Originally Posted by
weemonkey
"the fact that much of the testing for the “mode four” maneuver was done with planes that were lighter, as they weren’t armed with heavy stores of weaponry. "
I believe there was a large amount of crowing about the skips ability to return to deck with unexpended ordinance..
Yes. That's when SRVL (Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landing) would come into its own rather than a purely vertical landing. By the sound of it, this trial was conducted using the latter.