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In article , vincent p. norris
wrote:

I once interviewed a guy who had been a Navy test pilot during WWII.......
He flew every plane in the Navy at the time and did quite a few landings on
(I think) the USS Wright on Lake Michigan.

That's possible, but I think the two carriers used for CQ on Lake
Michigan were converted lake steamers. One, IIRC, was a side-wheeler.

It was one of those. I mixed up the names. They were Wolverine and Sable
and I think he landed on the Sable, flying out of Chicago where he did a lot
of test flights. He said that landing was ultimately unremarkable. Of
course, he was doing it in pristine aircraft in good weather on the Great
Lakes, not in the middle of the Pacific.

Most of what he did was taking up existing aircraft that had received new
equipment. For instance, if the manufacturer had changed the engine design,
he would take it up and see how well it performed. He was also assigned to
one of the paddlewheel carriers for a short time until he got taken out by a
failed arrestor cable and ended up in the hospital for awhile. He's still
alive, but considering his bad luck during WWII, it's amazing that he wasn't
killed 63 years ago.



D