My dad was a Navy fighter pilot and used to say that these landings were like landing on a postage stamp in the middle of the ocean. Hats off to the amazing pilots
It’s honestly fascinating that we managed to not only build a machine that lets people fly but also launch and land said machine off the deck of a ship
The best of the best. I have a friend who is a retired Navy Driver and he completed 245 Night Time landings on a carrier. Before he retired he became a instructor at Miramar Ca..I work hard to land on the Piano keys on a dry 7,000 ft. Runway.
I’m amazed by how much you have to adjust the throttle up and down during landing. I have to do the same thing when landing the Hornet in DCS World simulator and I always thought it was because of a faulty flight model in the simulator, but after watching this video it seems like DCS got the flight model spot on for the F/A-18.
You never want to be pitching up and down wildly to correct your approach. You adjust your position above or below the glideslope by adding or removing power, not pitch.
@@AdmiralKarelia While this is true, you then in turn want to add a little pitch to keep your speed correct. Also, people who say you shouldn't even touch your pitch are dead wrong. You still need to make corrections to your pitch, but to intercept the approach, the throttle comes into play. That's my knowledge at least I'm just some guy that plays dcs.
I have a lot respect for skills of Navy pilots. I "tried" to land on IL 2 sturmovik game. It was just a game and plenty of room error. It was hard enough in the Game. Cant imagine to do that in Real life when there is no room for mistakes. Congratulations
Just managed to pull Case III recovery for the first time today in fog at night with F/A-18.. In DCS.. Huge respect for these pilots doing this perfectly IRL
Hello mate, this is Sergio, Aerospace engineer with this youtube channel where I talk about aerospace topics. Few weeks ago I was invited to the USS George H. W. Bush in order to watch by myself how you guys perform your takeoffs and landings. I am planning to create a video about how you guys land on the carrier and was thinking if I could use some piece of this video to represent with real footage what is going on during the descent. Of course would reference to this channel and put links in the description. Thanks mate
As a Pilot, its not the landing that freaks me out, its that parking right near the edge of the ship. Worry about the brakes fail in just those few secs and nose goes over!!
I,m an old Vietnam combat medic who always wanted to be a pilot. Problem with vertigo and thinking of the splat factor wont let me. Curious if an person with average math skills can be a pilot?
Sort of, but not for the reason you're probably thinking. Most military pilots get college degrees in technical fields that tend to require a lot of advanced math. For actual flying though mostly you need to be able to do fuel calculations, basic arithmetic kind of stuff.
Apparently to fly c17s you can. my old friend from high school is a c17 pilot and he was a very average student in all areas. Was kinds shocked he became one in fact. He always wanted to be a pilot but I figured he'd have to settle for something else given his average academic performance
In situations like this, the connection between the palm of your hand and the aircraft responding demands zero latency. If you constantly maintain micro adjustments with your hands during these moments, the brain is already responding to the physical requirements of the situation and the mental and physical resources required to perform necessary tasks. The larger movements from his left hand are simple attitude adjustments and corrections made for variance in wind speed. This same unhindered connection between the palm of your hand and the system in question is why some pilots prefer to not use gloves, especially in modern fighters.
When driving a car, your right foot is doing the same, constantly adjusting the throttle, you just don’t notice it :p You have become part of the machine ;) Plus: when landing an F/A-18 (and many other military aircrafts) you use the throttle (left hand) to control pitch (up and down), not the stick. During landing the stick is primarily used for bank-control, “turning”.
Hey! I actually know this one! Carrier based planes have to be at a specific angle of attack (I think it's 8 degrees for the Hornet) in order for the tailhook to catch the arrestor cable properly, this is called 'on-speed' AoA. While in the landing pattern, the pilot trims the control surfaces to maintain on speed AoA and the FCS (flight control system) keeps it there. Notice how when he's on final, almost all of his stick motion is left-to-right and not forward-to-back, this is because once the plane is trimmed for on speed, the rate of descent is controlled by throttle input as opposed to physically pitching the plane up or down, which would mess with the AoA and make it difficult for the hook to catch the cable. The Hornet also has a lower thrust-to-weight ration than other fighters, which means there's a bit of lag between the throttle correction and the actual affect it has on the plane, that's why he's making so many small adjustments the entire time*. Watch the video again, and this time pay attention to the tiny rectangle with the red arrows and yellow circle on the bottom left side of the HUD, notice how just a second or so before he hits the deck, the circle in the middle lights up yellow? This is telling the pilot whether he's too fast, to slow, or 'on speed' as he's on final. Lastly, he throttles up to full as the wheels hit, just in case he misses the cables he'll have the thrust to take off and reenter the pattern for another try. Thanks DCS! *Edit: I just remembered that this is a Super Hornet instead of the F/A-18C I'm used to seeing in DCS, which I'm pretty sure has more powerful engines than the older models and therefore less lag between throttle input and affect on the plane. Either way on-speed AoA still applies.
what are the toilets like on a big ship like this? I'm sure they are small as hell but just wondering with all those people how they stay clean and taken care of?
Look at the engine numbers and then compare to DCS, the sim engine throttle response is wayyy too laggy compared to real life and it makes onspeed landings suck ass.
Different model with a different engine. I'm not saying it isn't incorrect in the sim, I'm sure they don't have the full specs, but the comparison can't be made with this video.
Take into account, that he's flying an Super Hornet with two more powerful and more responsive F414 GE 400 Turbofans. In DCS we only have the legacy Hornet.
