Naval aviators have to practice the art of landing on a carrier a lot. Before they ever go to the boat, they undertake a lot of field carrier landing practice. This involves flying the carrier pattern to a runway as if it was the boat. The outline of the deck landing area is painted on the runway, the lighting is replicated and the guidance calls are provided by crews alongside the runway just as if they were at sea. The crews fly around the pattern and thump onto the runway just like it was the deck and then apply power just like they would if they were aiming for a wire.
Of course, there is no wire so they power up and fly away to repeat again. The goal is to be as practiced with the whole procedure as possible before they ever go to sea. Naturally, there is still a difference dealing with a static runway in a field as opposed to a moving ship in open sea. Still, it is the way to prepare. Naval air stations tend to have separate fields away from the main base at which this training can take place. They are away from the normal base flying and allow this training to take place uninterrupted.
NAS Whidbey Island has its outlying field at Coupeville. They announce when flying training will take place there in order to keep the local community aware of the potential noise. Usually there is little chance for me to go because of work but it turned out that one of the flying days was scheduled to have good weather and I should be able to take time off. Not only was the weather due to be good but the wind was in a direction that meant they would be flying to the end of the runway that is more accessible. I planned to be there.
As it happened, something came up at work and I had to go to Seattle before I could leave. Consequently, I was behind schedule. I eventually managed to get on my way and I got to Mukilteo just in time to catch a ferry. Once on the island, I headed up to Coupeville and, sure enough, as I got closer, I could see Growlers flying patterns. I got to the field and parked up away from the road. I walked back, all the time hearing jets flying around. Then I was in position to get some shots.
I kept moving so I could get closer to the touchdown point but the flying stopped as I got closer. Then they packed up operations. They were done, at least until the evening. If I had missed the boat, I would have missed the whole thing!
The F-105 Thunderchief (or Thud) is a beast of a plane. Sadly I never got to seem them in action. One is parked outside at Cavanaugh in Addison TX. Its camo is a bit bleached by the Texas sun (it was just over 100 degrees the day I arrived and that was towards the end of the afternoon). The thing that caught my eye, though, was the refueling receptacle or, more specifically, receptacles. USAF aircraft have the flying boom refueling system. This was not always the case and jets like the F-100 had flight refueling probes for the hose and drogue method.
I assume that the Air Force was in a transition mode when the F-105 was being designed so they had both. On the upper side of the nose there is a ramp for boom refueling to take place. Below that on the port side is a retractable refueling probe for hose and drogue use. I didn’t realize that any jets had been built for both (aside from the UK and French E-3s which are a bit larger and more able to accommodate the extra kit. I wonder which one was more regularly used since the techniques for each type differ.
