Here is my beautiful F/A-18C Hornet, just going to full afterburner. You can see the huge exhaust plum rising from the blast deflector. You can see there is another F/A-18 and a Viking behind him ready to move right into position as this guy launches. It was really cool because you'd see the jets sitting there so beautiful with the seteam rising from the catipults, then all of the sudden you'd hear the jets get a little louder... then even louder, and louder yet... see the exhaust going up, and then it would get absolutly deafening as the Hornet went into afterburner. You'd see all of the controls moving around, then the cat officer reach down and touch the deck, signalling ready to launch... then a few seconds later, you'd see it kind of jirk, then come screaming down the track. It's quite amazing to see a jet go from 0 to 160 mph in 2.5 seconds in 300 feet, 60 feet in front of you!! If that doesn't make you go "FLY NAVY" watching them literally drop on the deck going from 140 to 0 in 2.5 seconds, and another 300 feet definately will!! lol
the last jet to launch was this F/A-18 Hornet, who went on to do an increadible demonstration. But, he was sure to start off the show with a more than impressive departure from the carrier. The guy had full afterburner selected, and just went vertical right off the edge of the deck, the most amazing thing I've EVER seen to this day! My ears still heart from that one! lol In this picture you can see another Navy ship in the background, and you can see the Cattipult strope link hooked to the shuttle as it screams down the cat at about 160 mph right here. This picture really shows how close we were to the action as this picture was taken with a disposable camera!!
Anyway everyone, hope you enjoy the pics, I know they're not the best quality, but are certainly good enough for my memories! lol Something like that does not leave the mind easily. I can still remember the sights, sounds, and feel of everything that day. And the other increadible thing was the continuous activity both on the deck, and above, with airplanes flying patterns waiting to land the entire time. And also to be on a ship going as fast as this thing was quite impressive also! We certainly left a nice wake behind us.
Also, while on board, we got to take tours all over the ship, seeing sleeping quarters, the "mess hall" and everything else, including the room where they put in al the settings for the arrestor gear.
And if you've got any questions, just shoot.
Nothin'n I love talkin' about more than Naval Aviation!
by Boss_BlueAngels » Wed Sep 08, 2004 12:16 am 
Man, does nobody like modern aviation on here or what? 
lol There is more to aviation than vintage aircraft. ::)
