Looking for gouge? Ask your Stupid Questions about Naval Aviation here (Part 1)

[Schnugg]

How did birds get back to a moving boat before reliable radio and satellite navigation?

What do birds use to get back to the boat now?

You should know the PIM before you launch from the flight brief on CVIC TV.

You have GPS nav and RLG Nav Systems that are accurate to a Gnat's ass.

You usually also have a TACAN on at the CVN and controllers and smallboy radars that can see you out to at least 100 miles.

Lots of ways to get home.

As HJ said, I've never called my jet a bird.

Or we could just let this guy go and follow him home...

When I was in VF-114, VF-213 lost a jet the cruise before I got there. An F-14A lauched with out a good SINS alignment on a long range Chainsaw mission. Got lost...flamed out 400 miles from the boat...no one knew where they went. An A-7 at the edge of his search pattern picked up the beacon on guard.
Crew eventually got rescued. RIO dubbed with the apropos callsign "Magellan."

 

[insanebikerboy]

The use of the expanding square search was a standard technique to locate a target or homeplate when either one wasn't where it was expected to be.

Wow, that had to be a shitty feeling when someone had to start doing that to find the boat.

 

[Gatordev]

Wow, that had to be a shitty feeling when someone had to start doing that to find the boat.

It can be a common thing w/ the smaller small boys, as well. Their TACANs are much weaker (or they just turn them off randomly), so more than 40 miles or so and you lose them, regardless of altitude. When doing a SAR, we were pretty far from Mom and had to hope she was where we briefed her to be. Of course, she wasn't. Even though we had agreed on a PIM speed, they decided to slow down. Thanks. We have the luxury of a data link, which at a long range has a pretty big cone of reception, so we could find here relatively easy (plus we had radar, which is another nice luxury that our F/S friends don't have).

 

[Uncle Fester]

Carrier aviators do not refer to aircraft as birds. You weren't referring to homing pigeons perchance?

From the Naval Historical Center: According to a Bureau of Navigation (now BUPERS) enlisted code book of 1919, pigeon trainers (or Pigeoneers as they were known) were a part of the Quartermaster rating and were identified as Quartermaster (Pigeon), Q.M.(P).

The advent of radio tended to dampen interest in pigeons. However, as late as 1926 the pigeon service in the Navy consisted of 12 lofts and approximately 800 birds.

The following is quoted from the Director, Naval Communications, to the Bureau of Navigation in 1921: "It has been brought to the attention of this office that occasionally men who have been made expert pigeon trainers have been transferred by commanding officers to other duties, and the work and care of training the birds is left to inexperienced hands." The Bureau of Navigation in Circular Letter #88 of 10 March 1921 to all commanding officers responded: "All men who have qualified as expert pigeon trainers will be immediately assigned to such duty and will not be transferred to other details without reference to the Bureau of Navigation. In case expert pigeon trainers are now attached to air stations on which there are no pigeon lofts, please report to the Bureau."

Not that this was well into the wireless-communication era. Insert comment here about the more things change, etc.

 

[Catmando]

...... get back to a moving boat before reliable radio and satellite navigation?

I always just asked the 'ferdinand magellan' riding with me in the backseat.

 

[Scoob]

The advent of radio tended to dampen interest in pigeons.

Much the way the advent of the internet has dampened my interest in "print media".

Thank you Al Gore, you magnificent bastard!

 

[Uncle Fester]

I always just asked the 'ferdinand magellan' riding with me in the backseat.

There's a Hornet guy out there with the callsign LIMPDIC...Lost In Med, Please Don't Inform CAG.

The story I heard about the inspiring incident was funny as hell, but 8th-hand, so I'll leave it at that in case someone here knows the "real" story.

 

[feddoc]

And that's the reason I don't break any (major) laws... I'm too small to whip someone's ass, so I'd end up somebody's bitch...

I have a nephew in prison...for being stupid, among other things. Before he went away *this time* I told him to get a tattoo on his back with his name at about shoulder level. He asked me why. I said so the guy behind him :censored_ would not forget who he was.

 

[joshmf]

Stupid Question: I recently saw a video wherein a Comanche did a barrel roll. I've never seen a helicopter do that before, so what other copters are capable of this? Is this something helicopter pilots practice, or was this just someone showing off? Pretty cool either way.

 

[Raptor2216]

There are a bunch of videos out on youtube showing helo's doing things you would never expect...including a CH-53 doing some rolls. Here is a vid of the redbull helo to get you started:

 

[Harrier Dude]

That was the coolest chopper video I've ever seen. He's crazy. Must be a Brit. They have a great airshow.

Then again, the bar for "cool chopper stuff" has been set pretty low by the HMM.

 

[phrogdriver]

Then again, the bar for "cool chopper stuff" has been set pretty low by the HMM.

That's just cold.

Hopefully the VMM will raise the bar a bit.

 

[Harrier Dude]

That's just cold.

Hopefully the VMM will raise the bar a bit.

Hope springs eternal.

 

[phrogdriver]

At least we can f-up twice as fast and at 3x the range!

 

[Harrier Dude]

At least we can f-up twice as fast and at 3x the range!

Cool! Now the grunts can be even farther away from their intended zone, yet somehow just as late.