceptable to you? The A-3 weighed some 80,000 pounds with a full arms load. They did not have ejection seats so there was no escape. The one on the Ike was an EA-3 but I suspect it wasn't much lighter with the ECM gear onboard. Its wing loading was some twenty percent heavier than the Viking I worked on. I don't know what it still carried as far as weapons. I don't recall ever seeing any weapons carried externally nor ECM pods like the A-6 and S-3 could carry.
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See post above.
 
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