Wave takeoff: S2 Tracker

INFORMATION COURTESY OF TOM SANDERS: This is an S-2E from VS-38 off Calif. coast in 1971 onboard USS Ticonderoga CVS-14. Aircraft had pilot and copilot hatches open when rogue wave came up over bow at end of catapult shot. AC was able to recover a few feet off the surface and fly back to San Diego. The inside of the AC was soaked with salt water and was later taken out of service. Pilot was LCDR Guy Wilcox. I was squadron LSO and observed launch from the LSO platform on the rear port side flight deck of ship. Tom Sanders

Add'l info added 4/23/08 aircraft ID'd as S2 Tracker.
video was sent to me a couple years ago in an email - looked like a scary takeoff to me...but at least ultimately successful?

• Category

  Autos & Vehicles

[moost66]

LOL...., this can't be real, can it?

[hunt1803]

yes, its real. One of the men onboard has posted here... see the posts by AWPelican below in the All Comments section.

[hunt1803]

2 of 2

14 became CVS-14 with a cantered deck and catapults in 1957. And the actual video you have is of the carrier trials section for the YS2F-1. The secondary prototype redesignated YS-2A in 1962 later becoming the S-2 Tracker once in production again in 1962. The most shocking part about the video is that they actually had planned this to happen so they could see how the plane reacted to it. Hense why they documented it. Some very rare footage for sure. Thanks for posting it!

[hunt1803]

1 of 2

Thought I would post a communication I received from varriq010 in regards to some research he did on this video:

Part of the reason they did make it is because they were NOT using a catapult. If they had been the impact would have killed the plane. As it sits it was a very abrupt rain storm by effect. This sort of thing happened alot on Essex class carriers before the introduction of catapults and the rules behind firing them. This happened before CVA-

[SenorSpode]

The aircraft is the Grumman S-2F, also known as "Stoof". Thankfully, its radial engines are less susceptible to water-ingestion failure than turbines. The Grumman S-3 Viking replaced it.

[hunt1803]

Thanks!

[AWPelican]

That was VS-38 on the USS Ticonderoga during the 1971 cruise. I was in VS-38 and setting in the ready room watching the launch on PLAT TV. The engines did ingest sea water, and water came in through air vents even. the engines coughed, spi, and sputtered, but caught again and flew out the other side of the wave. Tom Hale

[srussert28]

I heard of a planes "Baptism by fire"

But never actually seen a plane baptised

[adriaansmit81]

my father served the dutch navy on an aircraft carrier (karel doorman) that had these planes on its deck: a grumman tracker s2a with the large radar dish, too bad had a fire in the engine room and they had to sell it to Argentina.

[bofnie]

Don't remember the last time I was this surprised on Youtube :-)

[raptors222222]

1971 Winner of the Bad Timing Award

[denmalski]

Didn't he hear the call WAVE OFF, WAVE OFF , WAVE OFF!!!!!!

[hunt1803]

@aviatorusn

Thank you Mr. Sanders for clearing things up!

The comment you refer to was a Private Message another viewer had sent me - apparently because he was having troubles posting comments directly. If you read the comment I posted, you will see that I attributed it to varriq010

I don't have first hand knowledge about any of this. This was simply a very cool vid a friend of mine asked me to post -- he didn't want to setup a YT account, and I thought others would like to see it.

[Zeke Ulrey]

CRAZY. An Essex-class carrier is not a small ship, so we're talking about a very large breaker even if sailed directly into a trough... I'd require more than a change of underwear after that takeoff.

[PuzzlingEvidenceTV]

Planned to wreck an aircraft, and endanger crews? Might want to read officer's comments as written below...

[hotelgulf718]

Amazing recovery!!! Didn't think it would grab any air after that much water! I'm very impressed. Having the throttles wide open probably helped too! Thanks for the dramatic footage. :)