Calling all USS Enterprise CVN-65 fans

[RandyM]

So I visited http://www.gonavy.com and all I found was some sort of email sign-up site ("EmailCommand.com"). I poked around and could find nothing of value.

Am I required to join this site, or am I doing something else wrong?

-Randy

[simon b]

Randy

It's http://www.gonavy.jp rather than .com. Just a typo

[gtbred]

Ray Bean book on the BigE when she was young is great. NO,nobody can borrrow it. get your own!

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
I'll second the motion by Mardis, or should I say, "I second that e-motion!". If the speed and beauty of America's ultimate Cold-Warrior is reason enough to buy something new, then Ray's latest release of his book, "USS Enterprise CVAN 65; Part 1: the early years 1961-1979 ", may become a must for we BigE fans.
My choice to buy this book stemmed from my deep affection for the BigE and a personal preference of book to thumb drive. That and one more reason; to support our fellow ship vendors.
My book came in the mail last week.
Here is a brief description of the book and its' contents:
8" x 10" softbound. 22 pages of Color and b/w pics combined on each page. Ship/period specific configs have been called out. High quality glossy cover showing too the NavAir Centennial badge; for good reason!
My copy was signed and numbered. I can't help but think that this type of high quality/inexpensive book would be ideal for hobby shops and gift shops related to this subject type.
I know that Ray is planning more books of this type, so mega sales of the first would be an impetus to growth in this direction.
Take care BigE fans!
Tony

[westlife_100]

Not really specific to Enterprise, but I've been wondering... I assume there is a protocol for moving aircraft from hangar to flight decks. Do the squadrons have their own "territories" in the hangar, do all a/c go "in" through one (or more) specific elevators and out others; is there a general "motion" of groups of aircraft fore-to-aft (or vice versa), or do they just get moved around as needed in a sort of haphazard monster parking garage?

And while we're sort of on the subject... I have found good references on CVW-1 in terms of squadrons and aircraft types, but I haven't found much in terms of numbers of each aircraft for a typical deployment. *Is* there such a thing as "standard composition" for the airwing, or does it vary significantly from trip to trip? Could someone please provide me with "average" numbers of each type of a/c (and if you're really feeling generous, break the numbers down by squadron)?

Many thanks,
Randy

From the late 60's until the mid 90's, a typical airwing would have:
VF Sqdn F-4/F-14 12 Aircraft Side number 100-1xx
VF Sqdn F-4/F-14 12 Aircraft Side number 200-2xx
VA/VFA A-7/FA-18 12 Aircraft Side number 300-3xx
VA/VFA A-7/FA-18 12 Aircraft Side number 400-4xx
VA A-6/KA-6 12-15 Aircraft( 12 A-6E/3 KA-6D) Side number 500-5xx
VS S-3 70's & 80's 10 Aircraft; 90's 6 Aircraft Side number 700-7xx
VAQ EA-6B 4 Aircraft ( early 90's a few airwings had 5) Side number 620-62x
VAW E-2 4 Aircraft ( early 90's a few airwings had 5) Side number 600-60x
HS SH-3/SH-60 6-8 Helo's Side number 610-61x
VAQ EA-3/ES-3 1 or 2 aircraft side numbers varied.

The number of aircraft might vary a little depending on wether there was a mishap or a squadron just did not get a full set of planes. Towards the late 80's and early 90's, the navy did not have enough planes to deploy the airwing I described above. Towards the late 90's, VF & VFA squadrons starting deploying with 10 aircraft because of aircraft shortages.

A new airwing would have,
VFA FA-18 10 Aircraft Side number 100-1xx
VFA FA-18 10 Aircraft Side number 200-2xx
VFA FA-18 10 Aircraft Side number 300-3xx
VFA FA-18 10 Aircraft Side number 400-4xx
VAQ EFA-18G 6 Aircraft Side number 500-5xx
VAW E-2C 4 Aircraft(future airwings will have 5 E-2D) Side number 600-60x
HSC MH-60S 6-8 Aircraft Side number 610-61x
HSM MH-60R 6-8 Aircraft Side number ???

When I cruised on Constellation and Nimitz with CVW-9 in 1990-1991, the E-2's occupied the front of the hanger and were generally parked forward of elevator #1( L-1) just inside the door. Normally there is only one in the hanger but that would depend on whether there was maintenance to be done. Hornets, Prowlers and Intruders occupied the area between L-1 and L-3 and were parked in no particular order. The Tomcat's occupied the aft area between L-3 and L-4. The various maintanence shops for the squadrons were scattered all over the ship on, or a deck or two above the hanger deck, so it was just a matter of luck, if your jet was parked outside you shop on the hanger deck! The enlisted maintainers stayed in great shape running parts all over the ship!!

You normally would not be moving aircraft from the deck to the hanger during flight ops. You can physically do it, but there is a lot going on during a launch and recovery so why make it harder than it needs to be.

There are generally one of two types of operations going on for launching and recovering aircraft.

Cyclic Ops is when you launch all of the aircraft scheduled to take off, and then recover any aircraft that are airborne. You do this every 45 minute to an hour and 15 minutes, for a current airwing. In my day we did it every hour and a half. This is the normal way to run flight ops. The airplan is the document that is published every day and defines the times that each event will launch and recover. It is enforced by the Air Boss fairly rigidly. If the aircraft in an event, say a launch at 10am, are all ready to go at 9:55 am, the boss will not signal a green deck until 10am! It kind of needs to be done that way to keep the carrier, the ships in the battle group, and the airwing on the same sheet of paper.

Flex deck is when you launch and recover aircraft at the same time. This is pretty hard to sustain. You have to keep most of the airwing flying because there is not a lot of room to park aircraft when you run this kind of operation. The handler basically juggles airplanes unitl it is time to wrap up flight ops and then landed aircraft are pulled/taxied forward. You normally have aircraft parked on catapult # 2 ( the 2 row), so you can only launch using one catapult. You would normally run this kind of deck for CQ ( carrier quals) or a special tactical situations. We did it in my day for outer air battle ops.

I hope that helps. What I described was/is typical but there can be variations and the Midway/Forrestal Class Carriers did it a little different because of the different elevator layout.

I hope that helps,

Mark

mark,thanx for your information . i have a question. you mention "You have to keep most of the airwing flying because there is not a lot of room to park aircraft when you run this kind of operation."
in my opinion, in flex deck, the flight deck has to get takeoff & recovery zone ready all the time. so the number of aircrafts in each event also limted by the parking zone. too many aircrafts in one event means too much time to turn around. "most of the airwing flying" would happend in the alfa strike.

[gtbred]

getting back to work on BigE,because of Ray's book.

[cjb2562]

A set of the Dunagain Decals for CVN 65 on sale on ebay uk, under 1/350 boats/ships.

[Ticonderoga]

Not a nice way to end your Command....


http://www.smh.com.au/world/honors-over ... 19fbi.html

[dangood32@charter.net]

Can any one tell me what air group Enterprise carried during the Cuban Missile Crisis? I have Revel's 1-720 scale kit on the way and I would love to show her as she looked at that time.

[Cliffy B]

The Big E had CVW-6 aboard during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

CVW-6:
VF-102 (F4H-1) F-4 Phantoms
VF-33 (F8U-2NE) F-8 Crusaders
VA-66 (A4D-2N) A-4 Skyhawks
VA-65 (AD-6) A-1 Skyraiders
VA-64 (A4D-2N) A-4 Skyhawks
VA-76 (A4D-2N) A-4 Skyhawks
VAH-7 (A3J-1) A-3 Skywarriors
VAW-12 Det. 65 (WF-2) E-1 Tracers (AEW S-2 Trackers)
VFP-62 Det. 65 (F8U-1P) F-8 Crusaders (Photo Recon)
HU-2 Det. 65 (HUP-2) UH-25 Helos

This was before the big designation standardization so I provided the modern names in bold next to each squadron in case of confusion.

[dangood32@charter.net]

Thank you Cliffy-B for the info. You give me exactly what I needed to know. :-D

[mclare]

Hello all,

I would agree nearly 100% with what Mark said as far as A/C aboard and hanger bay ops. I served from '78-'84 and made two cruises including a world cruise aboard the USS America while deployed with VS-33 (S-3 Sub hunters).

Aboard the America, like Mark's ship, all the F-14's were in the rear of the hanger along with the E-2's and the one or two A-3 Whale's. The A-7's were mid-hanger. Of our S-3's (We had 10 embarked like Mark said) usually 4 were in the hanger. 704 spent the whole cruise in the hanger with a major fuel bladder problem. They had to take the whole bird apart AIR. I was an AT-3 and I was a Flight Deck Troubleshooter and worked the cats during launches. It's a surreal trip being in-between the bow cats with two F-14's at Zone 5 and them launching two by two (Two off the bow cats and two off waist cats within a few seconds of the alert 5) Back then we had the Russian threat and I have pics of a Kara Class Cruiser off our beam by a few thousand yards. Bear's used to overfly us daily.

My squadron did the cruise before I got there on the Big "E" and I got detailed to that sqd to be on her and I went on a two week det up in Bremerton when she was doing the '79 SLEP. Then we got assigned to the America in VA! We were a San Diego based sqd.

Well I myself am building a Tamiya Big "E" and going to do a full hanger too and a complete PE detail and update. I have not decided on an A/w decal setup yet. I am planning on doing custom decals for her and the America and Nimitz I am planning.

I started the Island on my "E" and I will post pics soon.

[medhawk020]

I sent Louis Carabott about his Enterprise. Saw it on ACB. Incredible build by the way. I sent him an email about the mural on the doors. He's looking but doesn't know if he still has a copy. Does anybody have a 1/350 scale copy or good picture that they would be willing to share?
TIA
RG

Send me a PM with your mail adress, I've scanned and colored those from the D&S book, but it's too big to be posted here.

[ilovecarriers]

I have just joined this site and find it first rate . The question i have is about Tamiyas 1/350 Enterprise,must it be built with the hanger deck can it look just as good without it.The reason i am asking this is because i have limited experience i know that it would be totally impossible for me to do all the scratchbuilding that is required.Some of the finishes i hae seen on here are perfect and some actually looked like the real thing[not that i would know what a carrier looks like hope to one day though]with lights and all the detail on the walls[are these the bulkheads]or would it be suffice to put in a couple of sheets of plastic and paint them.At the minute i am building the USS HANCOCK and she has a hanger deck so all i have to do is remove some of the roller doors to see inside.Any advice again would be appreciated

[Timmy C]

It's entirely a matter of personal taste - certainly I don't think very many will complain about the absence of a hangar deck given all the other things to gawk at!

That being said, it is rare for carriers to have all of their hangar doors closed. Maybe you can do a small portion of the hangar near one of the doors?

[Guest]

Thanks Timmy i think i will attempt a small section of hanger deck.Don't understand why tamiya could not have included some sort of deck as i'm sure it would only have cost them pennies to do so considering what this one cost[�127.00 roughly $180]I have spent as much again on PE.decals and extra aircraft.The Hancock i am building cost about half but it has a hanger deck it was just a case of removing some of the doors.I'm going to try putting some pipes on the bulkheads on this oneto get a feel for scratchbuilding something.I have bought a few sets of different size styrene rods full circle and half circle.Thanks for taking the time to reply anthony

[BCBilly]

Can the Tamiya 1/350 kit be retrofitted by any sets that would show it as it was when commissioned?

How much work would it take to reconfigure it to the 1960/1961 Era?

[elliott71]

Hi BCBilly,

No. 1 - No.
No. 2 - I've been in the planning stages for such a project - well, my favourite project - for some years now (searching the internet for references and photos, collecting books, aftermarkets and so...), and these days i dug out my kit from the cellar again and i think i'm ready to start now...
But in short words: Be prepared to rebuild/scratch the whole kit, depending on how accurate you want it to turn out...

Best regards,
Michael

[sgtryan13]

ilovecarriers-

As for your hangar deck dilemma, a few things to consider;
1-are you going to light the hangar? If not, then very few details will be visible, so you can get away with a much simpler design, basically a deck, some bulkheads and minimal details on teh bulkheads etc. If it is going to be lit, you will want to add a lot more detail in there.

2- It si a good suggestion that you only do a small area with one door open, that way you won't get overwhlemed and can comcnetrate on doing a lot more detail to that one specific area, and it will still look good.

3-build it to make you happy, not to impress or compete with any other builds on here This site and the modelers on here are not competative, we all pretty much build to our own abilities and tastes, no one is judging anyone else's work, so just have fun!

[carr]

3-build it to make you happy, not to impress or compete with any other builds on here This site and the modelers on here are not competative, we all pretty much build to our own abilities and tastes, no one is judging anyone else's work, so just have fun!

There is no better advice than this statement. " sgtryan13" is a wise man. You'll find, as you progress, that each build will be a bit better than the one before it because of the lessons learned. It can be a pleasant journey if you relax and enjoy your builds without worrying about how they compare to others. Nothing wrong, of course, with being inspired by someone else's work and striving to improve but don't let it take the fun out of what is supposed to be a hobby.

Now build and show us what it looks like. You'll find nothing but encouragement.