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OT: RVs and Aircraft Carriers

Tandem46

Well Known Member
As a Navy helicopter pilot I've landed on aircraft carriers before, but, what I'd give to land my RV on a carrier. Yesterday while flying back from lunch with my wife we spotted the Enterprise heading out for her last deployment before decommissioning. Can I use my tailwheel as a tailhook??

The Enterprise is America's oldest carrier and first nuclear powered carrier. Commissioned in 1961 she's over 50 years old!!

That's my left wing tip in the photo. The Airwing flew on not long after we took the photo. You can read about it here: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2012/...ier-enterprise-makes-final-deployment-031212/

PS - For those wondering, the photo makes us look closer than we actually were. I'd estimate we were roughly 5-7 miles away and we were at 6,500'. The ship had just come out of the Chesapeake Bay and was just entering the Atlantic.

sy33g5.jpg
 
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Interesting. Is there any special airspace (or common sense) restriction around a US Navy carrier in home port waters? I mean, yeah, I realize running inbound on one in the Red Sea would be a bad idea.....but how close can you fly in US waters?
 
Sure would be tempting to shoot an approach or even a touch and go on that wide open deck!

Its wide open right up to the 4 cables :eek:

Those things are pretty thick and held 4, maybe 6 inches off the deck so hooks can catch them. Cables removed? Im in!!! Now all we need is some music from Top Gun :cool:
 
Interesting. Is there any special airspace (or common sense) restriction around a US Navy carrier in home port waters? I mean, yeah, I realize running inbound on one in the Red Sea would be a bad idea.....but how close can you fly in US waters?

CV NATOPS (a governing doc for carrier ops, unclas version here) defines the Carrier Control Zone as a 5 mile radius, up to 2,500 msl. That's the airspace owned by the Air Boss for launch and recovery. The Carrier Control
Area is that airspace monitored by CATCC (Carrier Air Traffic Control Center), and is a 50nm radius to infinity (pretty confident you were on radar! ;))

There may be other regs, and NOTAMs likely apply in a port transit; and I'll look into applicable FARs as a science project (other squids welcome to join the search), but I definitely wouldn't penetrate the CCZ, and there could be aircraft holding at 5,000 or above well behind the ship (15-20 miles), so be cautious for fast movers all around the boat! As Dan said, pointing at the boat for any length of time, especially approaching the CCZ would probably be a poor choice. ;)

The fantasy of a low pass or a touch and go is a good one though (and yes, the cross-deck pendants would mess up your wheel pants Beef!)

Tobin, the LSOs would have given you a HOSX (High Overshooting Start...Underlined) :D

Fair Winds and Following Seas!
Bob
 
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One of our ag airplanes landed on a moored carrier in Texas, years ago. It is a decommissioned ship and Grant Lane from Texas had authorization to land an Air Tractor on it...after quite a bit of short field landing practise.

Best,
 
Funny story

Several years ago I read an account of a pilot who took the first flight in his newly built RV and found himself in an emergency situation with the only recourse being a landing on an aircraft carrier. The story was posted on the "RV List" about 8 or 10 years ago. It was a bogus account but very well written by a guy with a great imagination. If anyone can find this post and re-post it here I'm sure it would be well received.
 
Several years ago I read an account of a pilot who took the first flight in his newly built RV and found himself in an emergency situation with the only recourse being a landing on an aircraft carrier. The story was posted on the "RV List" about 8 or 10 years ago. It was a bogus account but very well written by a guy with a great imagination. If anyone can find this post and re-post it here I'm sure it would be well received.

30(?) years ago, there was a story in Plane and Pilot or maybe Flying magazine about an ex-Naval aviator performing a T&G on a decommissioned carrier being towed to its final berth. It was a good read and made you wonder if it was fact or fiction...
 
I can see my old stateroom!

She may be old, she may be ridden hard, she and I may have a love/hate relationship, but she always gave me a strong cat shot and a good wire at the end of a 7+ hour mission.

I have to admit, I hate seeing her turned into scrap. I really hope they don another boat with the name Enterprise.
 
Enterprise send off

Its nice to see some pics of the carrier leaving port. Should have figured someone with an RV would be airborne to celebrate the occasion.7&1/2 month deployment is a long time to be a way from family and friends. We should all be greatful for all the sailors that watch our backs so we can sleep well at night.
 
Here is a link to an online petition to name the Aircraft Carrier CVN-80 to USS Enterprise.

Link

The US Navy should always have an aircraft carrier named Enterprise!
 
Did a six month Med cruise on the Big E. Good times - and not so great ones too! I just happen to be in Norfolk a couple weekends ago and saw her at the pier before she left. I have to admit, I got a bit nostalgic.

All said, it's sad to see such a great warship sail off into the sunset. There's nothing greater than a living, breathing aircraft carrier doing flight ops.
 
Newport?

Last I checked, there were a couple of decommissioned carriers docked in Newport. With the wind blowing the right direction . . . :)
 
USS Enterprise

My youngest son, Jordan is on that ship right now serving in the Reactor dept.. I spent 3 days at sea on the ship this past summer as they were returning from their last deployement (Tiger Cruise for family). The living conditions on that thing are very hard. During our stay on the ship we got to go on deck for flight operations and saw an airshow and a supersonic low altitude F18 pass. I was standing 25 ft. from the flight line as they launched and recovered F18's. The most impressive sight was returning to Norfolk for the welcome home ceremony. When we rounded the bend into the pier with all the sailors "manning the rails" in their dress whites and 20,000 family members are shouting at the top of their lungs from the dock as "God Bless the USA" plays over the speakers on the pier was unbelievable and would bring tears to your eyes.

Wayne Petrus
RV8
 
There is a video somewhere (on youtube I guess) of one of the famous Redbull pilots taking off of a carrier with smoke on.. it's pretty cool.. If I remember correctly, he gets off in about 2 seconds..
 
Last I checked, there were a couple of decommissioned carriers docked in Newport. With the wind blowing the right direction . . . :)

Yes, the USS Forrestal (CV-59) and USS Saratoga (CV-60) were both in Newport RI, last time I was there. One is supposedly going to become a museum and one an artificial reef, can't remember which one though.
 
Close

I got to fly very close to one of our Aircraft Carriers while on base to final for FLL, Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport. I could have landed on it easy? It was lined up with my base leg. It was at anchor. No airplanes
were on the deck. Approach or Tower, did not mention it. I was flying my P35 Bonanza around 1993, pre 2001.Looked like it would have been easy to do.
 
Used to fly a 150 out of Apex Silverdale WA where we would make approaches to the Carriers at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, on the way to Kitsap County Airport. Decks were always cluttered so it would be a wreck if we ever had to continue. Lots of fun, years ago before Airspace tightened up.
 
During the final evacuation of Vietnam a Cessna O-1 Bird Dog landed on the USS Midway. The pilot, a Vietnamese Air Force Major brought his wife and five children with him.
 
Yes, the USS Forrestal (CV-59) and USS Saratoga (CV-60) were both in Newport RI, last time I was there. One is supposedly going to become a museum and one an artificial reef, can't remember which one though.

Forrestal was towed from Newport to Philly in June of 2010, so only Saratoga remains at Newport. And no, there are no tailhook cables on the deck to snag your gear. I have flown over her many times having a close look, dreaming up a poem:

Who would ever,
Need to know?
About just one little,
Bounce and go?
 
Bit of Humor

Recall SkyKing and Penny? I remember when Skyking and Penny flew their C-310 out to a carrier and landed to visit the Admiral! That was probably 50 years ago!

Jim Diehl RV-7A
Lock Haven, Pa
 
Tobinbasford,

Great photo - your comment about being at 6,500' and 7 miles away got me thinking.

Am I mistaken or is there any reason why you couldn't fly overhead at 1,000' MSL. Does an active carrier have class delta airspace around it? (don't recall any questions about that on the written test)

Its so close to shore so could you just overfly it like any other vessel (yes I know its well defended even without its fleet of aircraft on board.) Is there an approach frequency that they would be monitoring to avoid a surprise?

:confused:
 
Tobinbasford,

Great photo - your comment about being at 6,500' and 7 miles away got me thinking.

Am I mistaken or is there any reason why you couldn't fly overhead at 1,000' MSL. Does an active carrier have class delta airspace around it? (don't recall any questions about that on the written test)

Its so close to shore so could you just overfly it like any other vessel (yes I know its well defended even without its fleet of aircraft on board.) Is there an approach frequency that they would be monitoring to avoid a surprise?

:confused:

While you technically wouldn't be breaking any FAR's that I can think of, the radiation you would absorb from the plethora of radars targeting you would be enough to cook a chicken. Anything that gets near the boat, get seen. Things that get close, get scrutinized.

If flight ops was going on, you could drive right through the marshal stack (holding stack directly overhead the ship, prior to recovery). If you see a carrier out at sea, your best bet is to maintain a 10 mile standoff.
 
While you technically wouldn't be breaking any FAR's that I can think of, the radiation you would absorb from the plethora of radars targeting you would be enough to cook a chicken.

Back in the day, while doing my 1000's of laps around Midway in starboard delta in the good ol H-3, you could hear kinda of a ziiiiinnnnnnnggggg sound in the intercomm as the big radar pointed at you as it revolved around it's 360 degree search rotation. Often wonder how much I and my crew were cooked by that thing only a few 100 yards away at eye level.

An old squadron mate is the COO of the Midway museum in San Diego. They let the Redbull guy takeoff from there. Maybe we can work a "group buy" deal. "RV-6, call the ball"
 
Back in the '60s, I was a passenger in a Cessna 195 out of Santa Monica, California. We were on a short local flight and went out to the practice area just up the coast from Malibu. An aircraft carrier was offshore a few miles, not far, and we were high enough to get a clear view of her flight deck.

And so we got to watch them launch a couple jets, which came up and checked us out, and then recovered. It was pretty impressive and only took a few minutes.

We were well within five miles of it, probably only two or three miles.

Dave
 
USS ENTERPRSE

Tobin,

Nice timing! We saw a story on NBC Nightly News about her setting sail on the final voyage. You and Jayne really do get to see things there that others only can wish and dream about.
 
All the carriers I served on are either scrap or in mothballs (Ranger, FDR, Kitty Hawk). It's sad to see the Big E go, but she served us well.

Jim Bower
St. Louis
RV-6A N143DJ
Flying since 8/11
 
Is this one of them?



Taxesatwork.jpg

When I look at that, I just can't help but say, "Look at all the Shoes down in Shoeville!" I used to be one of them, too.

That is, until the Navy saw the error of its ways, eventually giving me six TA-4J arrested landings on that very ship, the USS Saratoga, CV-60 (to answer your question).

:D
 
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