MooneyTail

Based on what I've heard, the Phoenix suffered from a host of reliability issues, such as coming off the rail and the rocket motor never firing, falling harmlessly down to earth. Couple that with the Tomcat fleet aging and increasingly expensive to maintain, and the fact that the cold war was over and thus the need to reach out and touch a hoard of bombers from a peer or near-peer threat was waning, senior leadership decided that the cost of the missile (and Tomcat for that matter) was not justified. Though the Tomcat was not retired until 2006, I believe that the writing was on the wall for both missile and plane when there were giant military spending cutbacks during the 1990s.

Nowadays a cycle is most commonly 1 hour 15 minutes or 1 hour 30 minutes. That said this can vary for a multitude of reasons. I've seen as short as 30 minutes and on the somewhat rare event of a Hawkeye going airborne alone (such as on a dawn patrol), it will be scheduled as a 4 hour cycle. That said, aircraft can stay up for multiple cycles depending on the mission. For example, the Hawkeye normally stayed airborne for 2-3 cycles at a time. Normally at least one tanker would be airborne during the whole flight schedule with the TTLR (Turning Tanker, Last Recovery) being manned on deck during the last recovery of the night, plus whatever gas was needed depending on the missions going on. I am curious to know what the cold war stance was like...

I noticed that, too. My solution was to just cut in front of him and steal his hose...

I don't know. Looks pretty damn accurate to me....

I was doing the mission where you have to bomb the bridges and after taking 2 rounds of AAA on the first bridge, Jester goes "I'm ejecting". Sure enough, a second later the canopy blows and I look back to a perfectly functional jet and an empty cockpit. Thanks for sticking by me, buddy!

I'm not 100% sure about the Tomcat, but in 2 seat Rhinos the WSO will call the ball so I imagine it would be the RIO who calls it.

There are actual requirements for initial aircraft qualification and sometimes requalifications for pilots to do carrier touch and goes in which case you would come in with the hook up. Your pass would then read TG3 (Touch and Go 3-wire) for the wire the LSOs deemed you would have caught. Oddly enough, you can still get graded a bolter and it won't count towards your T+G requirements if you would have boltered with the hook down. As for raising the hook, a carrier bolter won't harm the hook too bad, although maintenance is required to do a quick "bolter inspection" of the hook point if you do bolter. On land, if you drag the hook down several thousand feet of runway for some reason, that can be a different story.

To be fair: Yes I can fly it with one engine and yes, I DO take that as a challenge!

There is no written MAX wind over deck, but if winds are too high, aircraft probably won't go flying to begin with due to weather or safety consideration of deck crew. There are other factors to consider though in higher than optimal wind conditions. As winds reach around 35+KTS over deck, they will generally change the lens to a 4.0 degree basic angle and over 40+KTS they will more than likely have Hornets fly their approaches at half flaps.

Exactly what I'm thinking of. Thinking back, RATS is only for the trap in the Rhino, too. Thanks.

Back on topic, I thought the F-14 had a RATS system like the Rhino does for AB cat launches. Is that not correct?

It's both in a way. After being put in tension, the pilot does a few internal checks and also does a wipeout. Externally, the deck crew look over the aircraft to make sure everything is in order (there are slightly different things to check depending on the type of aircraft). When the pilot is ready, he salutes the shooter who then looks around and checks the other deck crew to make sure they are all thumbs up, then signals to launch. The time between the pilot's salute and the cat stroke is the shooter looking around making sure everyone is still thumbs up, giving the signal, and then the button pusher doing one more look back and forward, then pressing the button. Additionally, they can shoot 2 aircraft simultaneously, but only one from the bow and one from the waist and only during Case I or II. They can't shoot 2 from the bow at the same time for example. The reason for the clearing turn is so that you don't hit the plane coming off the other set of cats. In case III with the straight out departure, they time it so only one aircraft is going airborne at a time.

Like many things, it all depends. You should flare if you are over your max trap weight or risk putting undue stress on something such as the aforementioned L POD. It also depends on the field you are landing at. If there is a lens on the field, you might as well practice the perishable skill of ball flying. Additionally, if you are landing at a field with a short runway, you want to plant it close to the numbers. However, if you're at a field with a long runway and there is no lens, it makes more sense to flare to save the airframe and components a little wear and tear. At least that's how Hawkeyes did it.

Nice chart Kola! Just a few things from the other comments: Marshal can be entered tangentially from any direction. Launching aircraft do stay at 500' until 7nm, but it is generally smart to stay away from the bow of the ship when coming back towards the stack at launch time. Marshal won't give you an altitude during Case 1 because there are squadron assigned altitudes for the stack. 2 fighter squadrons at 2K, 2 fighter squadrons at 3K, Growlers/Prowlers at 4K, the mighty Hawkeye at 5K, and the Tanker at 6K. CODs will generally hold at 1.2K if they are in that recovery, but if they are arriving late to the party, they will be put up with the Hawkeye. If there are 2 flights at the same altitude, they will simply hold cross-circle from either other. If 4 flights are at the same altitude, they will all hold 90 degrees off from each other. There are no set holding speeds, but I believe 250 is pretty common for the hornets. Everything is done visually, too. You know when to collapse the stack (come down to the next lower altitude) by simply looking outside and judging when the aircraft below you have vacated their altitude. The spin pattern is flown within 3 miles at 1200' and spin traffic has priority for the "initial" although generally, they are just flown to a shorter initial (1nm aft for example). It truly is the wild west out there, but it is awesome.

In real life, during Case 1, you'll just fly over the boat to determine BRC, and input that in the system so that you will have a reference for your downwind heading. For Case 3, in the initial marshal instructions, the ship will issue EFB or Expected Final Bearing and update it if and when final bearing changes. The carrier Comms are still a work in process.