Landing
Immediately upon touchdown, the pilot advances the throttles to full power so that a touch and go (known as a "Bolter") can be executed in the event that all trap wires have been missed. Occasionally, pilots will opt to advance the throttles to maximum power (full afterburner). Ideally, the tailhook catches the target wire (or cross deck pendant), which abruptly slows the aircraft from approach speed to a full stop in about two seconds. As the aircraft's forward motion stops, the throttles are reduced to idle, and the hook is raised on the aircraft director's signal.
The aircraft director then directs the aircraft to clear the landing area in preparation for the next landing. Remaining ordnance is de-armed, wings are folded, and aircraft are taxied to parking spots and shut down. Immediately upon shutdown (or sometimes prior to that), the aircraft is re-fueled, re-armed, and inspected, minor maintenance is performed, and it is often re-spot prior to the next launch cycle.
Read more about this topic: Modern United States Navy Carrier Air Operations
Famous quotes containing the word landing:
“I foresee the time when the painter will paint that scene, no longer going to Rome for a subject; the poet will sing it; the historian record it; and, with the Landing of the Pilgrims and the Declaration of Independence, it will be the ornament of some future national gallery, when at least the present form of slavery shall be no more here. We shall then be at liberty to weep for Captain Brown. Then, and not till then, we will take our revenge.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)