Aircraft Pumpkins - Admiral's Doorbell The yellow button in an F/A-18 cockpit that jettisons all the external stores in an emergency. If you hit it, you'll be “ringing the admiral's doorbell” to explain why. FOD Foreign Object Damage. A constant concern on airfields and carrier decks where jet engines operate.
Jet intakes can ingest loose objects, and even the smallest item — a rock, a bolt — can seriously damage jet turbine blades. Pinkie A landing made at twilight between the official time of sunset (or sunrise) and “real” darkness;
Aircraft Pumpkins
it officially counts as a night landing, but is cheating; preferred type of "night" landing by 0-4's and above. OP-1188 Range Tables Abridged June 1944 OP-1171 Optical Equipment: Rangefinders Mark 58 & 65 OP-1303 US Navy Synchros December 1944
Aviator Slang And Military Acronyms
OP-1480 VT Fuzes for Projectiles & Spin Stabilized Rockets OP-1507 Japanese Underwater Ordnance OP-1700 Standard Fire Control Symbols May, 1950 OP-2081 Use of Explosives in Underwater Salvage Our Defenseless Coasts: Essays from 1886-7 Photos: D-Day 1944 and 2009
Photos: The Pacific Theater of WWII 1941-1945 Railway Artillery 1921 Rate Insignia of Navy Enlisted Personnel Heater - Sidewinder missile which homes in on heat sources.”Heatseeker”Helo - Universal Navy/Marine term for helicopter.High PRF - Extremely excitable (PRF is a radar term: pulse repetition frequency).High Warble - Unduly agitated.Hop - A
Mission, or flightHOTAS - Hands On Throttle And Stick. HUD - Heads Up Display. A transparent screen mounted in front of the windscreen on which relevant data from flight instruments and weapons systems are projected. Ok nugget, kick the tires, light the fires,
select Zone 5, tag the bogey, but don't get in a furball. Don't boresight, check six, bingo to Mom — Got it? State How much fuel you've got. Mother requests, “Say your state.” Responded to in the form of hours and minutes of fuel onboard until you fall out of the sky (“splash”).
Ordnance Pamphlets
You answer, “State two plus two zero to splash” = 2 hours and 20 minutes of flying time remaining. Departure Literally departure from controlled flight, usually brought on in high-performance jets by excessive angle of attack coupled with partial power loss in one engine.
All aircraft depart differently, but some anxious moments and some loss of altitude will result before control can be regained. Some jets, most notably the F-4 Phantom, are unrecoverable from certain departures. IFR - Instrument Flight Rules Indian Night Noises - The ominous creaks, pops, and shudders of an aircraft in flight In-Flight Engagement - Snagging the arresting wire before the wheels touch the deck.
This can result in damage to the aircraft. Boondoggle A great deal, usually obtained at the expense of others. (“Shack is a bagger. That guy went on a coast-to-coast boondoggle cross-country with the skipper, even though we’re almost out of OPTAR for this quarter.”)
"Back to the Taxpayers" - Where you send a wrecked aircraft. Bag - Flight suit or anti-exposure suitBag Season - Cold weather or water conditions which require the wearing of anti-exposure gear; which is very restrictive, uncomfortable and unpopular Ball - An amber visual landing aid that the pilot uses to adjust the aircraft relative position to a desired final approach glideslope.
N — “November”
The primary optical landing device on the carrier. The “Meatball” Similar to a PAPI or VASIBandit - Dogfight adversary positively identified as a bad guy. Hostile aircraft. G-suit - Nylon trousers that wrap around the legs and abdomen.
Filled automatically with compressed air in high-G maneuvers, the G-suit helps prevent the pooling of blood in the lower extremities, thus retarding the tendency to lose consciousness. Also known as "speed-jeans" In the Spaghetti - Where you catch the wires on the deckINS - Inertial Navigation System A device using precise gyros that allows the pilot to determine his location anywhere on earth within a few hundred feet.
Two Turnin' and Two Burnin' Refers to a P2V-7 in order to capture the flavor of having two Wright R-3350s (turnin') and two Westinghouse J34 pure jets (burnin') on takeoff. Jets were later put into standby for a rainy day.
Naval Ordnance and Gunnery, 1957 NavPers 10797-A OP-0 (zero) Complete Index of Ordnance Pamphlets 1946 OP-4 Ammunition, May 1943 OP-658 Fire Control Radar, Mark 8. January 1943 OP-755 16 Inch Three Gun Turrets BB 55-60 OP-769 16 Inch Three Gun Turrets BB 61 Class
K — “Kilo”
OP-831 Depth Charge Projector Mark 6 Mod 1 & 2 OP-1063 The Stable Element January 1944 OP-1064 Computer Mark I and Mods Theory & Operation OP-1064A Volumes 1 & 2 Computer Mark I & Mods Maintenance
Glove The huge wing root of the F-14 Tomcat, housing the mechanism for moving the variable-geometry wings. Also, Tom Cruise notwithstanding, fireproof gloves are always worn by military pilots regardless of the outside temperature. Delta - When an aircraft arrives at a boat for recovery, this instruction tells the pilot to stay clear and save gas;
refers to a holding pattern at the boat.\Delta Sierra - "dumb shit": describes a stupid action, negates previous Bravo Zulus and Sierra Hotels. Ray Stevens "Thank You" Selsyn and Synchro Devices Submarine Emergency Ascent Balloons 1963
Submarine Hunting Duck Drone Named Wanda Table of Natural Trigonometric Functions Understanding Soviet Naval Developments -1991 US Navy Cook Book 1920 US Navy Health Clinic Joint Base Charleston SC USS Barb, SS-220, The Sub That Sank a Train
G — “Golf”
USS Laffey in drydock USS Massachusetts BB-59 War Diaries 1942-45 USS Missouri Rare and Astounding Photo USS Recruit Wooden Battleship in New York City USS Virginia Class Submarine Tour USS Yorktown Arrival in Charleston, SC 1975
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.. SAM - Surface-to-air missile.SAR - Search and Rescue.Scooter - Nickname for the A-4 SkyhawkScope - A RIO.Section - Two aircraft operating together as a tactical unit.Shoe - Short for "blackshoes," a derogatory term
for non-flying personnel; aviators wear brown shoes. "Ground pounder" Fun facts! There are lots of things that spin in the sky — from tornadoes to waterspouts to dust devils and fire whirls! Learn more about the science and safety response to these and other weather hazards.
Pinging On - Paying close attention. Pinkie - A landing made at twilight between the official time of sunset (or sunrise) and "real" darkness; it officially counts as a night landing, but is cheating; preferred type of "night" landing by O-4's and above.
S — “Saw”
All Hands Navy Magazine May 1946 America's First Aircraft Carrier USS Birmingham 1910 Analog Fire Control Computers of Ford and Newell Aviator Slang and Military Acronyms DARPA HYDRA Underwater Drone Launch Platform Gunner's Mate Missile Rate Training Manuals
GMM 1 & C Manual GMM 3 & 2 Manual Historical Reference Material: Fullam & Hart Japanese Plane Bombed Oregon September, 1942 Japanese Underwater Ordnance: Mines, Depth Charges, Torpedoes Navy's father of Aegis dies Navy Seal War Dog, Cairo, that Cornered Bin Laden
News From Home 1945 Hangar Queen An aircraft that suffers chronic "downs"; hangar queens are often pirated for spares for the squadron's other aircraft, so when the aircraft leaves the carrier at the end of the cruise, the maintenance officer normally flies the hangar queen because he knows which parts have been taken (the “queen's” ejection seats
are especially well preflighted). Together We Served the Military Community Navy Army Marines Air Force Coast Guard US Navy Department Library US Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Assoc. USS Arlington AGMR-2 USS Boston Shipmates Association
USS Charles P. Cecil Assoc. DD-835 USS Cony USS Harry E. Yarnell DLB/CG-17 USS Little Rock CL-92 USS Missouri USS Whitehurst DE-634 USS Worcester CL-144 Assoc. VAQ-136 TACTS Tactical Aircrew Combat Training System. A system of computers, sensors, data pods, and graphic displays that allows real-time depiction of an aerial dogfight.
TACTS is an integral element of aircrew training. HUD Heads Up Display. A transparent screen mounted on the dashboard on which pertinent data from flight instruments and weapons systems are projected. The HUD eliminates the need to look down into the cockpit to read instruments.
HOTAS Hands On Throttle And Stick. Modern fighters have every imaginable control function mounted on either the stick (right hand) or the throttle quadrant (left hand), so that the pilot does not need to fumble around in the cockpit.
Check Six Visual observation of the rear quadrant, from which most air-to-air attacks can be expected. Refers to the clock system of scanning the envelope around the aircraft; 12 o'clock is straight ahead, 6 o'clock is directly astern.
Also a common salutation and greeting among tactical pilots. Keep an eye on your back, be careful. Go Juice - Jet fuel.god - The authority, boss, or person with full responsibility.Goes Away - What something does when you hit it with a missile.Golden Leg Spreaders - Pilot wings.Gomer - Slang for a dogfight adversary, derived from
the old Gomer Pyle TV show. Boresight Technically, to line up the axis of a gun with its sights, but pilots use the term to describe concentrating on a small detail to the point of causing some detriment to the “big picture.”
VSTOL Very Short Takeoff and Landing. Also VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing). The AV-8B Harrier is a VSTOL (VTOL) aircraft. Capable of vectoring its jet thrust to shorten its take-off roll or even to rise and descend vertically.
CAVU - Ceiling And Visibility Unlimited: the best possible flying weather.Centurion - An aviator who has made 100 shipboard landings.Charlie - The planned landing time aboard a carrier.Charlie Foxtrot - "cluster-f#ck"Check Six - Visual observation of
the rear quadrant, from which most air-to-air attacks can be expected. Refers to the clock system of scanning the envelope around the aircraft; 12 o'clock is straight ahead, 6 o'clock is directly astern. Bought the Farm
Died. Originated from the practice of the government reimbursing farmers for crops destroyed due to aviation accidents on their fields. The farmers, knowing a good thing when they see it, would inflate the value of lost crops to the point that, in effect, the mishap pilot “bought the farm.”
Student pilots regularly practice emergency landings to farmer's fields. (This one term must have a bazillion different origins judging from the amount of “corrections” I’ve received. I still like this one - ed.) Ramp Strike - Landing short in the ramp area.Radome - Streamlined fiberglass enclosure covering a radar antenna.RAG - Replacement Air Group.
Squadron in which newly trained pilots are introduced to, and trained in, a particular aircraft type. Formally known as the FRS (Fleet Replacement Squadron).
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