Plane Flying Into A Wave Off Carrier Deck!

I didn't see this posted before.

But we here we have a plane taking off from a carrier flying right into a wave.

Here's a good explanation from one of the comments on the video.

I was on that aircraft carrier in 1971 when this happened. That was the USS Ticonderoga, CVS 14. That was an S-2E from my squadron VS-38. If you look at the background seas, they are relatively calm. When the launch officer launches a plane he watches for the bow to hit bottom, and that way the plane will be launched as the bow comes up. In this case, a ROUGE wave caught the plane and it only happens once in a great while, but once is too many if you are the pilot. They came out of it damp and shaken, but that is a testament to a great engine, the Wright R1820.

a reply to: grey580

Cool video. That's actually pretty hardcore that the engine could pull it out of that and keep the plane aloft. Rouge waves scare me and fascinate me at the same time.

This is one reason Navy pilots carry multiple flight suits with them at all times.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
This is one reason Navy pilots carry multiple flight suits with them at all times.

No doubt one is Brown in colour.

I wonder if they saw it coming. How do you not lose so much airspeed to that that you just go 'kersploot', never to be seen again outside Davy Jones' locker?

This definitely is better than "Hey, look, we're on fire now".

a reply to: Bedlam

Raw power of the catapult. Even on the older ships the cat had an insane amount of power.

Amazing. It almost looked like they didn't pull out of it as the plane disappeared for a second or two below the deck of the ship.

heh.

Some adult diapers too.

I can't imagine a jet plane getting out of there like that.

a reply to: grey580

wow that was pretty gnarly.

1984 on the USS Independence an A-6 from VA-176 was taking off at night from one of the bow cats when the hold back link broke too soon and they only got partial power from the catapult. The plane disappeared below the bow and there was a big splash. They were just getting ready to call "Navy Blue" (aircraft in the water) when we saw the plane's lights as it was climbing out. The big splash was from the pilot hitting the emergency stores jettison. All of the drop tanks, practice bombs and bomb racks came off of the aircraft and he fire walled both engines. They circled around and landed with no problem.

You can usually believe anything that someone who has spent a lot of time on aircraft carriers tells you. Enough crazy things happen that they don't have to make anything up.

a reply to: grey580

G,day mate
perfect example of why i like
Terra Firma
the more firmer the less terror

a reply to: grey580

We all need to be on the lookout for rouge waves. Very rare in blue waters.

Oh yeah, lookout for those rogue waves as well, theyre deadly!

talk about puckered a@@, i bet they were pinchin doughnuts off that seats.

Incredible. Something like that would choke a jet engine, and perhaps make it explode.

These recip's actually had water injection pumps for military power. They used water-methanol emergency power boost systems to get more horsepower if needed.

Talk about a water injection!

Really cool film. Thanks.

There's some stained undies right there...

Damn. They didn't even have time to do anything other than "oh, sh...".

a reply to: Zaphod58

that's impressive.

would it still work if fully submerged though?

a reply to: grey580

That's one of the points of the test, is to determine if it will keep running after ingesting large amounts of water. Whether it would keep running in this case, no one knows, but it can keep running after sucking in large amounts of water.

a reply to: six67seven

You had to be that guy, lol

a reply to: grey580

i've never seen anything like that, thanks for sharing the video.
rogue waves are facinatining.