Aircraft carrier landing operations
It takes skills and nerves of ice for a US Navy pilot to take off and land an aircraft on a carrier’s flight deck, essentially a miniature airfield, that is pitching, rolling and yawing in rough seas which these ships operate in.
Landing aircraft on a flight deck of an aircraft carrier is made possible through the use of arresting cables installed on the flight deck and a tailhook installed on the aircraft.
The pilot aims for the middle arresting wire, which is either the second or third depending on the configuration of the carrier. Upon touchdown, the throttles are advanced to military/full power for three seconds. This is done to keep the engines spooled and providing thrust in case a bolter (missing every wire, go-around) occurs or even for the unlikely event of a cable snapping. Afterwards, the throttles are reduced to idle, and the hook is raised on the aircraft director’s signal (CLICK HERE to read why naval aviators advance throttle to full power when they land on an aircraft carrier).
Arresting cables reach serviceable limit
After how many aircraft carrier landings are arresting cables deemed no longer serviceable?
David Tussey, former US Navy A-7E Corsair II pilot, explains on Quora;
‘Yes, the arresting cables do have a serviceable limit. There are a lot of factors that go into determining that limit, such as weight of the aircraft, off-center engagements, engagement speed (relative to carrier movement and wind speed), etc. I’m not sure what the actual limit is — perhaps someone else can answer with that knowledge.
‘The arresting gear has a “cross-deck pendant” (CDP) that connects to the arresting gear motors beneath the flight deck. That is the element of the arresting system that needs periodic replacement. It’s fairly easy to replace one, and quickly.
‘The limits on the arresting gear, like the limit on critical airframe components such as the “hook”, come with a tolerance. It’s not like you hit a number and BAM!, the cross-deck pendant is no good. It’s more like changing your oil in your car — the manual says you should change it at 5000 miles, but it can certainly go 10–20% beyond that without failure. Same with the CDPs. They hit a threshold, and it is recommended that they be replace within the next 20–50 traps. (Those numbers are just illustrative, not real #s.)
3 wires instead of 4
‘The CDPs can be replace quite rapidly. I’ve seen the flight deck crews swap out a CDP in about 15–20 min. That’s easily done between the cycles of landings & launches. But usually, the swap-out is done when there are minimum flight operations underway.
‘Also, sometimes they do have to remove a cable for some reason (usually a very off-center trap) in the middle of a recovery. So instead of 4 wires, there are now 3. No big whoop, particularly during daytime ops.’
Tussey concludes;
‘I served onboard USS Midway which had 3 arresting wires. Some other carriers have 4.
‘The newest carrier the USS Gerald R Ford has 3 arresting wires with a “target 2”.’
Photo by U.S. Navy
