Flying off the Deck

[FlightlessParrot]

4greens

Fitter two, on a carrier you do not flare to land. If you did you would miss the wires.

I rather think that's the point, though it's not immediately obvious: read the saying as: (If you) flare for landing, (then you must be a person who has to)...

Always ignored the ability and courage of female pilots, of course, and not sayable now (good thing). But it has an imagistic and rhetorical shapeliness.

[gpugh]

Hi my father has some interesting stories having flown in various Sea Fury and Sea Venom squadrons during the 1950's off Ocean, Vengence, Hermes and Bulwark and others I have missed

[sailor]

Donkey's Plonk

Hi John !

If you are still in touch with any of the guys you mentioned who were involved in the development and installation of that great bit of kit please pass on my heartfelt thanks to them. Reduced the sweat levels by half !

[Captain Dart]

I operated Grumman Trackers off Australia's HMAS Melbourne and she had what was called 'drop lights' over the stern to give some semblance of perspective with line-up (12 foot clearance between wingtip and island!).

I also remember references to 'Bedford Pattern' lighting; whether this referred to the drop lights or the whole flight deck illumination setup I can't recall.

Thank heaven for the LSO's, at night and in the middle of the Pacific I say! They were never short of a beer afterwards.

[Democritus]

Originally Posted by 4Greens

That guy had it easy. In the Vixen days there was no inflight refuelling and you couldn't land on with much fuel in the tropics as the wires couldn't take the weight.[

As an ex rotary wing pilot I hesitate to challenge the above but in 65/66 I know we had some Scimitar tankers on Ark Royal and they refuelled the Vixens. If memory serves me correctly, on 10 May 1966 when I and my crew picked up pilot Allan Tarver out of the sea off Beira when he ejected from his Vixen, sadly with the loss of his Observer John Stutchbury, to try and get the Vixen back to the ship there had been an unsuccessful attempt to refuel it from a Scimitar tanker to stem the fuel loss following the loss of one engine and damage to fuel systems of the other. Allan Tarver was awarded the George Medal for his efforts to save his Observer when his ejection seat malfunctioned after the aircraft ran out of fuel.

Edit: just found the citation in the London Gazette : http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/44096/pages/9491

[4Greens]

Good one on Allan Tarver. It was before the Scimitar tankers that the real problem existed.