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

[VIZKRIEG]

This is sort of related to my last question regarding skids, but here we go.

Do they fly off of CVN's? And I don't mean can they, because is they fit on a small flat-top, they much fit on a full-size, but is that a common assignment, or they save room on the CVN's for the a/c that need the runway, and just have skids on other members of the battle group?

 

[phrogdriver]

This is sort of related to my last question regarding skids, but here we go.

Do they fly off of CVN's? And I don't mean can they, because is they fit on a small flat-top, they much fit on a full-size, but is that a common assignment, or they save room on the CVN's for the a/c that need the runway, and just have skids on other members of the battle group?

Hueys and Cobras at sea usually hang out with the rest of their Marine helo buddies as part of the Aviation Combat Element (ACE) of a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). Generally this will find them onboard an LHD or LHA, which are amphibious ships (i.e. ships that carry Marines for a living) that resemble small-deck carriers.

The MEU has a ground combat element (infantry, amtracs, poss LAVs or tanks), an aviation combat element (AH-1, UH-1, CH-46/V-22, CH-53, AV-8B) and a combat service support element (cooks, bakers, and candlestick makers).

The MEU goes onboard amphibious shipping, usually spread among 2 or 3 ships with a couple destroyers, cruisers, etc thrown in to help. This forms an expeditionary strike group. It usually operates separately from carriers. It's the alternate method of the US throwing its weight around--CVBG "We'll drop bombs on you." ESG "We'll send the Marines in after you."

 

[VIZKRIEG]

Cool, thanks Phrog

 

[HeyJoe]

This is sort of related to my last question regarding skids, but here we go.

Do they fly off of CVN's? And I don't mean can they, because is they fit on a small flat-top, they much fit on a full-size, but is that a common assignment, or they save room on the CVN's for the a/c that need the runway, and just have skids on other members of the battle group?

Like Phrog says, Carrier Air Wings are typically mated to big decks and the ACE (a HMM (REIN)) is mated to the smaller LHA/LHD decks. There have been exceptions to SOP like experimental Wing in 90s that put Marine helos on the big deck integrated into Air Wing or times when SPECOPS uses big decks (Haiti, OEF). Likewise, Amphib ACE can be modified to suit overall mission as in case of "Harrier Carriers" deployed in OIF.

USS America en route to Haiti with 160th SOAR aboard

 

[HooverPilot]

I've got one, what are these things called, and what is their purpose?

Does anyone know the story behind the linked picture? It has just Hornets and Prowlers on deck. Where are the fat kids?

You know, the S-3's, E-2's, Helo's & CODs.

 

[clonei09]

A couple of hornet questions. Why do you see F/A-18Ds carry two LGBs on a single pylon but none of the carrier Cs carry multiple LGBs on a single pylon. The second question I was wondering about is how hard is it for pilots to go from legacy to super hornet or back. Can you pretty much be qualified in both of them. I would think that with a similiar cockpit it would work like there is one rating for teh 757/767

 

[milky-f18]

The second question I was wondering about is how hard is it for pilots to go from legacy to super hornet or back. Can you pretty much be qualified in both of them. I would think that with a similiar cockpit it would work like there is one rating for teh 757/767

The transition syllabus between A-D and E/F is just a few hours depending on your experience. Maintaining a dual qual is only in special cases, though. Usually a CAG staff or VX.

 

[Flash]

Does anyone know the story behind the linked picture? It has just Hornets and Prowlers on deck. Where are the fat kids?

You know, the S-3's, E-2's, Helo's & CODs.

It's the USS Midway and she had a smaller air wing than other carriers, only 3 F/A-18 squadrons and no S-3 squadron. I believe those are A-6's in the back, the vertical stabs don't have the footballs the Prowlers have. The first might even be a KA-6D, it looks like the old gray and white paint job with the black around the canopy that they kept when the regular A-6's went to low-vis gray along with everyone else. She never carried Tomcats.

CVW-5's composition in 1991:

http://www.history.navy.mil/download/1991cd.pdf

As for the fat kids, why should the carrier embarass itself for the photo op?

Pic is in the upper left:

http://www.midway.org/site/pp.asp?c=eeIGLLOrGpF&b=3038957

 

[Catmando]

Does anyone know the story behind the linked picture? It has just Hornets and Prowlers on deck. Where are the fat kids?

You know, the S-3's, E-2's, Helo's & CODs.

I suspect since they are obviously entering port (note the "manning the rails" in whites), they parked the aircraft in a smart, military formation. To look uniform, they parked the greater number of same aircraft in rows. Since the 'fat kids' and others are fewer in number, and odd shapes that would disrupt the sharp lines, they either flew them off or they are hidden on the hanger deck.

Back in the day and before S-3's the Midway and CVW-5 carried quite a motley group.

 

[Dingobat]

Like in the pictures above you sometimes see a carriers deck completely covered in aircraft. Stupid Question: Why is this done since I imagine launching/recovering would be impossible?

-Also, can the entire carrier's inventory of birds be parked like this? And since it looks cool, got any more pictures?

 

[Slammer2]

Heres a new stupid question for today:

Lets say you're taking off from a carrier to fly some sort of mission. Theres a problem with the aircraft and you need to turn around and land. Do you hop into another a/c and go try it again or are you done for the day? Does that depend on the mission?

 

[A4sForever]

Heres a new stupid question for today:

Lets say you're taking off from a carrier to fly some sort of mission. Theres a problem with the aircraft and you need to turn around and land. Do you hop into another a/c and go try it again or are you done for the day? Does that depend on the mission?

In most (all?) of my experience, the simple answer sez: it's dictated largely by the mission.

If you're doing cyclic ops, the launch "cycle" is over and the strike group is gone by the time you would get back around and trap on deck = you're done for that cycle, maybe you'll go on a subsequent launch cycle.

If you're doing CQ, there's probably another bird available on the roof or in the hangar for you to man up after your trap and shutdown = you're probably goin' again.

And then again, if it's a BIG problem w/ the attendant nail biting emergency recovery and trap for you , chances are you're done for the day = you're done for the day.

Like most things in Aviation, it's very situational and it depends. I've had all three variations mentioned above.

 

[HeyJoe]

Heres a new stupid question for today:

Lets say you're taking off from a carrier to fly some sort of mission. Theres a problem with the aircraft and you need to turn around and land. Do you hop into another a/c and go try it again or are you done for the day? Does that depend on the mission?

For important missions, spares are manned and stay turning until last moment (mainly for aircraft going down on deck). I snagged lots of extra Desert Storm missions as a spare for 10-12 aircraft "goes" because odds were someone would go down. More went down on deck than in the air, but some aircraft checks can't be done until weight off wheels and once in awhile, the cat shot knocks a critical component off line. If that happened to a jet early in the launch, the spare would be launched within the LSP*. If jets didn't report their down status early enough, the boss has his schedule and there wouldn't be enough time to get launched. During cyclic ops, the down jet recovers in next recovery, which is as soon as last aircraft launches. The SDO and Skeds look at flight schedule and adjust accordingly (likely the launch of the spare throws off later event so Skeds rewickers the loss of that crew for their planned event and availability of returning aircrew).

*Launch Sequence Plan

 

[Schnugg]

For important missions, spares are manned and stay turning until last moment (mainly for aircraft going down on deck). I snagged lots of extra Desert Storm missions as a spare for 10-12 aircraft "goes" because odds were someone would go down. More went down on deck than in the air, but some aircraft checks can't be done until weight off wheels and once in awhile, the cat shot knocks a critical component off line. If that happened to a jet early in the launch, the spare would be launched within the LSP*. If jets didn't report their down status early enough, the boss has his schedule and there wouldn't be enough time to get launched. During cyclic ops, the down jet recovers in next recovery, which is as soon as last aircraft launches. The SDO and Skeds look at flight schedule and adjust accordingly (likely the launch of the spare throws off later event so Skeds rewickers the loss of that crew for their planned event and availability of returning aircrew).

Ahhh yes, "The Super Spare"...an enviable spare almost sure to go flying.

 

[HeyJoe]

Ahhh yes, "The Super Spare"...an enviable spare almost sure to go flying.

Indeed, as Skeds tries to keep everyone even, the more you flew, the more spares you got, but the more spares you got (and more qualified folks typcially got spares on big goes because they had to be able to fill any hole), the more you flew. And if brand X is hurting, it's all the more sweeter to fill in for them!