13 February, 2009
CJC3407
May God bless you, the crew and passengers of 3407. You were good pilots, and good friends; you will be dearly missed.
08 February, 2009
My second carrier landing...
...Was surprisingly good (two wire). The third and fourth were great (for a beginner; at least they were on the three wire). My instructor was happy to point out, as I rolled to the #4 catapult on the "USS Nimitz," that it was perfect weather, daytime, and calm seas ...can't let me get too big of a head. I'd say my first trap did a pretty good job of humbling me; I killed myself, my GIB, and probably a few people on the deck.
No, I'm not writing to you from the grave; this weekend I had a wonderful opportunity to go to NAS Oceana and fly one of their F/A-18F simulators. I know there are many on here who have flown fighter type aircraft for real and to you this will probably seem parochial, but for an Air Force reject like me it was quite good fun (even though it was a Navy jet).
The plane was sitting on 5R at NAS Oceana. After a crash course in the cockpit switchology and symbology, my instructor said "release the parking brake, military power, rotate at 140kts." Ok, I can do that.
Interestingly, 140kts is about where we rotate my real airplane when we're heavy; this empty Super Hornet got there a lot faster than the airliner does, though.
At 140kts I gave a light pull on the stick, and we were flying...no doubt about that. I had planned to stay in the pattern for a few touch-n-goes before heading out to the boat, but the plane apparently had other ideas. As I sailed quickly through 300 feet I heard the gear and flaps hit their up stops. Almost immediately I pulled the throttles back to about 3/4 military power. It wasn't enough. I spent a few seconds look around outside at the familiar landmarks of Virginia Beach...that was my first mistake. Even at reduced power, by the time I glanced at the HUD again I was passing through 5,000 feet and accelerating through 300 kts with an 11,296fpm climb! Power back to idle, I rolled into about an 85 degree bank to pull onto the downwind and loose some speed. The instructor was laughing...I don't think he was too surprised.
During my downwind vector I did some light aerobatics to get a feel for the jet and proper power settings. What a roll rate! My IP talked me through setting up "Waypoint 0" on the nav system which gave me a nice long white line to follow onto final. Outbound for 12nm, then teardrop back towards the runway. They use a 3* glideslope at 140kts for approach (just like I'm used to), but their big target was the 10-12* AOA. This required some extra concentration for me to get used to.
Just as on the boat, there's a Meatball next to runway, so I had to get used to that too. I came in a bit high and a bit fast, but it was in the touchdown zone, so I was happy. As soon as the mains hit, military power. Two more bounces and I was starting to get comfortable. Time to try the boat, the IP tells me.
I get an initial vector of 051 at 50 miles...now find the postage stamp in the middle of the Atlantic. Off we go. As I cross the shore line heading east, the instructor tells me to "have some fun and get a good feel for her." I think I can do that!
With the nose 60* above the horizon and military power, I'm still accelerating through 250kts well below 10,000. So I keep pulling. At about 80* the speed starts to bleed off. I glance down at my gas gauges, which show 9000lbs, almost exactly. Afterburners on. I pass 10,000 at a little over 400kts and a 70* climb. I come out of afterburner at about 14,000ft. 20,000 comes before I even think to reset my altimeter. The only way to level off at angels 20 is to roll inverted and pull.
Now level, I feel it's time to test acceleration. Power to idle. With the slowly coming up to maintain altitude, the jet slows to 250kts in a few seconds. Military power. "Go for it" I hear in the headset. I hear a loud clunk as my left hand moves into the afterburner range again. I look to see 8000lbs of fuel as the engine RPMs sail up to 99%. I look at the HUD again and catch myself going through 25,000feet; I forgot to push the nose back down. Less than ten seconds after hitting the burner range, I'm passing 500 kts in a shallow dive back to FL200. At FL220 I look at the left side of the HUD: "M 1.01" is what it reads. I'm transonic. Leveling from my 2* dive applies almost 3gs. With the nose level I see the max of 1.17 mach. Then a light comes on. "Low fuel." WTF! I had 8,000lbs less than 40 seconds ago, bingo isn't until 3,200lbs, I have...2,800lbs. Ok. Burners off. That's alright, I'm only about 15 miles from the boat now, I should have started down a while ago.
Power to idle, nose down. I pass through 10,000feet at 320kts in a 12,000fpm dive. Who cares about the speed limit any more. The IP asks me if I see the ship. "Umm...no? I'm near it?" He appears in the room behind me and points to a tiny little spec of light on the horizon.
"Go there." Ok, then. I'm finally stabilized at about 200kts and 1,200 feet as I point towards the spec. Within seconds it starts to gain definition...that's where I'm about to land!
I pass over the ship at 1,200 feet, then pull the power back as I roll into a 70* left turn to fly downwind. The IP has talked me through setting up the TACAN on the boat, so I at least have a course line to follow to guide my turn back inbound. About a mile passed the boat, I drop the tailhook (a really big lever that comes down with a very pleasingly solid THUNK) and put the flaps to half. Five miles passed the boat, I extend the gear and roll into a 30* left turn. I roll out right on the course line and put the flaps to full as I start downhill. The landing area starts to stand out at about 3 miles, where the 8 degree divergence between the centerline of the ship and the centerline of the landing surface becomes quite obvious. IP tells me "the boat is moving about 25kts on calm seas; you're 2 miles from landing, check gear down, call the ball."
I get the jet stabilized at 140kts and 10.3degrees AOA. The velocity vector is sitting in the "crotch" of the ship, and the E-bar is lined up on the zero degree line. Here we go.
One mile to go and the boat keeps moving right. Actually the boat is moving straight, but the damn angled deck requires that I keep correcting slightly to the right...slightly to the right....slightly to the right. Three down and locked, flaps full, hook is down. Slightly to the right. Slightly to the right.
"Power" I hear from the IP. I give my left hand a bump, then move the plane slightly to the right.
"Power, POWER, POWER," the crescendo tells me all I need to know. I move my hand about an inch. Too much.
"Power back, line up!" Shit! I was so worried about the power I let the boat get away from me. I yank the throttle back and make one last ditch effort at pushing the nose right. Mistake. I should have gone around.
"Woah, wave o...never mind." BOOM. Red screen. I'm more on top of this parked Hornet than I am over the wires. "We'll try that again," the IP offers.
The screen turns black and the words "Teleporting, Please Wait" appear in front of me. Suddenly the lights flash back on and there I am on a 10 mile left base. OK, here we go! I roll out on final with the gear, flaps, and hook down, 140kts, and 10.2 AOA.
I give myself a pep talk as I push the nose over "small corrections, made much sooner; don't die again!"
"You're a mile from landing, check gear down, call the ball."
A little to the right, more power. A little to the right. Right. Right. A little more power, more to the right. To the right. Riiiiiight....MILITARY POWER!
"Two wire!" the IP shouts from outside. I yank the power back to idle and wait until the plane stops rolling backwards. Brakes on, tailhook up, flaps up, wings fold. I just landed on a carrier!
"Ready to go again?"
How could I say no? Nose steering to "high" for taxi, then gently line up with the cat. The instructor reset my fuel lest I run out before reaching the end of the deck.
Wings extend, launch bar down, flaps to full, stabs to +7*, tension applied, select launch bar up, military power, thumbs up, salute, then grab the towel racks...BOOM.
The plane flies itself away from the deck, all I had to do was suck up the gear and flaps, then pull the power before I shot through the stratosphere again.
I got two more traps before heading back to shore (super sonic) for some more aerobatics. About 20 minutes of upside down and sideways, and it was time to back it in. One more touch and go at Oceana before a high speed approach (this thing doesn't like to slow down when the nose is 20 degrees below the horizon...lets just say I misjudged the downwind to base turn) to a full stop landing.
At the end of two hours they pretty much had to pry me out of the seat.
The entire facility was incredible. Housed in an older hanger/office building right next to the flight line, the complex is marked by long, well lit, but completely bare halls. There was one wall with a large mural of a Hornet on final with plaques for the "Top Hook" award surrounding it, but other than that the only wall decorations were the H-ID boxes next to unmarked doors. Behind the unmarked doors, though, are all manner of computer servers, cockpit mock-ups, and surround sound audio/wrap around video systems. It's a nerd's dream (I should know, I didn't want to leave)! They have sims that sit on the floor with wrap around screens, and they have some that are on a full motion base inside a 360 degree monolithic dome. They have classic Hornets and Super Hornets, single seaters and two seaters, stand alone sims and sims that can be linked with up to five others for training as wingmen or head-to-head combat.
I could have stayed there all night, but alas, it's back to the low and slow of the airline world for me. Until next time good night, and good luck.
No, I'm not writing to you from the grave; this weekend I had a wonderful opportunity to go to NAS Oceana and fly one of their F/A-18F simulators. I know there are many on here who have flown fighter type aircraft for real and to you this will probably seem parochial, but for an Air Force reject like me it was quite good fun (even though it was a Navy jet).
The plane was sitting on 5R at NAS Oceana. After a crash course in the cockpit switchology and symbology, my instructor said "release the parking brake, military power, rotate at 140kts." Ok, I can do that.
Interestingly, 140kts is about where we rotate my real airplane when we're heavy; this empty Super Hornet got there a lot faster than the airliner does, though.
At 140kts I gave a light pull on the stick, and we were flying...no doubt about that. I had planned to stay in the pattern for a few touch-n-goes before heading out to the boat, but the plane apparently had other ideas. As I sailed quickly through 300 feet I heard the gear and flaps hit their up stops. Almost immediately I pulled the throttles back to about 3/4 military power. It wasn't enough. I spent a few seconds look around outside at the familiar landmarks of Virginia Beach...that was my first mistake. Even at reduced power, by the time I glanced at the HUD again I was passing through 5,000 feet and accelerating through 300 kts with an 11,296fpm climb! Power back to idle, I rolled into about an 85 degree bank to pull onto the downwind and loose some speed. The instructor was laughing...I don't think he was too surprised.
During my downwind vector I did some light aerobatics to get a feel for the jet and proper power settings. What a roll rate! My IP talked me through setting up "Waypoint 0" on the nav system which gave me a nice long white line to follow onto final. Outbound for 12nm, then teardrop back towards the runway. They use a 3* glideslope at 140kts for approach (just like I'm used to), but their big target was the 10-12* AOA. This required some extra concentration for me to get used to.
Just as on the boat, there's a Meatball next to runway, so I had to get used to that too. I came in a bit high and a bit fast, but it was in the touchdown zone, so I was happy. As soon as the mains hit, military power. Two more bounces and I was starting to get comfortable. Time to try the boat, the IP tells me.
I get an initial vector of 051 at 50 miles...now find the postage stamp in the middle of the Atlantic. Off we go. As I cross the shore line heading east, the instructor tells me to "have some fun and get a good feel for her." I think I can do that!
With the nose 60* above the horizon and military power, I'm still accelerating through 250kts well below 10,000. So I keep pulling. At about 80* the speed starts to bleed off. I glance down at my gas gauges, which show 9000lbs, almost exactly. Afterburners on. I pass 10,000 at a little over 400kts and a 70* climb. I come out of afterburner at about 14,000ft. 20,000 comes before I even think to reset my altimeter. The only way to level off at angels 20 is to roll inverted and pull.
Now level, I feel it's time to test acceleration. Power to idle. With the slowly coming up to maintain altitude, the jet slows to 250kts in a few seconds. Military power. "Go for it" I hear in the headset. I hear a loud clunk as my left hand moves into the afterburner range again. I look to see 8000lbs of fuel as the engine RPMs sail up to 99%. I look at the HUD again and catch myself going through 25,000feet; I forgot to push the nose back down. Less than ten seconds after hitting the burner range, I'm passing 500 kts in a shallow dive back to FL200. At FL220 I look at the left side of the HUD: "M 1.01" is what it reads. I'm transonic. Leveling from my 2* dive applies almost 3gs. With the nose level I see the max of 1.17 mach. Then a light comes on. "Low fuel." WTF! I had 8,000lbs less than 40 seconds ago, bingo isn't until 3,200lbs, I have...2,800lbs. Ok. Burners off. That's alright, I'm only about 15 miles from the boat now, I should have started down a while ago.
Power to idle, nose down. I pass through 10,000feet at 320kts in a 12,000fpm dive. Who cares about the speed limit any more. The IP asks me if I see the ship. "Umm...no? I'm near it?" He appears in the room behind me and points to a tiny little spec of light on the horizon.
"Go there." Ok, then. I'm finally stabilized at about 200kts and 1,200 feet as I point towards the spec. Within seconds it starts to gain definition...that's where I'm about to land!
I pass over the ship at 1,200 feet, then pull the power back as I roll into a 70* left turn to fly downwind. The IP has talked me through setting up the TACAN on the boat, so I at least have a course line to follow to guide my turn back inbound. About a mile passed the boat, I drop the tailhook (a really big lever that comes down with a very pleasingly solid THUNK) and put the flaps to half. Five miles passed the boat, I extend the gear and roll into a 30* left turn. I roll out right on the course line and put the flaps to full as I start downhill. The landing area starts to stand out at about 3 miles, where the 8 degree divergence between the centerline of the ship and the centerline of the landing surface becomes quite obvious. IP tells me "the boat is moving about 25kts on calm seas; you're 2 miles from landing, check gear down, call the ball."
I get the jet stabilized at 140kts and 10.3degrees AOA. The velocity vector is sitting in the "crotch" of the ship, and the E-bar is lined up on the zero degree line. Here we go.
One mile to go and the boat keeps moving right. Actually the boat is moving straight, but the damn angled deck requires that I keep correcting slightly to the right...slightly to the right....slightly to the right. Three down and locked, flaps full, hook is down. Slightly to the right. Slightly to the right.
"Power" I hear from the IP. I give my left hand a bump, then move the plane slightly to the right.
"Power, POWER, POWER," the crescendo tells me all I need to know. I move my hand about an inch. Too much.
"Power back, line up!" Shit! I was so worried about the power I let the boat get away from me. I yank the throttle back and make one last ditch effort at pushing the nose right. Mistake. I should have gone around.
"Woah, wave o...never mind." BOOM. Red screen. I'm more on top of this parked Hornet than I am over the wires. "We'll try that again," the IP offers.
The screen turns black and the words "Teleporting, Please Wait" appear in front of me. Suddenly the lights flash back on and there I am on a 10 mile left base. OK, here we go! I roll out on final with the gear, flaps, and hook down, 140kts, and 10.2 AOA.
I give myself a pep talk as I push the nose over "small corrections, made much sooner; don't die again!"
"You're a mile from landing, check gear down, call the ball."
A little to the right, more power. A little to the right. Right. Right. A little more power, more to the right. To the right. Riiiiiight....MILITARY POWER!
"Two wire!" the IP shouts from outside. I yank the power back to idle and wait until the plane stops rolling backwards. Brakes on, tailhook up, flaps up, wings fold. I just landed on a carrier!
"Ready to go again?"
How could I say no? Nose steering to "high" for taxi, then gently line up with the cat. The instructor reset my fuel lest I run out before reaching the end of the deck.
Wings extend, launch bar down, flaps to full, stabs to +7*, tension applied, select launch bar up, military power, thumbs up, salute, then grab the towel racks...BOOM.
The plane flies itself away from the deck, all I had to do was suck up the gear and flaps, then pull the power before I shot through the stratosphere again.
I got two more traps before heading back to shore (super sonic) for some more aerobatics. About 20 minutes of upside down and sideways, and it was time to back it in. One more touch and go at Oceana before a high speed approach (this thing doesn't like to slow down when the nose is 20 degrees below the horizon...lets just say I misjudged the downwind to base turn) to a full stop landing.
At the end of two hours they pretty much had to pry me out of the seat.
The entire facility was incredible. Housed in an older hanger/office building right next to the flight line, the complex is marked by long, well lit, but completely bare halls. There was one wall with a large mural of a Hornet on final with plaques for the "Top Hook" award surrounding it, but other than that the only wall decorations were the H-ID boxes next to unmarked doors. Behind the unmarked doors, though, are all manner of computer servers, cockpit mock-ups, and surround sound audio/wrap around video systems. It's a nerd's dream (I should know, I didn't want to leave)! They have sims that sit on the floor with wrap around screens, and they have some that are on a full motion base inside a 360 degree monolithic dome. They have classic Hornets and Super Hornets, single seaters and two seaters, stand alone sims and sims that can be linked with up to five others for training as wingmen or head-to-head combat.
I could have stayed there all night, but alas, it's back to the low and slow of the airline world for me. Until next time good night, and good luck.
Return to blogging.
It's been a crazy, unpredictable year, and unfortunately in the mess of it all blogging has taken a backseat to life. But now the wife and I are settled in to our new place in the mid-Atlantic (this time), and I'm settled into my new job in the MegaWhacker so I'll take another shot at blogging.
Some of you may remember me from my former blog, Journey in Flight. The journey is not over, not by a long shot, but it has evolved from the early adventures of flight school and turbo-prop flying in New England. And so, my blog has evolved, too. The next big step for my career, my journey, is probably a ways off but I'm still working my way towards that goal whatever it may be). Essentially, my career is in delay vectors. That's not to say it's not still a fun adventure every time I get into the cockpit; this blog is about what I'm doing between the beginning of the Journey, and whatever comes next.
Some of you may remember me from my former blog, Journey in Flight. The journey is not over, not by a long shot, but it has evolved from the early adventures of flight school and turbo-prop flying in New England. And so, my blog has evolved, too. The next big step for my career, my journey, is probably a ways off but I'm still working my way towards that goal whatever it may be). Essentially, my career is in delay vectors. That's not to say it's not still a fun adventure every time I get into the cockpit; this blog is about what I'm doing between the beginning of the Journey, and whatever comes next.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
