I flew A-7Es back in ancient times and we had the ACLS system but few pilots trusted it enough to fly to touchdown in Auto Mode. We would usually fly a Mode 2, using ACLS steering data, to 3/4 mile, then fly the final approach strictly visual. The ACLS system resides on the ship, not the aircraft, and data is sent to the aircraft by data link gear. The radar locks on to a small radar reflector on the nose gear and since it's a phased array radar the radar pulses moved in a circular pattern, and the nose of the aircraft followed if on a coupled approach, since it is driven by the data link coupled to the Autopilot. That motion, along with the Captains remarkable ability to hide the ship in a T-storm before every night recovery just made for a too rough ride. In my Navy flying career I logged a grand total of 1 full auto approach to touchdown on the ship and, after changing my underwear, decided to not be so stupid and dense anymore.
Originally posted by A7drvr: I flew A-7Es back in ancient times and we had the ACLS system but few pilots trusted it enough to fly to touchdown in Auto Mode. We would usually fly a Mode 2, using ACLS steering data, to 3/4 mile, then fly the final approach strictly visual. The ACLS system resides on the ship, not the aircraft, and data is sent to the aircraft by data link gear. The radar locks on to a small radar reflector on the nose gear and since it's a phased array radar the radar pulses moved in a circular pattern, and the nose of the aircraft followed if on a coupled approach, since it is driven by the data link coupled to the Autopilot. That motion, along with the Captains remarkable ability to hide the ship in a T-storm before every night recovery just made for a too rough ride. In my Navy flying career I logged a grand total of 1 full auto approach to touchdown on the ship and, after changing my underwear, decided to not be so stupid and dense anymore.
My understanding is that it's gotten quite a bit better with technology advances. Is that true?
As far as I know the only thing that's changed is they've tweaked the computer programs to smooth out the oscillations. The system was always very accurate as far as lineup and glideslope. We had the same system at NAS Lemoore where I was homebased and I flew zillions of full auto passes to the runway. Another bad quality of the A-7 was the auto throttle. We were way back on power on approaches because we couldn't use the speedbrake (huge 8' barndoor on the belly) as on virtually every other carrier based airplane. So we were in the slow acceleration range of rpm at about 85-86% and the auto throttle would get way behind with the consequence being huge power changes. Made for some interesting passes at the back of the boat. Better to do it all yourself!
Thanks for the info. I've got some buddies who are currently or have flown various stuff off the boat and that's about as close as I get to Naval Aviation. So my knowledge about flying off a ship is all very second hand. I appreciate the first hand knowledge.
