How Navy Pilots ACTUALLY Land on the Carrier

Welcome aboard. Today we're overhead the Rough Rider CVN-71 or the USS Theodore Roosevelt on the backside of a day ULT or unit level training sortie that concluded in the Pacific Ocean approximately 300 miles to the west of Guam. We just checked into port holding or low holding which is a left-hand pattern tangent to the BRC or base recovery course for the ship with the ship or mom at the three o'clock position and a maximum diameter of about five nautical miles. We're currently dash two in a three ship formation that we call a light division. You can clearly see our flight lead at our right two o'clock hooked down and our other wingman dash three is just outside of the camera field of view at our right three o'clock in cruise position on the opposite side of the formation. Our flight lead has positioned our formation cross circle or literally across the left-hand orbit pattern to a section of charlies at angels two or 2k. We're at 3k and once a section of 2k has commenced to break the deck for the overhead we'll continue our left-hand pattern and once we're a beam and aft of mom we'll descend to angels two or 2k and eventually to cherubs eight or 800 feet for the carrier overhead break. Let me tell you a little about the aircraft carrier we're about to land on. The USS Theodore Roosevelt CVN 71 was the fourth Nimitz class nuclear powered aircraft carrier in the United States Navy. She was named in honor of Theodore Roosevelt who was the 26th president of the United States and a huge proponent of naval power. The carrier's radio call sign is rough rider which is the nickname of President Roosevelt's volunteer cavalry unit during the Spanish-American war. The ship was initially launched in 1984, saw her first action during the Gulf War in 1991 and is still sailing to this day. Anytime and anywhere the TR reports for duty she brings 4.5 acres of sovereign U.S. territory and 97,000 tons of diplomacy. She's a floating city of 5,500 sailors from every state in the United States. At this time the embarked air wing on the TR was CAG 17 which consisted of eight navy and one marine corps squadron which collectively flew F-18 Charlies, Echoes, and Fox Rots, E-18G Growlers, E-2C Hawkeyes, C-2 Alpha Greyhounds, and MH-60 Romeos and Sierras which are Seahawk helicopters. The air wing enabled the ship to carry out a wide variety of missions including air warfare, strike warfare, surface warfare, undersea warfare, and the most important electronic warfare. The TR also shares the task of replenishing ships at sea and performing a variety of non-combat missions such as rescues at sea of people in distress, the transport of refugees and others in need of help, and my favorite the bearing of high-profile terrorists at sea. All right back to the jam. So you can see we've autocrossed under our flight lead and gone from the port to the starboard side. Our other wingman Dash 3 is still on our right side. The formation's in a cruise position what we call an echelon right formation as we approach the overhead. We just passed overhead mom for the second time. We're still at angels three and the section of fighters cross circle to us at angels two have commenced and are now pushing to break the deck. So as we keep our turn in and we get a beam and aft of mom we're going to descend from angels three to angels two or 2,000 feet and then eventually to 800 feet as we approach the overhead. We've got 180 degrees worth of turn to go now and you see me hanging on in what's called a loose cruise formation and I'm doing this for two reasons. First I want to make sure that my flight lead gets maximum maneuverability as we do these high angle of bank turns close to the deck so that he can maneuver freely and not have to worry about Dash 2 and Dash 3 having a hard time hanging on. Secondly as a Dash 2 aircraft I want to make sure that I set an adequate interval between myself and Dash 1 that can be replicated between Dash 3 and Dash 2 so that from the perspective of the ground the distance between Dash 1 and Dash 2 and Dash 2 and Dash 3 is the same so that we look good. All right we've got about another 45 degrees worth of turn to go and you can see mom now at our left 11 o'clock just in front of the big wake. A big wake is an indicator the winds outside are relatively calm and mom's trying pretty hard to pick up those extra couple knots for us to make that 25 to 30 knot wind over deck requirement in order to land the airplane. All right our flight lead rolls out we slowly slide up into a nice tight parade position so that we look good as we break overhead the fantail for the LSOs. Lead aircraft breaks we time 17 seconds continue straight ahead at 800 feet and set ourselves up for the overhead. 17 seconds will give us that target of 45 to 60 seconds recovery time between Dash 1 and Dash 2 which is what we're looking for. One last look at lead he looks good wingman on the right looks good kiss off see you later roll up on a wing throttle goes to idle nice pull from 350 knots about three three and a half G's as we drag the velocity vector across the horizon turning 180 degrees parallel to mom's heading but on the reciprocal of her course. We'll roll out to target 1.5 nautical miles of beam and you can see mom at our left 10. Slowing down now 250 knots gear comes down flaps go full as we slow down to on speed we'll knock out our landing checks this approach will be a PLM or precision landing mode approach. PLM is amazing from the perspective of a naval aviator little signature move hope you enjoyed that. This new flight control technology drastically reduces the number of inputs a pilot must make on final approach to the carrier with its optimized control laws and tailored displays PLM eases pilot workload and makes landing much safer and simpler additionally it improves overall recovery time reduces tanker requirements and streamlines training requirements. More than anything it makes a jet a whole lot easier to fly in the landing configuration which significantly decreases PAIL's personal stress levels specifically on case three recoveries. All right back to the jam we're rolling through the 90 now targeting about 450 feet as we continue our 27 to 30 degree angle of bank turn towards mom we're about 500 foot per minute rate of descent as we hold the turn approaching the 45 now looking for about 350 feet above the water targeting that 15 to 18 second groove length which starts at the wing salvo transition which is right about we go to our scan meatball line up angle of attack a little right turn as the LA moves from our left to our right meatball line up angle of attack meatball line up angle of attack meatball shoot wave off lights mill power disengage PLM rotate on speed fly up the LA I glance left to make sure no one's on our left wing signature move if you enjoyed that mash down on the like button don't ask about it in the comments left wing is clear let's check it back to the right now so we're no longer flying up the LA but rather parallel to the BRC of the ship left wing is clear here we go we'll start that turn I was just told by paddles that there was a problem with the deck lens setting the problem should be resolved now so the plan is for us to now recover behind our wingman dash three so we're up on a wing now targeting that 1.5 nautical miles of beam mom as we come back around we'll knock out our landing checks one more time a little more turn to go I go to the UFCV and engage PLM once again looking at mom looking at her instruments just about there rolling out now take a big breath just waiting to get parallel to the down which is the big white stripe on the back end of mom signature move feeling a lot better now looking to the left waiting there it is time to start the turn 27 30 degrees angle of bank once again we're going to target that 15 to 18 second groove length going through the 135 now nose is about a degree down as we increase our rate of descent targeting that 450 at the 90 once again wrapping it up just a little bit keeping that turn in as we target 350 feet at the 45 mom's coming into view now you can see her awake you can see the ship now coming around right out should be going off getting ready for the wings level transition right now meatball line up angle attack little right turn to get us on course a little more to the right meatball line up angle attack meatball line up angle attack meatball line up looking good looking good looking good a little stagger and trap power comes up to mill good trap two wire throttle comes back wing fold switch goes to fold hook goes up looking at my director he's saying come forward a little bit of power coming forward coming forward coming forward right turn now out of the la or the landing area coming right passes off the next director master caution light goes out no big deal keeping it coming he's saying hurry hurry hurry hurry hurry get out of the la okay we're out of the la a little more right turn now we can start to slow down passes off the next director all the way by the side of the ship i hate this after a trap it gets a little sketchy coming forward coming forward to slow down coming forward a little right turn a little right turn a little right turn a little right a little right a little right next director keep it coming right keep it coming a little more to the right all right well guys if you enjoyed the jam please like leave a comment subscribe buy me a beer the details are in the description cheers welcome aboard gravel champs