Hornet Nap

[travcrouse]

Going through pics from my days in the USN. Thought the board might appreciate this one.
I was an F/A-18 plane captain for a while. Here we're on a Med cruise aboard USS Saratoga, one of my buddies caught me taking a nap in the engine intake of my jet. Hahaha!

[Dimitris]

Sara eh? Had something of a family connection to that one.

How do you guard against someone starting up the engines while you're still in the intake?

[travcrouse]

Old Sara! This was her last cruise before decommissioning.

I think my bird was "hard-down" for some maintenance issue at this point. It was on the hangar deck, and not likely to be fired up for a little while. I only needed to be nearby to be ready to ride the brakes in case it had to be moved to a new spot in the hangar.
Not much to do but sit around and wait. The bird could not be moved or started up without me being present. Also, the blueshirts would have started yelling "where's the plane captain?" if I was needed and I would have woke up : perfect opportunity for a catnap...

[NakedWeasel]

As a snipe, I frequently had opportunity to nap in the main spaces, and shaft alleys. It was loud and hot in the plant, and of course there's always the issue of radiation exposure over time, but when you are exhausted you sleep- and I was not the only one. My favorite spots were in the MMR overheads, and down in the bilge, under the reduction gear. My chief caught me snoozing in a shaft alley once when I didn't muster for a man overboard drill, and told me that if I ever did that again, he'd lock the hatch from the outside and turn on the eductor (essentially sucking all the air out of the space and suffocating me.) We did not re-visit that particular issue ever again, I can assure you.

[ComDev]

Lol thanks for the laugh guys [:D]

[travcrouse]

@Weasel: We were masters at finding nappy spaces!
When I first reported to the squadron on my first cruise, I was temporarily assigned to the Supply Dept/S-6/RAM as a supply runner: I had access to spare parts lockers/spaces all over the boat. If the requirement for a spare part wasn't an emergency, I could hide out in a locker for a quick catnap, secure in the knowledge that I was the only person with the keys to the space...

[AdmiralSteve]

ORIGINAL: NakedWeasel

My favorite spots were in the MMR overheads, and down in the bilge, under the reduction gear.

I was a BT on the USS England CG-22 and I was so exhausted that I slept sitting on the deck grates next to a forced draft blower during sprint and drift drills so the blower was cycling from 1000 RPM to 6000 RPM and back for about an hour. Leaning against the bulkhead, I moved the circulation vent so that it would blow on me and it was the best nap I ever had.

[travcrouse]

Snatching comfort from the jaws of adversity! Hahaha!

Coldest I've ever been in my life: working the flight deck in the North Atlantic in January. During flight ops, we would stop by the Tomcats on the "front porch". This was an area right by the island where the F-14's did their startups. At low power, the Tomcat's exhaust warmed up the whole area around the island and made a nice spot to stand and warm up before getting back out in to the weather.