You know, when you first come aboard, even after all the shoreside indoc and training, the one thing that is stressed over and over was that everyone had a job to do, and if you are not actually doing it, STAY OUT OF THE WAY. That meant stay away from the deck. The one exception was the FOD walk. Everyone was invited. Is why whenever you see those pics, there are lots of colored shirts, and a few officers as well. Shoulder to shoulder. The deck cams were piped into the mess and wardrooms as well as the briefing rooms. You always had an idea of what was happening on deck. Then there was the widows' walk. If you had big brass ones, you could brave that as long as you dared. I never got comfortable under the path. I'd lurk on the railside. Even that was unnerving, seeing how close everything was. 'On the ball', you'd know it was OK, but standing there for any length of time would take that resolve and weaken it. Most guys didn't go back after their first experience.

There was a symphony in progress whenever you'd come up the elevator and mount up. Everything timed for you to be on the cat at the first moment it was available, and timed to put you on a hose once airbourne, and on time to take your station as the guy you are replacing made bingo fuel. His arrival perfectly choreographed with a deck configured for recovery, and exactly as a space opened up in the hangar. In between all the other traffic coming and going. Everything you did was recorded and judged, reviewed and critiqued. I was never better. If I'd known how quickly it all would pass, and how lucky I was to have done it, I'd have spent more time appreciating it then.

What did I know, I was a kid.

Twelve years ago,I built and still fly a Minimax ultralight. It is alot of fun if you do not need to travel too far. Some of the early 80's style "flying lawn chairs" were of poor design. Later more current designs are typically much safer as they more closely resemble airplanes instead of hang-gliders with chain saw engines cobbed onto them.

My Brother flew off of the USS Oriskany, and his feelings are much the same. The whole ship works as a team and after being with a organization like that, most anything else is just not the same.

Joe A

Absolutely! That was the fun of it. :D Spent quite a bit of time on the Nimitz...working the flightdeck was the highlight of EVERY day. As I stated in another post...working the port-side bow cat was the best (ot worst, depending on your point of view) If there were flight ops launching off the waist cats at the same time, you really had to keep your head about you. Depending on which cat was launching at a given moment, the safety zone kept moving back and forth...one mis-step and you were sure to lose your head...literally! :eek:

Next to that, the second most exhillerating place during flight ops was on the fantail, during recoveries. Even though it was technically UA, a few of us would hang out there if we weren't busy elsewhere. Sitting on the railing, facing forward, we would catch our legs through the rails and lean back, watching as the aircraft were landing, a mere 40 feet or so above us. WHAT A RUSH!!! LOL

Randy

Bunch of jet pukes;)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1138315138.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1138315191.jpg

Ejections are for pu$$ies...real men stay along for the ride!:cool:

I'm civilian contractor scum - did a week at sea on the USS Reagan a couple months back. Cool part was the COD on and off...8 of the contractor scum passengers (luckily not me) were barfing their brains out air sick going in but the departing shot off the deck made it all worthwhile
:D

Hurm...getting a CGI error on pictures with Firefox and IE. Will try pics again later.

My company repairs aircraft components for the military.

I got the opportunity to go aboard the Roosevelt a few years ago, but it was docked at NAS Norfolk and there wasn't a damn thing going on. :(

One of the repair contracts we used to have was overhaul of the air2air refuelling booms off the nose of the xH-53 helos. You may enjoy THIS video that shows one such boom in use.



Titanium slices everything...

Seahawk,

Sometimes it does not turn out so nice...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1138350519.jpg

He's looking at it like he may be the one who broke it....

Ok here are the pictures -

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1138382680.jpg

Man this blows - I still get the CGI error on picture upload. I've shrunk the pics to 120kb or less and still no love...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1138350519.jpg

CAPTION: How am I gonna explain this to the Captain?

:D

The 'flattened' aircraft in Bosnia look more like a MiG 29...

As for the canopy don't forget those that use an MDC, minature detonation cord within the canopy polycarbonate...see T-45A Goshawk and the AV-8B..plus Tornado, Jaguar, Typhoon.....basically the European aircraft.

Its part of the crew escape system...the cord explodes first and shatters the canopy so that when the first stage rocket fires the seat doesn't have to pierce the polyc......

Same ideas, different approaches.

The two MiG 29s coliding were at RIAT at RAF Fairford...I was down the flight line.... lots of noise and action that day...

yet i would glady take that ride, willingly in return for a cat launch and say 2hours free time on an f-14

i've taken wild rides before, can't be that bad..
and if it's lethal , hell, what a way to go.

Needless to say the FD was very loud, even with the foam ear plugs.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1138397596.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1138397614.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1138397624.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1138397633.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1138397641.jpg

This was my ride in/out -

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1138397862.jpg

Well, there's always a PARTIAL ejection. Now this does not look even a little bit fun! :eek:

Randy

Joe, Sing, have either of you ever heard of Pardo's Push?

I saw a painting depicting this story several years ago. Simply amazing!!!!!

Randy