Photo By Gunnery Sgt. Courtney Glen White | Capt. Thomas Bolen, a Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 251 pilot, controls a C-2...... read more read more
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BEAUFORT, S.C.- With sweat dripping down the pilot’s face, he focuses through his sunglasses on the incoming aircraft. He raises his arms to signal ‘safe to land’ to the approaching aircraft. As the aircraft glides past him into a safe landing he turns to write down how well the aircraft landed.
Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 251 has four landing safety officers who help guarantee each pilot’s safe landing aboard the USS Enterprise.
Landing safety officers are individuals in each squadron who are responsible for teaching the pilots how to safely land on the carrier. Each squadron aboard the Enterprise has four to five of their own LSOs.
“The LSO’s only mission is the safe and expeditious recovery of aircraft,” said Capt. Thomas Bolen, a VMFA-251 pilot. “We are the last check and balance to make sure an aircraft is in the proper landing configuration and is able to make a safe landing. If they aren’t, we simply wave them off and they come back and try again.”
Landing safety officers do their waving from the LSO platform, which is on the port side of the ship aft of the port side aircraft elevator. It is protected by a wind deflector and has an escape area that the deck personnel can jump into in case of an emergency. The platform contains communications gear, deck status and ship indications as well as controls for the Optical Landing System.
To become an LSO, the Marine pilots are selected by a predecessor in the squadron. They complete a two week class at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia. There they do class work and use a simulator. They also do on-the-job training on the ship.
“It is important that LSOs are pilots because only they will understand the visual and sensory cues that a pilot feels on approach,” said Capt. Michael Moore, a VMFA-251 pilot. “In order for an LSO to safely bring a pilot aboard the aircraft carrier, he needs to understand exactly what is required to fly the jet to a safe pass.”
An average day for the LSOs consists of 30 minutes of training prior to the first recovery and then they return to the LSO platform every time an aircraft needs to land aboard the ship.
The officers generally start out as the controlling LSO, which is the primary person who talks to the incoming pilot and controls the aircraft on final approach. As they become more proficient at controlling aircraft and gain experience they are given more responsibility.
“It is good to know you have a Marine Hornet pilot on the platform because they will be able to help the most if I have an airborne emergency and need to get on deck safely,” said Major Lance Lewis, a VMFA-251 pilot.
The pilots are graded on their landing based off of safety and technique using complex shorthand to denote what each aircraft did during various phases of each approach. Deviations from optimal glide slope, centerline and angle of attack are noted for each phase, resulting in an overall grade. After the flight, the grades are debriefed to each pilot by the LSO.
“I think I speak for all of the LSOs in that being able to safely recover an aircraft after the pilot has had a stressful flight for whatever reason is very rewarding,” said Bolen, a VMFA-251 LSO. “I personally find serving as a LSO to be very rewarding and know that all of our LSOs take great pride in being one and helping out our fellow aviators.”
| Date Taken: | 05.15.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 06.03.2011 11:41 |
| Story ID: | 71531 |
| Location: | BEAUFORT, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 246 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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