This page is an index to various personal materials that I have stored on my site.

Here is a video that illustrates the training of a Naval Aviator. Watching it brings back a lot of memories and associations.

Here is a video of a “night trap“. This is what landing on a carrier at night looks like from the cockpit. After about the first 20 seconds of the video, you can begin to see the lights outlining the deck start  to come into view. At the 40 second mark, you can clearly see the lights outlining the deck landing area and the “drop lights” at the back of the ship, Those are lights that go down from the back of the ship to help the pilot line up properly for the landing. If you are in the right place on the flight path, these red lights will form a straight line with the lights marking the center line of the deck. The “mirror” is just beginning to be visible on the left. At 43 seconds, the mirror is clearly visible, That is the line of green lights with an orange ball in the center. In this case, the ball is telling the pilot that he is a little high on the flight path. (There were no female carrier pilots in these days!) At about 47 seconds, the camera loses the mirror and the plane hits the deck.