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One of the Two Most Exhilarating Things I Have Done in My Life - Carrier Qualification - Part Three
by Allan Lewicki
Home base: NAS Pensacola, nice blue water, nice sandy beaches, the islands just off shore of Mississippi and Alabama are really neat to boat out to, you see sharks and manta rays in the water. When I was there Special Services had boats to rent (with an outboard motor), they even had a boat for water skiing. There is a segment of training in the syllabus dubbed "Water Survival"; they do this in Pensacola Bay. It was summer when I did this and it was fun, the portion if this episode I remember the most is what was referred to as "Trolling for Sharks".
Back to flying; Tower: "Hot Dog flight, you are cleared for the break, report abeam and gear down." When fighters come into the pattern at Pensacola, everybody watches them...you have to look good. Your wingman gets nice and tight...Break one, break two...pull...gear down, flaps down, now you are on downwind.
There are three styles of "Breaks", The normal every day break: You fly over the runway of intended landing, parallel to the runway and in the direction you want to land. At the upwind numbers you snap to a 90° angle of bank and turn 180° to the down wind. Then there is the "Tuck Under Break", same as above except you snap 270° the other way. Last is the "Fan Break", this can only be done with a formation (a three plane looks really good), as with the normal break the formation arrives at the upwind numbers. Lead snaps to 90°, two snaps to 60°, and three to 45°. For this to look s--- hot all three planes have to roll absolutely simultaneously (otherwise you look like three buffoon Blue Angel wanabees).
I know of one other landing show off maneuver (highly illegal), the hammerhead break (it's not really a break). Instead of approaching the runway in the direction of intended landing, you approach in the opposite direction, and at tree top level, and sufficiently off center that at the top of this maneuver you will be in line with the runway. Abeam the intended point of landing you pull the plane straight up, as the airspeed drops to about 50 or so, rudder it over (you have to put in almost full opposite aileron). As the nose is passing the horizon, drop the gear and flaps. Now remember, you have to pull out of a 90° dive...and land (practice this one at altitude first) (I have never done this one for real).
Oh, Oh-oh, an unwritten rule...you absolutely do not do a "tuck under break" at NAS Pensacola. That is a Sacrosanct Maneuver; the only pilots allowed to do the forgoing procedure are the Blue Angles (and Sherman Field is their home base).
As you're in the roll out on runway 25R you have some flashbacks, you noticed that all the unidirectional arresting gear are gone. You reminisce...maybe good, maybe bad. "Arresting gear", there are two flavors, Bi-Directional and Unidirectional. As the name indicates, the Bi-directional cables can be engaged from both directions when they are rigged on a runway, they are primarily used as an emergency stopping device. The most common type (at least while I was flying planes that might use them) was a wire attached to two B-52 break drums. The Unidirectional arresting gear is elementarily simple; two lengths of anchor change are aligned on the side of the runway, parallel to the runway. The "wire" is attached to the ends of these chains. The idea is to catch the wire in the direction that will make the anchor chain follow the plane link by link, i.e. the chain does a 180° change in direction as it is pulled behind the plane, works really good (proper English, well)(dosen't sound the same). However, if you engage the cable from the wrong direction, the plane attempts to instantaneously pull fifty hundred million pounds of chain behind it. The plane does stop...most of it...they showed us pictures of the ½ of the plane that didn't stop.
You taxi in, shut down, and go into base opps. The wing admiral is waiting for the CO; he complements you on your break. You're really not too surprised that an admiral is there to meet the CO; there are a s--- pile of admirals at Pensacola. Because of security matters the exact amount of the preceding unit of measure remains classified information, but here is what I can say: A s--- pile is more than a s--- pot but not as much as a s--- load.
All you have to do is return to the ship, you don't need any fuel because the boat is only 50 miles out in the Gulf. But, (probably because the CO was on board), they fuel you anyway. Oh stool...you will be over maximum landing when you get back...what to do? Dump it!...No, not out of the fuel ports, out of the afterburners; just leave it in burner all the way back, the over weight fuel issue will be solved, and you will get back in five minuets.
Back to the flight line, kick the tire and light the fire (today's highly sophisticated aircraft require more than the forgoing WWII euphuism...adjust the seat and wined the clock), the weather is clear and a million so accomplishing your over weight fuel problem will be a "peace-o-cake".
Hot Dog flight, you are cleared for take off; you push the throttles up, bring them around the detent, and forward to the last stage of afterburner...that is where they will stay until you come into the break at the boat.
There is one whole section of Naval Flight Training that is totally academic; one of the main portions of this book learning is aerodynamics. Academic aerodynamics from the scholarly-technical aspect is interesting. If you don't understand all the physics involved, it doesn't matter (especially about super-sonic flight). As the mach meter continues its clockwise rotation you recall this from your Flight School days; you can look out on the wing and see the shock wave!
I wanted to be a pilot ever since I can remember, I can still remember the very first time I saw a jet airplane, it was before I was in Kindergarten. The Blue Angles were practicing for an air show at Cleveland's Burk Lakefront Airport, they were flying F-9s. This was even before the official start of the air show in 1964, if it was before I was in Kindergarten, that would put about 1950 (I'm giving away my age).
As I grew up I built and flew model airplanes, control line only (couldn't afford RC) (crashed most of them). When I went to collage you would think I would major in Aeronautical Engineering...no, I majored in Physics. Being a Pilot was still my all consuming passion. I joined ROTC for the primary purpose of being a pilot in one of the Naval Services, this turned out to be the Marine Corps. I was assigned to fly the OV-10 at Camp Pendleton. That was a fun airplane to fly!
I am now in the sunset of my aviation career, I don't know how much flight time I have, I stopped keeping track of it a long time ago (It doesn't matter any more) I have done just about everything there is to do in aviation. I flight instructed, I flew night freight in a Beech 18, I flew parachute jumpers in a DC-3, I flew canceled checks at night in Lear 24s, I was with the airlines. I now have the best position I have ever had flying airplanes, I am a corporate pilot for a Chagrin Falls manufacturing company, and the plane I fly is a Piper Navajo.
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