Carrier Ops on the USS Kitty Hawk
Carrier Ops on the USS Kitty Hawk| The Finnish Air Force doesn't operate any aircraft
carriers and we don't intend to buy any so there was no
carrier training need for FAF pilots. That is why we
skipped that part of the normal F-18 class. Anyway to
have a chance to see the Hornet in an environment it is
designed for is always beneficial and as a pilot who
would skip the chance to see and feel a steam catapult
stroke and a trap. These pictures were taken during two days in San Diego in September 1995. We flew from NAS Lemoore with the VFA-125 T-bird to NAS NORTH ISLAND on the Del Coronado beach to brief the Commander, Carrier Air Group One on the upcoming flight to USS KITTY HAWK (CV 63) the next day. |
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After the brief we took one Hornet to NAS Miramar "Fightertown USA" to wait for the admiral to practice some FCLPs (Field Carrier Landing Practice) to get ready for the carrier traps. At the time we were there in 1995 the Top Gun was still in Naval Air Station Miramar and some of their F-14s came to do FCLPs while "Wags" was doing the LSO duties.
Pictures © J Lindberg
VFA-125 T-bird takes off from NAS North Island and later flies towards the Boat with the hook extended
| Next morning it was time to blast off west to meet with the carrier. "Wags" and the admiral took the other aircraft while I was on the backseat of the CO, VFA-125. On these pictures you can see the admiral and" Wags" leading our two-ship formation. The weather wasn't the best possible but it cleared on the way west and as you can see on top of this page we could get a superb view of the Kitty Hawk once we got above it. Everything was ready for "bagging some traps". |  |
The LSO looks at a VFA-125 F/A-18 approaching the Kitty Hawk and shooting for the "Three wire"
| You fly a very tight landing circuit at 600 ft and then align yourself carefully along the centerline for the final approach. Now is the time to find the famous "meatball" a Fresnell lens that tells you the exact glide path to the carrier's pitching deck. There are four arresting wires across the deck and you aim at the third one. The exact glidepath is held all the way to the wire - so-called "deck spotters" don't live long. Maybe because of that there is always room on the backseats of the T-birds? |  |
| "Raider" Hornet ready for a
catapult stroke
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So we were doing all right with our plans to bag more traps than any Finnish pilot had ever seen (the record is 13). But the guys had other plans for us and our aircraft. After about a half a dozen traps they told us to park the aircraft by the side of the carrier's island and then they changed the crew and gave us a chance to see the carrier for about three hours. After that we flew back to North Island, did a hot refueling with the engines running and then I flew the other jet from San Diego to Lemoore with the CO taking the other one. All in a day's work. |
There are more carrier pictures on the CV-63 USS Kitty Hawk page.
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