waveflyer
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2005
- Posts
- 10,005
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I think you have pretty well summed it up. However Wavy here says his training in a Cessna at 150 hours was so much better than mine in preparing him for professional flying career. This is all I was doing at 150 hours.
Memories of SNA (Student Naval Aviator) going to the boat. Went to the boat solo in August 1967 in the T-28C. I had 142.2 hours total time and 116.8 in the T-28. The carrier work up was about three weeks of doing daily FCLP's (Field Carrier Landing Practice) until we had 75 passes. Then you stood by in the ready room waiting for your launch. My flight waited three days for the call to go we did one FCLP on the second day of waiting to maintain currency. The T-28 could deck launch without the catapult so they were on a loose schedule around the jet CQ schedule. Then it was launch solo into four plane formation flight, went 60 miles south into the Gulf of Mexico until you picked up the ship's TACAN. Then you waited for your call to go into the break and then you just follow the instructions you were taught like fly 325' feet 82 Kts, put the tip of the star on the left wing down the center of the aircraft carrier deck, when the boat disappears, make 20 degree left bank until the boat is in front of you, should see the ball on the mirror, make ball call and start playing the meatball, line up, airspeed game. You just looked out the window, kept the meatball in the center with power, worked hard to stay on centerline and worked airspeed with nose attitude. You never looked at the ship or the landing area because it is moving away from you and creates an optical illusion. The visual Glideslope will vary with the speed of ship through the water to make 25KT across the deck. You did not flare, when the cut lights came on, you just cut the power and flew into the ship and caught a wire. Our approach speed was 82 Kts, so with 25 Kts of wind across the deck the closure rate was not all that fast. Two touch and goes followed by six arrested landing and deck launches on a WWII aircraft carrier named the Randolph.
On the take off we were pointed toward the starboard bow, and told when the end of the ship disappears in front of you pull the stick back as far as you can, it will fly, do not look at the airspeed indicator, it will not be reading anything. They were right I looked at it, it was below 50 ISA. We were briefed if you crossed the center line of the ship on take off it was an automatic down (failure), because of possible interference with the bolder pattern. So not wanting to get a down, I unlocked my shoulder harness and looked over my left shoulder to make sure I was still on the starboard side of the centerline. Then it was my turn to break and I forgot to reset my shoulder harness. So on my second trapped landing, my shoulder harness is not locked, bamm, right shoulder and my head slam into the glare shield, thank goodness for helmets. My hand goes full forward on the power, somewhat in a WTF mindset, I see the launch officer shaking his fist at me and pointing toward the starboard bow, and off I go again. I was one of the high points of my life; I knew that by completing this, I would now make it through training and become a Navy pilot. What a fantastic adventure.
Qualed again the TS-2A on the Lexington, but that wasn't as big a deal since I already had orders to a P-3 squadron. But it did come in handy later as ship's company I got to fly the C-1A off of the USS Enterprise, now that was a big boat compared to the ones we landed on in training, a taxi one grade was very easy to get.
Even then at VT-1, you knew why it was as named the "Teeny Weiny". At Saufley Field we were based with VT-5's T-28Cs, the carrier qualification birds. We flew the T-34 with no radio communication, but the T-28's they got to talk to the tower. When the T-28's were taxiing, all T-34's had to stop and let them pass. They ruled the field. A idling R-1820 sounds mean, powerful, and manly, they would rumble by you in your idling IO-435 that sounded like a kitten purring. You had to look up to these birds when they passed and you saw the older oil and grease stained flight suits on these T-28 student pilots.Then you looked at your fresh off the rank spotless flight suit and truly knew you were a rookie in this flying business. But 6 months later, you would be back to Saufley in your dirty flight suit taxiing those same VT-5 T-28's with the tail hooks and you knew what the T-34 pilots were thinking.
So Wave, what sport did you play? I played Big Ten basketball, got on ESPN a few times, but like you, rode the pine It was fun though.
Yip,
If you did all that work and had a good college experience why do you not see how it's a value to the flying profession?
I can think of a couple Yale drops out who went into flying, worked out OK for them. George Bush the first, became a Navy pilot, things worked out ok for that college drop out. The other was Robert Lovett who dropped out to become a Navy pilot also, things worked out pretty good for him also. First, Assistant Secretary of War for Air in WWII, Secretary of Defense under Truman, co-author of the Marshall Plan in 1947. Shows a college degree has nothing to do with flying an airplane.If you graduated from Yale and are flying airplanes, then something went terribly wrong.