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Cat Shot Compilation
- Thread starter Steve Davies
- Start date
Ah yes, all is well until someone gets a "soft shot." A4's, you're not bashing the folks who got you off the deck safely all those times are you???Harruuumph. Air Department gibberish. Sounds like shooter-speak to me ...
Out "fvcking" standingOf course not ... but while you're at it ... how about fixin' the PLAT camera???
. . . . so many great memories.
...and the difference between the convential and nuke boats? The cats seemed shorter on the Connie and Kitty, at least compared to the nukes.
Well, I took shots off the Connie, the HAWK, and the IKE ... no difference in "felt recoil" ...
27Charlie's ... now that's a punch in the seat.
A loaded A6 off the Lex and Midway was sure a lot tougher than off the newer carriers.
The cats were shorter; you old shooters can confirm this: weren't the waist cats even shorter than the bow cats? I recall a restriction on Forrestal that certain weights/load outs on the A6 could only go off the bow cats.
I can't speak to the cats on the conventional boats. I have heard that their system relied on a "progressive" increase in steam pressure unlike the nuc boats which provide a constant steam pressure and regulate the cat shot through the hydraulically actuated launch vlaves.
slight course correction .....
One thing that still cracks me up is the reaction you get when you're sitting on the flight deck at night, brakes set, waiting your turn to come ahead ..... and somebody taxi's past you ....
WHAM !!!! The brakes go on big time as you jam them back on ... even though they're already set .... in an involuntary reaction to the sensation that you're rolling backwards ...
course correction ... out
I had a flight surgeon tell me in the mid-80's that there was a medical/scientific name for this (and it wasn't "oh shit").
I had it happen a few times at night and even once during the day when I was looking down and caught the 'aft' movement out of the corner of my eye and hit the brakes like nobody's business, to which my B/N said, over UHF (accidentally he said), "WHAT THE F#CK WAS THAT?"
Most of the "Go / No Go's" on the cats these days have nothing to do with cat track length or number of the cat. The limitations have to do with JBD panel limitations, what's behind the JBD, A/C wing spread limitations, and stores being carried. Our biggest and heaviest was ALWAYS a Tomcat full of gas and loaded for bear. If there was nothing behind JBD # 4, we could launch him on cat 4 all day. There are "other" limitations like time in AB, but none that had to do with the length of the cat.
Thats true, the waist cats were shorter. Launching off CAT 4 on the Connie was just........BAM!! and you were gone. I remember in the Gulf launching off CAT 4 for an airborne respot, night currency. Probably a 51K launch and we saw 160 or 170KIAS off the end. We lost half our lights, including the gryo's so I climbed off the stby gyro. Being a nugget, I probably wasn't half as scared as I should have been. I was with my OIC and I'm sure he wasn't having fun though it didn't show.
I can't imagine the 27C's. Must have been a ride. Probably worse landing on the them.
"Loaded"??? An A6 ??? Off the LEX ???
¿Qué pasa?
We had to provide a KA-6D as a night CQ tanker when the A6/A7's were still using the Lex for CQ. We begged to provide it off the beach but, since we were transiting from P-Cola to Key West, we did it off the ship.
One thing that still cracks me up is the reaction you get when you're sitting on the flight deck at night, brakes set, waiting your turn to come ahead ..... and somebody taxi's past you ....
WHAM !!!! The brakes go on big time as you jam them back on ... even though they're already set .... in an involuntary reaction to the sensation that you're rolling backwards ...
I still cringe today at that memory! Couldn't ever push on the brakes hard enough.
The other one was taxiing forward at night for parking. Taxiing perpendicular to the ship, with the nose-wheel up close to the scupper, and with you hanging out beyond the deck and over the watery darkness. Then the yellow shirt wants you to release brakes and turn tight to the left toward the bow. Toughest brake release (and tightest turn) I've ever done.
