USS Hornet (CVS-12) Tour

North America » United States » California » Oakland
April 2nd 2011

Published: April 25th 2011

I had heard that you could tour an aircraft carrier on Alameda island just outside of Oakland, and that one of the more interesting aspects was riding the flight elevator between the hangar and flight decks. I had been meaning to take this tour, and after arrival realized that spending just half a day there was not going to be enough time. Very interesting indeed. Upon arrival, a docent gives you ... Read Full Entry

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Doug Gschwind

Welcome to my travel blog. Thus far, I have shared a few of my recent trips, some highlights below : 1) Japan, Sep 2014. With the allure of a very foreign culture to me, non-English speaking, Hiroshima, Tokyo, Shinkansen (bullet trains), Tsukiji fish market, and Sumo wrestling, it was time for a two week break from life and traveled to Japan for the second half of September. Wow, what an amazing place, just loved every minute I spent there exploring. 2) On assignment in Berkeley, CA (Sep 2008 - Apr 2009). I explored the San Francisco Bay area in some detail during the weekends I was there ... full info

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Looking to Starboard on bow

Cape Mohican on the far side.

Looking aft from Starboard side of bow

Starboard side anti-aircraft guns

Aft side of the ship's Island.

Engine Room

A most inhospitable place to work. A constant 120 degrees, young men would work in this area monitoring gauges, in an eight hour shift that had a four hour break in the middle. The steam used to drive the turbines that then turned the propeller shafts had to be very warm, on the order of 850 degrees, to be able to make this ship be fairly fast. To check for steam leaks, they would run a broom handle along the length of a distribution pipe. If the broom handle were cut in half as a result, you had a leak. Simple as that!

Looking forward from aft end of Flight Deck

Beware Jet Blast, Props - Rotor Blades

F-16 I believe

Its wings were intact as well. That's what it looks like head on.

Helicopter made for Aircraft Carrier stowage

Interesting to see how the different aircraft were built to be able to fold up a little bit to allow more aircraft to be stowed on the hangar deck.

Apollo Artifact

The USS Hornet participated in a few Apollo missions, helping extract the capsule from the Pacific and the astronauts from within it, upon splashdown. I do in fact remember watching some of that coverage live long ago.

Forecastle

Here and below decks are where the chain for the anchor can be found. The chain locker is below decks. Each link in the chain is around 110 lbs, and the anchor itself weighs something like 30,000 lbs. How do you suppose they keep the chain from being pulled out so fast that it doesn't rip all the housing out of the ship? Must be a carefully monitored dropping of the anchor, they probably have a good idea of how much water the ship sits in.

Mooring Lines secured to Bit

These are on the Starboard side of the ship.

Flight Deck Elevator Operations

Described here if you can read the lettering. The flight deck has around 27 feet to travel, and at a maximum traveling speed of 140 feet per minute, that means around 11.5 seconds to go from bottom to top.

Underside of Flight Deck Elevator

Taken from the Hangar deck, the elevator (pained white) is clearly in the up position.

Hangar Deck Catapult

I am surprised these were ever built, given the careful attention to windspeed on the flight deck. Without being able to take advantage of the winds being generated by the direction the ship was sailing, I would think this kind of take off would not be recommended by the pilots who in fact experienced it.

Quarantine vessel for Astronauts

Apollo Artifact

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent a little time in here

Hangar Deck looking Aft

Hangar Deck looking Forward

The flight elevator in the up position is at the end there.

View from Aft Starboard side

Last view of Cape Mohican

It is so large, this is the only time you can tell it is moored inboard with that smaller ship moored outboard.

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USS Hornet (CVS-12) Tour

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