Landing on an aircraft carrier if the engine quits!

[Jinkster]

I havent done it before, has anyone?

What would the consequences be if you were say flying across the English channel, the engine quits in a single and the Ark Royal is down below?

Just interested!

:rolleyes:

[wingandaprayer]

I think I would prefer to ditch some way ahead of them and let them come and get me. In this day and age, you'd probably do a perfect approach, think your troubles are over, and then get shot down !!

Besides, after you had done your Blue Peter presenter bit and made an arrester hook out of bits in the cockpit. You would then have to do your Milk Tray man bit and slide down the tail to fix it with sticky backed plastic. :D

WaaP

[smallpilot]

The odds of the Ark Royal 'Just happenning to be there' are infinately longer than the odds of the engine quitting i think!;)

[Microheavy]

Go back to bed ;)

[Evo]

In this day and age, you'd probably do a perfect approach, think your troubles are over, and then get shot down !!

In this day and age I believe it's an honour system - the sailors have to shout BANG at you, and you crash yourself. :rolleyes:

But you would have to be rather good at short-field landings to land a spamcan on the Ark Royal. I'd guess the landing distance isn't more than about 180 yards, so you would probably land, roll off the ski-jump, stall, splash ... and get run over by the ship. :ouch:

[bar shaker]

Having been unlucky enough to have an engine failure and then lucky enough to find an aircraft carrier below you, Sods 1st Law of Luck dictates that said carrier will be at full speed downwind.

[Rupert S]

Jinks and I were discussing this earlier. If the carrier's runway is about 260m long, that's just about long enough to perform a very short field landing in something like a PA28 or a 172. If the ship cruises at 30kts then that gives and approach ground speed of about 40 kts. The ship would probably be more than long enough at that speed, even if the ship was steered out of wind.

[FNG]

On another forum at present there is the usual intensely tedious discussion about flying over London and landing in the Thames, but someone has raised the idea of parking up on any handy aircraft carriers that happen to be in town. Nifty.

PS: Evo, the sailors aren't allowed to shout BANG anymore: breach of health and safety rules. They are allowed to say "bang", quietly.

[Rupert S]

FNG, i started that tedious thread :} :} :ok:

[FNG]

That's fine Rupert: anything to prevent another Rule 5 yawn-fest here for another few weeks.

[Jinkster]

All,

Blame Rupert, his fault :D

Good ideas all, keep 'em coming!

Jinkster

[wonko the sane]

"but someone has raised the idea of parking up on any handy aircraft carriers that happen to be in town. Nifty."

Well, that's the first time I've been cross posted to a whole other site!

[Fuji Abound]

http://www.epcn.co.uk/ja3495.jpg


Ha!

Fujis can

[Mike Cross]

I did meet someone who had landed an Auster on a carrier many years ago. Sadly it appears that lack of power could be a problem.

His technique was to fly at the same speed as the carrier and gradually descend until the mains touched, then hold it there with power until there were enough matelots holding it down so he could cut the power.

Might be easier with a trike where the AoA does not increase on landing.

Mike

[Send Clowns]

Smallpilot

In my experience not as long as you'd think. I have crossed the channel twice with one club member, in his aircraft, and both times we flew over an RN carrier. Strange coincidence? Watching us?

[Milt]

Landing Approach on Carrier

Back in the late 50s I had just released a full load of inert bombs from a Vulcan into Lyme Bay off S England. Release was above cloud.

Decided to have a look under cloud and surprise, surprise there was an aircraft carrier not far from where the bombs had gone.

Carrier had not been cleared into a restricted area.

A landing approach and low fly by seemed to be the best way to tell the Navy to get out of the area.

On a long final I began to see puffs of smoke coming from the carrier and it dawned on me that it was in the restricted area for gun firing practice.

Continued the approach and at about 1 mile the guns stopped.

Had the gear down and taking care not to put a wing tip through the island flew low over the deck pulling up steeply as throttles were slammed. Would have been awesome to anoyone on the deck.

Back to BD to have RAF heavies tear strips off the Navy for its unapproved entry to a restricted area.

Is there anyone out there who was on that carrier? What was the reaction on board?

[englishal]

I saw advertised an old carrier for sale (Canadian or something). Was up for around £3million. I thought it'd be a great idea to buy this thing, moor it up in the English channel, at least 12 miles offshore, sell duty free booze and fags, and have a good restaraunt on it. Could stick it at ORTAC or somewhere.....

[airborne_artist]

At least one Chipmunk from the RN flight at Roborough did a touch and go onto a de-commissioned carrier moored in Plymouth Sound, prob late 60s/early 70s - they put rolls of barbed wire on the deck after that....

[bar shaker]

Milt

I would expect that anyone on deck was blown in the drink by that move :}

Great story :)

bs

[MLS-12D]

Landing on an aircraft carrier if the engine quits! I haven't done it before, has anyone?It has been done at least once: you can read about it in the book Feet Wet: Reflections of a Carrier Pilot (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671735926/qid=1086989234/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-0498152-8455968?v=glance&s=books). BTW, thanks for clarifying that you haven't done it yourself (yet) ... I was momentarily confused.

What would the consequences be if you were say flying across the English channel, the engine quits in a single and the Ark Royal is down below?Or what if you were say flying along and a UFO appears ... who would have right-of-way (is Mars a party to the Chicago Convention?)? :rolleyes:

Really, this Ark Royal hypothetical is too silly to waste time over. :bored: But if a C-130 (http://www.cgaux.com/C-130carrierlanding.htm) can land on an aircraft carrier, I don't see why a small airplane couldn't, at least not if there was a lot of wind over the deck.

[whatunion]

Come on chaps everyone knows you cant land on an aircraft carrier without PPO.

Besides most light a/c pilots have problems landing on normal runways!

[MBX35]

In 1963 or 64 I landed an auster J1N from Portsmouth Flying Club on the USS Enterprise ( the big E Not Capt Kirk's Command) She was moored along side in Portsmouth dockyard at the time. It was not particularly challenging as she was "BIG" Seems like a long time ago now.

[TonyR]

A couple of years ago I was delivering a Tri Pacer from Shobdon to Belfast I saw the John F Kennedy heading for Dublin (looked big enough to land on).

The next day the new owner of the Tri Pacer went for his first flight and 10 min later had to make an emergency landing due to a cockpit fire.

I think a big flat chunk of steel would have had a visitor if it had happened to me, (although they would probibly have shot me down first)

Tony

[big.al]

I managed it once or twice - on Flight Sim. 2000....
But more often than not I've ended up short or run off the end.
Wouldn't like to try it for real in the C172.

[Miserlou]

Having found said carrier and found it to be steaming into wind, you may want to consider how the wind is coming over the bow and up and along the sides.

Call them first and ditch and they'll be there waiting for you. You may not even get your feet wet.

[Mariner9]

Not sure how easy it would be to call up a ship, and inform them you're about to ditch. Military vessels may well monitor 121.5, but merchant vessels do not.

How many ppl's here can remember the approved signals from a/c requiring assistance from ships? Dont remember ever learning them in groundschool, or seeing questions about the subject in air law. Whilst I did learn them for for my MN Officer qualifications, that was over 20 years ago, and my memory is certainly very hazy over the subject.

[david viewing]

Military vessels may well monitor 121.5, but merchant vessels do not.

Not so. I wouldn't rely on it, but the P&O Irish Sea ship where I blagged my way on to the bridge during a crossing from Dublin (apparently they thought I was the other sort of pilot!) certainly did monitor 121.5.

[Mariner9]

I'd put it the other way, certainly dont rely upon the fact that the ship WILL monitor 121.5, it is not required under marine GMDSS certified vessels (which is about 95% of the world's merchant fleet)

On the other hand, passenger ferries and cruise liners may monitor 121.5, but there is no statutory requirement to do so.