[octex]

To your #25 and #26.....

I appreciate your reply. I went to Google images and found nothing that looked like that. If your pic in #26 was accurate, then why does it look like the aircraft all facing aft and no indication of catapults?

Not pickin’ an argument with you... and I’ve been up waaaay too long. Just doesn’t look like the flight deck I lived on when in the Navy, as the catapults aren’t right and there’s no LSO station on the port side.

My ship was small compared to the huge CVNs of today, but we had three operating catapults and normally had about 80-100 aircraft on board. The aircraft were NOT parked on the catapults or JBDs, but were positioned to allow launches and traps.

Have a good Sunday!

[Don W]

I rather doubt that the carrier in question is Australian, as (from Wiki, I know...)the 1983 election of the Australian Labor Party led to the cancellation of plans to replace Melbourne.[50][51][53] With no aircraft carrier, carrier-borne fixed-wing aviation in the RAN ended on 30 June 1983 with the decommissioning of several squadrons, and many RAN pilots joined the Army and RAAF, or transferred to the aviation branches of other nations' navies.

If you look at the larger shot, there is an E-2c lined up on the port cat. The reason for the F-18's facing aft on the other cat is beyond me, unless they are just showing off how huge the deck is.

In the first shot, you can see two swabbies standing on the port cat near the hook-up zone. There appear to be a couple of cats that sort of cross paths on the bow end of the capture deck as well. What they are doing there is beyond me.