Flightdeck Trivia

Study the image:

Now examine the description that the Navy published to go along with the image:

Air department Sailors weigh an E2-C Hawkeye before launch on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75).

Naval Aviation buffs should be able to spot one factual error and a conceptual one. I’m thinking the PAO that proofed this was wearing black shoes.

**Update**

Too easy wasn’t it? It’s a C2 Greyhound, the COD or Mail Bird, not the E2-C Hawkeye AEW platform they claimed. Big clue – no dome!

The conceptual error to which I referred may seem like semantics but the uninitiated might conclude from the description that the sailors are in fact weighing the aircraft. Not so. There are no scales in the flight deck. The weight board being flashed to the shooter in the bubble is nothing more than a manual dial-a-number box. Each aircraft in a launch event has a calculated gross weight based on fuel and weapons load. Just in case the actual load varies from the plan, the aircrew that will shortly place their lives in the hands of the deck crew and their man-made gear have one last chance to confirm or change their gross weight. They can “Roger” the weight board if it is correct or if necessary, bump the weight up or down as appropriate using hand signals. Once they accept the number shown on the board that number will be shown to the shooter so he can verify that the cat settings are correct for the particular type of aircraft at that specific weight. Not enough steam against the pistons and you end up swimming instead of flying. Too much and things start breaking both above and below deck.