Carrier-based naval aviation term "Clara"
I am discouraged to hear Schiller's and 4Greens' reply that you are not familiar with this term. If it is, indeed, a USN derivation, then it seems to have been lost in obscurity as I have communicated with our USN School of LSO Training and some of our US naval aviation historians to no avail. As a USN A-7 Corsair II driver during Vietnam, we flew the UK-invented Fresnel Lens system. Our prescribed call to the LSO consisted, in this order, of 1.) the side number of your aircraft 2.) confirmation that you had the meatball in sight and 3.) your fuel state in hundreds of pounds. Example: "305, Ball, two one", meaning that aircraft 305's pilot had a visual on the ball with a fuel state of twenty-one hundreds pounds. The LSO would answer: "Roger, Ball". If the pilot could not see the meat ball, typically on a dark, rainy night, then when being passed off by the ship's approach control, the ball call to the LSO would be, "305, Clara, two one". You mentioned the call "Sight, Four Greens" - this is completely foreign to me. We had the horizontal row of green datum lights to reference high or low with the orange-colored meatball, but I don't understand the "four greens" call. Can you explain, please, via this medium? Is Captain Eric Brown alive and well, by the way? /charliemack