Milestone PLANK Owner First F-35C Arrest NIMITZ 03 Nov 2014

[quicksilver]

"Always we see how 'negative' the USN is supposed to be about the F-35C but never any quotes. And yet but also I see plenty of public quotes about how interested the USN bigwigs are in it all. So here goes... AND why is this quote here - well the TITLE goshdarnit and...? Well because even numnuts like BreakYourFaceDaFence need reminding to not just spread rumours but to back them up with some quotes."

Yeah, some quotes because we all know how accurate everything in the media is these days...

The Navy will progressively push the 'I believe' button as Navy-unique capabilities are successfully demonstrated.

But, as an infamous character in US film history once said, "...follow the money." In other words, talk is cheap; what's in the budget...SHs or F-35s, and in what numbers?

[quicksilver]

From VADM Buss in one of the cited articles --

“The most remarkable thing was how steady and stable it was on approach. I didn’t see a lot of control surface movement,” he says. “Both aircraft landed exactly where we wanted them to.”

He clearly was observing from Vultures Row or PriFly (i.e. above the jet where the control surface movements are less apparent) because the control surfaces were highly active as anyone can see in the videos. However, that's what we should expect to see -- the jet is doing most of the work, not the pilot. Pilot just commands glideslope and line-up with his right hand. Airspeed will stay where he puts it (left hand) until he commands otherwise.

[XanderCrews]

Doug Allen Saturday, November 01, 2014 11:10:00 AM
Part of me wants these trials to fail spectacularly enough for there to be a public outcry. Another class-A mishap perhaps? No loss of life, of course, but enough to get the mainstream media's attention.

They are handling it just swell.

Wow that Doug Allen sounds like a real classy piece of $hit.

I thought Doug had some modicum of balance and judgement, just bad information inputted in. However that comment is just disgraceful.

I can't post there, because he blocked me but everyone should go there and call him out.

http://bestfighter4canada.blogspot.com/ ... plode.html

[sferrin]

Solomon is in full denial mode as well. He still deletes my posts though.

[mk82]

" http://bestfighter4canada.blogspot.com/ ... plode.html "

Loving this Bat Man character. He sure makes these mouthbreathers look like the idiots they truly are.

[mk82]

Solomon is in full denial mode as well. He still deletes my posts though.

Well, a tailhook could drop on Solomon's head and he will have no idea what it is used for (well in Solomon's case, he should use it to f**k himself)

[XanderCrews]

Solomon is in full denial mode as well. He still deletes my posts though.

When you are that sure of something and secure in your position and confident, its the only logical choice.

[spazsinbad]

Pics of catadepults here: http://breakingdefense.com/2014/11/f-35 ... ss-nimitz/

http://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/u ... imitz3.jpg

Boom laka laka Boom laka laka....

[blindpilot]

And for film at 11 - ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFGzgvgltMw

BP

[quicksilver]

Great pics.

Sad to see that the F-35 sucks so bad that the USG and its overseas partners plan on ramping up annual production to 120+ within the next three years, while the program's PEO is signaling the intent to try to buy more sooner (Block Buys and MYP).

We're doomed...

[smsgtmac]

Pics of catadepults here: http://breakingdefense.com/2014/11/f-35 ... ss-nimitz/

http://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/u ... imitz3.jpg

Boom laka laka Boom laka laka....

You can't tell me the jet's front profile in first shots of that video don't harken back to days of yore, suggesting resemblance of an earlier jet

[popcorn]

The "Brick" will go down in Navy lore as the guy who made history... now who was the guy in the second Lightning?
Life isn't fair

http://breakingdefense.com/2014/11/f-35 ... -landings/

Ahh..mystery solved Mr. Elliot "Hemo" Clemence and he will go on the record as doing the first cat launch .

[spazsinbad]

I will guess until the first cat guy is published it may not be Eliot but good one if he is. Shows the two shared the honours. Remember the videos may be edited incorrectly - recall the first deck landing videos had arrests then touch and goes leading some to think there were catapults on the first day. I do not claim to know about the catapults by the way. Anyhoo... here's Eliot:

https://www.f35.com/media/videos-detail ... episode-37

[spazsinbad]

Norris (not Chuck) went out there so more to follow: Of course the story is similar but somehow the details are always different but do we care? Do we care that AvWeak website reliably crashes my computer (along with Jalopnik). What does that say? Do we care.... NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

F-35Cs Make First Carrier Landings
04 Nov 2014 Guy Norris | AWIN First

"The first pair of Lockheed Martin F-35Cs successfully completed arrested landings on the carrier USS Nimitz off the California coast on Nov. 3, marking the start of the at-sea developmental test phase for the Joint Strike Fighter and the shipborne debut of the Navy's first piloted stealth aircraft.

The first F-35C to land, CF-03 from Navy Air Test and Evaluation Squadron VX-23, touched down at 12:18 p.m. after flying out to the carrier from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona. Flown by Navy test pilot Cmdr. Tony "Brick" Wilson, the aircraft first made a low approach and overshoot, followed by a touch-and-go with the tailhook retracted. Finally, with an F/A-18F acting as chase, Wilson brought the F-35C in for the first arrested landing. A second aircraft, CF-05, arrived less than an hour later and landed successfully at 1:11 p.m., flown by Lt. Cmdr. Ted "Dutch" Dyckman.

Both aircraft made highly stable approaches, and trapped firmly on the third of the Nimitz's four arrestor wires. The touchdown spot between the second and third wires is considered the optimum for carrier landings....

...Although calm seas and light winds from the northwest contributed to the benign conditions and resulting trouble-free landings, both pilots partly attributed the precision touchdowns and stable approaches to the F-35C's integrated direct lift control feature. Embedded in the flight control software for all three JSF variants, direct lift is particularly useful for the F-35C because it provides greatly improved glide slope control, test pilot Wilson says.

Unlike conventional carrier aircraft, in which the pilot approaches the carrier with flaps set at a fixed position and adjusts power and pitch attitude to stay on the glideslope, the F-35 system controls power through an "auto-thrust" function and alters the position of the trailing edge flap in response to the pilot's inputs. "So the stick becomes my glideslope controller," Dyckman notes. "If I pull back the flap adds lift, if I push forward it commands a steeper approach," he says. As nominal flap position for a carrier approach is 15 degrees, or half-flap, this provides ample margin for additional flap movement to add or reduce lift. Wilson says the effect is to "change the 'heave' of the aircraft, rather than the pitch." ...

...The landings marked the start of a two-week Developmental Testing I (DT-I) phase for the F-35C that will evaluate primarily daylight carrier operations, including launch and recovery handling with a variety of crosswinds and wind-over-deck speeds. Catapult tests will evaluate the takeoff characteristics across a broad range of excess speed settings, varying from a minimum of around 5 kt. to a maximum of about 45 kt. "We will gradually expand the operational envelope," Buss says. "Having two aircraft will give us the ability to move them around the carrier, and look at the first set of results as we change the wind envelope and wind directions. If we can get all these things done in time then from Nov. 13-16 we may have the first nighttime operations," he adds. Results will be built into the next test phase, DT-II, scheduled for September 2015. This will include additional day/night operations, initial weapons trials with internal and external stores as well as maximum power launches from both the bow and waist catapults. A third and final phase, DT-III, is expected in the March/April 2016 timeframe. The U.S. Navy anticipates declaring initial operational capability of the F-35C in August 2018 with the first squadron expected to embark on an as-yet-unnamed, West Coast-based carrier earlier that year."

http://aviationweek.com/site-files/avia ... /Nike2.jpg

Source: http://aviationweek.com/defense/f-35cs- ... r-landings

[popcorn]

I will guess until the first cat guy is published it may not be Eliot but good one if he is. Shows the two shared the honours. Remember the videos may be edited incorrectly - recall the first deck landing videos had arrests then touch and goes leading some to think there were catapults on the first day. I do not claim to know about the catapults by the way. Anyhoo... here's Eliot:

https://www.f35.com/media/videos-detail ... episode-37

You're right, the chronology of the video is inconclusive at best and Clemence may not even be aboard ship... the pilot who landed afterCmdr. Brick Wilson was LCmdr Dutch Dykman per the article you linked.. all will be revealed in time.