Tracking to USAF heavies: Any advice on which airframe?

Hacker15e said:
He said that the sims are "available for practice"....meaning voluntary extracurricular training outside the syllabus.

Most guys do it so they can stay on top of things or get ahead.
Click to expand...

Got it - when he said "boxes" I for some reason thought of flying in "maneuver boxes" in a training area in the real airplane.

granlistillo said:
Day VFR manuever to land on the CVN. Come in smoking hot (ok cruise) upwind of the boat and conduct a high AOA bank (70-85 DOB?) 180 degree turn to quickly slow you down at the appropriate pattern altitude and position so you can through all stuff out abeam and do a tight approach turn rolling out and making a pass. If done well, you are on the carrier lickety split.
Click to expand...

C-182 flyer said:
Close. If you are coming in "smoking" hot, you better break at the round down or everyone is going to laugh at you, and you better be bringing 6 bills, well at least 550. Hopefully you will get the gear down by the 45.

Breaking the deck is the first plane to land out of the stack for the cycle.
Click to expand...

Thanks!
 
Ian J said:
In the AF pilots can choose weather<sic>. they train or not?
Click to expand...

In this case the USAF guys were not on track and were not performing at the expected level of proficiency. My friend noted a trainer was open so they could come up to speed and they declined to the opportunity.

As a check airman I used to tell the guys at the start of training we were a team and there was essentially a line from the start point to a level of proficiency where they would be signed off for the check ride. A few times I had to show where the line was and where their performance was. And that at the current rate of learning they would not be ready for the check ride in the prescribed training sessions unless something changed. My friend was just advising them the rule was train to proficiency, not just train in 8 sim sessions.
 
Ian J said:
I was really trying to follow what "breaking the deck" means, but am just not getting it. Would you mind explaining it in a way a dumb army helo guy would understand? ;)
Click to expand...

granlistillo said:
Day VFR manuever to land on the CVN. Come in smoking hot (ok cruise) upwind of the boat and conduct a high AOA bank (70-85 DOB?) 180 degree turn to quickly slow you down at the appropriate pattern altitude and position so you can through all stuff out abeam and do a tight approach turn rolling out and making a pass. If done well, you are on the carrier lickety split.
Click to expand...

Yes and no. Breaking the deck is doing all that but it also means you are at the bottom of the stack and the first aircraft to come into the break and trap. For CASE I (5000/5 as I recall) and the aircraft are stacked in a holding pattern above the ship. Generally, Hornets/Tomcats (old school) were at 2k, Prowlers at 3k, Vikings (when they were around) at 4k and E-2/C-2's at 5k, tankers at 6k and above. There is also Stbd delta at 1000' for the COD pilots or as in my first deployment, we held in the stack overhead the boat at 1.2k (called the spin pattern) and we were the first to break the deck. The idea was to know how many aircraft were on the launch sequence and time coming into the break when the last aircraft was launching, no matter which cat. That way, as we were in the break, we could hear, Tower Paddles, Radio Check...which meant the deck was about to be ready to recover aircraft. If you're still holding when paddles makes that call, you're late!!!
 
ppragman said:
Really, that's unfortunate. I'm still not going to "military" it up for another couple years if I do join, personally, I've still got some wildness and spam can flying to get out of the way before I started doing dangerous duties for Uncle Sam. What's the latest a guy can apply again?
Click to expand...

It's an eat your own community from what I've been told but again, second hand information. We have two P-3 pilots and at leat one E-6 pilot down here in Kingsville but I think that's more about fun flying versus community dissatisfaction.
 
Orange Anchor said:
In this case the USAF guys were not on track and were not performing at the expected level of proficiency. My friend noted a trainer was open so they could come up to speed and they declined to the opportunity.

As a check airman I used to tell the guys at the start of training we were a team and there was essentially a line from the start point to a level of proficiency where they would be signed off for the check ride. A few times I had to show where the line was and where their performance was. And that at the current rate of learning they would not be ready for the check ride in the prescribed training sessions unless something changed. My friend was just advising them the rule was train to proficiency, not just train in 8 sim sessions.
Click to expand...

Thank you - I understand. And yes, "weather" should have certainly been "whether." Thanks for pointing that out.
 
Ok so I was confusing "the break" with "breaking the deck"-thanks. I had a buddy that slapped the rounddown and broke his airplane so bad he almost went for a swim, but nursed it back to shore. I don't think he broke the deck though.

So do you guys use a marshalling stack for every recovery cycle?
 
granlistillo said:
Ok so I was confusing "the break" with "breaking the deck"-thanks. I had a buddy that slapped the rounddown and broke his airplane so bad he almost went for a swim, but nursed it back to shore. I don't think he broke the deck though.

So do you guys use a marshalling stack for every recovery cycle?
Click to expand...

During the day in good weather the stack is overhead the boat. Like Bunk said, it starts at 2k at 1k foot increments. On my last cruise (if I remember correctly) there was a hornet and the prowler squadron at 2k, two hornet squadrons at 3k, a super hornet squadron at 4k and the E-2 at 5k. I can't remember where the S-3 was, but it must have been 4k when they were not a tanker. Normally one of the suadrons at 2k would break the deck, but if the timing worked out just right, someone at 3k could make a play for it. If someone wants to do a " hot" break, he needed to break the deck or else make his timing just right by hitting the break about the time the jet ahead of him is rolling into the groove. Looking for 45 seconds interval so sometimes you "have" to come into the break fast in order to make your interval good. All this is done zip lip which makes you wonder why tower has to talk so much when you are at home field.

At night or poor weather, the recovery is case III and then you go to what is called "marshal". Your DME will be your assigned altitude plus 15nm with the lowest altitude being 6k. There are many techniques for making your push time, but however you make it happen, you need to hit your assigned DME at your push time +/- 10 seconds. The interval at night is 1 minute. There are a more procedures for the penetration and final but I don't want to bore you. On my boat, nobody wanted 6k because the boat would always screw you by not being ready to take you when you showed up on the ball, so everyone was always hanging out listening for someone to check in and get assigned 6k, then there would be a flood of guys checking in.

Case II was is a combo between case I & III for when the visibility is marginal.
 
Thanks for that. Not boring at all! I was a guest of the admiral's staff on America's last cruise and the CAG LSO took me on his platform at night. I gotta tell you what you guys do is out of this world.
sorry for the thread hijack.
 
ppragman said:
I'm still not going to "military" it up for another couple years if I do join, personally, I've still got some wildness and spam can flying to get out of the way before I started doing dangerous duties for Uncle Sam. What's the latest a guy can apply again?
Click to expand...

FWIW, this is a risky way to look at it. It takes some guys several attempts -- literally years -- to be selected. If that's something you want to do, you should start trying NOW and do your FLAP flying in the mean time when you're waiting for things to happen.

Your plan seriously risks bumping up against that max age.
 
ian said:
And if you want to rack up hours crazy fast, the C-5 is the best option
Click to expand...
"Other Time" doesn't impress those that really look at quality time. After you subtract that, do C-5 pilots still get a large amount of time?
 
Hacker15e said:
FWIW, this is a risky way to look at it. It takes some guys several attempts -- literally years -- to be selected. If that's something you want to do, you should start trying NOW and do your FLAP flying in the mean time when you're waiting for things to happen.

Your plan seriously risks bumping up against that max age.
Click to expand...

If that happens, it'll be unfortunate, but at this point, I'm not ready for that kind of commitment (hell, I've already got a fiancee, let's not get carried away), gotta get some more adventure out of the way first. I appreciate the sentiment though. Also, I'm not necessarily wanting to limit myself to being a pilot for the military if and when I go for the plunge. The goal would be to be a military man and officer first, and an aviator second if at all, so as of yet, I'm holding back. If I join before I get more FLAPS, floats, and fun flying done, I'll always look back and wonder if it could have been different. Of course the opposite is true, and I could always look back and wonder what would have happened if I did fly for the military, but the honest truth is if there's one thing I've learned thus far, I'm still antsy and restless. I don't want to saddle Uncle Sam with an officer who would rather be (or could potentially see himself ) out elsewhere in the world doing other things. That'd be counter productive for both the military and myself.
 
ppragman said:
If that happens, it'll be unfortunate, but at this point, I'm not ready for that kind of commitment (hell, I've already got a fiancee, let's not get carried away), gotta get some more adventure out of the way first. I appreciate the sentiment though. Also, I'm not necessarily wanting to limit myself to being a pilot for the military if and when I go for the plunge. The goal would be to be a military man and officer first, and an aviator second if at all, so as of yet, I'm holding back. If I join before I get more FLAPS, floats, and fun flying done, I'll always look back and wonder if it could have been different. Of course the opposite is true, and I could always look back and wonder what would have happened if I did fly for the military, but the honest truth is if there's one thing I've learned thus far, I'm still antsy and restless. I don't want to saddle Uncle Sam with an officer who would rather be (or could potentially see himself ) out elsewhere in the world doing other things. That'd be counter productive for both the military and myself.
Click to expand...

USMC Infantry officer would be good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top