Originally Posted by
SaltyDog
Carrier landing, first cruise, but a reverse. Had only flown Case III instrument approaches (equivalent of straight in ILS, talk on radios) all cruise, somehow Skipper liked me flying nights or crappy wx day flying only. 5 months into cruise, had the scariest approach.
The setup? day time, clear and a million, calm sea state, regular overhead, oval pattern approach, over the boat, a standard Case I Zip Lip (no radios)
Holy crap! Realized I hadn't flown a visual approach to mom (boat) and was screwing up everything with a pattern full of birds! the interval, the distance abeam, groove length...... Intense pucker factor, was glad to get back to night carrier, no moon, instrument approach straight in landings for the short time left on cruise after that sweat dripping approach <g>
My nugget cruise we spent the better part of 3-4 months running night ops out of the NAG in OIF. It was pretty much an airwing wide joke that no one wanted to fly the day Case I pattern because no one knew how to find a good start anymore. Made for some hilarious platcam hijinks when we'd have a day off the night page for some "good deal" day flying.