HMS Ark Royal | Flying stations | 1970s | Aircraft Carrier | Military | Royal Navy

[@allanbyallas7546]

Loved that 👍

[@udeychowdhury2529]

Fab video, thanks

[@B1900pilot]

This is a good one!

[@bobbymcgee6149]

Its always impressive to watch the ballet of an aircraft carrier flight deck. All the skills that the RN have lost and now have to rebuild with their new aircraft carriers, albeit simple operations without CATOBAR operations but still. Good luck to all!

[@Ettrick8]

@@bobbymcgee6149 we probably asked the French or the Americans for help.

[@voonyboy]

who knew we were such a homogeneous society even as recently as the 70s

[@RodrickLionheart]

...apart from the F4 phantoms 😉😊

[@MaxPlankton]

We thought Netherthorpe was short! What a bunch of turkeys we were haha!

[@heathcliff8624]

Good for a healthy complexion.

[@johnnunn8688]

I’m earlier times, was the bridle dropped in the sea after every shot and a fresh one used? Edited, answered by the narrator.

[@motormech1h343]

could of used that ship in the Falklands

[@eliomarlacerda6943]

@@motormech1h343 She was decomissioned grom the Royal Navy on 1978

[@Hackett1066]

@@eliomarlacerda6943 shame what they did to her just left her to the scrap men I watched a documentary a while ago and an ex officer who served on the mighty Ark got very emotional when he saw it getting broken up

[@squeaksvids5886]

Personally I don’t think Argentina would’ve invaded the Falklands if we had Ark Royal.

[@andymcgeechan8318]

@@squeaksvids5886 They tried in 1977 when we had her. It was "leaked" intel that Dreadnought had set sail that turned them around.

[@allandavis8201]

I always wondered why there were all these long poles sticking outside of aircraft carriers, I thought they might have been something to do with the safety nets or navigation lights, but now I know they are/were communications aerials it is a mystery solved, apart from the fact that with all the superstructure they didn’t put them up there, surely reception would have been better?, but I suppose there is a logical reason why they weren’t, perhaps someone who knows about such things could enlighten me. I wasn’t Royal Navy so I don’t know about their protocols surrounding the daily checks of the flight deck equipment but I would have thought that it would have been a rating or one of the LSOs assistants who would have done them, the LSO is obviously a pilot and therefore an officer so I doubt it would have been them that did it, but again, I don’t know Royal Navy protocols and hope someone will enlighten me. Ah, the dreaded F-700, I had 24 years of the paperwork, especially in my last posting, 10 years as a maintenance team leader, and tbh the number of amendments to the 700 and aircraft documentation in general was enough to make my head spin, get it wrong and an aircraft accident happened because, for example, the pilot/crew didn’t know a system was inoperative and they tried to use it during flight or in an emergency (although aircraft were not allowed to fly with an emergency system unserviceable), the ramifications were such that, at best, a slapped wrist (meaning that promotion would be nonexistent depending upon severity of the mistake) or, at worst, legal proceedings or a General Courts Martial could be made against the last person (excluding the pilots signature), known as the coordinator, to sign the aircraft up as being ready and serviceable too go flying, it was/is a legally binding signature, and a huge responsibility, and when the pressure is on to get the aircraft ready to fly, especially at short notice, can, no sorry, is a huge job to get done in time, and more importantly correctly, and that person was me, and all the training in the world only scratches the surface of the job, and I never thought that I would end up being a pen pusher and desk jockey but I did and it made me realise why the coordinator would sometimes be a little touchy and scream at people who were not pulling their weight, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, best years of my service. It is a great narration to this video, but, and there is always a but, the narrator calling the S.A.R Helicopter a “He-Low” is an Americanism and not (at that time) The Queens English, it is a Helicopter, or the terminology we used for them “Cab’s or Cab”, just as an fixed wing aircraft is either an aeroplane or aircraft, it is NOT a “plane” a plane is a woodworking tool, if any of my team had said “He-Low” or “Plane” they would have got a very swift re-education from one of my Junior N.COs around the back of the hangar, not hanger, hangar, hanger is for hanging clothes on, unless your a singly living in the barrack block and then they would hang their uniform/clothes up on the floor.

[@Hants_Prints]

This old (ish) blog post does a good job of explaining in more detail :) engineering.stackexchange.com/questions/33295/what-are-the-poles-off-the-side-off-this-aircraft-carriers-flight-deck

[@ingurlund9657]

The long poles sticking outside of aircraft carriers were for resting the end of the aircraft so they didn't use up so much deck space.

[@neilfoster814]

I'm only a land based pilot, but to my eyes, you can't do a 'bolter' with the crash barrier in the raised position?? Great video all the same.

[@johnnunn8688]

They don’t land with the barrier up unless there is a problem.

[@neilfoster814]

@@johnnunn8688 I meant if the plane that's in trouble and the barrier has been put up, it then can't do a bolter.

[@johnnunn8688]

@ it would be difficult, yes.

[@der_picard3370]

Those old fashioned starting System on the bucs and the unique strange Front wheel of the phants.... Old fashioned and strange.... Today every US carrier is decades ahead in Technology. And even UKs VSTOL F-35 are much better in Everything. An interesting movie from an old Analogue age though. 👍

[@Belisarius1967]

It is from 1974 though. Just think a supercomputer back then had less processing power than a mobile phone today.