NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – The ability to launch and recover aircrafts while sailing in the middle of the ocean, called flight ops, is one of the hallmarks of the Navy’s aircraft carriers. 

10 on Your Side is taking you onboard USS George Washington to show you flight ops as part of our series “On Deck: The Navy experience.” 

Flight ops are not easy and require hard work and focus from every member of the team. 

“Everything out here is looking to try to kill you,” said CDR Matthew Boss, USS George Washington Air Boss.  “Every time I’m walking on the flight deck, it’s the most nervous part of my flight a lot of times.”

Voss is the incoming air boss onboard USS George Washington.

“The air boss means that I’m in charge of the air department,” Voss said.  “It has a lot to do with the safe flight operations around the aircraft carrier.”

Keeping things safe includes the daily FOD walk downs, where 10 on Your Side’s Marielena Balouris caught up with Voss. 

The crew conduct FOD walk downs twice a day, before flight ops.  Sailors walk the entire length of the flight deck, looking for FOD, or foreign object debris, which includes things like bolts or screws.

“Those will cause damage to aircraft and more importantly personnel,” said Voss.  “As these aircrafts come up on power, they can blow those parts into other aircrafts, into other people, so it can be very, very dangerous.”

Safety is top of mind, not just during FOD walk downs, but throughout flight ops.

Voss said, “We like to say in flight deck control, ‘slow is smooth, smooth is fast.  Be safe, be deliberate, be confident but don’t be arrogant’.”

That’s the motto for the entire flight team – and these fighter pilots – who are still in training.

“Now they’re learning how to fly the F/A-18, the Super Hornet. They have to carrier qualify before they go out to their operational squadron,” said Voss.  “So that’s kind of the last stage of their pilot production.”

Voss told 10 on Your Side the pilots are flying at about 135 knots, or 155 miles per hour.  Their goal is to land on a moving ship and hook onto one of the arresting wires stretched across the flight deck.  However, if they don’t catch the cable, they have to keep going. 

“The reason why it’s louder as they land, if they have a hook skip, if they miss the wires or potentially even some failure in the equipment, they can still go airborne on this short runway,” said Voss.  “They don’t have a lot of runway to continue to go airborne, so what they’re doing is going up on power as they take that arrestment. It’s very different than any other landing that you’ve probably heard where people are throttling back.”

Their launch off the ship, propelled by a steam catapult, is also unique. It’s synchronized, precise and powerful.

“From there we are going 0 to about 160 knots in, I mean, you can count the time, it’s about 3 seconds,” said Voss.

That’s more than 180 miles per hour. 

When flight ops are underway, teamwork is essential. 

“It’s amazing to watch the whole process work. I think I’m still blown away by you now watching us launch and recover aircraft within minutes,” said Voss.  “Kind of at the same time, right, we can launch and recover at the same time. We can recover aircraft every minute. It’s still incredible but it takes a team effort, everybody on the same page, everybody looking out for each other.”

That also includes everybody making sure flight ops are safe and successful,  as the carrier projects power while at sea.

Next week, 10 on Your Side is looking at a tough topic: mental health in the military.  There’s sadly been a lot of tragedy connected to USS George Washington. However, the commanding officer told Marielena Balouris that getting out of the shipyard has changed everything.  Don’t miss the next “On Deck: The Navy Experience” Wednesday on WAVY News 10 at 6 p.m.

See below for all of the stories in the On Deck: The Navy Experience series: