Pilot: Flying Bush was 'just awesome'

usatoday.com ^ | 2/05/03

[Jakarta ex-pat]

Navy pilot John "Skip" Lussier has made hundreds of aircraft carrier landings but none like his pressure-filled touchdown on the USS Abraham Lincoln with President Bush in the cockpit.

"The pressure was ratcheted up just a little bit, but I tried not to think about it," Lussier said Friday on ABC's Good Morning America. "I just wanted to focus on it as a mission and make sure I got the president aboard safely."

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

030501-N-6020P-017 Pacific Ocean (May 1, 2003) -- President George W. Bush successfully traps aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in a S-3B Viking assigned to the Blue Wolves of Sea Control Squadron Three Five (VS-35) designated "NAVY 1". President Bush is the first sitting President to trap aboard an aircraft carrier at sea. The President is conducting a visit aboard ship to meet with the Sailors and will address the Nation as Lincoln prepares to return from a 10-month deployment to the Arabian Gulf in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate Airman Gabriel Piper. (RELEASED)

[Alberta's Child]

Someone pointed out yesterday that it would be highly unusual for this particular aircraft to catch the "first" cable, due to a certain aerodynamic characteristic that makes it "float" on a landing approach.

I'd be interested to hear from any Freepers out there who have some direct experience with this kind of thing.

[freedomlover]

Doesn't the hook catch all the cables it can as it passes?

(preparing to be humiliated by someone who knows)

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

The #4 cable is the first cable to catch, not the last.

Incorrect. The number four wire is the last wire, not the first. Cables are numbered from aft to fore. The Times is correct and you are wrong.

[Poohbah]

Doesn't the hook catch all the cables it can as it passes?

Nope. Ideally, it catches the three-wire. The cable then absorbs the kinetic energy of the aircraft (it reels out from under the deck) and brings it to a stop.

[ewing]

Thats a great pic..

[Alberta's Child]

I invented the #4 cable. And the other three, too.

Al Gore

P.S. I invented the aircraft carrier, too. But that's another story.

[ksen]

There's a stewardess joke in that headline somewhere.....*ducks*

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

No, you may be thinking of some of the World War I and II videos where the planes would catch several wires as it landed. On modern aircraft carriers, the tailhook only catches one wire.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Doesn't the hook catch all the cables it can as it passes?

No. You catch one wire. One is enough.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I missed this fact, as did every newscast on last night's TV news. I thought the 4th was the last.

[freedomlover]

I take it the others retract after one gets hooked?

[Irene Adler]

How nice to have a Republican president who has a strong intuitive understanding of how to plan and carry out really effective PR events. Reagan understood it, too. Some public figures have an odd tin ear about this and would not survive without their handlers (even then, not carrying off very well a PR event that advisors put together).

The Clintons' PR behavior clearly was effective with certain groups, but it always just made me ill, and the Wellstone funeral was an example of very, very poor understanding of how an event would resonate with the public.

I am so glad Bush does this well.

[Destro]

Can I post it as "Breaking News?" and call it awesome?

[Calpernia]

ROFLMAO! Good one!

[mass55th]

I'm just repeating what Fox's John Scott reported directly from the USS Abraham Lincoln. He said that that was the information he had received from people aboard the ship.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Catching the number one wire is not good, indicative of a low approach. Dangerous, possibility of a ramp strike, etc. On other threads there is a Naval Aviator who has direct experience with trapping a Viking. He confirms the floating characteristic.

[July 4th]

Huh? The video showed that it clearly caught only the last cable.

[Steven W.]

You are right and the underlying principles that guide these people is one of the reasons for the results we see. The DemoncRATs and the Clinton / McAuliffe wing, in particular, are only interested in power and thus the debacle of hatred that became the Wellstone pep-rally. On the other hand, Bush & Co. seek to liberate freed people, heap praise & respect upon the troops and demonstrate the prestige of the US to fend off would-be evil-doers resulting in the glorious & powerful messages in both vision & words that we were treated to yesterday.