Not a Boffin,
I bow to your superior knowledge re. Skyhook, though I still think it had some very good elements.
If we were still operating SeaJets, I might put up more of an argument !
Heinz Frick has a very good sense of humour ( e-mail me and I can send a photo' to prove it ) but please don't call him Herr just because he has Swiss Ancestry.
I would reckon he's flown off a good few ships in his time, and if you remember the Lightning which is now gate guardian at Boscombe, he used that on his last day there for a low supersonic run, breaking windows all around; his boss saw the funny side, so just presented him with the repair bill !
When on early Harrier GR5 trials at West Freugh, we had a large pile of Mk82 inert bombs to get through; after weeks of being grounded, either by weather or snags reported from the AV-8B programme, Heinz finally did a few bombing runs, within sight of we groundcrew.
As he taxied back in, we stood in a row with number plates from the aircraft tugs and held them up as score-cards*, to which we received a vigorous V sign from the cockpit !(* my idea, but when Heinz asked later, a crawler from Flight Test claimed credit - good luck, J...).