Training to Land on an Aircraft Carrier IKE & the T-45

ATLANTIC OCEAN (Feb. 10, 2017) Pilots assigned to Carrier Training Wing (CTW)1 conduct training aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) (IKE). Ike is currently conducting aircraft qualifications during the sustainment phase of the Optimized Fleet Response Plan (OFRP). (U.S. Navy Video by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Casey S. Trietsch)

So this evolution of our training is the carrier qualification. It's the first time that Advanced Strike students for the Navy and Marine Corps go and land on an aircraft carrier. Most of us have been in training in Intermediate Jet ^and Advanced Jet training for about 12 to 13 months ^at this point. - The training we've gone through so far, you start off with six months in Primary in the T-6, you get about 60 flight hours. We've had about 100 or 120 flight hours and we have to have 320 landings in the T-45 just before we can even come here to the boat to attempt to qualify on aircraft carrier. ^I think our biggest worry for the training out here is ^"Am I not gonna qualify? "Am I gonna fail at this?" But, in the end, you just kinda fall back on your training. We've been doing this for three weeks now, just hundreds and hundreds of landings and you just have to rely on that and everything will turn out to be alright. - [Cyrus] That first catapult shot is awesome. It's indescribable how cool it is. - [Pilot] It's the fastest acceleration that you'll ever feel. It knocks the wind out of your chest and pushes you back in your seat and it's a good thing no one else can hear you cos you're screaming the whole time. - [Christopher] Your knees come in the back of your chest, you're holding onto the grip there and then your head's back against the headrest so you don't slam your head there. 120 plus knots in 2 seconds and it's just there's nothing like it. - [Cyrus] The most exciting moment of today's training was looking down from holding at 15,000 feet and seeing the carrier and it looks about that big from all the way up there and you don't really think that it's possible to go land on something that small. - [Christopher] Definitely the most rewarding part of training is, you know, you get back to the ready room after we've done our first carrier landing throughout the day-to-day and you get to see other pilots you've been doing your carrier qual with and just looking like "Can you believe we actually "just did this, we landed a jet on a boat "in the middle of the ocean?" It's just a great feeling.