Codguy you must be an east coast C-2 guy because none of my C-2 ever did a night trap or cat on my cruises.
One of my top three scariest moments in life was getting vertigo induced by a night cat shot. I am not even close to articulate enough to describe what happened, but it was the one where my eyes were bouncing back and forth, but actually up and down. I had to fly my HUD via periferal vision. It took about 20 minutes to finally settle down. I was thinking "there is no way I can land like this - if this keeps up I will have to eject."
Rhino auto-throttles are fine. They are a little slower, but it isn't a big deal. You just have to fly a little high and keep it smooth so rapid power corrections aren't needed.
Yeah, you have the briefs, lectures, sims, practice with the same landing light set up and all that. However you never make a cat or trap from the ground nor do you ever go to a carrier and learn how to walk around on a flight deck, which is probably one of the most dangerous places in the world to walk around.
There is absolutely nothing in the world of aviation that is cooler than flying around the boat during the day.
There is absolutely nothing in the world of aviation that is scarier than flying around the boat at night.