G B

Well that, and it would be flying a nearly rails approach with all the symbology centered and virtually no corrections :). As opposed to the video we see with various turns and VSI changes, etc.

I edited my above post. Typo. Clarifying that the sandstorm video was LSO talkdown. Also, what creepy said. Those minimums are for when you are not given a “paddles contact” from the LSO, and are given a “continue” instead.

That sandstorm landing was via LSO talkdown. The audio just wasn’t recorded. ACLS was not used to land the plane.

That’s up to the mods!

Yup. So much of IRL pilot training emphasis is on getting to a good “start.” In fact, students’ first round of FCLPs in flight school focuses almost entirely on pattern discipline and getting to a good start, rather than actual ball flying. “Start” in this case meaning the start position in the groove. Absolutely imperative that you put a ton of work and effort into getting to a good start: on glideslope, on centerline, on-speed, with the appropriate groove length (15-18 seconds). If you don’t get to a good start, your pass will be much much harder.

Great video. Thanks for finding it. Since it was from 2003, some things must have changed. We don’t pass weight on the ball call. I imagine those guys were clara ship but they just said clara. Like I said, things change both the pilots and LSOs did a great job. Also, those taxi lights on do help a lot. The LSOS can visually spot it much farther than the PLAT picks it up.

Yes it is called Tower. Case 1: Marshall to tower Case 2: Marshall to approach to tower Case 3: Marshall to approach. (Air Boss will also be on approach frequency). The LSO is waiting for you on tower or approach frequency (whichever is final) when you get there.

Trust me, that 1 wire is not nearly as lonely as it should be. Based on your last sentence, don’t forget the LSO rule to live by: Fly the ball ALL THE WAY to touchdown.

You guys nailed it. When in formation, pass the fuel state of the aircraft lowest in fuel. That is with the words “low state.”

Creepy did a great job answering. With regards to question 3: as Creepy said, 210 degrees is written down in the book but in practice the answer is “whatever it takes.” I don’t think I’ve ever actually went to 210 degrees. This goes for pretty much everything Case 1. Once you commence, there is so exact VSI or speed or G or AOB to reference when making this work. It’s all “whatever it takes” to be where you are supposed to be, at the right time, and properly space yourself with other airplanes. Did you misjudge your commence and need to give yourself a 4 mile initial? Go for it. Are you late and you need to pull a couple of extra Gs to get to the initial? Go for it. The procedures are deliberately vague in order to provide maximum flexibility. I strongly encourage you to join Lex’s discord where we discuss these sorts of things. Link in his signature.

Off except for the two exceptions I described earlier. Normal ops = off. The taxi light is off 99.9% of the time.

The landing/taxi light is OFF for daytime AND NIGHTTIME operations at the ship. Just to be clear :). Edit: forgot to mention, Paddles cannot see the AOA indexer lights in the nose with the taxi light on.

The taxi light is the same thing as the landing light. Case 1/2, the jet will not have any lights on from startup to shutdown; the pinky switch will be aft. Case 3, the jet will turn all lights on via the pinky switch just prior to catapult launch, and then all of them off once the jet stops on the trap. The exception is the taxi light. That is never on at the carrier with only a couple of exceptions. Exception 1: a jet with radio failure will flash the taxi light to indicate the failure to Paddles. Exception 2: Visibility deteriorates to the point where Paddles directs all planes to turn on the taxi lights.

Just detailing my experience from my time on the ocean. For every low vis video on YouTube, there’s 50 high vis videos that never got recorded. Again, even if the vis is less than 3/4 mile, the ship and IFLOLS could be visible with its bright lights. Vis less than 3/4 of a mile is just not very common. Vis has to be wayyyy more severe than even that for LSOs to not even see the taxi light. If you mean low vis (1ish mile visibility or better), that is no problem. Enjoyed the discussion!

IRL procedures: You will be asked to call the ball. If you can't see it you say "clara." If you can't see the ship you say "clara ship." Conditions have to be relatively bad to get to that. If you say clara or clara ship, Paddles will give you a talkdown until you can see the ball. All you need to say then is "ball." You'll get a "roger ball" and though Paddles isn't required to talk you down anymore, they'll probably continue. If you call clara or clara ship and Paddles can't see you, you will be told "continue" in which case you will descend to the approach minimums (TACAN, ICLS, ACLS, whatever the lowest is for what you have). If no ball or no Paddles contact at minimums, waveoff. That situation is extremely rare. I have only seen it once. When the weather is bad where there will be clara calls or Paddles may have a hard time seeing the jet, "99, taxi lights on"will be announced on the radio. With the taxi light on, that SIGNIFICANTLY increases the odds of Paddles seeing you in poor visibility and they can wave you that way. That is why the situation where Paddles says continue and then you have to waveoff at minimums is so exceedingly rare.

Yes. Once you call the ball you transition from flying the instruments to flying the IFLOLS.

You should control glideslope with the throttles, but it is permissible to use slight nudges of the stick to “influence the nose.” That said, trim will be your biggest aid to maintaining on-speed. The rules are equally important for ALL aircraft. For example, not being on-speed means you have now changed your aircraft’s hook-to-eye value, rendering IFLOLS information inaccurate to you. Being fast means you could code a hard landing or have a hook skip bolter. Being slow means you could be underpowered and sink, or have a dangerous in-flight-engagement of the wire. Never settle for not being on-speed.

You got it! Too close to the back of the ship. Too little hook-to-ramp clearance.

Hello everyone! In anticipation of the SC being released, I thought I would pass some nuggets of knowledge on ball flying and carrier landings. This is not an in depth break down of the pattern, or comms, but rather a primer on doing things right, for those so inclined. The objective is for those pursuing relative realism, and is to encourage safe, solid passes that may end up in the 2,3, or 4 wires (or bolter), rather than a wild pass that ends up in a 3 wire, as Paddles will ALWAYS prefer the former. Paddles always briefs the "rules to live by" and they have been unchanged for decades (except for those flying PLM the past few years, but that's another topic). These rules to live by are no joke. Paddles enforces them, and pilots put out their best efforts to adhere to them. Nobody is going rogue and deviating from them. Here they are: Never lead a low or slow: This means that if the ball is low, add power until the ball rises above the datums, THEN reduce the power. Never reduce the power before that point in anticipation of the ball rising above the datums. The same is applied to on-speed. If slow and adding power, do not take it out until you are fully on speed in anticipation. Always lead a high or fast: This is basically the opposite of the above. With a high ball, add your counter-correction early in anticipation of the ball coming down. Same for correcting from a fast back to on-speed. When low and slow – Fix the low, then the slow: If you find yourself in the combined condition of simultaneously low AND slow, the priority is to fix the low before fixing the slow. Get the ball above the datums, then accelerate to on-speed. When high and fast – Fix the fast, then the high: Opposite of above. In this combined condition, fixing the fast gets the priority over fixing the glideslope. Never re-center a high ball in close, but stop the rising ball: This is IMO the one that needs the most emphasis. Note the words "in close" in there. That refers to the in-close position, which is a few seconds prior to crossing the stern of the ship. At this point, if the ball is high, do not try to get it back to center! You will scare yourself, and paddles, and either earn a no-grade, or worse, a waveoff. Reduce power such that you stop the ball from rising any further. However, TOO MANY people are so focused on trying to get the ball back to center. The IRL expression that is famous in Naval Aviation is "take your bolter like a man." If the ball is high while you're in-close, it is FAR better to bolter, than to make a large power-off correction to try to salvage it. Paddles will be much angrier if you try to recenter the ball to avoid a bolter. I cannot emphasize this enough: boltering is vastly preferable to catching a wire if catching a wire means making a big play for the ramp. Fly the ball all the way to touchdown: The difference between a 3 wire and something else is often due to a pilot "giving up" in the last two seconds of the pass. This rule to live by is self-explanatory: Fly the ball. ALL THE WAY. To touchdown. There is still more ball flying to be done in the last moments prior to trap. If you just make that last little correction, you can end up with a better pass. Do not give up. Ball flying does not stop until you are literally weight on wheels. Some additional points: -Paddles' voice overrides what you see on the IFLOLS. -Paddles' commands must be followed without delay. -Paddles NEVER grades the wire you catch. This is one of the largest misconceptions in the DCS community. There are PLENTY of no-grade 3 wires, and PLENTY of OK 2 wires and 4 wires. A 3 wire doesn't mean squat if you had to BFM your way into that wire. Nobody will be impressed with it, least of all Paddles. The entire pass is graded as a whole, not merely the wire. I have seen some really beautiful 2 wire passes. Grades: -Underline OK: 5.0 (awarded ONLY for good passes under emergency conditions, or a pilot's final pass of his tour or career) -OK: 4.0 -Fair: 3.0 -Bolter: 2.5** -No-Grade: 2.0 -No-Grade Bolter: 2.0 (a bolter that was ugly enough to be a no-grade).** -Pattern Waveoff: 2.0** -Technique Waveoff: 1.0** -Cut Pass: 0.0 -No Count: No points/Neutral -Foul Deck Waveoff: No Points/Neutral **Grades with the double asterisk count against boarding rate percentage. While I said that Paddles does not grade the wire, it is very very very very likely that if you catch the 1 wire under normal conditions, it will be a No-Grade. Being that low at the ramp is an excessive deviation. What is significant about this, is that a bolter is worth 2.5, and a No-Grade is worth 2.0. This goes back to that super important rule to live by: Never re-center a high ball in close, but stop the rising ball. Hence, the grades incentivize taking a bolter rather than snagging a 1 wire, as a bolter is safer than a 1-wire. If you haven't noticed yet, 1 wires are very frowned upon. Of course there is MUCH MUCH more to carrier aviation than this, and this is the tip of the iceberg of the academics that pilots receive IRL. I hope that this information finds you well in the shiny new Super Carrier. If you choose to ignore all this, that's fine too! It is a game. But if you want to do what the real guys do, adhering to all this is a good start. See you out there. Be the ball!

What you quoted from me, was me describing holding in Case 3, NOT Case 1. It sounds like now you’re talking about Case 1, which does have the 5 mile diameter and the ship at “3 o’clock”

There is no well defined numbers or techniques. It is “make it happen.” Remember that line from top gun: “do some of that pilot $h!t”? That’s it. Play out the turn, play out the pull, play out the speed, play out the distance you break at. *Make it happen.*

They talk only if required. They don’t make pointless calls like “you’re on glideslope” or “you’re a little high” unless they are specifically doing a paddle talk down. Those calls would be distracting and obvious, and don’t represent a dangerous situation either. 90% of the time the only calls made will he lineup calls, or power calls when the pilot is sufficiently underpowered or low or slow or a combination of the above. Under normal conditions, the LSO doesn’t say much.

CATCC will sequence you in. They’ve been doing this for decades and have tons of procedures, experience, and corporate knowledge on this. This is one of the big reasons the marshal radial is offset from the final bearing. The dogleg allows controllers to use geometry to build or reduce spacing. CATCC also can tell an aircraft to “take speed 225” or to “dirty up” sooner than 8 miles, or provide vectors, or a number of things. There’s much more to a Case 3 recovery than simply the approach procedure. There’s all kinds of scenarios to account for. Bolter/Waveoff, an emergency inbound being dropped off by a wingman on the ball, somebody being sent to the tanker, etc. You gotta have more procedures than just the approach, and those procedures exist.

Yes this particular technique uses a racetrack. But remember, it is technique. You can do figure 8s out there and nobody would care (and it would be legal), so long as your stayed on your altitude.

Yeah. One of my old skippers swore by that and encouraged its use. Got a firm “nope” from me.