to go out to the aircraft carrier for a week!

should be cool...get to do some cat shots and traps.

2/21/2008 12:36:11 AM

bye!

2/21/2008 12:37:13 AM

Win the war for us. We're all counting on you.

2/21/2008 12:37:14 AM

cool man

2/21/2008 12:39:00 AM

aww fun stuff


make sure u get some photos of you going up

2/21/2008 12:40:21 AM

7month shift?


best of luck man.

2/21/2008 12:40:31 AM

nah, just a carrier qualification

should be there about a week


should be heading to the sandbox this fall (but won't be on a boat)

[Edited on February 21, 2008 at 12:44 AM. Reason : but thanks regardless]

2/21/2008 12:44:07 AM

say hi to maverick, goose n ice man for me

2/21/2008 4:02:08 AM

2/21/2008 4:15:12 AM

YOU!


































You can be my wingman anytime. [no homo]

Although it isn't nearly as cool, hopefully I'll be a commercial rated fixed wing pilot by next fall.

2/21/2008 4:17:20 AM

^ cool. flying is a good time (being a commericial bus driver isn't as exciting, but it's not as stressful, either...and you get to check out lots of sweet locations).


looks like I'm headed for the U.S.S. Reagan, somewhere off the SoCal coast. Might fly in and out of Miramar on the way to and from the boat. Hopefully will get a night or two in San Diego, which is one of my favorite cities.

2/27/2008 3:01:11 AM

san diego is my fav city

2/27/2008 3:02:29 AM

yeah, prob mine too.

i don't know, there are a lot of places i really like, but San Diego is prob #1.

2/27/2008 3:08:50 AM

Goose approves

2/27/2008 3:11:58 AM

2/27/2008 3:14:57 AM

boats are the devil!

2/27/2008 3:16:44 AM

are you an nfo or did you post that in honor of goose?

2/27/2008 3:20:04 AM

^^ i'd hate to deploy on them all the time...i wouldn't mind doing it once, and i'm glad to at least go out for a round of carrier quals.

^ i'm an NFO.

2/27/2008 3:34:16 AM

yeah i can see where it might be a cool experience

but it gives me shivers

2/27/2008 3:36:48 AM

I hope someone bombs this thing you are talking of.

2/27/2008 3:38:14 AM

yeah my friend is a NFO (pretty sure that's where his training has gone) as well.

2/27/2008 10:40:37 AM

well, i'd been told that i'd be leaving on saturday

was informed last night that plans changed and will be leaving tomorrow

guess i'd better get off here and get my shit together!

3/5/2008 12:43:04 AM

do people ever actually do fly by's?

3/5/2008 12:58:25 AM

don't throw any puppies off of cliffs

3/5/2008 1:03:40 AM

^^ oh, absolutely. all the time.

not too much during a carrier qual period, because people are always in the landing pattern, although on the last day we did get one Prowler fly-by and one Hornet fly-by (apparently they were going to let the Hornet guy bust the number on his pass, but then changed their minds and wouldn't let him. unfortunately, i was below deck when it happened, but apparently he was doing like .98 or .99, because there were little vapor clouds starting to form around the wings and stuff).

apparently during regular ops, they do fly bys on a pretty regular basis.




there's the BOQ where I stayed on base for the first few nights in San Diego before leaving for the CV. NAS North Island has got to be the sweetest military base I've seen. My room in that building was a shithole, but the outside and grounds sure looked sweet! There was also a pretty cool bar in the building.

The other building I stayed in on the last night (after we flew the jets back from the boat, before we brought them back to WA the next day) wasn't quite as awesome on the outside, but it was a helluva lot better inside. Had a pretty decent suite to myself (as I did for the first few days of SERE at the same base, before we went out for the field portion of the training).\



one of our Prowlers on the deck



couple of Rhinos--an "E" and an "F" model (Super Hornets)





Rhino taking a trap



short in the groove



COD bringing a bunch of VIPs aboard. apparently some kid flipped a bitch when they came in for the break...I heard they waved off, pinned him down, then brought it around and landed. haha



down in the hanger bay



one of our guys



down in the hanger bay again



one of our guys again



all in all, I got 10 cat shots and traps...5 day and 5 night. flew right over Mt Rainier...flew right over Lake Tahoe...flew right over the Hollywood sign. went out and got completely sloshed one night in San Diego...hit the beach on Coronado Island one day...talked with a visiting Admiral up in the tower...flew into the dreaded NAS Fallon twice (home of TOPGUN, but a terrible place for your jet to break down.) used the Prowlers receivers to tune into FM radio stations a lot. had my hand by the ejection handle a couple of times, too.


flying on the carrier is one helluva thrill ride.

[Edited on March 15, 2008 at 2:16 AM. Reason : asdfads]

3/15/2008 2:16:20 AM

fuckin' a man. Pretty damned sweet.

3/16/2008 9:47:12 PM

yeah, i wouldn't want to do it for long periods of time, over and over and over again like my Navy brethren, but it's awesome for a while.

that cat shot is violent, dude. I've never experienced anything even REMOTELY close to that level of acceleration (and I've experienced some pretty damned powerful accelerations).

3/16/2008 9:57:36 PM

Wow. I never thought about all of those guys standing so damn close to a landing jet.

3/16/2008 10:04:35 PM

lol you signed up before they were making women and kids flight officers.

gg and all but holy fuck what a letdown

3/16/2008 10:10:57 PM

yeah dude, there are a dozen ways to get yourself dead up on that carrier deck.

and that's just before the sun goes down.

3/16/2008 10:11:05 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_gpPbpONK4

3/16/2008 10:15:07 PM

yeah, I've heard of similar incidents with the Prowler...with the Intruder gone, most of the deck crew are more accustomed to working with Hornets. Apparently the Prowler's intakes are more conducive for sucking up deck crewmen.

There are non-rotating guide vanes on the front of the engine in the Prowler (before the compressor section). You should get hung up in that before touching any rotating parts. I don't know if the Intruder (the airplane in the video) had that--I think it had different engines.


you can also get blown overboard by jet blast, walk into a spinning propeller or rotor blade, trip and fall on the non-skid, etc. the catapult shuttle is retracts after a lauch...God forbid the arresting cable breaks and whips around. It's quite possible that an aircraft could make a bad landing or have some sort of mechanical failure and go out of control. Hell, an aircraft could have a brake failure on deck--or you could just not see each other. Then there's the danger of live ordnance in a combat situation...

then there's the hot jet exhaust fumes...

All in all, not a place I'd like to work. Hats off to those dudes.

3/17/2008 3:19:45 PM

This may be a dumb question, but what exactly is the purpose of a fly by?

3/17/2008 3:45:43 PM

I saw something interesting the other day about the A-7 (I think), the old one with the variable angle of attack wing that would be raised for takeoff. Apparently they had a few instances of those getting catapulted before the wings were extended and they could make it around for landing with the wings up if they jetisoned everything.

3/17/2008 7:12:25 PM

^^ ummm, it looks cool as shit.

i mean, you also will do a fly by sometimes to have the tower visually inspect something (like, say, you aren't getting good indications of a gear extending)...but the low, fast ones by the carrier? they look cool.


^ damn

3/18/2008 11:44:08 AM

^ there's a good vid out there of an f-14 doing a supersonic fly by at about 100feet above the carrier and then he pulls up to quickly and his plane rips apart into a ball of flames.

both pilots eject and survive. it's pretty sweet.

3/18/2008 11:46:46 AM

yeah, i've seen it

that would suck big time

3/18/2008 11:47:27 AM

good stuff.

3/18/2008 11:48:51 AM

my comment kinda pertains to this topic. the construction company i am with is installing arresting gears pads and cable sweeps for this type of practicing at Cherry Point, NC. its actually at Bogue Field, for anyone who knows the area. Pretty interesting project, one in which i designed the grades and sweep distances.

btw, that prowler is one bad-ass plane. nicely done thread.

3/18/2008 11:54:10 AM

Insert random Marine Aviation clip here:

3/19/2008 3:54:46 PM

Quote :

"lol you signed up before they were making women and kids flight officers. gg and all but holy fuck what a letdown"

what exactly does he mean by this?

3/19/2008 4:03:53 PM

Quote :

"I don't know if the Intruder (the airplane in the video) had that--I think it had different engines."

nope, his helmet coming off first, saved his ass.

3/19/2008 4:17:04 PM

Not usually a fan of the Daily Show, but I found this funny (yes I know it's [old])

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=163653&title=marines-in-berkeley

3/20/2008 9:17:28 AM

^ yea, it's still funny though

3/20/2008 9:23:16 AM

^^haha, that's awesome

3/20/2008 6:22:04 PM

that's a cute coincidence....

mar = sea in spanish

you're about to go out on the sea

3/20/2008 6:25:03 PM