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Awesome New Vid: See What It’s Like to Jet Off an Aircraft Carrier From This F/A-18 Pilot’s Perspective

Feb. 14, 2013 11:50am Liz Klimas

We’ve taken a look what F-15 pilots see thanks to the video filmed strictly with GoPro cameras, but how about this amazing pilot point-of-view footage of Super Hornets zooming off an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean?

The pilots in the F/A-18F aircraft part of Carrier Strike Group 8 take off — and land — on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

We don’t know what cameras were used to capture this footage, but it’s stunning.

Here are a few screenshots of the action.

F/A 18F Super Hornet Footage Taking off and Landing on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Aircraft Carrier

Right before taking off. (Image: YouTube screenshot)

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

Upside down above the ocean? (Image: YouTube screenshot)

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

Coming back in. (Image: YouTube screenshot)

A bit of a bumpy landing. (Image: YouTube screenshot)

Watch the slightly more than 12 minutes of glorious flight footage (Note: If you don’t have time for it all, it’s completely worth skipping to around 11:10 to see a little of what it’s like to land on such a carrier):

(H/T: Gizmodo)

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Comments (49)

ChiefGeorge
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 7:23pm
Speaking of Carrier Ops!

My first cruise was in 85 on the Hawk CV-63. Later from there the Constellation, Ranger, New Orleans, Carl Vinson and John C Stennis in 2000. Several small boys in between. 5.5 years at sea! What a ride and what a great bunch of Americans throughout that span of time. It took atleast two weeks to get a letter from home…no email and no phone unless you got to port and that call would set you back big time.

Any fellow airwingers out there? VAW-112, HSL-33 and VRC-30.

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- justangry
  Posted on February 14, 2013 at 8:02pm
  VFA-15 90-94 One of our pilots put this together from Fallon, NV and Viegas Puerto Rico if you’re feeling nostalgic. Video quality wasn’t the same 20 years ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9ViyvYfpG4
  
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- grannyrecipe
  Posted on February 15, 2013 at 5:15am
  Yep, ABE here…West Pac on the Connie, 1985. That was before they allowed chicks to be on. Me and the boys had a reunion on the boat in 2000 and then later we went to the Little Club (you must be familiar with that) and the guys that were stationed on the Connie were all saying what a mess it was that the girls were on board,
  
  One thing that was a general practice for instance was that they just made the girls go sit in the lounge when it came time to do a barricade drill…you just can’t have “kind-of” ability there. Plus, some chicks were getting knocked up and sent home, the guys’ physical work load was a lot heavier because the physically weaker chicks were taking the billets of capable men and dudes chasing chicks…a mess between the guys and very disruptive.
  
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- The-Monk
  Posted on February 15, 2013 at 5:54am
  I’ve never met another Monk you loves to fly.
  
  This Monk just loves it. I don’t care if it’s a Stearman, T-6 or P-51D.
  
  Just get me back up there. : )
  
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- Bodacious_Boedi
  Posted on February 15, 2013 at 7:13am
  I made the last cruise on the USS Oriskany, CV-34, with VA 153 in ’75-’76. Of course, now the Mighty O is a dive attraction at the bottom of the Gulf just off Pensacola. Diving the old girl is on my bucket list.
  
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- eminence88
  Posted on February 15, 2013 at 11:31am
  Thought I’d share a special moment when a USN Aviator son gives a nod to his old man. It’s the HUD video & comm during CQ, thru 1st Trap. It is only 4:30 long. Skip around for hi-lights but do not miss the last 10 seconds. While Gassing up, getting ready for his very first cat shot, the young man thinks of his Dad. Wow.
  http://youtu.be/WMSeiCeGjHY
  
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Blu13
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 6:26pm
If you’ve been to Six Flags over Texas back in the nineties, (I don’t know if its still there), there was a VR ride called The Right Stuff. You got to experience the perspective of a jet pilot with moving chairs in sync with the video of course.

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sURFNmADNESS
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 5:38pm
Embedded video has been disabled however better on youtube in 1080p HD anyway. Anyone notice all the rust on the hull of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) ? Nice to see we can refit all the government buildings in DC with windows, paint and renovations but not afford some paint to keep our Navy from rusting away like the Russian fleet.

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- crackerone
  Posted on February 14, 2013 at 8:25pm
  Noticed that surfmadness. :(
  
  Hagel is probably putting it in the boneyard anyways.
  
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- 4-The-Truth
  Posted on February 14, 2013 at 11:27pm
  I noticed the same thing. It shows Obama’s priorities.
  
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kalli
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 5:27pm
What an awesome video of our flyboys! Thank you for giving us a bird’s eye view of what it feels like to be onboard a great flying machine. I’d have preferred the music from Top Gun! A friend of mine knew the pilot who did the awesome flying for that movie which had some great shots. I am lucky to live approx. 1/2 mile in a straight shot to an air base runway, and will never grow tired of watching these men in their flying machines come and go.

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urrybr
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 5:01pm
Holy Crap!! I’d give my right . . . uh . . . leg to do that just once. My dream ride, though, would be in an SR-71A at Mach 3.23.

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- MN NICE
  Posted on February 14, 2013 at 5:22pm
  It would have to be a “nut”… You need your legs to fly!
  
  I get a kick out of flying low and slow in a Cessna 172… Anything with a “F” in front of it would be a kick in the ass!!!
  
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ICSPADES
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 4:36pm
These guys are the best in the world I just hope they never turn on us because of an order. And I really hope they don’t use this to locate us
.http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/146909-darpa-shows-off-1-8-gigapixel-surveillance-drone-can-spot-a-terrorist-from-20000-feet

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Mancy
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 4:33pm
Absolutely AWESOME!!! God bless those serving in our military, and their families, for the sacrifices they make for our freedom every day.

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LovinUSA
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 4:26pm
All I can say is; W-O-W ! Thanks for the ride guys!

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The_Fifth_Column
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 4:17pm
COOL !!! Those are are boy’s.

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RavenKnight
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 4:10pm
Those Hornets are a dream machine. Killer video!

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DeavonReye
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 3:43pm
Very neat video . . . . . . . on mute. I would have liked it much better if they had run it with actual sounds of the flight rather than their chosen music.

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AnAmerican111
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 3:35pm
Sweet memories!

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KernelOfTruth
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 3:20pm
Lots of fodder for Iranian F-313 photoshops, guys! Nice video!

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1ONE1
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 3:11pm
Don’t park that ride near my house. I’m liable to jack it.

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dangergirl
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 2:50pm
O.K. I’d probably be projectile vomiting in the cockpit, but I still want to do this!!!!!!!!! I’m an older lady, who was glued to the screen watching this. Is it a natural talent or training or technology or all of the above that helps you to tell what is up and what is down? Maybe a stupid rookie question, but I want to know. I get uncomfortable on kiddy rollercoasters, but for some strange reason I have no problem with side scrambler rides. Anyway, I gotta say, it would be great if everyone (not just physically-technically superior pilots) or (super-rich celebrities) had the chance to experience what this is like. And yea, I’d clean up the cockpit after if I ever did get the chance.

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BenInNY
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 2:31pm
That looked seriously fun, but man, landing on a carrier would scare the crap out of me.

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PhantomsPhorever
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 2:11pm
Hey, suck on that Air Force. It’s hard to believe thats a 30+ year old design. It nearly killed me in ’85 to check into the last Marine Tactical Phantom squadron with those zippy F-18′s parked right next door. I don’t know how I got so lucky, but being a kid in Naval Aviation was the greatest job I ever could have imagined. I used to marvel at the fact that although I could not buy beer, I was allowed to go start a Phantom and run everything on it. We burned MANY of your tax dollars just having a blast in the hush-house cracking afterburner. For four wonderful years I went around the world and drank beer with the best guys I ever knew. Somehow we even managed to break the all time barrier of 40,000 accident free flight hours. Sure beat bagging groceries back home.
Semper Fi, VMFP-3, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.

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- kalli
  Posted on February 14, 2013 at 5:30pm
  You lucky guy! And thank you for your service to this country!
  
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- ChiefGeorge
  Posted on February 14, 2013 at 7:26pm
  We would have crossed paths in the PI no doubt….PI 1982-1984. AIMD Jet Shop!
  
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FlagWavingPatriot
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 1:50pm
Enjoy this kind of thing while you can. It’ll be no time until the commies finish destroying our economic and military might.

Unless we get a handle on things fast, we’ll be watching Chinese and Russian pilots do their thing globally as we struggle to patrol our own coasts.

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Eric Window
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 1:47pm
I got to do this as a USAF guest after Desert Storm wound down in the Persian Gulf when I visited the USS Eisenhower for a planning meeting. All I can say is a video doesn’t do the ride’s excitement justice. The crew gave me a souvenir of two halves of the catapult hold down break away pin off the jet as bragging rights proof I launched and recovered. I holds a place of honor in my “war treasures” display at my house.

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- ChiefGeorge
  Posted on February 14, 2013 at 7:28pm
  Yes! Thats called the Hold back Fitting!
  
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Dano.50
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 12:55pm
In the 90′s there was a DOS flight program the public could get, that was military spec, and the thing took forever to learn.

You could set carrier landing conditions for anything; heavy swells, sleet, fog, whatever, and the most realistic, what actually got your heart thumping…

Were the carrier night landings if you turned off your room lights too.

It would be pitch black, you came in on a “real” radar system, and saw nothing until about the last second.

Unless you knew every keystroke and joystick maneuver by heart, you scorched the back of the carrier.

It kept track of your landings, which wires you caught, you even had to follow bolter procedure, and if you messed up too many times you were booted off the carrier and had to retrain.

Having lost the disc, I’ve tried to find a comparable system, but nothing even comes close.

Point the nose at the carrier and land, and they don’t even have night landings.

All cause of you know those you know whos of peace.

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- KickinBack
  Posted on February 14, 2013 at 8:22pm
  Ah yes, Jane’s F/A-18 :)
  
  No, they never made a better naval flight sim game, partly because I think the genre died out, and partly because of that was EA’s touch of death on every company they acquired.
  
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Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 12:52pm
Not nearly as awesome as seeing obama take off in one of ahmedinijad’s planes.

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- urrybr
  Posted on February 14, 2013 at 5:02pm
  Ha ha ha ha ha . . . bwah ha ha ha. ;)
  
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SunTzuYou
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 12:27pm
God Bless John Boyd

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LakeHartwellSailor
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 12:22pm
Man, that is cool stuff!

I was a lowly sailor on a cruiser called the USS Truxtun (CGN-35). We were attached to the USS Constellation (CVN-64) battle group for two WestPac cruises (1980-82). I recall I was assigned to man a spot as a lookout while we were conducting an Underway Replenishment (called an UNREP), so we were steaming out in the Indian Ocean and were connected to the Connie and taking on supplies. While this was occuring, the Connie started launching aircraft! Never thought that we could conduct flight ops and an UNREP at the same time. Awesome stuff.

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- ChiefGeorge
  Posted on February 14, 2013 at 7:30pm
  I’ve never seen that done either and I have extensive Carrier experience.
  
  My sailor bud happened to be on the Kitty Hawk the year before I cruised on it and they were the ones who ran over a Russian Sub. Ouch!
  
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muffythetuffy
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 12:13pm
I thank these people for their sacrifice in keeping America safe. God bless the, they know who prays for them…

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EVANROOD
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 11:59am
AWESOME! I wonder if ACHMEDINNERJACKET’s new Iranian fighter could stand up to that kinda abuse?

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