SPADs, Scooters, Tigers and Whales

[kham]

Heavy Seas on Final Approach CV-38 Full Deck CV-38 USS Shangri-La no sound for footage shot from Vulture's Row, but not bad for the time. Looks like quite the squeeze getting an A-3 in there, holy cow. And a Grumman F11F Tiger, pretty rare.

[nachtjaeger]

Thanks, Kham! Great stuff. I saw the one Skyraider make a one-wire landing. Then again, the upside of rough seas is more wind over the deck, plus the Skyraider must have had a much slower stall speed than the jets. Still, splattering yourself all over the fantail will ruin your whole afternoon.

I read a story from a pilot on the Enterprise who had to make an emergency landing with a sick airplane. They took the Big E to flank speed into a heavy wind. The pilot said it was the easiest carrier landing he ever made.

[Mynock]

One thing I found interesting about the new Gerald Ford class carriers is that they're replacing the steam powered catapults and hydraulic arresting systems with electromagnets. It's supposed to let them fine tune the systems to the exact aircraft that's taking off/landing so they don't stress them so much. Also will allow the launch/retrieval of smaller UAV type planes.

[kham]

I read a story from a pilot on the Enterprise who had to make an emergency landing with a sick airplane. They took the Big E to flank speed into a heavy wind. The pilot said it was the easiest carrier landing he ever made.

Kinda funny in the sense reality and fiction collide Trek always had the Enterprise being the fastest ship, whereas in reality, the REAL Big-E really was the fastest ship in the fleet

**I recognize the handwavium from the bubbleheads in the fleet, however, until you give me something more than "in excess 25 knots" you guys have to suck it up

[nachtjaeger]

Electric drive, too. Can go from full ahead to full reverse while under way. And, if you just so happened to have some system or other on board that required seriously epic amounts of electricity. . .

One thing I found interesting about the new Gerald Ford class carriers is that they're replacing the steam powered catapults and hydraulic arresting systems with electromagnets. It's supposed to let them fine tune the systems to the exact aircraft that's taking off/landing so they don't stress them so much. Also will allow the launch/retrieval of smaller UAV type planes.