Take My Breath by AwayRealityBetterThanFiction on a03

Chapter 6

Carrier - A big ass ship that carries a lot of people, a lot of planes and a lot of firepower. It is the centerpiece of the Navy forces, where jets of all kinds are launched off the carrier to mount their attacks. One hundred thousand tons of terror at sea.

Flight deck - The flat top level of the carrier where jets are launched via several frighteningly short runways (more on that later). It's a zoo. Controlled chaos.

Hanger bay - The level below the flight deck where the aircrafts are stored when not in use. It is connected to the flight deck by a lift system kind of like a massive elevator that allows planes and weaponry to be transported between levels.

Topside / Below Deck - Topside is going up to the flight deck, and below deck is the opposite.

Racks - Bunk beds...what fun! As you can guess, space is a luxury that is nowhere to be found in these carriers, so everything gets pretty cozy (aka cramped as all hell).

Galley - The kitchen...Niall's favorite place

Ready Room - Basically the hang out spot for each squadron where the pilots wait until they are needed.

Air Boss and Mini Boss - The brains of all flight operations. They are commanding officers that sit up in the tower and are responsible for coordination of all launches and making sure that everything on the flight deck is running smoothly. Big dogs on campus.

Wheels in the well - Wheels up, baby! It's go time.

Pull Chocks - Chocks are wedges that are placed around the jet's wheels to stop it from rolling right off the side of the carrier. Chocks must be "pulled" before a jet can move.

Catapult System or "Cat" - Of all the research I've done, here's the absolute most terrifying part of being a Navy pilot. So the length of a carrier ship's runway is only about 300ft, right? Now compare that to a normal runway that is about 6,000ft. Because of this (minor...ha!) discrepancy, a catapult system is needed to physically launch the fighter jets into the air. The Cat is basically a really bad ass steam gun that builds up pressure from the nuclear reactors below deck and literally shoots the jet off the carrier. The "shooter" below deck will calibrate the Cat based on type of jet and wind speed and is in charge of pushing the "go" button to launch the jet. The system is able to propel jets from 0mph to 160mph in 3 seconds. Talk about great balls of fire!

Jet blast deflector - Pretty self explanatory. Part of the flight deck's surface that lifts up behind a jet during launch to stop the blast of the jet's engines from blowing the deck crew off the back of the ship.

Tail Hook - If there is anything scarier than the literal hell that is take off, it's landing. In order to land the jet on such a small runway, the pilot will drop the "tailhook" off the back of the plane, which is quite literally exactly what it sounds like. Upon landing, the hook will catch one of four arresting wires that will help decelerate the plane to a stop. The plane decelerates from 150mph to 0mph in only a few seconds. Pilots aren't alway able to catch the wire with their tailhook on the first go around, so when they are landing, they push their throttle forward to accelerate in case they need to take off again and make another approach to land. Can you say whiplash!?

Optic Landing System (OLS) - This is the light system that helps pilots land their plane and judge distance and height as they approach the carrier. It is usually the RIO's job to spot the system as the pilot talks with the Landing Signal Officer (LSO) so the plane won't smash into the back of the carrier or miss the arresting wires completely. The main light is called a "meatball" (Niall likes that name very much...yum) and its position is compared to a line of green lights called the datum lights telling the pilot if he is too high or too low during descent. There are also red lights on the OLS that indicated "wave off," meaning the flight deck is not ready for a pilot to land.