Stories From The Flight Deck

Best part of being a C-130 guy.....I have no idea what you are talking about. What is this flight deck you speak of. Good stories man.

Don't go gettin' too cocky, Devil Dog...

I was on the night shift. There's only two shifts at sea. Days - 12 hours on/12 hours off. Nights - 12 hours on/12 hours off. They run from 0600 to 1800 for days, and 1800 to 0600 for nights. This particular night, we had a full deck and were launching off the pointy end and recovering, as usual, on the angle deck. One of our helicopters, and by "our" I mean I was in a helicopter squadron, and this was our bird, came in for a hot-refuel and a hot-seat (crew change but the aircraft stays running while the crew changes and fuel is pumped). The helicopter spots are on the angle, and I was in the catwalk right off of the spot. It was a dark night, but calm seas. In he comes right over my head, and starts to settle into a hover. Next thing I know, my buddy, Jeff, jumps head first off the flight deck into the catwalk. I'm like..."What the...?" He gets up and says, "His gear are up! His gear are up!" About that time, he sets down and we hear "crack" and "pop." That was his anti-collision light on the bottom of the helicopter making contact with the flight deck. Just that fast he picked it back up, lowered the gear, landed and shut down. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Yeah, it's tough to follow procedures immediately after a zero-zero ejection (pilot likely got two swings of the chute, max). Add the fact that you're landing on a hard piece of steel moving at 15 knots and it's easy to understand why a water landing is preferred.

I was an A-6E B/N from '89-'94. Too many stories. Not sure where to begin...

Thank you to everyone for your service!

Lol,Oh I am aware, but it was decided that the juice wasn't worth the squeeze....I am Safe!....I think....