Why it's good to be in Naval Aviation

[SynixMan]

Realized tonight that 22 year old college student Synixman watched the above video, thought Naval Aviators were cool, and soon after went to OCS to be a Naval Aviator. Little did I know I'd witness the scene @ 3:05 be re-enacted in person by a VMFA-232 bubba (wrapped in toilet paper, set ablaze) in the same place. Small little world we've got.?

 

[mcneillaviation]

Back in the training command during a neutral ACM hop, I was taking a fight into a vertical merge. In the midst of the early turn, for some weird reason my control inputs didn't do anything anymore. That's when I bothered to check my airspeed, 80 knots and quickly disappearing. After pulling the power back to idle and radioing "ballistic", checked the airspeed indicator, no indicated airspeed (pegged at 50) and right at the ring of death attitude wise. Fortunately, the departure wasn't too bad and no engine stall (thank god, according to my classmate in the backseat of the other -45, I slid tail first for sec). As the nose fell past the 90 degree point, I watched the bandit shoot out under my nose. So hey, checked my gauges, all good, back to MRT and right onto the bandit. Like I planned it the entire time.

Then there was the roller with my wingman, the bandit, then me. That's was neat.


Sigh, yeah, ACM was good time. I shall miss it.

reminds me of “hit the breaks, he’ll fly right by”

 

[Gatordev]

While technically not "in" Naval Aviation, this wouldn't have been possible for me without it...

I've been working the last week on nights and we've had pretty steady business. With the weather and the early setting moon, the sky was consistently crystal clear, very dark, and been absolutely full with stars. Even on deployments I wouldn't regularly experience a sky as both clear and dark as it has been due to clouds and/or moonlight.

On our runs north, back to base, there was time to take in all the stars while on goggles. On the first night, to the northwest, among all of the pin-point bright stars, there was this "star" that looked like someone had taken their finger and smudged it. Huh, wonder what that is...? The next night, it was there again, which started the conversation. It was only about an inch long, and not very bright. Could it be...no, it couldn't be a galaxy, could it?

On the next night, the topic came up yet again (I couldn't let it go) and the medic that was up front with me pulled out his phone and looked it up with an astronomy app (while on airplane mode, of course). Sure enough, there was the Andromeda galaxy. After some Googling, I came to find out it can be regularly photographed unaided, but I just haven't noticed it before. But for the last week, I've been treated to being able to see something so large, so far away (relatively), while it also being so small, all without a fancy telescope.

It was both humbling, inspiring, and even thought-provoking, at least to me.


For those interested, I found this via Google. An interesting representation.

 

[Random8145]

While technically not "in" Naval Aviation, this wouldn't have been possible for me without it...

I've been working the last week on nights and we've had pretty steady business. With the weather and the early setting moon, the sky was consistently crystal clear, very dark, and been absolutely full with stars. Even on deployments I wouldn't regularly experience a sky as both clear and dark as it has been due to clouds and/or moonlight.

On our runs north, back to base, there was time to take in all the stars while on goggles. On the first night, to the northwest, among all of the pin-point bright stars, there was this "star" that looked like someone had taken their finger and smudged it. Huh, wonder what that is...? The next night, it was there again, which started the conversation. It was only about an inch long, and not very bright. Could it be...no, it couldn't be a galaxy, could it?

On the next night, the topic came up yet again (I couldn't let it go) and the medic that was up front with me pulled out his phone and looked it up with an astronomy app (while on airplane mode, of course). Sure enough, there was the Andromeda galaxy. After some Googling, I came to find out it can be regularly photographed unaided, but I just haven't noticed it before. But for the last week, I've been treated to being able to see something so large, so far away (relatively), while it also being so small, all without a fancy telescope.

It was both humbling, inspiring, and even thought-provoking, at least to me.


For those interested, I found this via Google. An interesting representation.

The Andromeda galaxy is about four or five Moons in width across the night sky, but it is too faint to be seen in full. Here is how it would look if brighter:



There are also the small and large Magellanic clouds, which are two dwarf galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. And the Milky Way itself is a barred-spiral galaxy. Both the Milky Way and Andromeda are set to collide in about 4.5 billion years.

 

[taxi1]

Both the Milky Way and Andromeda are set to collide in about 4.5 billion years.

 

[Sonog]

View attachment 41728

"collide", the space between the stars is incomprehensible such that the galaxies essentially pass right through each other.

On topic, the milky way on nvg's was always magical.

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

wrapped in toilet paper, set ablaze

The start of a great night at the Cubi O'Club. Those were the days.