Hello all.
I think this is the 1st actual post I have made on PPrune, so please be gentle with this little civvie....
I would like to say that I am regularly in contact with Cdr Ward and in my dealings with him he has been a delight. Very helpful, polite and informative.
I think you will find that Cdr Ward has indeed visited some of the FAA guys in the US, as some of them served alongside his son Kris.
I recently wrote an article for Airforces Monthly with a lot of the current FAA chaps in the US. To the best of my knowledge there is now around 20 FAA aircrew serving within various USN squadrons and Carrier Air Wings.
There is now,
AFAIK, 3 FAA instructors permanently based at NAS Meridian, this where the UK pilots start their conversion to USN carrier-based aircraft.
I believe, from independent sources in the US, that the RAF 'Flyers' are somewhat lagging behind compared to the FAA chaps with regards to carrier-ops. For this I can only assume that the USN are looking towards the RN for their Carrier experience
I would like to just add that for anyone thinking that the RAF can easily undertake carrier ops, so negate the need for fixed-wing FAA, then I will say that they had better 'up their game' because if the RAFs performance in last years 'Cougar 12' exercise is a representation of how they will conduct 'Maritime' ops then we are in trouble......
Be gentle.....
Edit; actually this is my 3rd post......but still be gentle...