Some rather good film of F/A 18's messing about at sea
 

Surprised by the lack of immersion suits or even gloves

https://www.youtube.com/embed/wfOD2y...layer_embedded

Ah, Ian Schmidt at work :ok:
https://www.youtube.com/user/CloudSu...uctions/videos

From the insignia on the aircraft and from the hull number on the carrier, these aircraft were assigned to Carrier Air Wing One and CVN-65, Enterprise. Enterprise deployed to the Med and the Persian Gulf on her last several deployments. Unlike the North Sea and North Atlantic where the Royal Navy predominantly operates, the air/water temperatures in those regions where Enterprise deployed do not require "immersion suits or even gloves."

I thought the gloves were for fire.

They'd have windproof matches in the survival kit for that, surely?

What REALLY annoys me is that those guys are PAID to do that!! :ok:

Gloves or not
 

Gloves are a personal choice when flying over water, i.e. off the ship. If you end up in the water, the gloves become very, very slick and are a definite threat to getting rid and away from the chute. The chute is the biggest threat out there.

Makes sense, thanks.

About what altitude are they making their passes abeam the carrier? I bet it would be a lot higher than it seems.

You really do get a sense of how small the boat looks to aviators who are about to land on it.

I can only imagine what a job it is to land on a carrier at those speeds at night in poor weather. Good filming.

A good hot pass involves the triple nickel:
500 knots
500 feet
.5 miles aft of the ship

Offiicially, NATOPS calls for 800 ft abeam the carrier on the upwind and 600 ft on the downwind, at 250 knots. And to starboard of the carrier. A hot pass is done to port (maximizes the eyeballs on your jet, which is kind of the point) and a hard turn and pull (about 6 g) to bleed off the airspeed with a slight climb to pattern altitude (600 ft) while dirtying up.

The passes seem to be level with the radars (looking at the horizon) which would make them in the 200-300 ft ball park. I'm not convinced they're all actually joining the pattern. (At least one is past a small boy)

The USN use a harness to clip into the seat. It would be very hard to free yourself from the Koch fittings with wet gloves on. It requires dexterity in the fingers, not just the hand like a British QRF.

Another great video here from the 2014 Hornet Ball


FNS