Sometimes chains are a ‘good’ thing…
This plane captain is waiting for his bird to be spotted on the flight deck so he can chain it down.
The ONLY times a bird isn’t chained down on the deck or in the hangar is when they are being towed, or on deck if the pilot is in the jet and it’s getting ready to taxi or in the launch sequence.
Supposedly there is non-skid on the carrier decks, but by mid-cruise, it’s usually worn off to the point that the deck is getting slick. Add spilled oil, hydraulic fluid, etc. and it gets REALLY slick!
And with the noise on the flight deck during launch/recovery, you can’t hear anything. It’s even more ‘fun’ at night, when the only lights are red lights around the edges of the deck.
I absolutely believe that the flight deck crew more than earns their hazard pay.
But other than making the chowlines really, really, long, and using vast quantities of the water we make, I don’t exactly know what the do to earn their base pay! 🙂
I was a hole snipe on Forrestal for two years.
I much preferred my shop on the patio.
John, don’t forget leaving hatches propped open so that the air conditioner units are overloaded and break down while it’s 110 degrees in the Persian Gulf.
That’s the most sensational bling I’ve ever seen.
I wonder if he has a matching grill. He doesn’t look like the type to smile, though; at least, not while he’s working.
So, I guess we will never know.
Ow. Pat, Assam tea out the nose hurts!
Macho.
1. Those are for calm seas. Wait until heavier weather, and they go to 18 point tie down! Then the Plane Captains really get loaded up.
2. Woe be the PC who pisses off the Handler
3. Same chain tie-down technique has been around for.. oh… about 70+ years.
BTW, back in the day, my 310 bubbas liked the extra weight of the chains when moving around on the roof. The F-4 and A-7 exhausts were low and would sweep you off your feet.
(My one experience with the RF-8 on deck was a real eye opener.)
IMO, the -14 and -18 were much friendlier on deck.
Please keep in mind that my experience on the flight deck can be measured in only days as opposed to months. All of my time was back aft.
F-8’s and A-7’s (and F-4’s can really sneak up on you with the adjustable nozzle) will sweep you off the deck in a hearbeat. There is still a padeye with my fingerprints embedded in it to avoid such a fate. But the E-2/C-2’s at night scared me even more because you could not feel any air to tell it they were turning or not. To this day, I can’t walk through a prop arc even if the prop has been removed!
John- At least the FID made water…sigh… Coral Maru not so much…
Jet- LOL
Hereso- Ouch!
Pat- Really??? LOL
TXRed- Coffee isn’t much better… sigh
WSF- Nah, just another day at work.
Mikey- We did 8 and 12… And no NEVER piss off the handler OR the Air Boss.
Jet- My one cruise was as a PC on RF-8s. So true!!! Roll you up in a ball and ‘kick’ you half way down the flight deck!
He DOES sorta look like “Mister T”, doesn’t he?
Nothin’ but respect for the carrier M.O.S.’s.
Snakes to bite you everywhere.
Skinned- Me neither!!!
GB- Thanks!
Hi Jim, looked at that picture and had a dose of homesickness. My First carrier was the USS Fook us all CVA-59. Was out there in the Med. with an old AD5N towing targets for the cans and others to shoot at. Arrived onboard from Naples the usual way as an AD3 PC. Absolutely no training as to what I would be doing when not flying. Had manila lines to tie that baby down in the ammo boxes, flashlights with white lenses, and a few other no-no’s as I found out though my first night onboard.
I had given too me , nine of those Hurricane tie downs. After all my faux pas, they moved me about every 20 mins, all nine if you please! every time!
Been organizing all my journals for all the time I spent in the USN, 22+ into some kind of a book for the Kids. It is kind of slow coming together and is competing with the little “C” beasties to see who gets to the finish line first!
Thanks again for posting that picture!
Ev- If you need some help, let me know.
Woodland camouflage uniform.
On a ship at sea.
Conducting operations against a desert.
McC- sigh…
OldNFO: Good friend of mine was Air Boss on USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN with me in early 90’s. His callsign…OGRE.
Awesome! May his BPC always be shiny and chrome.