Low Fuel Carrier Recovery?

A probably noobish question, but what would normally happen in RL, if a pilot were to get back to the carrier with insufficient fuel to stick around in a landing pattern?

would he/she

a) be given a "that'll teach you" type message and told to go find a tanker

b) be given an earlier landing time and then maybe get kicked out of the squadron for not heeding his/her fuel management training

i guess that the RL treatment of such pilots is/will be mirrored in DCS and that option a) should already be covered by the provision of tankers by the mission designers.

if option b) would ever happen however, will the new improved carrier ATC include any options that allow for requests for an urgent recovery? For example will the AI controller take into account the relative fuel/repair states of the returning aircraft, or just prioritise human pilots over AI, which shouldn't be so stupid as to run out of gas and/or will they perhaps receive requests for emergency landings and delay the aircraft that were earlier in the queue?

He would get gas from the tanker, though I can't recall moments and terms right now, there's usually a tanker hanging out and is the last one on deck at the end of flight ops.

might there still be exceptions though, for example, unlikely as this might be, the aircraft's refuelling probe has been damaged, making it impossible for it to refuel or the aircraft's fuel tanks are leaking and it only has "fumes" left?

I guess that there must be a point at which ejecting and safely ditching the aircraft would be better than threatening the pilot's/carrier's safety?

This is what the landing barricade is for. In the event of a situation where an aircraft is unable to make a successful trap (damaged hook, landing gear, insufficient fuel for a go-around or tanker rejoin, etc.) they'll raise the barrier and literally just catch the aircraft with a big net.

Absolute option is to always recover the pilot. Best option is to recover the pilot and the aircraft if possible. It's been said the upcoming Nimitz-class module will have the barricade.

Fighter Pilot Podcast has a video on landing emergencies.

might there still be exceptions though, for example, unlikely as this might be, the aircraft's refuelling probe has been damaged, making it impossible for it to refuel or the aircraft's fuel tanks are leaking and it only has "fumes" left?

 

I guess that there must be a point at which ejecting and safely ditching the aircraft would be better than threatening the pilot's/carrier's safety?

Yep loose plane and save pilot :)

Is this an aircraft which has safe fuel but cannot accept any undue delay?

Or is this an aircraft in an emergency situation due to low fuel?

thanks guys, that is really interesting stuff.

do you know if the ship's ATC will prioritise aircraft for landing, based fuel held or do pilots just get a time-slot and it is left with them to make sure that they have enough to land, paying a visit to a tanker if necessary?

Fuel is apparently one of the parts of the inbound call that the pilot makes, so i'm guessing it must be of some interest to the controllers?

If it’s blue water ops (no land within reach), they’ll have a pre-briefed bingo state, at that they’ll head to the bingo tanker overhead the carrier. Worse case will be rigging the barrier.

If they’re within range of shore, they may get sent to an airfield depending on the circumstances....foul deck, multiple bolter’s, etc. They’ll have a bingo to the field number as well, if they hit that, they’ll be sent to the field.

The CATCC will keep track of the fuel states based on the aircraft call in, and will bingo an aircraft to the tanker or the field if it hits bingo state.

Thanks for that.

It would appear that the CATCC has a very British attitude, in that queue-jumping is "just not cricket"'. ;p

Thanks for that.

 

It would appear that the CATCC has a very British attitude, in that queue-jumping is "just not cricket"'. ;p

I would not think this would be the case in reality. The bigger issue is that it is very likely everyone is in the same fuel state.

If an aircraft has reached a low fuel state and everyone else is relatively fat on fuel it would be unbelievable if he wasn’t given priority.

In this decades old docu about a FA-18 training mission on a Nimitz-class carrier in really horrendous weather, the group commander (Commander David Fravo of UFO lore)

told the greenhorn girl carrier pilot 'I'll take your place in this missions, you'll understand later, for the tanker will have landed when I come in last in your stead ..'

Funny to see this topic. The other week I made a one-pass trap where I had 10lb of fuel remaining. The engines died before I could raise the hook.

In this decades old docu about a FA-18 training mission on a Nimitz-class carrier in really horrendous weather, the group commander (Commander David Fravo of UFO lore)

 

told the greenhorn girl carrier pilot 'I'll take your place in this missions, you'll understand later, for the tanker will have landed when I come in last in your stead ..'

Pitching Decks

Funny to see this topic. The other week I made a one-pass trap where I had 10lb of fuel remaining. The engines died before I could raise the hook.

d*mn dude, now that's a fouled deck. A dead bug, still trapped.... :):lol:

did you end up swabbing the decks, and scrubbing the heads for that?? ;)

From what I have read and also seen on youtube RL videos, a plane w/ low fuel will get some priority over others. One could see it would be a tough call though. I am sure (I have no mil experience) that the guy in charge of that group of planes doesn't want either a lost plane or a lost plane and lost pilot on his record. I suspect it's like a great boss I had once said, I'll back you to the end if others are hammering you, but that doesn't mean I won't hammer you in private (maybe even harder) after it's over. IE, get them all back, but the problem pilot may have made his last flight. It only makes sense to do whatever is needed to get the most planes and pilots back on deck. One can also see a situation where helping out one could jeopardize several, so that one may be SOL.

This is a good read on night landings and fuel issues.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3559/how-to-land-a-fighter-on-an-aircraft-carrier-on-a-stormy-night

This is a good read on night landings and fuel issues.

 

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3559/how-to-land-a-fighter-on-an-aircraft-carrier-on-a-stormy-night

Is this an aircraft which has safe fuel but cannot accept any undue delay?

Or is this an aircraft in an emergency situation due to low fuel?

Sorry @randomTOTEN, I missed your post. It was the former that I was thinking about, more than the latter. My interest was prompted by doing a mission, where I hadn't planned my fuel too well, and returned to the boat with not a great deal left. The controller put me into a stack for a CASE III landing and I would definitely have struggled to refuel or spend too long in the stack.

I don't think the barricade would generally be used for a low fuel state, at least at short notice, for no other reason than I believe it takes some time to rig (20mins IIRC).