So you want to be a Carrier Pilot

I've seen more difficult landings on NES Top Gun

This is why Naval Aviators >>> any pilots elsewhere.
That added layer of landing on a boat makes them the best alone.

That is awesome. I love watching naval aviators slam the deck

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So you want to be a Carrier Pilot

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I can't...I'm black.

I bet he still got nitpicked in the debrief for incorrect comms or catching the wrong wire or something like that.

Military pilots are a rare kind

Landing on a carrier, on a heaving sea in broad daylight, looks tough as heck. The instrument approach makes it a wee bit harder but not too much.

I took up a former Naval Aviator in my Cirrus SR22T. He was a career helicopter pilot who retired about six years earlier, and didn’t fly the last eight years of his career. He had flown fixed wings when he got his wings and he flew a King Air for one year during his service. So it had been about 14 years since he had flown helicopters and about 20 since he had flown fixed.

We took off KNEW and flew to the practice area where he asked for the controls. At 2,000’ he executed steep turns at 45 degrees with rollout at 360. Everything was on the numbers - and I mean RIGHT on the numbers; there was no need for an error margin like they allow me in my flight reviews. Then he landed the plane, not great but acceptable. Any pilot can tell you that’s impressive considering how long since he’s flown.

That’s military discipline for you.

Buddy of mine was a f18 driver for the Marines. During carrier quals it came down to his last trap. Make it and you're good to go. Fail and find another plane to fly. Obviously he made it. He'd go on to fly Combat air patrol over San Francisco on 9-11, Combat missions with the Marines and Seals in Afghanistan, and made in to the final selection phase for the Blue Angeles (he was unsuccessful).

But it all came down to 1 landing back in the 1990s....

I am friends with the Naval aviator (retired, doing the job as a civilian employee of the company that built the simulator) who runs the Flight Simulator at NAS-Meridian, which is where most naval aviators go to flight school.

They teach them how to fly the T-46 trainer jets and land them on solid ground at NASM. They even have a field that is the size and shape of a carrier with arresting cables for them to practice on, and other fields around the area for landing and touch and go practice. Of course, the practice fields are not going up and down and tilting sideways like a carrier deck when the trainer jet approaches for a practice landing.

When they finish flight training, they transfer to NAS Pensacola and make their first landing on a carrier (USS Forrestal) out in the gulf. There is also a training station somewhere in Texas (I think) where other pilots train. Those guys go to Pensacola for their carrier training too.

My friend was a Top Gun and a Blue Angel, with combat experience during his flying days. He said his most common comment during simulator training is "Congratulations, you just cost the US Government 177 million dollars as you killed yourself."

He talked once about night carrier landings (which there must be a first for every carrier pilot). He said occasionally a student has to wave off their first night time landing multiple times before they finally put their trainer on the deck.

He says some never make it and must go back to Pensacola for a dry ground landing before going back out to try again another night, and if not after several tries and more training on dry land, to wash out of carrier duty.

He says some are so drained when they finally make their first night time landing that the crewmen must literally pick them up out of the cockpit and maybe even carry the off the deck.

My friend was an LSU graduate before he joined the Navy. He is a great guy.

Coxwain on 32 ft U Boat, supporting Carrier Opps,
Picking up Downed Pilots

No Lights, Pitch black, dodging Carriers, destroyers, cruisers.
Pilots only had The Meatball lights.

Very Scary, almost as scary as working Opps with Seals

“The only easy day was yesterday”