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Free Will During Sorties

Nick225

Nick225

New Member
Hey guys, I wasn't exactly sure how to title this thread but I'm starting it to hopefully gain insight regarding some curiosities I've had for quite some time now.

Given my long time fascination with Naval Aviation and my aspirations to one day join the community, I've spent many hours on the internet watching and creating an ever expanding playlist of all sorts of cruise/deployment videos, the Hornet Ball videos, etc.

This question may be more specific towards VFA and VAQ guys but perhaps not. A few reoccurring things I see in a lot of these videos are clips of guys "cloud surfing" in what seems to be a free-form way as well as many clips of guys performing some high speed flybys of either the carrier, other ships in the fleet, or even civilian ships like tanker or cargo ships... and even the occasional zero G have-everything-float-around maneuvers.

I think these two videos well exemplify what I'm talking about (and they're just plain awesome):

That being said, I have very limited knowledge of what an average sortie may be for the guys in the videos (mostly VFA) and how "structured" the flying actually is in comparison to what the mission brief may entail. So pretty much what I'm asking is, what is the context for which these maneuvers can be performed? When is a pilot able to just surf about the tops of the clouds as it seems in the video? And is buzzing the ships as simple as making a request to ATC? How about the civilian ships?

I'm sorry if any part of this question comes off as ignorant. I know they don't just say "here's the jet, go do whatever you want with it," but it's something I've wondered about for a while and my prior research has come up short. Thanks!!
 
armada1651

armada1651

Hey intern, get me a Campari!
pilot
Basically, to do these kinds of things you just need to have extra time, fuel, and airspace. That's why most of these videos come from flights around the boat, where you typically have all those things somewhat frequently. A good example is most any tanker flight - you take off, hang out overhead until the recovery is complete, give gas to any of those guys if necessary, then give what you can to other people who want it, then kill an hour or so until the next recovery. Most days, what you do with that hour is up to you, so it's a good time to cloud surf or whatever if you're so inclined. You might also have extra time if a training mission gets done early and you still have time until recovery (afloat) or gas and range space (ashore). But typically on flights like that, it's all business.

As for the fly-by's, they're actually (maybe surprisingly) very common when flying off the boat. Most of what you see in that second video is called SSC (Sea Surface Control), and those guys are actually doing that for a reason. The SWO's keep track of everyone in a wide radius of the carrier, and will use the Air Wing to help collect information. For example, if they have an unidentified radar track, they will often ask someone airborne to go check it out. When we do that, we try to get the name of the ship, where it's from, and a general speed and direction, in addition to what type of vessel it is. There are usually some guidelines put out as to how close you can get, but typically we stay at least 500 feet from merchant ships and considerably more from others, especially foreign warships. But to read the ship's name off the stern, you do have to get pretty close. Other than that, the only real rule is to not cross anyone's bow. As for the speed, some of that is just that it's much safer and more comfortable to be fast than slow when you're down low, and some it is simply having fun with the job.

Fly-by's of the carrier and other ships in the strike group are requested from the tower, and they're also very common, especially when deployed. They don't serve any tactical purpose, but are mostly just a morale boost for the sailors, something to do while you wait to recover, and motivation for people to go to FOD walkdown.
 
MIDNJAC

MIDNJAC

is clara ship
pilot
mid cycle, you can pretty much just hammer the ship with flybys if you have the gas and lack of mission to do so (*cough*Prowler*cough)
 
Brett327

Brett327

Well-Known Member
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
It's for the troops, man. :) For the record, on my last cruise, flybys were inexplicably prohibited by CCSG.
 
nittany03

nittany03

Recovering NFO. Herder of Programmers.
pilot
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
MIDNJAC said:
mid cycle, you can pretty much just hammer the ship with flybys if you have the gas and lack of mission to do so (*cough*Prowler*cough)
Click to expand...
We were just so proud at actually getting a section up that we had to show it off when we did. :D
 
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