CVN George Last Light Ops

[john (scooby)]

I'm surprised that I got a close as I did as I hadn't set the Tacan nor ILS for the landing. Didn't help that it was my first time on the SC and wasn't surecwhat I was looking for. I almost landed on the frigate behind the carrier!

Great fun though chaps.

in the dark (case 3) you dont do a circuit, its straight in

Well we all did a circuit. I couldn't see shit and had no ILS haha.

Dont panic I spoke to the lead tech this morning and they said that with new wing, engine and a shit load of T-cut with a bit of elbow grease, they will have your bird back up and running for another crash in no time!

Nice, those techs are awesome. I admire the chilled out deck crew who just stand around watching sunsets while a tomcat spews fire not 50ft away!

you need you ils or at the very least tacan and brc setup in the dark
that view would NEVER get old, i cant wait to do a night flight with you guys

[Mad dog]

In case 3, you must have your ILS up and running. There is not circuit around the boat for case 3 as it is a straight in using ILS. One of the calls from the boat is "Say needles", if you don't have your ILS up and running you cannot answer that question.

[Father Cool]

Yes I realise that. It was a very inpromptu session as I had just got my DCS up and running again. It all kind of took me by surprise! Haha

[john (scooby)]

Yes I realise that. It was a very inpromptu session as I had just got my DCS up and running again. It all kind of took me by surprise! Haha

deck crew had a surprise when you landed too mate

[Father Cool]

Haha I don't think it was bad to say I was basically in a black sack trying to see a light through the fabric weave! I got home what more can I say.

To be honest I was going call a wave off but I couldn't be arsed to go around again as it was late and I didn't really know the comms proceedure with the SC.

[john (scooby)]

Haha I don't think it was bad to say I was basically in a black sack trying to see a light through the fabric weave! I got home what more can I say.

To be honest I was going call a wave off but I couldn't be arsed to go around again as it was late and I didn't really know the comms proceedure with the SC.

it was good till then, should over flown the carrier and ejected onto the deck like a boss

[Father Cool]

Haha. That would have been epic.

[Mad dog]

So, while you are in the marshall stack you should have your CRS set to BRC. Once you commence/charlie, you set CRS to FB which is 10 degrees less than BRC, or whatever the boat tells you. You will make a straight in approach with your ILS on and will have to make a deviation to the right to line up with FB on the needles. You must be on FB with needles aligned by 12 miles from the boat. Rule of thumb is if the marshall stack is 10 degrees or less different to BRC you make slight corrections to get on FB, if it is more than 10 degrees, you fly a modified straight in with a cross wind turn and back to FB at 12 miles. I can show you all of this once we have got case 1 nailed and we move onto case 3 fellas.

[Father Cool]

Yes I need to learn all this buddy. I never do case 3's and when I do a case 1 it's more like yep that looks about right while I look out of the window at the boat!

[Mad dog]

Yes I need to learn all this buddy. I never do case 3's and when I do a case 1 it's more like yep that looks about right while I look out of the window at the boat!

Haha, yep, looking out the window and knowing the sight picture will do it, just not in a pretty way lol.

As for case 3, we'll get there. It's best to practice case 3 first few times during the day, move onto rubbish weather and then full night. Once you have done it a couple of times in the day, night is easy as you are head down anyway and trusting your instruments which I have to say, in the tomcat, are surprisingly good for that sort of thing.

As Dutch said, case 3 is easy in the Hornet, well, he's right, but a couple of things on your hud makes some small parts of it easier, prime example is in the stack you can accurately measure the time for each leg and the angle of bank to get it right in the turns, but that's about the only bit that is easier in the Hornet, the rest is as easy in the tomcat, those bits being the important bits of landing on the deck and not the shiny wet stuff.