Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

President on Deck

Aired May 01, 2003 - 13:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It should be quite a show. About two hours from now, the commander in chief is to land on a U.S. aircraft carrier to make a major announcement on the war with Iraq. It was six weeks ago that President George W. Bush announced the war had begun.
Tonight, he will inform the world that major combat is over, stopping short of declaring victory, and CNN's Frank Buckley is standing by on the carrier where he is destined, the Abraham Lincoln, awaiting the arrival of what will be that time Navy One.

Hello, Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Miles.

A Navy One, in this case, an S-3 Viking. That's an anti- submarine, submarine hunter aircraft, used on this aircraft carrier and others to help midair refueling of the strike packages as they go in to look for targets.

Among the people who are eagerly anticipating the arrival of the president are the people who will be standing right in this area. This is known as the LSO platform. They will help to guide the president's aircraft in for this trap landing that is, hitting one of the cables on this aircraft carrier deck, going from 150 miles an hour to about 0, well, in fact 0, in about 2 seconds. This is the LSO platform here on the deck.

And one of the people who will actually be helping to guide the president's plane in is Lieutenant Commander Joe Barnes.

You are what is known as one of the LSO folks. Tell people what you do here at this location.

LT. COM. JOE BARNES: OK. As an LSO, we're the landing signal officer. We control the aircraft coming in to land. We're all pilots. We all know the air wing really well.

I'm actually the air pack LSO, and I'm out here just for a couple days. But the air wing LSOs come out, and they guide all their pilot friends in here. They know how they fly and what they do, and we keep them safe, make sure everybody lands safely and expeditiously.

We got some help up here, doing some equipment checks for us, making sure we get everybody safely on deck. That's our primary concern.

BUCKLEY: And the pilots say there are three things they consider as they're approaching the deck. Tell us, meatball -- what are the other two?

BARNES: Meatball, lineup and angle of attack on how you're flying the aircraft. A meatball is the lens back which is back there, which gives us our glide slip information on how high or low we're are. Lineup is what we're looking at for center line, to make sure we're on center line, because we have a very small, narrow runway. And then the angle attack is the angle that the aircraft flies at. We don't flare like airliners and like Air Force guys, we fly at an angle of attack, and we do about -- kind of a controlled crash into the carrier.

BUCKLEY: And you and Lieutenant Commander Tom Flannery will actually be able to speak to the pilot if he dips too low, or comes too high or is off-line, is that right?

BARNES: Yes, we have communications with the pilot. We also have light signals with the pilot. When we're doing normal operations, we do what's called zip lip, and we don't actually speak to him unless we have to. But we always have communications, we have a handset, and we can talk to the pilot and tell him what we need to see out of him.

BUCKLEY: And this is the president. It's Navy One, the first time that a president, as far as we know, has trapped on an aircraft carrier. Any added tension or nervousness?

BARNES: Well, there's always some of that. He's got a top 10 ball flyer in the cockpit with him there, the XO of VS-35. A great guy, great pilot, and it's a beautiful day, so we should be good.

BUCKLEY: All right. Thank you very much, lieutenant commander.

Miles, we should tell you that we're going to have a treat here in a few minutes. A cod, that's a C2 Greyhound, a propeller-driven aircraft, is coming aboard shortly, and we're going to be allowed to stand right here on the LSO platform and show you what Lieutenant Commander Barnes is doing here as it's coming in. So we'll be able to show that aircraft coming in live, if the timing works out just right.

O'BRIEN: That's an unusual vantage point from which to see, certainly for a journalist, Frank, without you having to enlist, I guess. But when he says ball flyer, would you explain that expression? There is a thing they call the meatball there, that they have to try to hone in on, and if they're too low, it shows one collar. If they're too high, it shows another; if they're right down the glide slope. So when they say a ball flyer, that means he's right down the glide slope, right?

BUCKLEY: That's correct. As you know, Miles, but maybe our viewers may not, as the aircraft is on final approach, I think it's three-quarter mile out, they say call the ball. I'm being told that's correct. I got one thing right here. They say "call the ball" to the pilot. The pilot will say if he's flying the plane 201, "201 ball," meaning he sees the ball, he's in control, he's on final, and he's about to crossover the ramp. As he's approaching, that light, if he -- the ball actually -- the ball actually shoots a stream of light out to the aircraft so that if it drops down below glide path, or glide slope, or goes too high, it actually starts to -- the light on the meatball starts to go up or down with different colors.

When that happens, the pilot knows to adjust. More power, less power, and to bring it into the proper glide slope. And it's a really interesting thing to see during the day, which is what we'll see, particularly interesting and challenging for a pilot at night. But it's really going to be neat, I think. We're going to be able to stand right here and see this cod go right by us right here on the deck.

O'BRIEN: We are looking forward to that. We hope to bring that to you live. And of course, we plan on bringing you the president's controlled crash, if you will, arrested landing, capture, whatever term you like, whatever it is, we hope it's not a bolter, because that XO will probably be swabbing decks for the remainder of his Navy career.

Frank Buckley, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired May 1, 2003 - 13:02   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It should be quite a show. About two hours from now, the commander in chief is to land on a U.S. aircraft carrier to make a major announcement on the war with Iraq. It was six weeks ago that President George W. Bush announced the war had begun.
Tonight, he will inform the world that major combat is over, stopping short of declaring victory, and CNN's Frank Buckley is standing by on the carrier where he is destined, the Abraham Lincoln, awaiting the arrival of what will be that time Navy One.

Hello, Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Miles.

A Navy One, in this case, an S-3 Viking. That's an anti- submarine, submarine hunter aircraft, used on this aircraft carrier and others to help midair refueling of the strike packages as they go in to look for targets.

Among the people who are eagerly anticipating the arrival of the president are the people who will be standing right in this area. This is known as the LSO platform. They will help to guide the president's aircraft in for this trap landing that is, hitting one of the cables on this aircraft carrier deck, going from 150 miles an hour to about 0, well, in fact 0, in about 2 seconds. This is the LSO platform here on the deck.

And one of the people who will actually be helping to guide the president's plane in is Lieutenant Commander Joe Barnes.

You are what is known as one of the LSO folks. Tell people what you do here at this location.

LT. COM. JOE BARNES: OK. As an LSO, we're the landing signal officer. We control the aircraft coming in to land. We're all pilots. We all know the air wing really well.

I'm actually the air pack LSO, and I'm out here just for a couple days. But the air wing LSOs come out, and they guide all their pilot friends in here. They know how they fly and what they do, and we keep them safe, make sure everybody lands safely and expeditiously.

We got some help up here, doing some equipment checks for us, making sure we get everybody safely on deck. That's our primary concern.

BUCKLEY: And the pilots say there are three things they consider as they're approaching the deck. Tell us, meatball -- what are the other two?

BARNES: Meatball, lineup and angle of attack on how you're flying the aircraft. A meatball is the lens back which is back there, which gives us our glide slip information on how high or low we're are. Lineup is what we're looking at for center line, to make sure we're on center line, because we have a very small, narrow runway. And then the angle attack is the angle that the aircraft flies at. We don't flare like airliners and like Air Force guys, we fly at an angle of attack, and we do about -- kind of a controlled crash into the carrier.

BUCKLEY: And you and Lieutenant Commander Tom Flannery will actually be able to speak to the pilot if he dips too low, or comes too high or is off-line, is that right?

BARNES: Yes, we have communications with the pilot. We also have light signals with the pilot. When we're doing normal operations, we do what's called zip lip, and we don't actually speak to him unless we have to. But we always have communications, we have a handset, and we can talk to the pilot and tell him what we need to see out of him.

BUCKLEY: And this is the president. It's Navy One, the first time that a president, as far as we know, has trapped on an aircraft carrier. Any added tension or nervousness?

BARNES: Well, there's always some of that. He's got a top 10 ball flyer in the cockpit with him there, the XO of VS-35. A great guy, great pilot, and it's a beautiful day, so we should be good.

BUCKLEY: All right. Thank you very much, lieutenant commander.

Miles, we should tell you that we're going to have a treat here in a few minutes. A cod, that's a C2 Greyhound, a propeller-driven aircraft, is coming aboard shortly, and we're going to be allowed to stand right here on the LSO platform and show you what Lieutenant Commander Barnes is doing here as it's coming in. So we'll be able to show that aircraft coming in live, if the timing works out just right.

O'BRIEN: That's an unusual vantage point from which to see, certainly for a journalist, Frank, without you having to enlist, I guess. But when he says ball flyer, would you explain that expression? There is a thing they call the meatball there, that they have to try to hone in on, and if they're too low, it shows one collar. If they're too high, it shows another; if they're right down the glide slope. So when they say a ball flyer, that means he's right down the glide slope, right?

BUCKLEY: That's correct. As you know, Miles, but maybe our viewers may not, as the aircraft is on final approach, I think it's three-quarter mile out, they say call the ball. I'm being told that's correct. I got one thing right here. They say "call the ball" to the pilot. The pilot will say if he's flying the plane 201, "201 ball," meaning he sees the ball, he's in control, he's on final, and he's about to crossover the ramp. As he's approaching, that light, if he -- the ball actually -- the ball actually shoots a stream of light out to the aircraft so that if it drops down below glide path, or glide slope, or goes too high, it actually starts to -- the light on the meatball starts to go up or down with different colors.

When that happens, the pilot knows to adjust. More power, less power, and to bring it into the proper glide slope. And it's a really interesting thing to see during the day, which is what we'll see, particularly interesting and challenging for a pilot at night. But it's really going to be neat, I think. We're going to be able to stand right here and see this cod go right by us right here on the deck.

O'BRIEN: We are looking forward to that. We hope to bring that to you live. And of course, we plan on bringing you the president's controlled crash, if you will, arrested landing, capture, whatever term you like, whatever it is, we hope it's not a bolter, because that XO will probably be swabbing decks for the remainder of his Navy career.

Frank Buckley, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com