by beaky » Mon Jan 21, 2008 2:55 pm
I was just reading a memoir about this by one of the crew for these tests- they obviously loaded it very lightly (initially, although they added some weight later) and hit the beta pitch on the props before touchdown. They also braked very heavily as soon as possible. In this clip, you can see it end the roll very abruptly and lurch backwards a little!
The weather/wind conditions were fairly typical, although they looked for calm seas and a steady breeze for the first test.
Remember, there was no tailhook, so this was not a "trap"- they had to put it on that deck with total control over their energy.
Cool stuff, that clip, and a lot of neat Herc footage and info in general. 8-)