Originally Posted by
SpazSinbad
Another tall tale but true from the legendary past about operating in HORRIBLE conditions. PDF attached has full story.
F-14 Tomcat: Tales from the cockpit-50th Anniversary [Tomcat] Edition
“Kevin Sullivan is an F-14 pilot who chased North Korean MiG-21s, served as a TOPGUN instructor and flew Mirage IIIO(A)s with the Royal Australian Air Force…. ...Some days, the ship took green water over the bow, a sure indication of 60ft plus seas. It was extreme weather with 50 knots of wind. Kevin said flight operations continued in quite significant sea states, but flight ops would cease when the ship was taking water over the bow. In heavy sea states, the catapuIt officer visually gauged the deck going up and down. He shot an aircraft off as the deck was going down so the jet shot off the end as the bow came back up. Kevin said: “As you’re going down the catapult stroke, the bow is pointing at the ocean. There’s ocean right in front of you. No matter how many times you experienced it, it never became routine!’..."
Straying off topic a little - Kevin Sullivan was the captain of QF72 - the A330 uncommanded pitchdown incident a number of years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qantas_Flight_72