If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Straight deck ops
|
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Straight deck ops
"Greasy Rider" wrote in message ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye6We...related&search It is always interesting to watch film of WWII carrier operations. The aircrew all had to have big brass ones. Even if you survived combat, you still had to survive deck landings and those godawful barriers they put up to punish people who missed the wires. Beyond that, your dead reckoning navigation had to be decent in order to find the carrier before you ran out of fuel. Even worse, if that carrier changed course, it could be 150 NM from where you expected it. Even getting off the deck was a tough proposition, with the occasional engine burp, cold cat shot, or defective bridle. Has anyone seen a source which gives the odds of a WWII carrier pilot getting wet on any given mission? I'd bet the odds were 1:50 or worse. KB |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Straight deck ops
----------
In article , "Kyle Boatright" wrote: It is always interesting to watch film of WWII carrier operations. The aircrew all had to have big brass ones. Even if you survived combat, you still had to survive deck landings and those godawful barriers they put up to punish people who missed the wires. Beyond that, your dead reckoning I once interviewed a guy who had been a Navy test pilot during WWII. He did not fly combat because of a medical condition (stomach ulcer, with the prescription being access to a steady supply of milk, which they could not guarantee on deployment). 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. May have also done landings on an East Coast carrier. Anyway, he said that landings were not as difficult as you would think, because the stall speed of the planes was low and the carrier at speed meant that you approached the deck at less than 70 miles per hour in many cases. He said that landing was in many ways like driving a car onto the deck. He never flew jets, but he figured that bringing a jet in was much harder because the approach speed was so fast. His favorite plane to fly was the F4U Corsair. I cannot remember why. He described one other plane--I cannot remember which one--as really interesting to fly because the center of rotation was essentially at the pilot's seat, meaning that you pretty much turned the plane around you. He said that one was very easy to fly. D |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Straight deck ops
I was too young for WW II but CQed in an SNJ aboard USS Wright off
Pensacola in 1950. Not very different from WW II conditions. Even getting off the deck was a tough proposition, with the occasional engine burp, cold cat shot, or defective bridle. Cat shots were infrequent in WW II ops. Even Doolittle's B-25s took off without benefit of a cat shot. Engines were wound up to full revs before being released for take-off. 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. Anyway, he said that landings were not as difficult as you would think, because the stall speed of the planes was low and the carrier at speed meant that you approached the deck at less than 70 miles per hour in many cases. I would agree, so far as the SNJ is oncerned. After field carrier practice, a flight of six of us flew out to the boat. We had to get six "cuts" to qualify. Every one of us, green beginners, got six cuts for six passes. So it couldn't have been too hard. Of course, we did it on a sunny day with relative calm seas, not at night in a storm, with controls shot up. vince norris |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Straight deck ops
----------
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 |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Straight deck ops
Greasy Rider wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye6We...related&search JJJeeeesussss.. I thought the F-14 was tough to bring aboard. Corsair pilots, very impressed. Gotta love paddles in shorts too, getting their tan set for liberty. |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Straight deck ops
On 8 Jan 2007 05:48:43 -0800, "qui si parla Campagnolo"
postulated : I thought the F-14 was tough to bring aboard. Corsair pilots, very impressed. Gotta love paddles in shorts too, getting their tan set for liberty. It was my understanding that the Corsair was not an ideal aircraft for carrier ops because of the limited forward visibility and most were transferred over the Marines. |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Straight deck ops
Ah Yes! Those were the days.
"Greasy Rider" wrote in message ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye6We...related&search |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Straight deck ops
In article ,
Greasy Rider wrote: On 8 Jan 2007 05:48:43 -0800, "qui si parla Campagnolo" postulated : I thought the F-14 was tough to bring aboard. Corsair pilots, very impressed. Gotta love paddles in shorts too, getting their tan set for liberty. It was my understanding that the Corsair was not an ideal aircraft for carrier ops because of the limited forward visibility and most were transferred over the Marines. The early Corsairs - what the RN called the Corsair I - were distinctly sub-optimal for 'carrier operations: the undercarriage oelos were prone to bouncing on landing, the unbulged cockpit hood meant that visibility was restricted and the pilot's head took a beating on landing and - as you say - forward visibility was restricted (though not much worse than many V-engined types, such as Firefly or Seafire). The Fleet Air Arm took on Corsairs as soon as it could get them and very quickly evolved a curving approach to the deck which meant that forward visibility was not a problem for landing - this had been done before the first FAA Corsair squadrons started forming (835 was first, in August 1943): could be that "Winkle" Brown was responsible? The Corsair Is were still difficult to land - Norman Hanson makes this very clear in "Carrier Pilot" - and by the time the Corsair went into action with the RN Eastern Fleet they'd re-equipped with Corsair IIs (there were also Corsair IIIs - Brewster built - and IVs from Goodyear). The Corsair II onwards don't seem to have been regarded as more difficult around the ship than anything else, and the USN seems to have been happy enough with them once it adopted the FAA style of deck approach. -- Andy Breen ~ Not speaking on behalf of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth Feng Shui: an ancient oriental art for extracting money from the gullible (Martin Sinclair) |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Straight deck ops
Greasy Rider wrote: On 8 Jan 2007 05:48:43 -0800, "qui si parla Campagnolo" postulated : I thought the F-14 was tough to bring aboard. Corsair pilots, very impressed. Gotta love paddles in shorts too, getting their tan set for liberty. It was my understanding that the Corsair was not an ideal aircraft for carrier ops because of the limited forward visibility and most were transferred over the Marines. All true but it was flown around the boat by a few really good avaitors, had to be to be able to do it. |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Torque Value for Mounting an O-320 wide deck. | Ebby | Home Built | 2 | May 31st 06 01:00 AM |
Need very detailed WW2 Carrier Deck Operations | WhatMeWorry | Naval Aviation | 4 | December 18th 05 01:39 AM |
Deck height | Sean Trost | Home Built | 5 | July 16th 04 03:46 AM |
Straight restrictor fitting? | nauga | Home Built | 5 | April 15th 04 01:06 PM |
The "Gipper" is ready! | Phineas Pinkham | Naval Aviation | 0 | July 8th 03 10:57 PM |