FSDreamTeam forum
General Category => Unofficial F/A-18 Acceleration Pack board => Topic started by: GR27 on June 21, 2010, 06:42:56 pm
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Here's some footage taken via a helmet-mounted video camera worn by the pilot of a Navy T-45 jet trainer as it is catapulted from an aircraft carrier's deck and then circles around to land again on the carrier. This is called "taking a lap." This presentation is about a close as one can get to the real experience save for the acceleration and "g" loading experienced during the real experience.
A great "you are there" carrier flight-ops video 6 min. Don't forget to go full-screen.
Hope you all enjoy this!
http://vholdr.com/video/lap-around-boat
8)
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GR27, threads on this forum can get a lot of mixed info. This thread:
http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php?topic=3162.0
has the same video (from 'capthaltli')
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Sludge,
Great videos, am looking forward to more in the future!
Wanted to share this video I just saw, one of the best real world videos I've seen in a long time of a T-45 doing carrier ops.
http://acquiry.com/?p=359
Capt
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GR27, threads on this forum can get a lot of mixed info. This thread:
http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php?topic=3162.0
has the same video (from 'capthaltli')
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Sludge,
Great videos, am looking forward to more in the future!
Wanted to share this video I just saw, one of the best real world videos I've seen in a long time of a T-45 doing carrier ops.
http://acquiry.com/?p=359
Capt
You are right, my mistake, sorry.
;)
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GR27, No probs. It is a good video - shame we cannot see the ball/mirror on [edit: CARRIER] approach video though. I guess that is why the camera is placed on the other side of the helmet for the FCLP video:
GosHawk FCLP (this chap needs to swivel his head [lookout] a lot more IMHO):
"aeroeng7 — May 12, 2010 — Field Carrier Landing Practice in the T-45C Goshawk - Filmed with the VHoldR Contour HD Helmet Camera in 720p/32fps
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That is a great video, thanks, and i agree that it is a shame we cannot see the ball/mirror on approach, maybe next time.
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The actual size of this clip is 1280x720, pretty good for youtube, but it still needs some zooming to see the ball clearly. That guy was one ball high on approach, I guess...
And of course this is a great video, but it would be awesome to watch it in its unedited quality and resolution.
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/5320/t45fclpball.jpg (http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/5320/t45fclpball.jpg)
http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/1892/t45fclpball2.jpg (http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/1892/t45fclpball2.jpg)
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fsxnp, Sorry, I did not make it clear I was speaking about not being able to see 'the ball' on the carrier approach video. ::)
Edited to show intent - must have been too early in morning this morning....
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That video of the T-45 at Kingsville brings back memories of my IP days at Corpus Christi. We'd bounce at Orange Grove and Kingsville all the time. Never saw south Texas look that green.
Paco
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Just curious, when doing FCLP, how the LSO grades pilot's passes? There are no wires. What is an OK pass criteria?
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I'm not an LSO nor have I been trained as one but I have 'suffered' under the LSO regime. ;D ::)
FCLP has crucial differences that are likely explained before the sortie. Probably there are subtle differences for each aircraft type. However they are done to best replicate a carrier landing as conditions at the airfield allow. Initially the first few sorties (probably half a dozen approaches per sortie) are done during the day to familiarise the new pilot. Now I have not been in the USN training system which of course introduces the new pilot to carrier landings early but having been in the RAN Fleet Air Arm trained initially with the RAAF (Air Force) I got to carrier landings late and only with the A4G - so bear with me. OK?
Anyway after demonstrating competence at day FCLP the newbie then goes through a series of back to back night FCLP preferably two sorties per night to really get some practice / continuity with a long debrief after each sortie or at end of both. Also the LSO might say some pertinent things when aircraft is downwind if needed.
The A4G in the RAN required about 100 FCLP landings before going to the carrier, most of these are done at night. The airfield was completely blacked out except for the temporary portable limpet lights defining the carrier landing area. This temporary light set up was in the landing zone in the left lane of the runway provided by the mirror. [FSXNP 'screenshot JPGs above clearly show this setup.] In the case of NAS Nowra replicating HMAS Melbourne this was a very small size indeed. The implications are not known until the new pilot sees the carrier for the first time on his way to landing on it for the first time. ;D All the pilot can see is this dimly lit landing area and when on finals the mirror. Nothing else matters. It is dark. Just like it is dark at the ship at night but for FCLP purposes this concentration is great training for the only thing that matters. Meatball, Line Up and Airspeed (Optimum Angle of Attack).
Yes there are artificial circuit height restrictions for night flying and 35 years ago there were no precision approach instruments for night deck landing but ashore doing night FCLP the conditions were adequate for day deck landing on the carrier - if that all makes sense?
Having demonstrated competence over the night FCLP sessions the newbie goes to the carrier in the daytime for at least two touch and goes on the carrier before being asked to put the hook down. Often this may happen only on the second sortie for various reasons (ship availability / sea conditions / whatever). However for an RAN pilot this is a big day because the pilot wings are only confirmed after the first arrest and catapult. Until then the wings are provisional only. The first arrest and cat is a big deal in many ways.
Why all this explanation? FCLP is serious work. Mess up FCLP and you will not go to the carrier. As simple as that. The LSO makes allowances for whatever the conditions are for the mirror setup (he can check the glideslope angle and make adjustments for a strong wind on the night for example) but otherwise he uses his knowledge and experience to grade the pass - just like he would at any other time either ashore or afloat.
Yes there are no wires so the approach itself is graded being the most important aspect. There are subtleties about runway approaches compared to carrier approaches that would vary from aircraft type to type, so notating a wire is sort of irrelevant for FCLP anyway as it was practiced for the A4G (I can't comment on USN). Believe me, doing initial FCLP at night the approaches are all over the place with major errors that need to be refined so that they become minor deviations to be acceptable. No need to worry about 'wires'.
"OK Pass" has a clearly defined criteria as have the other grades. The LSO manual has these along with the symbols or shorthand used for LSO notation recording the pass (usually written by the LSO helper in the LSO logbook). This is the record for the debrief afterwards. No need to argue with the LSO unless he has your side number incorrect. Otherwise what is in that book is what happened. ;D
The graphic shows only the 'LSO pass score' record notation - already we can see that there is an everyday OK pass but there is also the mythical PERFECT PASS where OK is underlined. Good luck with scoring that one. ;D
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As fate will have it there is an RAN FAA LSO logbook PDF from 1980 at 43Mbs online for download at:
http://www.filefront.com/6895657/805LSOlog1980context.pdf/ (43Mbs) "805LSOlog1980context.pdf"
(left click on the above link to go to the download page first)
There are any number of various graded passes to HMAS Melbourne plus some FCLP (or MADDLS as they were formerly called in RAN "Mirror Assisted Dummy Deck Landings"). There is a 'mythical perfect OK pass' recorded in this logbook also - carried out by the very first RAN LSO who after 12 years could do such a thing. He is the 'SP' which in the RAN FAA means "Senior Pilot" (same as the XO in USN 'Executive Officer or Second in Command of the Squadron [CO]).
Also you will see some passes recorded made by the current CAF of the RAAF (Chief of Air Force) AM Mark Binskin, who at that time was a Midshipman A4G pilot who transferred to the RAAF when the 'fixed wing folded' in 1984. In the FCLP pages (towards the back of the PDF) you will see that 'wires' not recorded.
'Stumpf' on the LSO page is the USN Exchange pilot who went on to become the Blue Angels Leader with Hornets.
Same PDF example (with fewer extraneous pages probably) can be found here also:
http://www.a4ghistory.com/VF-805-LSO-log-Early1980pp66.pdf (38Mb)
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Screenshot from Utube video below shows A4G pilot view of HMAS Melbourne. The pilot is NOT going to land but is only pretending to approach for filming purposes. As you can see the deck is foul, with a tractor (or film crew filming the A4G approaching) in the landing area with an A4G on the catapult (which also means deck is foul because the landing foul line goes over the cat track). "Patrol Boat" was a TV series about the RAN Patrol Boats at that time (as a TV non-reality drama) in the late 1970s when this film was made for a segment about the carrier and aircraft: [BTW the pilot seen here (in the video) is an actor in 'Patrol Boat' saying a scripted line to the plane captain. "Fish head" is a well accepted [humourous] term for the ordinary Navy (RAN) personnel used by the 'Birdies' and vice versa.]
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l261/SpazSinbad/A4GpilotViewHMASmelbourne.jpg (http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l261/SpazSinbad/A4GpilotViewHMASmelbourne.jpg)
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Spaz, brilliant video! 8)
I love that "How can you guys land on that mini-ship..." ;D BTW, was it a standard procedure in a Skyhawk to deploy speedbrakes when coming aboard?
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fsxnp, The 'around the boat' video has caught on. Go here for comments by USN peoples. :D Here is one comment (whether or not 'Comjam' is an LSO I don't know) and I would dispute that anyone could get a good idea of the approach in that video for various reasons explained.... Anyway here is 'the LSO' comments from that other 'NeptunusLex' website:
http://www.neptunuslex.com/2010/06/25/tracom-cq/
Comjam: "TWA(may be camera parallax) LIG LURAW CBAR (OK) But who cares, the young ‘un made it!"
Spaz: "TWA=Too Wide Abeam; LIG=Long In the Groove; LURAW=Lined Up Right All the Way; CBAR=Coming Back to line up At the Ramp; (OK)=Fair [Grade] Reasonable Deviations - YMMV (YourMileageMayVary)"
Comjam: "…and, I might add, just about the most fun anyone can have with their clothes on. During the day."
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In the olden tymes when speedbrakes were speedbrakes (separate bits of metal for the use of) they were deployed as SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). The reason being that the extra slight drag at landing airspeed allowed the engine to be at a higher RPM for Optimum Angle of Attack. This allowed a better engine response for carrier landing. Jet engines have a spool up time that was much longer in the days before sophisticated engine control. Any adverse effects such as the slight amount of extra fuel used were negligible. Also note that the speedbrakes are retracted when engine goes to full power during arrest/bolter. This would seemingly give a better aircraft response overall during a bolter/waveoff for example.
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The reason being that the extra slight drag at landing airspeed allowed the engine to be at a higher RPM for Optimum Angle of Attack. This allowed a better engine response for carrier landing. Jet engines have a spool up time that was much longer in the days before sophisticated engine control.
Yeah, the old A6's were the same, Spaz. The principle works quite well in FSX too for a few planes!!
Question: Is use of speedbrakes in the approach a "no-no" nowadays for planes such as the Hornet?
Great videos, BTW!
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Voodoo, The answer about the Legacy Hornet (answered in at least one other thread on this forum) is that it does not use the speedbrake for landings because turbulence from it interferes with tailplane/rudders and aircraft control. When wheels go down the speedbrake is automatically retracted. One of those things, however pilot is supposed to check (I'll assume) that S/B is in - just in case. In FSX I like to have the S/B out because that is who I am. ;D A rebel without a cause. BoomBoom.
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fsxnp asked about FCLP (I'll get some more info on that later) here is a story about Goshawk T-45C carrier quals:
First trap: All alone March 19th, 2010 | Photography | Posted by Erik Hildebrandt
http://militarytimes.com/blogs/navygold/?s=catapult
"The biggest events of our lives are celebrated and shared with friends and family.
For most of us, having a child, getting married or graduating from school ranks among our top achievements. For young ensigns, the day of days is universally etched into your psyche the first time you look down over the nose and see the outline of the carrier you are about to land on. And so it was a few weeks ago, off the coast of Florida, for the latest students from Training Wing Two, based at Kingsville, Texas, and Training Wing One in Meridian, Miss.
On a spectacular Sunday morning, I rode along in the back seat of a nearly new Boeing T-45C with Cmdr. Gerald “Sticky” Murphy, skipper of VT-22. He was leading a division (4-ship) formation made up of three students who were going to the boat for the first time in hopes of earning their initial CQ (carrier qualification). Besides leading the students out to the carrier 80 miles off the Jacksonville coast, Sticky would serve as safety lead, orbiting overhead to make sure students kept safe intervals and hit the proper pattern landmarks around the boat. As flight lead, we were the first plane that Boss cleared down for a “trap,” so that we could get a full bag of gas and launch right away to cover the students.
As a photographer, I was trying to capture the decisive “moments” that would illustrate the magnitude of such an accomplishment by these “kids,” but what I ended up realizing is that this entire evolution is one of the loneliest tests of individual skill I have ever observed. Each student is flying solo. After three touch-and-go passes at the carrier, they lower the hook and start the process of making 10 arrested landings, each trap followed by their first catapult launch back into the pattern. Even by the standards of seasoned carrier pilots, the concentration of sensory, physical and mental requirements is borderline overwhelming. For these first-timers, the stressors and demands are unprecedented.
As Sticky and I orbited overhead watching the students struggle with the “ball,” the pitching deck, the “burble” and the comms, it became more and more obvious to me just how alone it must feel for these students flying by themselves around the carrier with less than 200 hours total time as pilots. After almost an hour overhead, we hit our Bingo fuel state and headed back to the beach, alone, just like the students would as their own fuel was spent in the pattern. We entered the break back at Cecil Field, alone, and taxied back to the line, shut down and then walked back to the ready room, alone.
One by one, the students from our flight and the multitude of other flights that day trickled back to the field. Some had done well, others did not do well at all.
Regardless of how they did at the boat, none of them was met by friends or family, or even by instructors or fellow students. They simply came back to the field and logged their flight time and number of traps with the duty desk as if it were just another day. But as everyone who has been to the boat, entered the break and slammed onto the deck in the controlled crash that is an arrested landing knows, it is not just a normal day.
These students are no longer just normal pilots, they are Tailhookers in the U.S. Navy."
http://militarytimes.com/blogs/navygold/files/2010/03/EHS0737.jpg
(http://militarytimes.com/blogs/navygold/files/2010/03/EHS0737.jpg)
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CQ! (T-45C)
http://nateb.blogspot.com/2009/06/cq.html
"...started gearing up to land on the carrier for the first time. After two solid weeks of touch-and-gos at home field practicing carrier style landings, on June 8th I did the real thing. I took off solo from Cecil Airport outside of Jacksonville,FL and trailed an instructor out the the "boat". After two touch and gos through the landing area (or "LA" in aviator parlance) I trapped on board the CVN 77, USS George HW Bush the Navy's newest aircraft carrier.
The first trap itself felt a little like a car crash. It was much more violent than I expected. Me and my little 12,000-lb airplane were hauled to a stop from 140 mph in about two seconds. The first cat shot was even more intense. In order to launch from a carrier, you taxi onto a steam catapult. A small fitting called a shuttle hooks onto your nose landing gear. An enlisted man on the flight deck tells you to run your engine to full power, then the catapult flings your airplane off the bow of the ship, accelerating you from 0 to 150mph in about a second and a half.
Its the ride of your life."