[MilCom] Guess this is what I saw at North Island on Saturday.

[Greg Brazil]

  Naval Aviators Conduct First Carrier Landings Aboard USS Abraham Lincoln
Story Number: NNS081215-02
Release Date: 12/15/2008 11:25:00 AM

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW) James R. Evans, USS 
Abraham Lincoln Public Affairs

USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN, at sea (NNS) -- For the first time since 2004, USS 
Abraham Lincoln's (CVN 72) flight deck served as a training ground for 
student pilots flying the Navy's advanced jet training aircraft, the 
T-45 Goshawk, Dec. 10-13.

Student pilots assigned to Carrier Training Wing (CTW) 1 Training 
Squadrons (VT) 7 and 9, based in Meridian, Miss., and CTW 2 squadrons 
VT-21 and VT-22, based in Kingsville, Texas, flew aboard Dec. 10 for 
four days of initial carrier qualifications off the coast of southern 
California. For these new pilots, the arrested landings and catapult 
launches they completed aboard Lincoln are the culmination of many 
months of intense flight training.

"This is the first jet they've flown, and it's their first time on a 
carrier," said Lt. Cmdr. Mark Schadt, Chief of Naval Air Training's 
(CNATRA) senior landing signal officer (LSO). "They've spent the last 10 
months learning to fly the T-45 and before that they flew T-34s (a 
propeller driven trainer) for up to 10 months. This is one of the last 
things they'll have to do before they go to a Fleet Replacement Squadron 
(FRS) and learn to fly their assigned aircraft."

After the training wing's arrival and early qualification flights 
Thursday, students gathered in Lincoln's ready room four to critique 
their landings with LSOs like Schadt. Many were still visibly excited 
from their first "traps" and conversations were animated as student 
pilots reenacted their final seconds before hitting the deck.

"It's a totally surreal experience," said 1st Lt. David Fickle, a 
prior-enlisted Marine assigned to "Eagles" of VT-7, who completed his 
first arrested landing aboard Lincoln Thursday. "I had seen all the 
videos and documentaries on the military channel, but when you actually 
get here, it's not like anything you perceived. Coming in, everything on 
the deck – the planes, the people − looks so much smaller, and then you 
definitely know it when you catch the wire. It's a huge adrenaline rush."

Fickle said that despite all the practice and instruction students 
receive flying carrier landing patterns and approaches at their home 
fields, nothing can fully prepare a pilot for the task of catching a 
wire on the comparatively tiny deck of a carrier while it's in motion. 
In the ultra-competitive environment of naval aviation, students who had 
distinguished themselves flying over land found themselves, quite 
literally, in the same boat with everyone else.

"You develop a certain pride in competition, and I was in the upper 
echelon flying "the ball" at the field," said Fickle. "But for me and a 
lot of others, this was a big punch in the guts. Today I was boltering 
like crazy, and I don't know if it was from the lens being a lot farther 
in front of me or seeing all the people and planes parked out there, but 
it was a very humbling experience."

Despite the sweat-drenched, white-knuckle landings, Shadt and Fickle 
both described launching from a steam-powered catapult for the first 
time as a more memorable experience.

"Most of the students are so focused flying the approach and getting 
their numbers right that they barely remember the landings, but for the 
launch they're just kind of along for the ride," said Schadt. "If you've 
ever been to Magic Mountain at Six Flags in California, they have a 
Superman ride there. It's a lot like the Superman ride."

The T-45 Goshawk is the U.S. Navy's version of the British Aerospace 
Hawk. Using the same airframe, it incorporates aspects of the F/A-18's 
avionics suite and the ability to land on an aircraft carrier to better 
prepare pilots to fly the Navy's premier fighter aircraft. One pilot who 
trained aboard Lincoln has experience in both the Hawk and the Goshawk.

Lt. Stephen Collins is an exchange pilot who has flown the Hawk for the 
British Royal Navy and is now training in the Goshawk with the "Tigers" 
of VT-9. Collins and four student pilots from India flew aboard Lincoln 
to train, as they have for the entire curriculum, alongside their U.S. 
counterparts. His goal is to qualify to the same standard as U.S. pilots 
so that he can fly U.S. F/A-18E/F Super Hornets as part of his exchange 
program.

"The U.S. and the Royal Navy have worked together very closely on the 
Joint Strike Fighter program," said Collins. "The ultimate aim is for us 
to get some experience flying a jet with very similar capabilities to 
that one. It's a good trade, the U.S. gets a pilot out of it and the 
Royal Navy gets the experience."
While student pilots of Carrier Training Wings 1 and 2 worked to 
overcome their inexperience, for Lincoln's flight deck and air traffic 
control personnel, the challenge was putting their own experience to 
work and avoiding complacency.

"For most of the people up there right now, having just completed a 
7-month deployment, it's was almost business as usual," said Lt. Cory 
Pope, a catapult and arresting gear officer and Lincoln's V-5 division 
officer. "We just had to be a little extra cautious and remember that 
these folks had never done this before. We wanted to keep them safe too."
Greg (Back in SF Bay Area)