Ditching at Sea

[Mike Keown]

Lets say you're flying a F-6 Hellcat. You can't
land on board cause your too shot up and your
hydraulics are gone( no landing gear) Your carrier
is in sight they know of your problem and have
dispatched rescue. The sea is moderately calm.
How do you land your aircraft?
Mike

[vincent p. norris]

>Lets say you're flying a F-6 Hellcat. You can't
>land on board cause your too shot up and your
>hydraulics are gone( no landing gear) Your carrier
>is in sight they know of your problem and have
>dispatched rescue. The sea is moderately calm.
>How do you land your aircraft?
>Mike
>
As slowly as possible, gear up, flaps down, hatch locked open, near
the destroyer (but NOT directly in front of it!), into the wind if the
sea is calm.

If there are swells, land parallel (so you don't smack into the side
of one), on or near the crest, not in the trough.

vince norris

[user]

Yeah, I would think swells are the equivalent of running into a cement
wall! Not good. Preflight briefs normally contain "sea-state" info
which is critical in deciding whether or not to ditch or bail. For a
real good read on the VP-9 ditching in the aleuts in 1978, there is an
awesome book written by ex VP-19 (Big Red) skipper Andy Jampolier,
"ADAK, the Rescue of Flight 586" can be found in Amazon. Not pushing
the book, but I couldn't put it down and I'm a groundpounder. Other
Aircrew guys said it really hit home.

n Sun, 16 Nov 2003 19:14:08 -0500, vincent p. norris >
wrote:

>
>>Lets say you're flying a F-6 Hellcat. You can't
>>land on board cause your too shot up and your
>>hydraulics are gone( no landing gear) Your carrier
>>is in sight they know of your problem and have
>>dispatched rescue. The sea is moderately calm.
>>How do you land your aircraft?
>>Mike
>>
>As slowly as possible, gear up, flaps down, hatch locked open, near
>the destroyer (but NOT directly in front of it!), into the wind if the
>sea is calm.
>
>If there are swells, land parallel (so you don't smack into the side
>of one), on or near the crest, not in the trough.
>
>vince norris

[Charlie Wolf]

Ditch parallel with the direction of the swells.
Hook down (this gives an indication to pilot when A/C is extremely
close to water)
Try to impact water just above stall speed.
Pray...
Regards,

On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 18:42:49 -0500, "Mike Keown" >
wrote:

>Lets say you're flying a F-6 Hellcat. You can't
>land on board cause your too shot up and your
>hydraulics are gone( no landing gear) Your carrier
>is in sight they know of your problem and have
>dispatched rescue. The sea is moderately calm.
>How do you land your aircraft?
>Mike
>

[Mike Kanze]

In addition I'd take a page from the BB-based floatplanes of yore.

Close with Mother or the planeguard DD and have it create a slick of
relative calm with a turn to abeam of the wind. Land as much on the slick
as possible.

--
Mike Kanze

"If we are marked to die, we are enough
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour."

Henry V, Act 4, Scene 3


"vincent p. norris" > wrote in message
...
>
> >Lets say you're flying a F-6 Hellcat. You can't
> >land on board cause your too shot up and your
> >hydraulics are gone( no landing gear) Your carrier
> >is in sight they know of your problem and have
> >dispatched rescue. The sea is moderately calm.
> >How do you land your aircraft?
> >Mike
> >
> As slowly as possible, gear up, flaps down, hatch locked open, near
> the destroyer (but NOT directly in front of it!), into the wind if the
> sea is calm.
>
> If there are swells, land parallel (so you don't smack into the side
> of one), on or near the crest, not in the trough.
>
> vince norris

[WDA]

You could do it like Jay Lyman did in his VF-24 FJ-3 Fury (an outgrowth of
the Air Force F-86 Sabrejet) back in 1956. He was on final at the ramp when
he got too slow, too nose up, and then too wet. The a/c dropped tail first
into the water. It sank out of sight then bobbed back up. Jay stood up and
the plane went down from under him. The helo was right there to pick him up.

Or you could do like another of us in a VA-192 FJ-4B tanker in 1959 and snag
the three wire while also hitting the barricade with a total of only 50 lb.
total fuel on board, (250 lb. fuel needed for a bolter and go around).

Those were great times back when we all thought we were immortal!

WDA


"Mike Keown" > wrote in message
...
> Lets say you're flying a F-6 Hellcat. You can't
> land on board cause your too shot up and your
> hydraulics are gone( no landing gear) Your carrier
> is in sight they know of your problem and have
> dispatched rescue. The sea is moderately calm.
> How do you land your aircraft?
> Mike
>
>