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MooneyTail

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Everything posted by MooneyTail

  1. 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.
  2. 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...
  3. I noticed that, too. My solution was to just cut in front of him and steal his hose...
  4. I don't know. Looks pretty damn accurate to me....
  5. 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!
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. To be fair: Yes I can fly it with one engine and yes, I DO take that as a challenge!
  9. 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.
  10. Exactly what I'm thinking of. Thinking back, RATS is only for the trap in the Rhino, too. Thanks.
  11. Back on topic, I thought the F-14 had a RATS system like the Rhino does for AB cat launches. Is that not correct?
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. True story! In real life, student Naval Aviators have a couple hundred hours of simulator and flight instruction from fleet Naval Aviators, perform hundreds of FCLPs (Field Carrier Landings), and only after proving their ability are they allowed to go to the boat. Even then, it is under extremely controlled conditions with very close supervision and guidance from fleet experienced LSOs who give the students and VERY short leash while qualifying. So unless you've had all of that training, no shame in having a few struggles. It is not an easy thing to do! And despite all of this, the Navy has lost many aircraft over the years. To paraphrase a popular saying, carrier aviation is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect.
  17. It should be amber colored, but as mentioned, LSOs determine on-speed by the stabs level with the canopy as the indexer lights (especially amber and green) are surprisingly difficult to see in real life during the day. Even at night, when the lights are easily determined, on-speed is judged by the indexer lights being in a straight line with the LAU lights. Believe it or not, the indexer lights are somewhat of a secondary cue to the aircraft's energy state.
  18. Nealius nailed it: stay within 5nm, and fly just starboard of the ship to be able to look down at the deck. During normal cyclic ops, if you're the guy breaking the deck from 2K, you should be monitoring how many jets are coming off the front end so you know when to commence. Everyone else in the stack then sets their timing off of their respective interval. Since it's zip-lip and all visual, it is very much a game of "just make it work" and as long as you're at the correct altitude and within 5nm, you can do what you have to.
  19. Magic Carpet, colloquially called PLM (Precision Landing Mode), is a software update to the flight control computer. The C has digital flight controls, but since the legacy hornets have different software and flight control computers and the last Charlie squadrons are being transitioned to the E/F or F-35, they didn't bother writing software updates for those aircraft. So indeed, it won't be simulated in DCS
  20. Pretty close. ICLS, also known as Bullseye, is comparable to a ground ILS. It just shoots fixed (relative to the carrier) localizer and glideslope information off the back of the ship. That's all well and good if the ship in stable in the water. When the boat starts pitching and rolling around in the water a lot, you can imagine how much those needles would move around, causing the aircraft to chase them all around the sky. ACLS is often referred to as Needles. The difference between ACLS and Bullseye is that ACLS is gyro stabilized and also requires the ship to lock the aircraft up. When you get to about 5 miles, the ship will lock your aircraft up on the ACLS radar and you'll get the symbology in the cockpit. Approach will then say "(Side Number) ACLS lock on, call your needles" to which you would reply where they are, most commonly replying "Fly up, fly right" to which approach will reply "Concur, fly your needles." This means that everyone is in agreement that the correct aircraft is locked up and the correct information is being passed to the aircraft. Being that the information transmitted to the aircraft is gyro stabilized, the needles you would receive with ACLS would be much more stable, especially if the boat is moving around a lot. The fully automatic landing mode is called a Mode 1 approach. This requires ACLS lock on and the aircraft will fly itself onto the deck. Different airwings have different policies, but Mode 1 approaches tend to be reserved for more experienced aviators. Why? Mode 1 can become very dangerous very quickly if the radar ever drops lock, especially at the in-close position which will happen on occasion. Not to mention that Mode 1 approaches don't count towards your GPA and as we all know, everyone wants to be top hook!
  21. Minimum recovery headwind for Hornet C/D is 18KTS. That's total wind over the deck as Trev alluded to; relative wind speed plus ship's speed. The main point of minimum recovery headwind is actually for the stress on the tailhook and arresting gear. 25-30KTS is recommended, but without going too far down the rabbit hole, 16KTS is always too slow.
  22. Sorry for the delayed response! Having never had a tanker option available, I never really paid attention to those procedures so I'm probably not the guy to ask about that stuff, but I'll tell you how I understand it works. Hopefully you would have managed your gas so that you aren't staring a fuel problem in the face once already in the stack. Marshal will ask you your fuel state one last time when you do the "See me" comm described above. Additionally, you are supposed to let the boss know on Button 1 if you are going to be "Tank+1 (pass) on the ball" meaning that you have this pass and one more before you reach your tank fuel state and have to hit the tanker. If you end up hosting Bolterfest 2018 and reach your tank state, you're supposed to depart the stack almost like you're doing a Case 1 departure and once outside of the stack, climb up to meet the tanker. I am almost positive they just keep holding overhead so you'd be hitting the tanker in a turn. Again, if someone has more accurate information on this feel free to correct me. It's a big faux pas to arrive late to the stack, but if you do, you will basically be put in the penalty box and will probably get relegated to the top of the stack, or Boss will be directive and put you cross circle from the Hawkeye or something like that. Due to the large size of the Hawkeye, most Bosses like to land them last or second to last with the tanker being the last, just because of the deck space issue. It's actually not unusual to see the tanker cut in front of the Hawkeye in the stack for the above reasons. Their only responsibility of the tanker is to make it obvious to the Hawkeye crew that the tanker is their new interval.
  23. As far as comms go, you'll get a normal check-in with marshal on button 16, after they read the Case recovery, BRC, and altimeter, they'll tell you to give a "See me at 10(NM)". Once you are at 10 NM with Mom in sight, you'll say "[side Number], see you at ten" to which Marshal will reply, "Roger, go button 1." From there, you'll be zip lip on button 1. Squadrons have assigned altitudes in the stack. 2 fighter squadrons at 2K, 2 fighter squadrons at 3K, Growlers or Prowlers at 4K, Hawkeyes at 5K, and recovery tanker at 6K. You must be at your squadron assigned altitude by 10 NM. You can hold as 1-4 aircraft (single all the way up to a division). If there are 2 divisions at the same altitude for example, they will hold cross circle from each other. There are no EATs in Case 1. It's a visual determination based on literally looking down at the deck and determining how many aircraft there are left to launch to set yourself up for commencing with proper timing. The first plane (and any wingmen he has) at 2K in the proper timing to commence will do so, followed by the other plane (and any wingmen he has). Once an altitude has been vacated the stack will collapse down. For example, once everyone has commenced out of 2K the aircraft at 3K will descend (aft and abeam the ship) to 2K, the aircraft at 4K will go down to 3K, etc. Keep in mind, all of this is done zip lip. If it sounds like the wild west, well, that's because it basically is.
  24. Unfortunately, you are mistaken. It is timed from wings level to touchdown.
  25. Sorry for the confusion. 350 ft should be the altitude checkpoint at the 45 or when you're about crossing the wake. The groove doesn't start until you are wings level on the LAs extended center line, though. Altitude checkpoints: 600' at the 180 450' at the 90 325-375' at the 45 Probably around 270' or so for when you actually roll wings level in the groove. 3/4 mile is not a checkpoint for Case I or II. It is where the ball call is made on a Case III.
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