"B.C. MALLAM" wrote in message ...
Night Carrier Qualifications
A Navy pilot's tale of his first landing on the boat in the dark.

Thanks for posting. Interesting.
(original whole story on r.a.m.n, I've added 2 ng for my questions)

OPPS! NOW I'VE ADDED 2!
I have a couple questions. Yeah, I'm totally ignorant on this.

A quick
flip through the book and a few jokes with the Chief gets me familiar
with
prior gripes to possibly expect with my particular jet, ----
As I step up to my jet, I eye it over as best I can in the dim orange
light.=2 0The airplane captain greets me in the dark, and introduces
himself
with a salute and a handshake. There's actually a calming effect.
Something
familiar. A familiar face from the beach. Whatever it is, the tension is
eased slightly as I do my abbreviated preflight. Abbreviated because the
back
half of my jet is out over the side of the ship.

About what is the standard ratio of number of available
pilots to number of available planes?
OK, so some rotation / change up of pilots to different
planes is done. Do they normally try to keep some
connection of same pilot to same plane?
About what is the likelyhood?

Canopy down, I'm strapped in, the jet is up and running ----
I get the ----- and check-in with the Air Boss. Seconds later my
jet is swarmed by brown shirts breaking down all the chains and
tiedowns. My
airplane captain passes off control to a set of yellow glowing wands
(the
handlers) and gives me a salute with a "good luck" look on his face.
Great,
was the nervousness that obvious? The handler gives me the signal to
start
rolling forward, and with little twitches left and right squeezes me
past a
few other jets on deck before handing me off to another set of wands
down the
flight deck towards the catapult.
Several sets of wands later I'm parked behind the jet blast deflector
(JBD),

Is the entire movement on the deck done
by the jet's own jet power?
When and for what, are the 'tractors' used?

(Even more basic ignorance) = Does the pilot
have ability to 'steer' his front wheels?

I see some
yellow wands giving me the hook-up sign. I roll out of the landing area,
folding my wings and cleaning up the cockpit (resetting flaps, trim, my
radalt, etc).

As with above, "hook-up" ??

Thirty seconds later I'm sitting behind the JBD, takeoff checks partly
complete, trim set, with the jet in front of me at full tilt ready to be
shot. Happy to still be alive, I think about the last pass, and how I
can
better energize the jet, and where I need to make power corrections to
fly a
better pass. Then the JBD drops, and some yellow wands in the darkness
start
motioning for me forward onto the catapult. It's dark up there, and I
have to
do this about a half-dozen more times. This is going to be a long night.
BY LTjg. Doug Masters

NO Kidding!!
Very first night carrier landing.
Then no time to debrief, review, reflect, learn, etc.
Right back at it to do bunch more!