With the news that the USS George H. W. Bush is being sent to the Persian Gulf to monitor the Iraq crisis, I thought this video from her flight deck of a pre-flight check of an F/A-18 Hornet might be of interest. It's shot from a helmet camera worn by one of the deck crew, and gives an interesting up-close-and-personal perspective on the jobs that have to be done when the plane comes up to the catapult prior to launch. I recommend watching it in full-screen mode - with the volume turned down.
Noisy places, carrier flight decks, aren't they?
Peter
3 comments:
I was deployed to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1993, and I got the opportunity to take a tour of the USS Nimitz, on station in the Persian Gulf.
We flew from Riyadh on a C-2 Greyhound and trapped on the carrier, and then got a 4-hour tour of the ship, including a lot of time learning about flight ops.
It is something to see. During flight ops, the deck is truly an intricately choreographed ballet, where a missed step can mean serious injury, equipment damage, or death.
This old Army guy got a whole new understanding of what our interservice rivals do for a living, and a healthy dose of respect went with me.
Then there was the cat shot off the deck to fly back to Riyadh...whoo hoo!
This was a nice day to go flying.
Consider doing that job, at night, in a sea state of 4 or so. Naval flight operations are a thing to behold.
You get sent off the deck by a group of people but you return basically by your own hand...
Oh, and don't turn down your speakers.... :)
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