More memories from a former USN A-7 pilot....

[Navy Chief]

My friend Fred Sanders sent me another couple paragraphs on what it was like to be a Naval Aviator:

I always liked the night traps better than the day. You get a nice, straight in approach from 1200 feet; pick up the ball, pull the power back to about 3200 lbs/minute fuel flow and just let the old girl smack the deck. "The Groove" is 30+ seconds or so, as opposed to 10-12 during the day, so there's time to fix the approach. Same power setting (mostly) all the way down the hill, until you get to the "burble" behind the boat, then its just quick shot of kerosene to get over that settling affect of wind over the round-down. Then, the trap. Rain never worried me. Snow neither. Airplane flies just fine when wet and/or cold, and I was always nice and dry. Well.......I may have pee'd in my pants a time or two, but other than that, pretty much comfy. But, If I wet my linen, it was just before I got shot off the pointy end of the boat, in the pitch black dark, at Zero-Dark-Thirty. Then I had 2.2 hours to live with it/sit in it.
I remember a huge painting in the halls of the Naval Aviation School at P'cola. It was completely BLACK. Nothing but black. It's title was "Night Cat Shot". How true. My God in heaven, what a test of faith that was, to sit in that A-7, at full power, looking at BLACK in front of me, left hand curled around the throttle locked at full power, plane trimmed for 12 degress nose up, feet flat on the floor, and get flung out into the blackness at 5 knots over stall speed. 100% of my faith was in God/Jesus to get me through that. About 2 percentage points below God/Jesus was my faith in the Catapult Officer to get the plane's weight and the end speed off the cat right. If I were to soil my linen on a flight, that's when it would happen.

 

[Curtis P40]

Enjoy these storys
Curt

 

[Emil Frand]

**was my faith in the Catapult Officer to get the plane's weight and the end speed off the cat right. If I were to soil my linen on a flight, that's when it would happen. **

Actually that wasnt his job, it was my job as center deck operator, Id set the cat for the planes weight,wod and type. Its better this pilot probably didnt know an 18 year old E3 ABE had his fate in his hands.<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

 

[FlyTexas]

I used to work with a man who flew A-7's off of the Oriskany. He told me of a story where a fellow pilot went into the drink because the cat wasn't set properly. They way he told me the story was that basically the go/no-go decision was up to the pilot. He said that before you're launched some guy stands next to the aircraft holding some sort of sign which shows the aircrafts weight...or something like that. He said that you then basically acknowledge the guy that the weight is correct. He too spoke of flying from the Oriskany at night. Flying during daylight hours was fairly routine he said, but night was a completely different animal.

Brian

 

[Navy Chief]

Not having been a pilot, I can only go by what pilots have told me (as in the story I posted).

But I can tell you that working ON the flight deck is scary by itself. It is dangerous during daylight hours, but night ops are much worse. You can't use white lighted flashlights; only blue or red. The tiedown chains become practically invisible as a result of the minimal lighting. I found myself face down on the deck more than a few times...... Add to that all the aircraft moving on deck, intakes, exhaust blasts, etc..

NC

 

[FlyTexas]

But I can tell you that working ON the flight deck is scary by itself.

That's exactly what this pilot told me. He said after he'd land he'd make a quick bee-line to get off the flight deck as fast as possible. The way he'd talk it sounded like he felt much safer in his A-7 flying his missions than walking around on the flight deck.

Brian

 

[Navy Chief]

That's exactly what this pilot told me. He said after he'd land he'd make a quick bee-line to get off the flight deck as fast as possible. The way he'd talk it sounded like he felt much safer in his A-7 flying his missions than walking around on the flight deck.

Brian

I won't argue that at all. I worked nights most of the time I was on deployments, but given the choice, I stayed below decks, working on aircraft in the hangar. Being on the "roof" at night was not for me...............

 

[Emil Frand]

night ops are interesting to say the least, being aware of everything is manditory. seen crazy stuff, we shot an a6 into the drink from cat 4 once, actually was pilot error, he had to sit and wait because he couldnt extend his wings while we shot cat 3, he sat for a while, when it was his turn we shot and first thing that was weird was burning rubber, then 2 explosions, I turned to look just as he left the deck and was sprayed with hot melted rubber, a6 flew about 100yards then both guys ejected, crap hit the fan so to speak and we werent allowed to touch anything I told the cat crew below the plane went in. the crew got picked up. investigation revealed he left his parking brakes on assumes the explosions which were the tires blowing was engine problems and ordered the ejection. cat crew was cleared, he was an ensign that I dont believe went further in his flying career.
How to determine how to shoot the plane, fuel guy and ordinance guy tells the plane captain weight loads and he adds that to planes weight, its written on the plane in grease pencil, pilot checks that, plane comes up to cat and the cat crew weight board guy dials in the planes weight he sees written then confirms it with the pilot by showing him the dialed in weight, he then shows the weight to the center deck operator who then matches this with the wind over deck, weight and plane type to adjust the steam needed to launch the plane and dials this in which in turn is read by the below deck panel operator who adjust the pressure acordingly. Theres a deckedge guy that actually gets to fire the cat. Now after the nimitz this changed as one officer replaced serveral deck operators with the newer c13 cats.

 

[Navy Chief]

During my second deployment on the USS Independence (CV-62) with VA-15, we had a nugget who managed to land on the wrong flight deck.

Yep. The USS Nimitz was operating in the area with us. This young Ensign landed on the deck of the Nimitz. They had him shut down his engine, and escorted him to the Nimitz's CO and Air Boss. After they chewed him out, he was allowed to man up again, launch, and return to the Indy. The flight deck crew managed to cover the drop tanks with USS Nimitz bumper stickers before he launched though.

Upon his return to the Indy, he was (shall I say summoned?) to the VA-15 Ready Room. I remember being in the RR when the poor guy walked in. Our Skipper said, "Everyone OUT."

You could hear the Skipper yelling, way, way down the passageway. I'd never heard such a cussing. I think he was making them up as he went.

That pilot was flown back to NAS Cecil Field the next day, and we never saw him again........

NC

 

[Bjoern]

Got any more of those stories, NC? I'm quite enjoying them.

 

[Navy Chief]

Ha! You're asking a retired CPO if he has any more stories? Am sure I can come up with some more, as can all the other vets on SOH

I need to email my friend Fred Sanders, and let him know his stories are a big hit. Fred flew Corsair IIs during Vietnam. I know he has more to tell.

NC

 

[Emil Frand]

Oh geez NC, how or why they let him land??? thats wild. we were having war games with gitmo and during an attack the guys in charge threw red smoke bombs on the deck to simulate a fire, we went to fire fighting stations and being fd crew it was part of our job as well, our nuuget(lol have to admit I forgot that term of endearment)shows up at the "fire" dragging a REFUELING HOSE!!!
Ask your friend from va15 if he knows/knew Ltc George Animal Duskin from va37.

 

[Bjoern]

Ha! You're asking a retired CPO if he has any more stories? Am sure I can come up with some more, as can all the other vets on SOH

Well, everyone's got stories (from the service...even me), but I was asking more about those that involve the first hand aviation aspects of carrier ops.

I need to email my friend Fred Sanders, and let him know his stories are a big hit. Fred flew Corsair IIs during Vietnam. I know he has more to tell.

Sounds interesting, looking forward reading them.

 

[Navy Chief]

Well, everyone's got stories (from the service...even me), but I was asking more about those that involve the first hand aviation aspects of carrier ops.

Sounds interesting, looking forward reading them.

Ok. Will email him tonight.

He wasn't in VA-15 with me. I didn't get assigned to sea duty until Fred had long since left the USN. But he definitely has a good memory. Better than mine for sure.

 

[PRB]

The day the VA-94 “nugget” almost shot down his lead.

To understand how this happened, you have to understand a little about how the A-7's weapon system worked. The A-7 could carry bombs, and also two Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, one on each side of the fuselage. All ordnance except the 20mm gun was released by the red button on the stick. To select which weapon you wanted to drop, you had to select the correct station. Each station had a select switch on a panel on the cowling. One button for each station. So what if you have two stations selected? This is normal, because you might want to drop a bomb from each wing, see? So the order in which the stations are fired is controlled by the airplane's computer. The important thing to remember here is that the two fuselage stations, the ones that carry the Sidewinder missiles, are always fired first, if they and another station are both selected. This is for self defense reasons, the only reason the A-7 has any business carrying air-to-air missiles in the first place

So, our young intrepid “new guy” is assigned as wingman to a more experienced LT. They take off from the ship armed with live Sidewinders and some training bombs, which they are going to drop on some practice targets. In order to test the Sidewinder missiles, the A-7 pilots would take turns selecting the station with the Sidewinder on it, and pointing the plane at his wingman. This would provide power to the weapon and the pilot would hear the growling tone in the headset if the weapon was working properly, and the lock tone when it “saw” the heat source of the other plane ahead. Now they would not, of course, select the master arm switch, or, God forbid, press the red weapon release button, so there was no danger, right?

So our new guy went through his Sidewinder check, but forgot to deselect the station... They proceed to the practice bombing area, select bomb stations, select master arm switch, and roll in on the target, lead first, wingman (new guy) second. New guy presses the bomb release button, and guess what happens... Right, the bomb does not fall off the plane, but the Sidewinder missile launches! Remember, the two Sidewinder stations are first in the firing sequence, and new guy forgot to deselect his Sidewinder station after the tone test! Oops... (Sorry sir!!)

The missile did not have a lock, because it wasn't aimed right at the lead plane, but the pilot saw the Sidewinder zoom past his plane. Not too close, but too far either... The new guy learned a valuable lesson that day.

 

[Navy Chief]

I bet that pilot (both of them, actually) needed to change skivvies right after that.....

GREAT story!!!

Oh, and PRB, am sure you share my anticipation on Prowler's working on the SLUF. I mean, it's only been almost 4 yrs since I started talking to him about Razbam releasing one!

NC

 

[PRB]

Roger on the RAZBAM A-7E!

 

[Bjoern]

The new guy learned a valuable lesson that day.

I wonder if he got a black eye from his lead afterwards.

 

[Snuffy]

Thanks for sharing Chief! :salute: