How to land on an aircraft carrier ?
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A couple of the Auster books have pictures on at least one carrier.
Given the forthcoming budget cuts the Navy might even welcome some practice! Mind you given the difficulties they present to flying into an ordinary runway I suspect it could never happen these days - but no reason why it couldn't given less 'elfin safety nonsense.
Mind you Genghis has a point - and actually this link http://www.afrl.hpc.mil/aboutus/success/ShipAirwake.pdf gives a good visualisation of the wake aspects - made me very interested in landing on a carrier as well!
Given the forthcoming budget cuts the Navy might even welcome some practice! Mind you given the difficulties they present to flying into an ordinary runway I suspect it could never happen these days - but no reason why it couldn't given less 'elfin safety nonsense.
Mind you Genghis has a point - and actually this link http://www.afrl.hpc.mil/aboutus/success/ShipAirwake.pdf gives a good visualisation of the wake aspects - made me very interested in landing on a carrier as well!
Unless there is a really good PR opportunity or some possible benefit of a demonstration to, for instance, special forces, of something that hasn't been done before, I would have thought the chances of getting permission for a landing on an in-service carrier are very slim. If you can find a carrier that has been withdrawn from service and you can satisfy the owner that you won't sue him when it all goes horribly wrong, then you might have a bit more chance.
I can remember seeing either Bulwark or Ark Royal moored in a Scottish Loch awaiting the scrapman's torch some years ago, so after the SDSR there might be one or two becoming available for your plans. A recce first would be a good idea, as FOD on the deck or a lift a few inches lower than it should be, could mess up your day.
The Americans have at least one carrier (Forrestal) waiting to become an artificial reef, but getting permission would be a case of hard work, patience and knowing the right people, and that's if its even got a complete, unobstructed deck.
With a moored carrier you have the added fun of wind direction, which could be from anywhere. Try doing some approaches to a hilltop airfield (e.g. Compton Abbas or Nympsfield) in turbulent conditions and see if you still want to have a go at it. I've seen a glider doing a 70 knot approach which dropped a wing 45° on the way in to the latter. Fortunately the pilot recovered it.
I can remember seeing either Bulwark or Ark Royal moored in a Scottish Loch awaiting the scrapman's torch some years ago, so after the SDSR there might be one or two becoming available for your plans. A recce first would be a good idea, as FOD on the deck or a lift a few inches lower than it should be, could mess up your day.
The Americans have at least one carrier (Forrestal) waiting to become an artificial reef, but getting permission would be a case of hard work, patience and knowing the right people, and that's if its even got a complete, unobstructed deck.
With a moored carrier you have the added fun of wind direction, which could be from anywhere. Try doing some approaches to a hilltop airfield (e.g. Compton Abbas or Nympsfield) in turbulent conditions and see if you still want to have a go at it. I've seen a glider doing a 70 knot approach which dropped a wing 45° on the way in to the latter. Fortunately the pilot recovered it.
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There are some basic simulators on the Midway (San Diego) that are supposed to simulate an F4 landing on a carrier - quite fun.
Otherwise, if you know the dimensions of the carrier deck, there's nothing to stop you from landing within that space and letting your imagination take care of the rest (at least the imaginary damage will be easier to fix).
Otherwise, if you know the dimensions of the carrier deck, there's nothing to stop you from landing within that space and letting your imagination take care of the rest (at least the imaginary damage will be easier to fix).
Some airfields have 'dummy landing decks' designed to simulate landing on a confined deck. RM Condor for one. Not quite the same without a pitching and rolling deck, at night in lashing rain though!
Back in the 70s, a US aviation mag had an article written by a spamcan driver doing a touch and go on a decommissioned carrier that was under tow several miles offshore.
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In the late 60's, when HMS Eagle was moored in Plymouth awaiting conversion into razor blades, the Chipmunks from Roborough could occasionally be seen carrying out touch-and-goes. It was not long before Britannia Flight were made aware of Flag Officer Plymouth's displeasure and wires were strung across Eagle's flight deck to prevent the practice. Of course this is all hearsay, I never tried it myself
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Have to say it's one of my favourite things to do in a flight sim. Most fun has been the WW2 simulator IL-2 Pacific Fighters. Obviously not real, but the challenges are there, especially if you do it properly; it's almost blind as you bring your Corsair or Wildcat on a curving final approach with the nose high and obscuring your view of the deck.
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757-200 on a U.S. size carrier in the sim. Come in right above stall speed. Sometimes you can stop, sometimes you do a touch and go. Yeah....the engine spool time is scary on the touch and go. 
On April 29, 1975, South Vietnamese Air Force Major Bung-Ly made the decision to load his family -- his wife and five children -- into a small two-seat Cessna O-1 Bird Dog airplane. Bung-Ly took off from Saigon and made it out to sea, where he looked for a ship to land on and spotted the USS Midway. Without any radio communications, Captain Lawrence Chambers made the decision to allow Ly to land on the flight deck, even though the plane had no tail hook and it was an extremely risky landing. USS Midway Air Boss Vern Jumper remembers the story.
USS Midway Air Boss Remembers Heroic Bird Dog Airplane Rescue | KPBS.org
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1989, Flight from HMS Illustrious
Pilot: Dave Garrison (GBR)
Aircraft: Pegasus Q 462.
First (and perhaps only?) takeoff and landing by a microlight on an aircraft carrier, in the Atlantic ocean, some one hundred miles off Florida, USA.
Pilot: Dave Garrison (GBR)
Aircraft: Pegasus Q 462.
First (and perhaps only?) takeoff and landing by a microlight on an aircraft carrier, in the Atlantic ocean, some one hundred miles off Florida, USA.
IIRC there was a picture of himself and microlight on the deck of HMS Illustrious, hanging on his office wall.
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Apologies for bumping this old thread again. The past years I've been busy trying to realise some other crazy dream (http://www.pprune.org/private-flying...th-pole-4.html) , which brought me back to this one.
I don't seem to make any progress in getting permission to do this. Except for getting a negative reply from a US Navy Commander (yes yes, they did respond to my inquiry
), I don't seem to get any more information.
Hence my shameless bump. Maybe there are some new people active on Pprune that might be able to help...
I don't seem to make any progress in getting permission to do this. Except for getting a negative reply from a US Navy Commander (yes yes, they did respond to my inquiry
), I don't seem to get any more information.Hence my shameless bump. Maybe there are some new people active on Pprune that might be able to help...
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In his book "Think like a bird", Alex Kimbell describes a couple of visits to an aircraft carrier in his Beaver. Military protocols being what they are, no official records of these landings apparently exist. In one instance, he had difficulty getting in because of some kit on the flight deck.
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Yes there is somewhere where one can practice such landings - a runway - OK it's not pitching but if it was in the 172 it would smash the thing to bits assuming a short field landing technique of a firm landing, then heavy on the brakes as the flaps come up. It the deck chose to rise just as one was executing the firm landing the result would be pretty bad.
There's nothing to stop one practicing to land in ever shorter distances - the only thing is it is a bit fake - so try some very short farm strips (imagine the the usual trees near the runway are the ship's superstructure!)
In the UK a good place if one want the land then full power experience would be Nayland - I remember twenty years ago watching those who thought full power meant some power stopping and rolling down the hill - there was a tractor or a Land Rover to tow those planes to the top. Always up the slope to land and down the slope (or for some with more power off the flat section at the top over the void - a la "ski jump".
There's nothing to stop one practicing to land in ever shorter distances - the only thing is it is a bit fake - so try some very short farm strips (imagine the the usual trees near the runway are the ship's superstructure!)
In the UK a good place if one want the land then full power experience would be Nayland - I remember twenty years ago watching those who thought full power meant some power stopping and rolling down the hill - there was a tractor or a Land Rover to tow those planes to the top. Always up the slope to land and down the slope (or for some with more power off the flat section at the top over the void - a la "ski jump".
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spitfire
during the early, dark days of WW2, when england was about to lose MALTA. USS Wasp ferried a group of spitfires, they took off with drop tanks and went towards malta...one fellow dropped his tank early on and couldn't reach anywhere, so he came back and landed using virtually every foot of the deck (no hook). but he made it.
...
there are some third and 4th rate navies out there that might be looking for something to do with their marginal carriers...maybe you should try argentina or brazil.
about 25 years ago I landed on a simulator's carrier, in a metroliner...
BUT IN THE MEANTIME...go rent ''the bridges at toko ri''.
...
there are some third and 4th rate navies out there that might be looking for something to do with their marginal carriers...maybe you should try argentina or brazil.
about 25 years ago I landed on a simulator's carrier, in a metroliner...
BUT IN THE MEANTIME...go rent ''the bridges at toko ri''.
there are some third and 4th rate navies out there that might be looking for something to do with their marginal carriers...maybe you should try argentina or brazil.
Or the US might consider this as a fund raiser - say 5 carrier landings for sponsoring one ATC guy for a day.