27 June 2011, 06:44
China Fleet SailorTribute to the Flight Deck Sailors
quote:
Back in time, there was a definite difference between "sound" and "noise." Sound (AKA rhapsody) was a Pratt & Whitney tuning up after a 240-hour check. Just pure purr, and no clank or clink. On the flight deck the sound really was that good. Purr, roar.
It was the burp, cough, chug that gave you the pucker factor of twenty-six. For the pilot and the crew you gave a quick prayer, then held onto a wooden chock with two banks of Manilla number nine hemp, and fought your way up the flight deck alongside your aircraft. To me, the sound (not noise) was pure harmony. Overwhelming, inspiring, like "The 1812 Overture."
The audio was the ultimate end of many hours of hot, sweaty, sometimes painful labors of love-like changing the five o'clock plug on the rear bank of cylinders. All planes taxiing forward, "Foxtrot" flying, then the klaxon and "Launch aircraft!" Not Men against the Sea, but Us with the Wind, the Sea, and Nature.
It was beautiful.
28 June 2011, 09:14
China Fleet SailorSound=maintainers doing low power turns on the A-6s on the flight deck over your stateroom all night.
Noise=some asshat climbing the walls with a buffer outside your stateroom all night.
Reality=the asshat outside your stateroom climbing the wall with a buffer isn't really an asshat; just some schlub doing his job, same as you.
I so vividly recall watching flight ops from the bridge of the USS INDEPENDENCE for the 2.5 years that I was on that ship. I wasn't on the bridge all of the time, but spent enough time up there to watch.
At first it looks like total confusion, and then, after you watch for awhile, it becomes like a symphony with swiss watch precision.
29 July 2011, 04:54
D HumbargerBeing on the flight deck during flight OPs was the only time that I wished that I had eyeballs in the back of my head & one in my ass too for good measure. Flight OPS at night..............Don't even go there.
U.S.S. America CVA 66
22 September 2011, 05:01
Lost OkiFlight ops at night during a storm and the wooden flight deck pitching 8 feet from center. Then there were the recoveries and hung 500 pounders sliding down the angled deck...yea, fun....
27 October 2011, 19:42
China Fleet SailorThen there was the night the A-7 hit the deck so hard when it caught the wire the front strut slammed up into the intake.
For a minute I was thinking,why's that Harley driver in burner?
