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This past weekend I had the distinct honor to be invited to visit the Carl Vinson while on training deployment off the coast of southern California.
It started Saturday morning at Naval Air Station (NAS) North Island, San Diego, Calif with a US Carrier history lesson followed by safety and equipment training including how to properly don crash helmets and personal flotation devices and what to do in a water landing.
Our flight to the CVN-70 was in a Northrop Grumman C-2A “Greyhound” also called a COD for “Carrier Onboard Delivery” flown by the Fleet Logistics Support Squadron VRC-30 “Providers”.
We were told that the C-2A was being phased out and will be replaced by the V-22 “Osprey” in the next year or so and that we will be among the last civilians to ever experience a Tailhook trap and steam catapult launch.
Now the Tailhook Trap and Catapult launch were the best rides I have ever had but the best part of the trip was meeting the fine men and women that make up the crew of the USS Carl Vinson. The sacrifice they make to their families to keep the rest of us safe is debt that I can never repay.
A perfect 3 wire trap. We were no more than 20 feet away from the wingtip. WOW
Ordnance magazine with an inert weapons display.
We were told that in 3 days this magazine would be completely full (Would of loved to see that!).
The jet engine shop was at the very stern of the ship with doors that open to the outside so they can test at full afterburner.
This was on the floor of the engine test compartment.
IYAOYAS (If You Ain’t Ordinance You Ain’t Shi*).
Our ride.
During the day pilots will salute the shooter to indicate he is ready for launch in low light & night time air ops the pilot will turn on the tail light to indicate a ready for launch.
The F-18 pilots also do not hold the stick when taking off because of the autonomous flight control system. You can see in video 5 that just before takeoff the pilot takes his hand off the stick and grabs what they call the “Towel Bar”.
I believe the F-18 was the first Navy fighter to be able to carrier land without pilot intervention.
We got to view a rare event indeed when we got to see the launching of the Shooters boots. As soon as they got going the boots looked like they were trying to fly. I believe it is only done once at the end of each deployment so we were very lucky to see this tradition and again I can’t believe how close we got.
It started Saturday morning at Naval Air Station (NAS) North Island, San Diego, Calif with a US Carrier history lesson followed by safety and equipment training including how to properly don crash helmets and personal flotation devices and what to do in a water landing.
Our flight to the CVN-70 was in a Northrop Grumman C-2A “Greyhound” also called a COD for “Carrier Onboard Delivery” flown by the Fleet Logistics Support Squadron VRC-30 “Providers”.
We were told that the C-2A was being phased out and will be replaced by the V-22 “Osprey” in the next year or so and that we will be among the last civilians to ever experience a Tailhook trap and steam catapult launch.
Now the Tailhook Trap and Catapult launch were the best rides I have ever had but the best part of the trip was meeting the fine men and women that make up the crew of the USS Carl Vinson. The sacrifice they make to their families to keep the rest of us safe is debt that I can never repay.
A perfect 3 wire trap. We were no more than 20 feet away from the wingtip. WOW
Ordnance magazine with an inert weapons display.
We were told that in 3 days this magazine would be completely full (Would of loved to see that!).
The jet engine shop was at the very stern of the ship with doors that open to the outside so they can test at full afterburner.
This was on the floor of the engine test compartment.
IYAOYAS (If You Ain’t Ordinance You Ain’t Shi*).
Our ride.
During the day pilots will salute the shooter to indicate he is ready for launch in low light & night time air ops the pilot will turn on the tail light to indicate a ready for launch.
The F-18 pilots also do not hold the stick when taking off because of the autonomous flight control system. You can see in video 5 that just before takeoff the pilot takes his hand off the stick and grabs what they call the “Towel Bar”.
I believe the F-18 was the first Navy fighter to be able to carrier land without pilot intervention.
We got to view a rare event indeed when we got to see the launching of the Shooters boots. As soon as they got going the boots looked like they were trying to fly. I believe it is only done once at the end of each deployment so we were very lucky to see this tradition and again I can’t believe how close we got.
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