My brother flew the tomcat he said finding the carrier at night it was like looking for a pinball machine on a football field one end zone to the other after seeing this it would seem harder than that bless all of our brave pilots and the other ones in all military branches bless all of you
@@tomperock1615 Sure. I'll answer this one for you. The Pratt & Whitney TF-30 power plants (engines) were used on both the FA-18 Hornet and the FA-18 Super Hornet after the DOD were denied further funding for the acquisition of GE F414 engines. This was because a shipment of engines (2,514 in total) were lost somewhere in transit whilst being shipped from the engine manufacturing plant to the FA-18 aircraft assembly plant back in 1995, which was about when the production of the FA-18's began. As a result of the Pratt & Whitney TF-30 being so utterly reliable in any case (except when they developed compressor stall issues quite regularly) and also as a result of the Air Force and Navy having a generous supply of the TF-30 engines from scrapped Tomcat F-14A's and from dismantled F-111's this was considered to be the best engine option for the FA-18 Hornet. You may find interesting the fact that they'd experimented with fitting (older) P&W TF-33 engines to the Hornet, but during testing they were often found to cause serious fuselage buckling and would sometimes explode due to excessive heating around where the engines were mounted. Sometimes when dogfight testing, one or both of the two experimental Pratt & Whitney TF-33's would dislodge from inside of the aircraft fuselage. You were right to suggest that none of the FA-18's were ever fitted with General Electric engines, and I hope that I've been able to explain to you just why that was and why it still is to this day.
My father pioneered night carrier operations during WW ll as a member of the first air group to fly from carriers at night and in bad weather. He was a TBM Avenger pilot in night torpedo squadron 90 flying from the USS Enterprise, CV(N)-6 with the N for night as the Big E was designated as a night carrier in December of 1944. At that time there were only 2 night carriers in the US Navy, Enterprise and A light carrier, CVL-22 Independence.
The ability of U.S. Naval Aviators to fly night missions will always play a huge part in a conflict against any adversary. The Navy does it ALL, and does it ALL at ONCE. 💙🇺🇸
Richard, I am sure it takes a lot to put this all together, but the aircraft was way way left of course and he landed about 30 degrees to the right of the bearing recovery course. If you can get the aircraft to point down the runway then this would be a really good example of what it looks like and sounds like flying a night trap approach
@@richardstinchcomb5604 Yeah, in fact, in the real world, if the start of the approach had been this misaligned, the pilot would have done an "Own Wave-Off" (OWO) --- which is viewed in the Ready Room post-flight as slightly better than just a 'wave-off' (WO), as it shows good situational awareness. No LSO would have allowed this approach to get to the in-close position. Good comms though. Only a few very minor niggles. :-)
Back during Vietnam our Navy pilots said landing their jets at night on the flight deck was scarier then any combat mission they faced. We had of our A-6 Intruders crashed one night killing the co pilot and 8 other guys on the flight deck. Knocked one of our parked F4 Phantoms off the flight deck. When these young men came back from their missions with their planes shot up, I don’t know how they could land.
I can't imagine how tense and nerve racking it must be landing at night in real life. I'm just flying a sim and I was stressed. Even with knowing I had a do over option. God bless our military.
Have you considered flying with the HUD brightness turned down, or better yet, off? It's very difficult to see the "drop lights" with the considerable clutter and that makes line up difficult. And, if your lineup is off, due to lens roll angle even a centered ball will be bad information. Sometimes, it's good just to go back to basics - meatball, lineup, angle of attack. Once you have that down, then add in the HUD. And yeah, you definitely need to get to the ball call via ICLS or ACLS.
I agree. This was more of a fly by the seat of my pants kind of landing. Watching my speed, altitude and attitude. Of course landing on the lighted runway would have been nice but I was not lined up with it so I went for the un-lit one. More of a challenge anyway
That would have been about 3-5 people killed. Probably an aircraft or two completely wrecked. A huge fire. Why would you upload a video of you landing sideways on a carrier?
You didn’t even do the approach, throw the break and circling back to the right of the wake I know it’s dark but you also landed straight not diagonal like the runway is.
For the love of god, how can you land in such a low visibility condition. (Can't see anything!!!!!) I've never done night landing but I really feel like trying after watching this. (Is the comms sound real thing?! That breathing sound does make it really intense!)
Lol yeah it was intense. This was after many attempts to make this landing in total darkness. You just have to watch your gauges, AOA indicator, air speed and altitude. You got to try it, it's a thrill and satisfying when you nail it. The audio is from an actual carrier landing that I added to my video to give it a more realistic feel.
doing it for real has to be an adrenaline rush. but landing at night when all you have is instruments and one light on the carrier (the meatball, or as referenced in this audio the "ball") I would think would be easier than day ops because during the day focus can be diverted from the ball, which leads to bad things like deck spotting, CAG dip, and possibly vertigo induced panic... at night you have to focus on instruments and the ball. follow the ball and your AOA indicator and, with the correct heading and crab trajectory you'll land perfectly every time... block things out you don't need, follow your SOP, set up your approach, get clearance from the tower, contact paddles, and go for it.
@@Aviate68 I know. During my practice runs for few days, this is how I lined up for the landing. Then I made it pitch black for the hell of it. Using the same approach, that carrier is just a dot in the distance. When I got close enough to tell I'm not lined up with the lighted landing path I'm too stressed to to care. I didn't pay too much attention to it as I'm focused on staying on the path I committed to. Watching my height, speed and AOA I just wanted to land it. Sure I could have waved it off and gone around again to line up with the lighted runway but I knew there were wires in the direction I was heading. The main thing is I caught a wire in total darkness and didn't crash. And I'm sure you know any landing you can walk away from is a good landing and not so horrible in my opinion.
@@richardstinchcomb5604 you could've followed the ICLS like they do in real life....its not too complicated. IRL you just rammed through 3 of the ground crew.
The red flash and if you listen the LSO told him "fly the ball" that little ball you see on the deck, keep your nose on it and listen to Paddles or officially the LSO (Landing Signals Officer, experienced pilot that aids other pilots landing).