A Tour of the "Big E"

(Part 5)

Flight Operations

Again borrowing frames from the Aviation Week Video Flight Deck and a couple U.S. Navy photos actually taken aboard the Enterprise, I'll briefly describe the organized chaos that takes place aboard an aircraft carrier during flight operations.

With the Air Boss overlooking operations from his perch high atop the carrier's island superstructure, teams of flight deck crew members, each in a shirt and/or jacket of a specific color go about their jobs of readying the aircraft for launch. The purple-shirted fuel handlers get the aircraft fueled. The red-shirted ordnance men load the ammunition and mount the bombs and missiles needed for the specific mission. The brown-shirted plane captains and blue-shirted plane handlers give the planes a final "once over" to make sure that they're flight worthy and ready to go. By now, the pilots and other flight crew members have completed their mission briefings in the squadron ready rooms and begin to climb aboard the aircraft, with the help of the plane captains. Once ready, the yellow-shirted directors use a series of intricate hand signals (required with all of the noise on the flight deck) to direct the movements of the aircraft toward the catapults. The green-shirted catapult handlers hook the planes to the catapults, signal when everything is ready, and give the final signal for the catapult control room (located below the flight deck) to launch. This process can be repeated as quickly as every 90 seconds for each of the four catapults on the carrier. All this time, white-shirted safety personnel and silver-suited fire crews stand by in case of problems.

Flight deck operations are handled by crewmen with color-coded shirts or vests

[Photos from "Flight Deck" published by Aviation Week Video unless otherwise noted.]

The sequence in which aircraft are launched is also important. Under normal situations, the first to launch are the SH-60F Seahawk helicopters, which will stand by on either side of the carrier in case of an accident during launch operations. Next, a tanker (usually a modified long-range S-3B Viking) takes off and heads out to a standby station further away in case any aircraft need refueling when returning from their mission. The E-2C Hawkeyes are then launched to stand guard over the area and report back on any hostile air traffic. Next, the F-14A Tomcats take off and also stand guard ready to intercept and destroy any hostile aircraft and/or missiles. Next off are the EA-6B Prowlers, which go ahead of the strike aircraft to jam and, if necessary, destroy enemy radar. Then the main strike aircraft, the F/A-18C Hornets, are launched toward their targets. Depending on the mission, S-3B Vikings and ES-3A Shadows may also be launched to perform their anti-submarine and electronic reconnaissance roles, respectively.

An F-14A Tomcat about to be catapulted away from the USS Enterprise (U.S. Navy photo)

After the mission has been completed, the aircraft will be picked up by the carrier's air traffic control radars and guided to the ship. As the aircraft line up in the assigned landing order, the lead aircraft will come under the control of the Landing Signal Officer or "LSO." The LSO uses a combination of voice and data commands to direct the pilot as he approaches the ship. When the approaching aircraft is in visual range, the pilot will "call the ball," which tells the LSO that the pilot has the ship and the Frenel Optical Landing System lights or "meatball" in view.

Pilot's eye view on final approach for landing

The Frenel Optical Landing System consists of a cross of colored lights. The horizontal row of green lights represents the ideal glidepath to the carrier's deck. The object is for the pilot to line up a vertically-moving yellow light with the row of green lights. If the yellow light is above the row of green lights, it means he's too high; if the yellow light is below, it means he's too low. If the LSO sees that the pilot isn't lined up (left/right) with the landing area on the flight deck or is not on the proper glideslope, he will activate a command that causes the landing system to flash red lights directing the pilot to abort the landing.

The "meatball" lights guide the pilot in visually

Assuming that everything is lined up, the pilot will get a green light from the LSO and continue to a landing. Upon touching the deck, the pilot will immediately apply full throttle to the aircraft so that he will be able to make a safe "go around" if the tail hook doesn't catch one of the four arresting cables on the deck. Once the aircraft has stopped, the flight deck crew jump to their tasks, unhooking the aircraft from the arresting cable, retracking the cable in preparation for the next aircraft, and directing the one that just landed to a clear parking area. When everything goes smoothly, the landing process can be performed as quickly as every 45 seconds.

An F-14A Tomcat catches the arresting cable on the USS Enterprise (U.S. Navy photo)

Even in times of peace, flight operations take place every day that the aircraft carrier is at sea, because the skills needed to be in top efficiency need to be practiced over and over again. In time of war, such as during the Persian Gulf War against Iraq, the performance of the carriers' crews and air crews have proven the wisdom of the constant practice.

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Last Updated: January 1, 2003