Calling all Aircraft Carrier Veterans !

[RoyJackson]

Just had a A-3D arrive at NAS Whidbey Island to be put on display. Largest aircraft to ever fly from Carriers. We always had two onboard from either VQ-1 or VQ-2. Loaded, about 80,000 pounds. Nick named ALL THREE DEAD, didn't stand a change of ever getting out of that belly bailout hatch.

mark

I would have thought the C-2 was the biggest bird capable of launching.

I do remember those A-3D's and the crytic nickname. My "shore" duty was at NAF Naples, Italy. Sometime in the first month I was there, we had an A-3D (returning to Rota) take off...got a few hundred feet altitude then invert and dive into the ground. Saw the launch, inversion and dive (I was on the ramp at the time). Crash was a few miles off the base.
8 souls aboard that bird. That was the first (of three) aircraft accident sites I had to go to (recovery detail). Grim...

 

[mjarrels]

One on the Whales we always had onboard was always a "hanger Queen" destin for a crane off at the end of cruise. A-3's were born in the 50's during the cold war for nuke duty. Always had VQ-1 Det Cubi. Motto "in god we trust, all others we monitor".

mark, Retired NAS Cubi Point Chief. I could tell you some Navy stories.

 

[RoyJackson]

One on the Whales we always had onboard was always a "hanger Queen" destin for a crane off at the end of cruise. A-3's were born in the 50's during the cold war for nuke duty. Always had VQ-1 Det Cubi. Motto "in god we trust, all others we monitor".

mark, Retired NAS Cubi Point Chief. I could tell you some Navy stories.

You might remember this, Mark...Commander James H. Flatley landing and launching a C-130 on the Forrestal.
It was a one time test to see if it could be done as an emergency UNREP.

 

[mjarrels]

C-130's are amazing aircraft, especially when using JATO. Can land and takeoff from a football field. Saw a picture of one trying to land at a Eglin AFB using forward facing JATO. Fired a second too soon and crashed, literally stopped forward flight in seconds. Had a few flights on some VRC-50 C-130's, lots of yaw with those four engines. Back to some original posts, saw RA-5's fly at NAS Key West years ago. Maintenance manhour to flight hour were some of the Navy's worst. Blue Angles always do a C-130 JATO takeoff.

mark

 

[RoyJackson]

C-130's are amazing aircraft, especially when using JATO.
mark

Yeah...never forget the first time I saw one backing up (reversed the pitch of the props, I suppose). I just never realized an aircraft could back up...
The C-130 is another old bird...Korean War vintage, I guess.

 

[NativeSon]

One on the Whales we always had onboard was always a "hanger Queen" destin for a crane off at the end of cruise. A-3's were born in the 50's during the cold war for nuke duty. Always had VQ-1 Det Cubi. Motto "in god we trust, all others we monitor".

mark, Retired NAS Cubi Point Chief. I could tell you some Navy stories.

We had a A-3's aboard the USS Hancock CVA19 (68-71). It was 50's vintage I guess, but so were the F-8's we were flying combat and photo escort missions in Nam. Heck the ship was 1944 vintage. My Squadron VF-211 had 6 Mig kills and our sister squadron VF-24 had 4.

One day as a plane captian I got caught out in the middle of the flight deck humping my chain bag when a A-3 on the cat was turning up for launch. The JBD was worthless on the whale so the full blast of both engines sent me skipping down the deck till I slammed to a stop against the crash truck. Waited till the whale was launched then got up and proceded on my way. It did get real hot there while waiting for the launch.

Charlie

 

[mjarrels]

Had a young kid performing maintenance under a JBD when I was on the Carl Vinson, supports failed and the young kid was under it when it fell back flush with the deck.

mark

 

[RoyJackson]

Had a young kid performing maintenance under a JBD when I was on the Carl Vinson, supports failed and the young kid was under it when it fell back flush with the deck.

mark

OUCH!!!

 

[vaskeet]

the person who taught me to work the flightdeck went down a s-3 intake while working the deck we identified he by the name on his pants. My body carries many scars and old injuries from 20 years of naval avation. But at times I still miss the thrill and the teamwork Randy

 

[whateg0]

Never served on a carrier. Started out as a Nuke ET, though. One of the last classes in Orlando. Then got selected for ROTC. A year into that and I wasn't happy, so I chose to exit ROTC and go back. Seems that once you are out of the pipeline, you are out of the pipeline, so became a SRQ-4 tech on DD974 and FFG32.

Dave