Not entirely true, the procedures are all taught and briefed through lectures, and simulators(alot of them) for actual ship operations. The landings themselves are practiced(all graded by LSOs) daily before going to the ship. The optical landing systime(fresnel lense aka meatball) are all on the runways in use at our training bases for landing practice so the sight picture is as close as you can get to the ship(mind you its very different at the ship). Rocco is right, when he says the first time you land on the ship and takeoff, you are solo. There is no IP in your backseat. It's pretty amazing if you think about how many hours these guys/gals and what we let them do in these airplanes.