Floating Airfield With Proud Name Soars

From Vulture’s Row, perched high above the flight deck of USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), all heads turned in the direction of the roar of the oncoming jet. Together, the faces rotated in the opposite direction, as the F/A-18 Hornet zoomed past. On the third pass, the aircraft caught the wire. When it slowed to a stop and the noise of the engine faded away, cheering could be heard from Vulture’s Row down to the flight deck. This was the first step for the recently commissioned ship in earning its Flight Deck Certification (FDC).

The USS Ronald Reagan received its certification August 14 and will soon be joining the fleet as a fully-capable aircraft carrier. For Aviation Boatswain’s Mate Airman (Handling) Nathaniel Walters, it was the moment he was waiting for.

“I have been training for Flight Deck Certification ever since I reported to Ronald Reagan almost two years ago,” Walters said. “Not being FDC means that we’re just a ship, just something floating out in the water. With the certification, we can go anywhere in the world, whenever we’re needed now, and do our part for the country.”

Lt. Cmdr. Scott Smith explained that an aircraft carrier requires checks, known as bulletins.

“Aircraft launch bulletins determine where the catapult officers set the catapult to launch aircraft. This setting changes based on weight of aircraft, elongation of the catapult, air temperature and wind-over-deck,” Smith said. “Aircraft Recovery Bulletins determine arresting gear settings and wind-over-deck requirements during normal and emergency landings.”

Cmdr. Tom Quinn, assistant Air Department Officer, explained that FDC is a two-part process.

“First, we have people come out and make sure that our bulletins are correct. Then others come out and test us on how well we can launch and recover aircraft,” said Quinn.

Other departments on the ship had tests to get ready for FDC, as well. Airman Robert Boudreau works below the flight deck, making sure fuel is clean before being sent up to aircraft. “We’ve been doing some really intense training since last week,” said Boudreau. “We pretend that something happens, and we have to secure different valves. We simulate taking the fuel to the flight deck, and have different scenarios of what might happen.”

Another lesson learned from Ronald Reagan’s FDC was that of vigilance. Part way through the certification, an airman on watch noticed that part of the arresting gear wasn’t working properly. Aviation Boatswain's Mate Airman (Equipment) Jorge Linarez discovered excessive smoke and metal shavings coming from the port side fairlead sheave. He alerted his supervisor and called “foul deck” to prevent any further landings while the problems were researched.

Lt. j.g. Kyle Caldwell explained that the fairlead sheave assembly was not turning properly.

“When an aircraft lands on the flight deck, the cable is fed out. What was happening here was the sheave wasn’t turning,” Caldwell said. “That made the cable saw into the hub. If it wasn’t noticed when it was, the cable could have sawed right through the hub and (could) have been severed.”

All 58 sheaves aboard were disassembled, the seals were removed and lubricated and then reassembled - a job that takes about four hours a sheave, according to Caldwell.

The ship returned to port to continue with the adjustments to the arresting gear system and run tests with Naval Air System engineers from Lakehurst (NJ). The ship was back at sea less than two days later to continue the Flight Deck Certification process.

“The Flight Deck Certification has been going well. The rotation of the sheaves has improved 80 percent,” Caldwell said. “It was a lot of hard work.”

The hard work paid off for Quinn when he watched the aircraft land on the deck for the first time. “Seeing the Air Department come together as a team was the best moment for me. It was great to see young Sailors who thought cleaning and painting was their only job realize that there is some fun in launching and recovering aircraft.”

[ANN Thanks Journalist 3rd Class Megan Moline, USS Ronald Reagan Public Affairs]

FMI: www.news.navy.mil/local/cvn76