Straight deck ops

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye6We...related&search

"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

----------
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

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

----------
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

Prior to Flight Training in '53, I had been a black shoe OOD in USS Block
Island (CVE-106) and had become used to flight ops for a couple of years
involving the AF-2S and AF-2W, each of which had to wiggle and crab even to
taxi by the island they were so big - probably the largest carrier aircraft
in use in those days on the narrowest, shortest CVE decks. As a result,
bringing an SNJ aboard the CVL USS Monterrey seemed like having deck to
spare, but how soon we forget...looking at the video brings it all back.

Never flew on/off the CVE Block Island but flew AFs on/off CVE's Siboney,
Kula Gulf, and Gilbert Islands. As I remember, the AF was advertised as the
largest single recip. engine A/C ever.

"Boomerang" wrote in message
...
Prior to Flight Training in '53, I had been a black shoe OOD in USS Block
Island (CVE-106) and had become used to flight ops for a couple of years
involving the AF-2S and AF-2W, each of which had to wiggle and crab even
to taxi by the island they were so big - probably the largest carrier
aircraft in use in those days on the narrowest, shortest CVE decks. As a
result, bringing an SNJ aboard the CVL USS Monterrey seemed like having
deck to spare, but how soon we forget...looking at the video brings it all
back.

"vincent p. norris" wrote in message
...
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

As someone who has a bit of time in the F4U and the F8F, I have nothing but
respect for the guys who could put the Corsair on the boat without breaking
their necks. Grumman, being the kind hearted souls they are, and having some
sympathy for the guys who had to see over the nose of their prop fighters,
were good enough to design the cowls with a downward slant so you could at
least see SOMETHING out there in front of you....like the LSO for example.
But I found the Corsair as blind as a bat out front. Of course I never put
one on the boat, but even handling it on the runway could be a chore. You
had two tiny areas at the lower corners of the windshield where you kept the
sides of the runway equalized at touchdown and roll out. I can only imagine
what it must have been like putting one of those things on the boat in the
middle of the night.......or even in daytime for that matter!!
Go Navy!!
Dudley Henriques

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.

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.