Flying
Flying
Landing on the ship during the daytime is like sex. It's either good or it's great. Landing on the ship at night is like a trip to the dentist. You may get away with no pain, but you just don't feel comfortable. LCDR Thomas Quinn, USN. The three best things in life are a good landing, a good orgasm, and a good crap. A night carrier landing is one of the few opportunities to experience all three at the same time. :D A checkride ought to be like a skirt; short enough to be interesting but still long enough to cover everything. Speed is life, altitude is life insurance. No one has ever collided with the sky. A "GOOD" landing is one from which you can walk away. But a "GREAT" landing is one after which you can use the airplane again. (Especially true at sea). It only takes two things to fly, airspeed and money. The similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots? If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies. If ATC screws up, the pilot dies. The difference between a duck and a co-pilot? The duck can fly. It's better to break ground and head into the wind than to break wind and head into the ground. The difference between flight attendants and jet engines is that the engine usually quits whining when it gets to the gate. If it's ugly, it's British; if it's weird, it's French. If it's ugly and weird, it's Russian. New FAA motto: We're not happy, till you're not happy. A copilot is a knothead until he spots opposite direction traffic at 12 o'clock, after which he's a goof-off for not seeing it sooner. Without ammunition the USAF would be just another expensive flying club. If something hasn't broken on your helicopter, it's about to. I'd give that landing a 9 . . . on the Richter scale, son. Basic Flying Rules: 1. Try to stay in the middle of the air. 2. Do not go near the edges of it. 3. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees and interstellar space. It is much more difficult to fly there. Unknown landing signal officer to carrier pilot after his 6th unsuccessful landing (bolter): You've got to land here, son. This is where the food is. |
I seem to rtemember a quote in a book from a USNavy pilot along the lines of
"Landing on a Carrier during the day is fun, we'd do it for free, but landing on a pitching deck at night during blue water ops is like Practicing bleeding" |
That's about it. I was in a Night/All WX Squadron flying F2H-3's, and it was hairy.
No mirror system, no huge stable supercarrier, just old Sam, the LSO, with a flight suit and paddles that were flashlight bulbs, powered by D-Cell batteries. Most of the time I had enough fuel for one wave-off and try again. We had only an ADF for navigation back to the ship, and the best navaid was the bright phosphorescent wake she made trying to get up to 32 kts. God be with the days! If I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't change a thing. |
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