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"Fixed parking areas" onboard a carrier?


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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok, that´s my initial plan:

IMG_0379.jpg

All 4 cats in use, since I don´t have enough aircraft to fill one of the bow catapults with parking fighters.

Two F-14 at the bow, one in the shot, while an E-2 is in the shot on no. 3. An EA-6B is rolling in for launch on no. 4.

The rest as you can see... Some A-6 waiting at the waist cats for launch, a pair of additional F-14 and a F-18 at the bow waiting for their call.

The elevators no. 1 and 3 will be "up", no. 2 will be down, waiting to get filled with an S-3 and a KA-6D. Elevator 4 on his way up with two A-6.

What do you guys think?

A different view (I initally had the view from above with the bow left also, but for some reason photobucket turned the picture...)

IMG_0382.jpg

And the lonesome rest in the hangar-deck, looks like I should add some more F-14s (still have a couple) to them.

IMG_0376.jpg

HAJO

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if you use cat 1 where you're shooting the tomcat you should move the s-3s down a little out of that spot

Had a VF-154 F-14A snuf out both our engines and our APU from being parked near that exact spot. A zone 5 Tomcat puts out a lot of exhaust, and besides putting the engines/APU to bed...the fumes were so bad we had to reach for the O2 mask in a snap. Funny thing was right after that launch the FDC came over, called our brownshirts back (who had run from the entense heat) and started to break us down and spin us to the cat. He looked at us funny with that "why not" look on his face....until we pointed to the engines and he realized that there was no "spinny" to them anymore.

Ahhh the memories

ATIS

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So are my S-3s just a bit too close and should be moved more to the edge or are they in the wrong spot anyway?

HAJO

That all dark grey S-3 you have right next to the elevator (and to the right of JBD #1) was where I was cooked, but that was on the USS Independence...a smaller deck and differnt deck layout than your flight deck. We didn't have all that room on the starbord side abeam JBD#1, ahh the joys of a small deck boat. I do remember the incident, My pilot 'Franz' and I were both feeling weird since we had never been parked there before for a launch. I believe we were the spare that got the word to launch for the original sortie. Hence the weird deck spot (it's a spare, it won't launch)...and the FDC's quick movement to get us broken down and launched. Of course we didn't know that since we went midnight in the cockpit with nothing turning/no comms.

Someone with some more big deck experience may be able to chime in. Sponge/Nick.... you out there? Look forward to seeing your carrier when done.

ATIS

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Wracking my brain, looking at pics and going through www.navy.mil and I far as I can recall, if we were using Cat 1, and I can't rembember anything ever being forward of the JBD outboard the cat. There's just not much room there (the foul line is only about 6' port of the Nav Pole). EL-1 is good to go though.

A quick way to check is put the E-2 on Cat 1 and see if it hits the Hoov's.

Also, do a quick check of your aircraft numbers...looks like you have all of the EA-6B's (4 total per squadron) and all of the Hoovs (4 when they had A-6's in the wing?) on the roof. Handler would not be happy and have at least 1 each in the Hangar. You look light on Hornets.

Spongebob

Edited by Spongebob
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Well, good hint on the E-2. It would definetely hit the S-3s, I thunk.

As for the EA-6Bs: I have three on deck, one of them in the launch, and one in the hangar.

I don´t know exactly about the S-3s, but I think there are at least 6 or more on board, I think 8 or 10? I have 4 "on deck" and one in the hangar.

Hornets: I only have 12, and of them two are "unfolded" and won´t go on the deck. So there will be only 6 or 7 "on deck", I think.

Never forget, I´m not planning to have the full wing on board, a couple of aircraft is somewhere airborne... :worship:

Thanks for the hints!

HAJO

Edited by Hajo L.
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HAJO,

Found this on Wikipedia but seems about right for DS1 timeframe. You were right about the Hoovers. During the fly day, figure 1/4 of the airwing is airborne at all times, 1/4 to 1/3 in the hangar.

2 fighter squadrons (VF) of 14 F-14s, including TARPS photo reconnaissance aircraft

2 strike fighter squadrons (VFA) of 12-14 FA-18 Hornets

1 all-weather attack squadron (VA) 10-12 A-6Es (including 4 KA-6D tankers).

1 early warning squadron (VAW) of 4 E-2Cs

1 tactical electronic warfare squadron (VAQ) of 4 EA-6Bs

1 anti-submarine squadron (VS) of 10 S-3A Vikings

1 helicopter anti-submarine squadron (HS) of 6 SH-3H Sea Kings

1 detachment of C-2A Greyhound aircraft for Carrier Onboard Delivery COD

HTH

Spongebob

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Thanks a lot for the numbers!

I oriented myself a little bit on a so called "TR-configuration" that I read about in the book "Carriers, the men and the machines" by David Miller and Lindsay Peacock. They described a special wing configuration with 20x F14, 20x F18, 20x A-6, 5x KA-6, 5x E-2, 5x EA-6B and 10x S-3.

HAJO

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I oriented myself a little bit on a so called "TR-configuration" that I read about in the book "Carriers, the men and the machines" by David Miller and Lindsay Peacock. They described a special wing configuration with 20x F14, 20x F18, 20x A-6, 5x KA-6, 5x E-2, 5x EA-6B and 10x S-3.

Never heard of it, which means nothing. However, my understanding was that the wings with 2 VA squadrons didn't have F-18's. Anyway, matters not.

I'm guessing with 85 FW aircraft though, the handler was found swinging from a pipe somewhere during work-ups.

Spongebob

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