Thanks for the link to the book 'Goonie'. I do not have a KINDLE. Does anyone know if a 'kindle book' can be read on an ordinary desktop computer and... with what program / how please? Tah. Here is the text from the first two pages of the book that are shown at the 'Goonie' link on previous page:
The Carrier Landing Pattern for Naval Aviators
Intro - The Landing Pattern by CAPT Greg 'Coach Schuster, USNR
Think about this: you aren't worth your weight in sand to the United States Navy if you can't land your tactical jet aboard an aircraft carrier. Nobody cares how well you can dogfight, drop bombs, or fly low and fast - if you can't consistently land on a boat, you're toast. You should have been an Air Force pilot. Or an Anny pilot. Or perhaps worked as a floor manager at JC Penney. The sky may still be the limit for you, but not in a tactical Navy jet. This is the real world. It's you and you alone behind the boat when that day comes - there'll be no one else to pass the buck to if you fail. The boat is 'trial by fire' at its finest! It's the only time in the program that we send you out to do something incredibly challenging all by yourself for the first time. Sing or swim, stand or fall, it'll be a day you'll remember for the rest of your life.
Am I saying this to intimidate you? Partly. If I could, I'd light a perpetual fire under your ass that burned brighter every time you slacked off in the landing pattern. I want you to attack every landing of every hop as if it was at the boat. I want you to be incredibly hard on yourself when it comes to landings, whether they're at the end of a FAM hop or an ACM hop. The last thing I want is you suiting up for your first day at the ship thinking, "I'm not sure I'm ready for this.... I wish I'd been harder on myself in the landing pattern... ". Or, worse yet, to have a tombstone over your head that reads, "I Needed More Training". I don't care how well or how lousy every other facet of your hop went - put it all behind you and demand good landings of yourself at the end of it. That's part of what makes being a Naval Aviator so different. Landing aboard aircraft carriers is the hardest routine feat performed in aviation. Give landings the intense concentration they deserve. Consider being in the pattern a time for you to be in your 'zone'. Being 10 feet off altitude in certain parts of the landing pattern should be a BIG deal for you.
It's time to micromanage your instrument scan like never before and supercharge your ball flying!
Where It All Begins...
A lot of people seem to think that the foundation for a good landing starts to be laid on upwind, or in the crosswind, or perhaps immediately after the touch and go for the next one. Well, it all starts well before that in my book. I think you need a gameplan that's been well thought out prior to the break. I remember this by always wanting to have my "numbers by the numbers". What I mean by that is simple: have your CDI needle dialed in for the active runway and know your downwind heading prior to reporting the numbers prior to the break. After the initial, concentrate on getting down to break altitude, fine tuning your lineup, and check your CDI is set. Why on earth should you even look at your CDI needle in the VFR landing pattern? For the visual cues it provides you on downwind, at the 90, and at the 45. Without using the CDI, you need to figure all that out in your head, and that involves doing math in the cockpit - a valuable skill, no doubt, but one I try to avoid having to use whenever possible. Another strong argument for using the CDI can be summed up as: the boat. When you finally make it to the boat, you will be flying in an environment where the 'runway' heading is continuously in a state of flux. The boat does what is necessary to ensure that the adequate amount of wind is over the deck in the proper direction. To do this requires that the boat turn, and that can really complicate the mental gymnastics you would need to do to constantly figure your new 90 and 45 headings out all the time. Don't even bother - make your CDI your friend and make life simpler on yourself. It's far easier to dial in the boat's heading, aka 'BRC', or 'base recovery course', and have a habitual scan that works off what the CDI needle is telling you. There are times it pays to not look at the CDI needle, however. For instance, I do not look at it coming into the break because I choose to be 'heads up' at that point. I am just honking the jet around, 'managing my horizon' to ensure a level break, and referencing the downwind heading in my HUD to guide my roll out decision. But I know I've always got the CDI to bail me out if any confusion ensues. If I REALLY came honking in, or if I broke early, either because I chose to do so, or was directed to do so by tower, then I might want my 90 numbers in my head as well, because I'll still want to be mostly heads up, even to that point. The bottom line is this: set your CDI needle to the runway in use, and then become used to incorporating what it's telling you in the approach turn, and you are on your way to becoming a master ball flyer. 'Nuff said on that....
The Break
Now I know there are some of you that think I am insulting your intelligence by even making the break a discussion item. But after witnessing countless leads flub a good break, bear with me anyway and read on. In ACM, a break turn is a nose low hard turn. Now maybe some studs are peeking into the ACM phase and getting ideas or something, but that is not what we want when entering the landing pattern! Yet I see it all the time. Here's why I think that is: they are entering the VFR landing pattern on instruments! They're staring at the gauges like a dork in the break! Let me draw a distinction here: it's OK if you reference the instruments, but all too many studs try to turn the break into a high-energy turn pattern type of an instrument maneuver, and it just doesn't work all that well doing it that way. True, you possibly could get proficient at doing nice level break purely off the instruments, but the only way you could do that consistently would be by referencing your attitude primarily, and crosschecking your VSI and altimeter. Well, if that's the case, why would anyone choose to stare at the relatively tiny ADI for attitude information when you've got the great big Planet Earth out there? It's the best 'ADI' ever possible! The key to a good break is looking out the damn windscreen and learning where the horizon belongs to maintain zero VSI. Figure that out, and you will shack your break every time. Promise. The break is essentially an exercise in horizon management. Let's look at it from another perspective. Assuming you're level (zero VSI) just prior to the break, as you roll prior to the beginning of the pull, the nose hasn't had time to fall yet, so if you do nothing other than maintain that sight picture as you pull (i.e., not allowing the horizon to rise or fall from that initial sight picture), your break will be level! Now, as the aircraft slows, you will need to relax the AOB to maintain level flight. That's simply a job of pivoting the sight picture in the canopy windscreen. So implant the sight picture of what a level break looks like early on. For example - for my head position (it'll vary slightly if yours is different), the sight picture I get in a level left break is one of the horizon cutting through the HUD from the middle to upper left hand corner to the lower right hand corner. I vary AOB as needed to hold it in that approximate position, not allowing the horizon to 'rise' or 'fall'. Keep in mind I am only occasionally referencing this - I am MOSTLY looking outside at how the pattern is going and how well I'm fitting behind any interval, if any. Once you grasp this concept, I promise that you will not be one of the guys doing wingovers in the break, with your head buried in the instrument panel chasing yesterday's news on the VSI. Don't go there. Again, I know this sounds like a simple topic - but every time I fly with a guy and I see a lousy break, I know what he's not doing - namely looking out the windscreen managing his horizon.
