Aim,
I've witnessed a few FAA pilots who've f*cked it up too but that's not the point; Carrier aviation is, without doubt, a challenging and dangerous environment and as you well know can quickly degrade into the latter at the most inopportune times. RAF and FAA guys that I've witnessed aboard HMS's finest over the past 10 years have invariably acted professionally, approached CVS Ops with due diligence, caution and respect and have therefore built up a good deal of experience of operating STOVL at sea. Mistakes have been made, fortunately not often catastrophic and fortunately have been learned from.
As for Dave, a computer isn't going to save you when the OOW has sailed into a fog bank, you've dumped down to hover weight and don't have the fuel to divert. Experience will....
Confuses me this does....
Dave is the CV variant, not STOVL so references to hover weight and lack of fuel (c.19,500lb total internal fuel) are moot, to a point anyway. By the time CV Dave operates from QE Class we'll have Ship JPALS with autoland (a la ACLS), hands-off to the deck so again, your fog bank argument is being dealt with for the future.
Corporate conventional carrier ops are something only a select few in British Defence have any experience with. I'd wager that the most experienced CATOBAR operators are currently in the RAF (via exchanges on Hornet, Super H and Tomcat) IMHO. In x years time when the MoD are learning how to project Carrier Strike, most, if not all, will be starting from a basic level and working up as safely as possible. In the meantime the RN will operate at sea without any FW until around 2020.
