I just watch a documentary video about aircraft carrier, is that true that planes always cannot land on the carrier safely that it kills more pilot then in actual pilots?
I was wondering what is the difference between landing on land and on an aicraft carrier. in the video, the pilot claimed that the engine has blocked their view from landing carefully, but whats the difference if you are landing on land or a carrier? thanks
Well one major difference between land and an ACC is that the S.O.B is moving. Not to mention that during times at war the ship has next to no lights on. Yes the fuselage on many planes is directly in the line of sight. Thanks to many ingenious British ideas this is not that much of a problem. Yet alot you still have to keep faith that your instruments are still working properly.
One more thing…lets not forget your ass end has to catch one of those wires on the deck or you have to go around all over again. This can be really bad if you are low on fuel. Or in need of immediate assitance. Now the Brits carriers are not as big and bad ass as the US versions but I think I would feel safer on the British carriers coz the mostly use harriers. So no need for the catch wires.
BTW They say these wires go thru loads of testing and all that… well why was my stepdad in the hospital with a US navy guy who had lost his legs for the knees down coz one of those wires broke. Not to mention that he was the only of 3 to survive this incident. The other 2 were cut in half at the chest and pelvic area respectively.
Life on a carrier deck is a dangerous place to live your life. If you have never heard of the disaster that happened on the USS Forrestal you should have a look. A rocket accidentally launched from one of the plane shot accorss the deck hitting another and the nightmare begins…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chuiyXQKw3I
Now much has changed since then but still quite a hectic place. Now days even if your the guy who takes care of the Captians pet gerbil…you are still trained on how to fight a fire.
The essential difficulty is that a plane moves through three axes: roll, pitch and yaw. Land doesn’t move. An aircraft carrier moves through the same three axes as a plane. Trying to land on an aircraft carrier requires the pilot to control his plane through three axes while the landing platform is also moving through three axes, and to try to have his plane parallel to all the ship’s axes at touch down. Add in heavy seas, winds, poor visibility, and so on and the WWII carrier pilots had to be outstanding to do visual landings.