VF-3 Carrier Ops Tips and Help.

Do YOU have what it takes to get all of these aircraft off of YOUR carrier safely? You will, after we get through with you.

First things first. In order to be an LSO, or a Deck or Air Boss, you must have sufficient experience in the aircraft, and do enough traps to be able to visualize yourself approaching the carrier from the aft gun turret on the Essex, or just behind the island on the Yorktown. It also takes experience of you actually sitting in those locations, and watching good traps and bad, learning where on the deck is most effective to snag the cable, and the attitude of the guy that just got the ramp strike. The minimum traps to recieve this experience depends on your comfort on the approaches, the number of times you watch from the side, etc. You will be subject to a very watchful eye and ear(conversation on RW) on your own approaches and landings, and hear calls (downwind, upwind, crosswind and base) from the pilots youre gonna be training under. Expect to have your ass chewed if you screw up. Your job as an LSO is to make sure that your fellow pilots make it home safe so they can eat that "fine Navy chow". VF-3 may not be the oldest squadron out there, we may not be the most professional, but we ARE that damn good. Those of us "veterans" from a prior squadron (I wont mention which one), are some of the best I've personally seen. We'll be even better after a while of landings, takeoffs, LSO and Boss training. As far as I know, the current record for any squadron is 14 Hellcats on one carrier at one time. We'll make it at least 17 one day. How we will do it is my next point.

A few things to mention. Practice! (say it 3 times.) Nuff said. When you're flying single player, do a single mission, see how many times you can land on a stationary carrier without gettin' your wheels wet. See how sharp of an angle you can land at without crashin'...simple stuff like that.

As you can see below, there are 4 legs to an aircraft carrier approach pattern: upwind, crosswind, downwind and base. Make yourself familiar with these terms, as you'll be using them quite often as a Naval Aviator.

something else to mention, that is required to know, but not used terribly often, are the 4 holding locations. 12 o'clock (off the bow), 3 o'clock (off the starboard side), 6 o'clock (off the stern) and 9 o'clock (off port side). these positions are used today on modern aircraft carriers to allow time for other aircraft to trap, if the aircraft in the hold patterns are good to go on fuel state. for our purposes, it will be for fuel, or for distancing aircraft enough for a safe final and landing gap

If you download the Roi Base mission from my downloads page, you'll find 4 carriers, 3 of which are fairly easy to land on. Learn how to land one any of them, but I'd go with the largest one, the Essex class carrier in the small harbor towards roughly North and near the center of the island, first.

A critical piece of information for you is airspeed. If you are too slow, youll obviously stall and smack the back end of the boat (if you get that far), maybe shear or snap your gear on the deck, or have to power up and make a go-around. If too fast, you'll either rip the arrestor cables out, and your plane will be screwed up until you go back to the Ready Room for a new one, or you'll again, shear or snap your legs on the deck, or just completely miss the wires entirely.

I've learned, in my year and a half of CFS2 flight, that generally optimal landing speed for any aircraft on the carrier is around 95-105 knots. I've seen people, including myself, make "hot traps" at around 150 kts, but they need nearly the entire boat to stop, and if they're slightly off center, or veer to one side, or if they're damaged, they usually end up doin this cool high speed, uncontrollable sideways flip into the water, like a hammerhead combined with a split S (not pretty!!). If they did manage to get their plane stopped on the boat, there's a good chance that they ripped the tail off. I've done it.

Pay attention to your LSO, hes not waving his arms for exercise

If you decide to use less than 95 knots, you'll notice that your aircraft is somewhat more difficult to control, but if you know what you're doing, it makes for a great short landing and clearing the landing area for your wingmen. That brings me to my next point.

Upon landing and coming to a full stop, raise your hook. That's fairly important. (no brainer) Next, throttle up and move towards the bow (front) of the boat. You will get there and make a 90 degree RIGHT HAND turn, then another. This will put you so that you're facing aft (towards the stern, or back) of the boat. Taxi up on that side (you should have the superstructure on the same side you're on, or you're obviously still a nugget. Taxi aft as far as you can, unless someone's in front of you. Generally, if you're in training, you'll see your instructor sitting there near the aft gun. If he is there, taxi up to about 15-20 ft from him. You can get closer if you both have the mdledit (collision bubble fix) set for 3 or less. (if set at 3, you can go to within 7 ft.) If hes not there, taxi up to where you're flush with the wires. SET YOUR PARKING BRAKE!! You'll thank me later. If you havent already done it, raise your flaps. DO NOT FOLD YOUR WINGS!!!!!

Quick note: when you land, if there's someone on deck,land as far to the left side as possible, to avoid hitting them.