A split-screen view of a carrier landing

 

Here’s an interesting look from two vantage points of the cockpit of a C-2A Greyhound, a carrier onboard delivery aircraft, as it lands aboard USS Harry S. Truman in the Persian Gulf.  It was filmed by the pilot some years ago, and he recently posted it on YouTube.

It’s nice to see both the internal and external aspects of the landing like that.  That was on a very smooth good-weather day, of course.  The amazing thing is that US Navy pilots can do the same thing in howling wind and rain, at night, with a wildly pitching and rolling deck.  My hat’s off to them.

Peter

9 comments

  1. They need a third screen, wired in to measure a dial recording their actual pucker, HR, respiratory rate, etc.

    For science.

  2. And the C-2A is being replaced as the COD aircraft, with the replacement being the CMV-22B variant of the original USMC V-22. And the C-2A fleet had to be replaced, because the F135 engine that powers the F-35 (both the B and C variants) is too big/heavy to fit inside a C-2A. The CMV-22B can carry the engine internally, and for a much larger weight than the C-2A (a C-2A, for a 1000 mile range, can carry 800 pounds of cargo, while the CMV-22B can carry 6000 pounds at that range). So, as the F-35B/C hit the fleet, the COD task has to be moved to a new aircraft.

    A side benefit is that you can carry cargo directly to smaller ships, instead of taking them all to the carrier and then transferring from there (usually by helicopter).

  3. Why does the pilot look repeatedly over his left shoulder? Maybe checking that his flaps were deployed? It seems to me that checking once or twice would be sufficient, though.

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