The Aircraft Carrier Thread.

[Sbob]

OK, I threw out enough hints about starting this thread so HERE WE GO.
In the previous B-52 thread, "Getting Buffed", I kind of threw you all a curve ball. I had you spend a lot of time in trainers before you loaded the actual airplane.
This thread will kind of follow the same pathway. Now I know, this is SOH and almost all of us have been doing this flight sim stuff for a long, long time. The whole idea of this thread is to cover ALL the stuff you'll need to enjoy carrier flying in FS2004 and (to a lesser extent) in FS2002. That means I'll be covering aircraft. Where to find them and how to fly them. I'll also be covering aircraft carrier scenery. Where to find it and how to get it installed right. Later on, if there's interest, I'll show you how to install your own carrier and how to position it for realistic flights.

If you've tried landing on a carrier in the past and got frustrated, this thread is for you. If you've recently re-installed FS2004/2002 and you're just bombing around the country-side in a Cessna, that's even better. Landing on carriers is a LOT of fun once you have enough experience. That includes landing at night and in hairy weather. Also, I know, things are better in FSX, XPLANE, P3D, DCS, and the modern versions of MSFS. Things like working on aircraft and scenery in FS2004 are a LOT easier and you don't need a serious budget, so there.. Also, I have my sims set up for 60 FPS and I don't have 8 grand worth of hardware. If you do, then more power to you. I'm happy with FS2002 and FS2004 and I'm in no hurry to upgrade anything besides scenery or flight dynamics.

Meanwhile, if you already have a ton of experience with this topic, I'd REALLY like it if you would join in. We all learn from each other. What I write isn't gospel, its just stuff I've picked up over the years. I've already asked a couple of folks you'll recognize to join in. What we have in common is lots of time learning how to work in the Immoveable Object that is also known as the United States Navy. I didn't have Carrier Time, they did. The only flying I did in the Navy was either as a commercial passenger or underwater. The closest I got was trying to set up some cross-deck training and fly on a P-3 Orion. That plan quickly fizzled when the P-3 folks figured out that I was one of the guys they were always fighting with during exercises and drills. Still, we come from VERY tight-knit communities in the Navy and I'd never want to change that. If you have a bunch of hours in CFS, by all means jump in. To me, an aircraft carrier has an angled flight deck and a reactor to make hot water. My Era is the later 1980's and 1990's because I got to live it.

So, lets get this thing started with some quick "Do's and Don'ts". Everything I post here is "IMO" but I learned it all the hard way.

-The first rule is DON'T BE A BUTTERFLY. This is a variation of an expression I learned in the Philippines. What it originally meant, well never mind, but in this context it means pick a pipeline and stick with it. You want to fly a Tomcat? By all means, go for it. Once you get there, however, don't start jumping in a Phantom, or a Viking, or a Prowler, or a Hornet, etc., etc. Getting good at carrier landings means understanding YOUR airplane completely and how to fly it. NEVER try to land at night or in bad weather until your airplane starts to feel a little boring. For that matter, try to avoid landing on a carrier AT ALL until you've mastered that plane's flight dynamics and systems. I harp on this stuff because I learned it the wrong way. I flew planes once they became available and loaded the scenery in the same way. Now, you can set yourself up in a realistic situation so your experience builds on itself. My first carrier "trap" was in FS2002 using Alphasim's RA-5C Vigilante. Totally the wrong plane to learn how to do this stuff for the first time but it was available and mostly stable. If I caught a wire once in five or six attempts, that was the best it was going to get.

-The next rule is DO HAVE A PLAN. What Era do you want to fly in? What plane from that Era is your destination? There are plenty of Navy aircraft and trainers available, from the years between WWI and WWII to almost present day. Trying to learn ALL of it will get frustrating, so figure out where you really want to end up and then work in steps to get there. That way, your first carrier landing won't feel like a total surprise and more like a reward.

 

[jgf]

My Beech C17 really gets around




Naval technology is amazing, this carrier appears to be taking off from the plane

 

[Sbob]

That is why you need a good flatten BGL and we'll cover it later.

 

[Sbob]

Meanwhile, there's this:

FS2K to FS9 Stennis.zip

USS Stennis scenery by Javier Fernandez for FS2K with updates for FS2002 now available for FS9. This is the complete package, minus AI aircraft. Carrier is located a couple of hundred miles West of California. READ the README file prior to...

sim-outhouse.org

I spent a lot of effort on the README file, so do yourself a favor and READ it.
Kidding, kind of. This is an old scenery install and I didn't want to rename any of the BGLs or the files I created so it works in FS9.
What that means is that I've tested the heck out of this scenery and its very stable in FS9, however you can have problems with floating or sunken scenery if you don't pay attention to how the files need to be layered.
I created the AFCAD, traffic, and flatten BGLs and you are welcome to play around with them. That's why I kept them with names that are friendly to programs like AFCAD2 and TrafficTools.

Install is very easy if you have other carrier scenery installed like Carriers 2006. If not, you'll need to create some folders and install them in your scenery location, ie, the Addon Scenery folder.

What you get is some old-school (landable) carrier scenery a couple of hundred miles west of California. It was the location that was the reason I wanted to update this carrier to FS9. The carrier itself is surprisingly good in terms of detail but the flight deck texture might need a little work.
This is "O G" scenery from FS 2000 and I like the idea of preserving it for FS9.

I included a TRAFFIC BGL but no AI aircraft. I used the (land based) Hornets from MAIW's NAS Lemoore and Whidbey Growlers packages along with a (carrier based) SH-60 Seahawk from the Abacus Flight Deck series of carriers.
Everyone has their favorite AI and textures, so with a little editing and Traffic Tools you can add the AI aircraft you want. All you need to do is edit the Aircraft text file after you de-compile the traffic bgl with Traffic Tools. Its really easy and it kept the download manageable. The flight plan the AI uses is pretty simple. I started with the traffic BGLs that were included in Carriers 2006 and tweaked it slightly so you get full comms (callsign and flight number) between the AI and the carrier. What you get is three jets and one Helo. It isn't a full-on Alpha Strike, more like the normal daily routine. The AI also doesn't get in the way as much.

Of course, there's an Easter Egg. Load up the scenery (airport ID is cv74) in FS and select the Tower View. Its now the LSO View from rear port side of the ship on the flight deck. You may want to hit the + or - keys a few times to get the perspective right. You can also use this to see what the LSO sees (AKA The WOMBAT!! View). Record your best approach and trap then RATE your performance based on where your hook touched the deck.

Like I said earlier, the files outside the main Stennis2K folder were created by me and you are more than welcome to play around with them.
If there's interest, I'll write up a post on how to create your own Flatten and AFCAD BGLs from scratch so you can install your own custom carrier scenery.

 

[Sbob]

Its time to map-out your Pipeline.

Start by figuring out what you want to fly and where you want to fly it. The US Navy has a bunch of flying jobs and a VERY good training system to match the right pilots with the right airplane.

Let's start with the Fast Jet pipeline.
Fighters are great but fighters can also get boring after a while. We're talking about the Tomcat and, to a degree, the Phantom (the F-4 was also tasked with air-to-ground missions). Your only job would be air-to-air and anti-air fleet defense. Getting to the Tomcat or the Phantom as a "first assignment" means graduating as "the best of the best". More than that, it means fitting into some tight requirements in terms of physical stature (its possible to be too tall or too short, too wide or too thin), eyesight and hearing (we're talking about astronaut training stuff), and a very high degree of smarts and hand-to-eye co-ordination. We're talking about the top two to three people (maybe) in an initial flight training course. Forget the movies, the pure fighter jobs mean being able to land a high performance jet at night and in the rain on a carrier deck. NONE of this is supposed to be easy.

Just below the pure fighters are the Attack and later Fighter Attack aircraft. These are aircraft like the Intruder, Corsair II, and Hornet family. Where the pure fighters can win an air-to-air battle, the attack planes can win a war. Which is why the Navy has a LOT of them. Attack jets tend to be more stable in flight (and easier to land) due to their mission- dropping warheads on foreheads, precision bombing, anti-ship attack, "Iron Hand" attack on SAM and Radar sites, and probably some other stuff I forgot. As you may have guessed, most of the slots available in the Fast Jet pipeline go to the Attack squadrons.

Next on the ladder are the Fixed Wing pipeline jobs. We're talking carrier and land-based aircraft that pull "Yeoman" duty. Patrol and surveillance aircraft like the P-3 Orion, E-2 Hawkeye, and Cargo aircraft like the C-3 "COD". If you think these jobs aren't important, try living at sea without them.

Last, but not least, are the Rotary Wing jobs. The US Navy has a ton of helicopters for a very good reason. Imagine you're paddling around in the ocean after having to eject. You'd better HOPE there's a Helo on the way to pick you up.

In the next thread I'll dive a little deeper into these training pipelines. What you'd be flying and where.

While its outside the scope of this thread, its important to understand that in the real world, the NEEDS OF THE NAVY COME FIRST. No matter if you're the next Chuck Yeager, you really don't have a lot of control when it comes to WHERE you wind up as a Naval Aviator.

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

Last, but not least, are the Rotary Wing jobs. ... You'd better HOPE there's a Helo on the way to pick you up.

...the NEEDS OF THE NAVY COME FIRST.

As a dyed in the wool RotorHead, I can attest to both of these.
I ran the USMC SAR Detachment at Iwakuni Japan for a year, and there are a few folks that don't say bad things bout helos after a night water rescue (fast mover hit the water, low on final, "It was a dark and stormy night")
And despite my grades at NAS whiting, the week I had pipeline selection ALL of us got helos.
So now I'm FW and RW qualified (5k hours, half and half on each side of the flightline).

 

[Sbob]

I was homeported in Sasebo back in the late 80's.
We were practically neighbors.

I still Jones heavily for those hot cans of Georgia Coffee you could get in a vending machine.

I have a dumb question for you that's making me jump the shark a bit: What was the deal with the Marine Hornets at Iwakuni?
Did they deploy to the carrier out of Yokosuka (USS Midway when I was there) or were they land-based only?

 

[Sbob]

So, a quick aside:

Who are you? Getting your butt in a Navy aircraft means that you already earned a four year college degree before you put on your flight suit.
The Elite officers attended THE NAVAL ACADEMY also known as Annapolis and are sometimes known as Ring Knockers.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Eow-pvgpL._AC_SX679_.jpg

It should be noted that the Academy does not train future Lieutenants, they train future Admirals. This becomes important later on, just realize that the academy grads are the closest thing the Navy has to Made Men. You can easily, and its expected, pull a twenty year career and retire with your own flag.

Next in the pecking order are the NROTC/ROTC college grads. Think of NROTC as a kind of Minor to your degree where you studied Military Bearing and Traditions. This is also a handy screening tool and YOUR PERMANENT RECORD from college can help place you in the Aviator pipeline.

Last up (mostly) are the OCS (Officers Candidate School) grads. Basically, at some point in your college career you thought being a Naval Officer might be cool. This is a VERY competitive process in most cases. Sometime during your Junior or Senior year, you'll need to line up Sponsors (think Congressmen and Senators in D.C. plus a nice letter from your Governor) and submit a written package to the Navy. Believe it or not, what you studied in college is not as important as how well you did. Your GPA is super important. If you majored in Mech Engineering or Aerospace, you could get beaten out by some dude with a degree in Basket Weaving and Poli-Sci who has a higher GPA or played for one of the teams. This isn't a glitch, its more like being a Smart Operator. There's also the Family Tree Route. If Mom or Dad retired after 20 years in uniform or were listed KIA, MIA, or POW, you get a shot at OCS (just like Richard Geer in An Officer And a Gentleman).

Also, believe it or not, this is how most of the folks in the Ready Room got their start in Naval Aviation. The Academy and the NROTC programs just don't provide enough bodies. The OCS folks are Commissioned Officers just like the Academy grads, HOWEVER, those commissions are "conditional" and based heavily on The Needs Of The Navy. During the Cold War and the War On Terror, this wasn't a big deal. The Navy always needed Aviators and Officers in general. When ever the folks in D.C. start saying "Peace Dividend" a lot, buckle in. Your future is now up for grabs.

The Navy also has Warrant Officers like the Army, but they tend to be more of a rarity. In my experience, Warrants didn't fly anything (like in the Army) or even get close to salt water. All I know is that they exist and their collar devices look a lot like the stuff a Chief would wear. Half of the time they would ball you out because you didn't salute, half of the time they ball you out because you did.

Last up, and only listed because they exist, are the Mustangs. Mustangs are former enlisted personnel who became commissioned line officers.
I had the privilege of working for two Mustangs on my first boat, the USS Barbel. The first was my department Boss, the NAV. Sadly, we lost him when we had our "OOOPS". The second was my second Skipper (also on the Barbel). You might think that because they started out as enlisted sailors they would be super cool to the enlisted folks. You would be wrong, but that's another story...

Anyway, let's take a quick look at Rank and how getting promoted works.
Fresh out of OCS, your rank would be as an Ensign . That means YOU ARE DANGEROUS, not just to yourself but to everyone you may be near.
You have all of the privileges the other officers get (but not the paycheck). This is mostly what makes you a danger. What you don't have, yet, is the experience. In Aviation, finishing your first phase of training (imagine a Cessna) gets you an automatic BUMP to Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG). LTJG's are still dangerous, but you know how to have a good time without getting in trouble. Depending on the Era, this is probably where you land on a carrier for the first time, earn your wings, and report to your first Squadron. For you former enlisted types, LTJG is roughly the same as getting promoted to E-4 or Petty Officer Third Class. Then again, if you're former-enlisted, this post will, at most, give you a good chuckle. But thanks for reading it, just the same.
Getting promoted to Lieutenant is mostly automatic, you just need two years in-grade as a LTJG and a clean record. LT's are roughly equivalent to enlisted E-5's or Petty Officer Second Class. You're now a "self starter" and you don't need to be constantly supervised. This is generally thought of as the "Golden Time" in your Naval career. In short, LTs get stuff done because its expected of them. You're on the Flight Schedule and you're stacking up the hours in your log book. In many ways, this IS as good as it gets. Especially when it comes to flying. I've gotten to know some great Career LTs. Moving up beyond this point is no longer automatic, you need to prove that you can be a Lieutenant Commander also known as The XO. At this point, your flight hours WILL begin to drop because you'll be in charge of a LOT of other stuff, mostly shuffling admin paperwork. This is why I'm generally not a big fan of XO/CO/CAG paint jobs. They look flashy as all get-out BUT these planes aren't cranking out the "meat and taters" hours on the flight board (in most cases).

Typical assignments to Squadrons tend to run two-to-three years with a possible second squadron tour or a couple of years assigned to shore duty (for the most part, shore duty allows you to keep your sanity and your marriage intact) . For two-seat aircraft crews, the Navy prefers to fill one seat with a nube and the second seat with one of the squadron gray-hairs OR two experienced LTs.

Some stuff I knew I would forget- Squadron Life tends to follow "the rule of threes". The squadron will be in a Pre-deployment work-up, Deployed to who-knows-where for six to nine months (or more) or in a Post-deployment "cool down" and maintenance cycle. Deployments tend to happen two or even three times a year, depending on what's going on. The typical flight schedule for Pre-deployment might feature three or four 2-ish hour training flights per week, most in daytime but (roughly) every third flight will feature some time at night. On deployment, you're again on a "rule of three" schedule but flying every two to three days. Figure one flight early in the morning, one after lunch, one at night to keep you sharp. Deployed flights are VERY dependent on what's going on as far as time in the air.
If you're new to "squadron life", expect a LOT of stick-time so you become "qualled on EVERYTHING". The Navy is a bit of a stickler when it comes to Quals and you can expect to be flying nearly every day (and twice on Sundays). Nothing builds Experience like, well, experience and its something you REALLY need, especially landing and hitting the "three wire" on a consistent basis. Also, expect to be flying off the wing of the CO, XO, or one of the senior pilots until THEY get a good idea of who you are. No pressure (gulp), this is the best way to learn all of the stuff you need.

Finishing up, lets take a look at your Commission in general. For pilots, the Navy spends a lot of time and money to get you trained-up. They're going to want a lot of that back in terms of work. Figure that your initial commission for a flight assignment will run for ten years. That should take you up to being a seasoned LT with one or two squadrons under your belt plus some time doing Admin or school on land. This is the standard pipeline for OCS grads. For Academy grads its a little different, you're expected to run the full 20 years BUT you can opt for the civilian life at this point. You're just wasting a ton of potential is all. You may extend your Commission as long as it meets the needs of the Navy. The typical extension might run for two to four years, depending on what you plan to be doing. This is also (and usually) dependent on Promotion to a higher rank. Meaning- if they need you, you can stick around if you want.

It should be stressed that Navy Life in general is NOT a good fit with Family Life. In submarines, we had a yearly statistic known as The Annual Divorce Rate (Enlisted) and it usually fell somewhere between 95 to 98 per cent. To put that in context, if you got married on New Years Day, the odds were that you'd be paying alimony by Thanksgiving. The Navy expects its Officers to settle down and start having a manageable number of kids (two is great, three or more might mean having a chat with the Chaplain) -all while being Deployed or at sea.

 

[Sbob]

Who says I don't GET anything out of these threads?
Thanks to the YT algorithm, this showed up in my feed today.

He covers a LOT of the stuff I'm trying to cover.
Honest, I'll cover the trainers soon.

BTW, while the pictures are great, pay attention to what this guy says.