Training Command CQ aboard the USS Lexington, AVT-16, back in the late 80′s. The Lady Lex – as contrasted to your correspondent – was a wee, bitty thing with old fashioned equipment: A catapult that was “instant on” – none of your gradually increasing acceleration aboard the Lex – and arresting gear that required due diligence from the pilot and LSO combination to land on centerline, without any drift, since (unlike modern day arresting gear) it had no centering mechanism to keep Dilbert from getting dunked, if he landed in a drift.
Nossiree, at a mere 33,000 tons dripping wet, there wasn’t a lot to the old girl, and if a man wasn’t careful he might miss her entirely. It was all very well and good for student naval aviators to set out to land aboard her in the day time, not knowing any better. But even back in the day of such bantam weight vessels as the Coral Maru and Midway, the salty fleet veterans tended to purse their lips thoughtfully at the notion of conducting CQ aboard the last wooden deck carrier in the Navy, and the F-8 guys rushed out in a clutch to update their wills when the word came down that they’d be hurling themselves at the back end of the “Blue Ghost.” At night.
(You’re probably not going to watch all of that. The F-8 ramp strike – day time – is the first video clip, and demonstrates how the Vought fighter could go from being on-and-on one second to you’re-forked-low in another. After that, well. You’re probably not going to want to watch all of that. I warned you.)
So. Anyway.
Dilbert was having a pretty good day of it, all things considered, flying his trusty TA-4J Skyhawk in his final Training Command CQ. Until that moment came when he fixated on the Fresnel lens – the technical term is “glomming”, as in “he glommed on to the ball” – neglecting his responsibilities in the article of line-up control. Paddles did their best, but it was to no effect. Our man landed left, drifting left. He stopped with his left main landing gear kissing the deck edge.
People got excited, too, which only contributed to our man’s already moderately advanced sense of unease. What with all the screaming and shouting. The Air Boss finally got through to him on his third or fourth, “Power back, power back – we’ve got you!” piece of friendly advice. At the top of his lungs.
When Dilbert finally did reduce his throttle the Boss asked him to look down and to his left, asking, “See that?”
Upon looking to his left, our man had to admit to himself that there was nothing between himself and the devil but the deep blue sea. “Yes sir,” he replied, his voice quavering a bit.
“You don’t want to see that,” the Boss finished.
“Tough love,” we calls it.
~Shiver~
CNATRA CQ in the Summer of ’77. I was in VT-26, TRAWING-3, Chase Field, Beeville! She was a Neat, Grand Old Gal. Some of the best chow I ever had underway was on the Lady Lex. I was a still young(22 years old) AMH2. Now I am a 53 year old Retired AMH1(AW). Wow!
Nice work, Lex, you funny Hornette guy.
She’s still a poor substitute for CV-6. I do wish we could have saved Enterprise. I remember reading about her scrapping in Popular Science, when I was a kid. I didn’t weep; boys don’t weep, ya know.
Now that I am a man, I weep.
The Lady Lex – as contrasted to your correspondent – was a wee, bitty thing with old fashioned equipment
Are you saying that you are not a lady or that you are not a wee, bitty thing with old-fashioned equipment?
I’m confused.
As for the rest of the story…eeesh.
The CQ det before mine, we had a Prowler launch with a tow-link failure. The tow link is a T-bar that attaches the nose gear to the catapult shuttle; once the aircraft is airborne the link locks up so as to not catch the arresting gear when trapping.
The problem is that no one noticed the link flapping in the breeze until landing, upon which the the tow link scooped up one of the wires and the aircraft promptly stood on her nose. Probably fun on a motorcycle, not so much in a 30,000 lb warbird.
During the mishap investigation, when the student riding in the back seat was asked why he didn’t eject, he replied “Because by the time I knew what the Frack happened, we were already stopped and the pilot was shutting down the engines!”
After a few days repair, the bird was back in business; IIRC, the pilot got his qual, too.
Didn’t like that ramp strike. I was on Nimitz in ’81 when a pilot decided to self medicate his sinuses (so the story goes). That didn’t work too well either….
Lots of respect to all of you that made the cut.
HFS, in re, Are you saying that you are not a lady or that you are not a wee, bitty thing with old-fashioned equipment?
Yes.
The Grey Ghost was my first ship in ’71 and wasn’t bad duty then. We did 1 week of basic Tracom T28, T2′s, 1 week advanced Tracom TA4 and TF9′s and 1 fleet week (all weekends inport) then 2 weeks in P’cola. Fleet quals were for everything but the F4′s. Cap’n you say the F8 was a thrill, you should have seen the Whales (A3′s) or the Hummers (E-2) on the ball, ESPECIALLY at night! Can you say colorful?? Good news was if the pilot’s got qualed on Lady Lex the Forrestal class and larger looked like LAX in comparison.
I am not sure which would be more terrifying to me; trying to land a jet on a deck or, standing on the deck with a couple of little paddles in my hand while the thing came hurling at me…
You’re right about that video. I got to the Caribou doing a slow wingover and decided to click on a video of a kitty standing on hind legs. I’ll have to take your word for the Crusader.
Is the Caribou the 2nd clip? Does that happen because of a significant mechanical failure? If so, what probably happened?
(Please forgive me if this seems like morbid curiosity. It’s not… I just found the movement of the plane so shocking and tried to imagine how it might be possible).
FbL,
Those abrupt nose up things are usually either a failure of a flight control or a shift of cargo in the plane. Cargo shifts aft, aircraft center of gravity shifts aft, elevators (on the tail – control nose attitude) can’t compensate for the shift, nose goes up, wings stall, flight ends.
I’ve thought about that one before, and I agree. It would be shocking to see.
N
Lex ~ heh. Puts a whole different perspective on a lot of things
If the Caribou flick is the one I am thinking of as I can’t access these from the office now, is that the control locks were not removed during preflight. Tragic mistake and fatal mistake. Checklists are to be used even by folks with 20k hours in their log books.
Heh. Left or right, it’s hard to choose.
I was privileged to observe, many years ago, from the buzzard’s walk as the COD came in to trap. Unfortunately the OOD had seen fit to put the ship into a long slow turn to port. It almost looked as if they would get away with it until the outer wing panel of the stoof intersected the tails of the four A7s spotted adjacent to the yellow lines.
The COD driver got a souvenir, a piece of cardboard a foot long colored purple and yellow with magic marker — he was, after all, the first (and only) Ace of that deployment — and the Air Boss had words with the JOOD in question. We got by with helicopters for a while.
Ric,
I saw a similar thing on Sara. Tomcat pilot was a wee bit right and took out the tails of several jets. He was awarded the “I left my wingtip in the six-pack” award at the next Follies. (Six-pack is one of the parking spots on the flight deck).
In typical Navy fashion, his career was changed forever. He’s now an Astronaut with 2 missions as pilot and 2 as Commander.
GEO- Control locks not removed seems plausible for that one.
GEO6,
You are correct, this accident was caused by failure to properly pre flight the a/c, and remove the control locks. The only way the crew might have salvaged the situation would have been an instant reduction to idle right after lift off and pray they hit somewhat level.
Speaking of Lex CQ, in early 1990 a T-2 with a student on his VERY first pass rolled into the groove, the throttles stuck (TINS – the accident board confirmed it) and he deceled on the glide slope all the way down until – deep in a stall and starting to drift right at the ramp – the LSO gave him a “Come Left!!!” call which resulted in an adverse yaw departure to the right and full 180 roll into the pack against the island. Not a pretty finish and easily the scariest plat tape you’ll ever see. I became Trawing 1 paddles after that and asked the Air Boss about it one day. He told me, “I was sure he was coming right into Pri Fly. The mini and I just stood there frozen because there was nowhere to go.”
Ironically, perhaps the most difficult and dangerous aircraft of the day (Viggie’s also considered) to land aboard an aircraft carrier – the F-8 Crusader – was not generally carried aboard the then larger and relatively easier-to-land-on decks of the Midway/Forrestal/Kitty Hawk classes of aircraft carriers (which in turn were indeed “bantam” when compared to the behemoth flight-decks of today).
Those fast and difficult to land as any, F-8′s, were mostly relegated to the little “short decks” similar to the smaller Lady Lex – those known (affectionately and not) as “27-Charlies,” modified WW-II carriers extended long into the “jet-age”.
Back then, a report of “hitting the ramp” was nearly always followed by the words, “27 Charlie.” While fine ships, they unfortunately claimed the lives of many of our finest young men.
In the prowler RAG I was always amazed at my fellow CAT I’s (ECMO) who not only willingly rode in the back seat during night CQ but ARGUED!!! about who was getting more night traps.
I always reasonsed it was because they had no clue what was going through our heads as we flew those “fun night traps”(definition of oxymoron right there).
Btw always wanted to call”prowler ball, no HUD” but I heard the boss did not have a sense of humor !
Plus they won’t let me talk on the radio anymore:-)
I remember that Nose. I was in Pri-Fly when the A-7 was “amputated”. I’ll never forget it, it was a clean cut, the hydraulic fluid squirting up where the wing used to be. Not so clean on the F-14, but Sigonella wasn’t too far as I recall.
I watched the rest of the video. Jeez. I then went and watched the WKRP/turkey video again.
Just got home and saw the rest of the vid. Those ” Saber Dances” were pretty ugly. When the wing departed and the throttle was firewalled it acted just like a garden hose wide open with predictable results. I talked to a few guys that flew the Century Series jets . That F-100 killed a lot of people .
Fliterman,
I don’t know where you get your info but you are dead wrong about F-8′s not onboard the Midway, Cruel Sea, and FDR. These decks were no easier to land aboard than the 27C’s, Midway and FDR had the same landing area as the 27C. What you are confusing is that F4′s were not put on the 27C carriers, but that was a weight issue.
Bill C,
Dead wrong??? Please re-read my post.
I never stated F-8′s were “not aboard” those carriers. Indeed they were. And even when F-8 fighters were replaced (by F-4′s) on those larger decks, some RF-8′s still remained aboard them and operating.
What I did say was that at that period, F-8′s “were not generally carried aboard” the larger decks (for the reasons you state), and had been “relegated” to the 27-C’s (for those reasons).
As for the Midway and FDR having the “same landing area?” I don’t think so. In fact, the Midway went into extensive overhaul in the late ’60′s, significantly enlarging her flight deck in anticipation of the F-11B. At the time, the Midway boasted the largest flight deck “acreage” of any ship in the fleet.
No aircraft carrier is easy to land aboard, and each has its own peculiarities. But I would venture a case of expensive malt whiskey that given a choice of a night trap aboard the Bonnie Dick, Tico, or Hancock…. or a trap aboard the larger FDR, Midway, or Coral Sea, every F-8 pilot would immediately pick one of the later three larger decks over the 27-C’s, every time.
Behold this difference .
Fliterman,
Not generally aboard, they sure were generally aboard. You are correct that Midway had a major refit in the late 60′s, in fact it started in 66 and finished in 70. It took so long due to 3 bad carrier fires that diverted money. She also had a major refit in the 50′s that gave her an angled deck and a landing area the size of a 27C. FDR had the same refit. They had lots of F8′s landing aboard in that decade. I’ve not landed on the FDR but do have traps on all the others you mentioned, not that much difference in the daytime, no difference at all when it got dark.
My Dad was the ‘gator on the Lex from ’82-’84. We got him all sorts of cool gifts, like a UF Gator pillow case for his bunk on the ship that said, ‘The Gator Sleeps Here’. I was a senior in HS and freshman in college… whenever anyone asked me what my Dad did, I’d always say, “My Dad? Oh, he drives a boat.”
That was the toughest job he ever had. In those two years, his hair went totally white and his bp went all wonky. Talk about stress…
But we have many fond memories of The Lady Lex. Of course… *I* never had to land on her. Big difference.
Most powerful cat shots I ever had were those A-4 shots off’n Lex. I also remember the tiller bar steering in a T-2 as I had to sit in one for near 45 minutes waiting to go back to Key West. Got a good look at the deck lumber though!
Saw a boxing match aboard Lady Lex once between stints as a prop for the brass..Larry Holmes and somebody. I forget. Also got to see Howard Cossells toupe up close! Obnoxious voice.
b2