Naval aviation home movies

[MSU Alum]

The first video is operations on the deck of the USS Enterprise (may she rest in peace!) during F-14 flight ops getting ready to launch.

The video quality is a bit degraded. The multiple radar emitters on the ship interfered with my old style VHS tape video camera.
1. Initially, the ship is in a turn to bring it into the wind for launch. That's why the sun is moving from right to left.
2. At time :30 one of the handlers is directing the F-14 to taxi and when he points, it's to "hand off" the airplane to the next handler. These guys are 19 to 22 years old and all the guys on the deck are the backbone of the operation!
3. The guy at :33 recognized me. He was one of our trouble shooters.
4. #3 - the "yellowshirt - is another handler.
5. At :43, the F-14 with it's wings back to save space. Some aircraft fold their wings. This one is loaded with 2 Sidewinder missiles (outboard) and 2 Sparrows (inboard) with two external fuel tanks. We also always flew with 600 rounds of 20mm ammo internally. The airplane could carry a bigger loadout if necessary.
6. The big metal deflectors are JBD's (jet blast deflectors) to allow aircraft (and people) to be packed in closer together. They were water cooled to prevent damage from the afterburners.
7. The steam coming up off the deck is from the steam powered catapults. They're being phased out and replaced by electromagnetic catapults.....once they can get them to work!
8. At 1:29 the box being held up shows aircraft weight. The pilot confirms that and the info is fed into the catapult to provide the correct amount of force.
9. At 1:48, personnel pull the arming pins off the missiles, once they are pointed away from people and equipment.
10. At 2:01, the greenshirt is attaching the "hold back fitting" . It holds the airplane in place and is designed to break at a certain stress when the airplane thrust + catapult impulse gets above a threshold. The white bar in front attaches to the catapult. In the F-14, you'll see the front end "kneel" (a switch in the cockpit) and the bar will come down. The airplane taxis forward, the catapult attachment comes back (2:58) and engages the airplane and it's set to go.
11. The greenshirt double checks the attachment and (3:05) signals the catapult crew to apply tension. He then "expeditiously and enthusiastically exits the danger area", so as not to be sucked up into the engine intakes when power is applied....it's happened!
12. 3:27, the catapult officer shakes his hand to signal the pilot to apply power, shows open hand to apply afterburner, returns pilot salute (pilot salutes to signify he's ready to go). Touches the deck and points forward to signal the greenshirt on the side to fire the catapult, and there goes 65,000 pounds worth of F-14 in a little under 3 seconds! You hit the end of the stroke at about 180 MPH.

Hopefully not too much info.


Another home movie, my back seater has the video camera. We were replacing the F-5 with the F-16 and decided to go up with the various aircraft in the squadron (A-4, F-5, F-16, T-2) to commemorate the event with photos. I'm told my choice of music is bad...oh well.



This one is just gratuitous aviation porn and is much better quality (I didn't film it). It has in-flight refueling and shows the load out with the Phoenix missile. It's the big missile under the belly.

One thing, at time :18 you can see the area between the engines. It was designed as an airfoil. At very high angles of attack, the wings would stop producing lift and the actual body of the airplane between the engines would produce enough lift to keep you flying.
At 2:51 you can see a string on the nose. In the landing configuration, it was all over the place, but clean, it was steady and was used to dial in your rudder trim. That made the gunsight much more accurate, which was important because the cannon was pretty effective out to about 2000 feet against an airplane size target.


More aviation porn - Swiss Air Force, Alps. Just because it captures the feel of flying.

[oldschool47]

The first video is operations on the deck of the USS Enterprise (may she rest in peace!) during F-14 flight ops getting ready to launch.

"Nice Videos. Thanks for posting." -- Kent Nelson, E-5, 1990 FSB Alum

[MSU Alum]

The first video is operations on the deck of the USS Enterprise (may she rest in peace!) during F-14 flight ops getting ready to launch.

"Nice Videos. Thanks for posting." -- Kent Nelson, E-5, 1990 FSB Alum

Thanks for your service!

[Woodserson]

I don't know how any of those guys working the deck still have their hearing. Wowser.

Thanks for these videos and taking the time to discuss what's happening on deck. That's a lot of metal and weight and gas.