OT: USS Reagan Friends & Family Cruise

[ignomini]

I imagine some of you have done this before. All the FAA fluff about how for back the spectators have to be, well son, we'll be doing this the Navy way. Watching an E-2C do a touch n go with it's wing (I swear) virtually passing over the heads of folks in the front...priceless. There were 4,000 guests aboard, plus crew. At times you could barely traverse the hangar bay for all the people milling about. What an amazing day. GO NAVY!

More pics here:

http://www.ignomini.com/aviation/Reagan_Cruise%202015/USS_Ronald_Reagan.html

[Reever]

Re: OT: USS Reagan Friends & Family Cruise

Do you mean to tell me that civilians were on the flight deck during opps?

[Leo]

Re: OT: USS Reagan Friends & Family Cruise

Back in '91 I got to do a dependent's "Tiger Cruise" on the U.S.S. Ranger. One week from Hawaii to San Diego.
She was coming back from the first Gulf war and as I remember was on her last combat tour before decommission.
While the deck was off limits during flight ops, pri-fly, selected positions on the galleries, and the LSO platform were available.
Live fire demo's from the aircraft and every ship in our task force, supersonic fly-bys, briefings, it was an aviation geeks fantasy.

[wingman]

Re: OT: USS Reagan Friends & Family Cruise

Great photos. I notice that the only hearing protection visible are on the Navy personnel. Seems like there would be a lot of ringing ears after that Hornet launch.

[ignomini]

Re: OT: USS Reagan Friends & Family Cruise

I've heard stories about the Tiger Cruises. This wasn't quite as cool, but still...

They flew nine F-18s off the carrier. Four or five came back and did touch n goes, traps and launches. The Hawkeye came from the shore, but still did a touch n go, trap, and launch.

The Navy was handing out foam ear plugs to everybody. The only ones not wearing them were either already deaf, or had there hands firmly planted over their ears. They were also aggressive about no caps or head cover during flight ops (FOD).

I thought we were going to get a supersonic pass. One jet came by in a hurry, but they never mentioned it. My guess is somebody decided to waive it off, maybe due to conditions. We used to get boomed by F4s out of Mtn. Home when I was a kid, but I still wanted to see/feel it. Had my ear plugs stuffed in so deep I don't think I could here the M2 demo.

All in all it was a great experience, the closest I'll ever get to flight operations. I actually decided not to go for the front row because it would be too close for good photos.

Hats off to all current and former Naval personnel. On the Reagan, they run shifts of 12 hours on, 12 off, seven days a week.

[ignomini]

Re: OT: USS Reagan Friends & Family Cruise

and the LSO platform were available.
Live fire demo's from the aircraft and every ship in our task force, supersonic fly-bys, briefings, it was an aviation geeks fantasy.

LSO platform must have been a great venue. Pretty much everything in that sentence sounds like dream come true stuff to me.

[Reever]

Re: OT: USS Reagan Friends & Family Cruise

I guess times have changed and the Navy is very confident in arresting cables. Amazing.

[Leo]

Re: OT: USS Reagan Friends & Family Cruise

We had safety briefing after safety briefing, daily. You didn't go into the galleries or LSO platform during flight ops without an escort nor without full gear, vest, helmet, goggles, mickey mouse ears. The deck was strictly off limits at those times. The only place you could watch relatively relaxed was on the island walkways. The rest of the ship was pretty much open except for bunk areas except your own (people WERE trying to sleep) and the weapons areas.
They had several pilots that needed to do traps to stay current so they were running a lot of flights. F-14's at that time, A-6's, EA-6's and Hawkeyes.
They spent a lot of effort off-loading most of the weapons onto the munitions ship in the force, ironically named the U.S.S. Boom, before we got to port, and being a conventional (non-nuke) ship we did one refueling at sea. The planes all left us when we hit the Washington coast to their bases at Whidbee and we came down the coast to Diego, to a HUGE crowd welcoming these guys home.
Took hundreds of pictures and some of the most awesome video ever, especially the video from the LSO platform. Lost 20 pounds in a week. One of my best times ever.

[Reever]

Re: OT: USS Reagan Friends & Family Cruise

My "Dependents Day Cruise" was in May '67'. On board the USS Oriskany. I was ten years old, minimum age was suppose to be twelve, and it made a VERY deep impression on a young guy. We were assigned to groups and given a color badge and taken in shifts to watch flight opps from the Island. Ah yes the days of A-4's, F-8's, A-1's and A-3's.