French Navy Rafale M perform Field Carrier Landing Practice FCLP

French Navy (Marine Nationale) Rafale M fighters perform field carrier landing practice (FCLP) at naval air base Lann-Bihoué (Brittany, Western France) in January 2024.

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In anticipation of the future deployment of French Carrier Strike Group (CSG), the air wing of aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle conducted several FCLP at two naval air bases in Brittany in January.

During FCLP, pilots perform repetitive "touch and go" landings at airfields, which simulate landing on an aircraft carrier. FCLP is a required flight training that precedes carrier landing operations and simulates, as near as practicable, the conditions encountered during carrier landing operations.

The skills required to complete carrier landings must be routing practices by pilots of all experience levels to maintain the required levels of qualification.

The precision required is extreme since it involves landing an aircraft weighing around fifteen tonnes traveling at a speed of 250 km/h on a flight deck, the surface of which is equivalent to that of a tennis court, and which itself moves at a speed of 40 km/h. The runways are configured in the same way as that of the aircraft carrier (same markings) and equipped with the same landing mirror.

Lasting 2 to 3 weeks, FCLP generally take place in the month preceding the French CSG departure on mission. Each of the Rafale M and E-2C Hawkeye pilots will take part in such practice before getting the green light to leave on a mission. The pilots must go through 4 sessions of 30 minutes over 2 days and 2 nights.

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[dutch]

Quel Fierté cet avion !!! Vive la France !!! 💪 🇨🇵 👍 Son succès à l'export en est la preuve irréfutable 😉

[arbrechene]

Pk la PC ne s'active que sur le moteur gauche???

[울프팩]

It's a great airplane
I'm watching it well in South Korea

[StereoSpace]

Shouldn't the runway be bobbing up and down and moving away from them while they're trying to land on it?

[HayMaker-tvdm]

But still the new PANG aircraft carrier is nowhere to be seen, the Royal navy have already two new ones already in combat service and France is still in the drawing board and the French should build at least two carriers one is just not optimal any stopage or update is a year without a carrier to project power the UK in Europe is the only country that is really investing in their defence but Europe is a total disgrace