Someone feeling left out? In all seriousness I have heard of more E-2/C-2 guys/gals getting vertigo off the cat than Hornet/Tomcat guys/gals.

Red post lights (about 70% work at any given time), cockpit instrumentation that hasn't changed since 1962, no HUD and a nice, curved glareshield to provide a false horizon 30-degrees out of kilter will do it.

Spongebob

I got vertigo just reading about others getting vertigo.

Just trust your instruments bro...

70% working post lights!!?? Man, you prima donna E-2 guys always did get to live large

The best part of recovering last was that it always afforded you time cannibalize bulbs from some of "lesser instruments" while you rotted at the top of the stack.

Damned if I ever could see the F/F's, Oil pressures, or LOX qty, but by the time we commenced, could usually find enough working bulbs to illuminate the altimeter, needles, half of your airspeed indicator, and on a good night...maybe one of the RMI's.

Then, thankfully, someone came to their senses and decided COD's didn't need to fly at night afterall

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.

Night flight deck manups: We all headed topside one non commanders moon less night. As we stumbled in pitch black the first few steps along the catwalk up the ladder, one of the guys said "OK, Where do you all have one hand?"
Never had thought about how we all had one hand instinctively in front of our midriff to protect the boys from hitting something navigating those first steps up the ladder and catwalk. <g>
The joy of being a night spare tanker, blue water west pac, launch scrubbed due to convective wx, and ... launch all the tankers. Ughhh. The real joy of helping a bub low on gas on said night.

Anyone know if the old WWII/Korea era Naval fighters did night ops off the carrier? I imagine it would be tough in a 70's era Tomcat, but just imagine how hard it would be in a WWII vintage type plane.

Yes, they did. And I'm sure it sucked back then as well. I would say "more dangerous" also, but everything in military aviation was so much more dangerous because there were so few standardized safety rules like we have now. There really is no comparison in the danger level. It was soooo much more dangerous then. That doesn't mean it doesn't still scare the crap out of me now.