F-35C begins DT-III

The F-35C has returned to sea aboard the USS George Washington. Aircraft from VX-23 and VFA-101 boarded the ship August 14th for the third round of sea trials. The trials started about 10 days later than planned. The trials are scheduled to last about three weeks, off the Virginia coast. DT-III will include day and night qualifications, asymmetric approaches with external stores and many other goals.

After DT-III is completed the Washington goes into RCOH.

“A broad range of elements associated with carrier suitability and integration in the at-sea environment will be tested during DT-III, including day and night CQs, launch and recovery with external stores, approach handling qualities with symmetric and asymmetric external stores, Delta Flight Path testing, Joint Precision Approach and Landing System testing, crosswind and maximum-weight launches, military-/maximum-power lunches, and night operations with the [Generation] III Helmet-Mounted Display,” said Cmdr. Dave Hecht, public affairs officer for commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic.

www.f35.com...

www.combataircraft.net...

aviationweek.com...

Before going to the carrier the pilots involved went to a remote field to practice carrier landings. The landing system on the aircraft is so precise that they put a hole in the runway from the tailhook of each aircraft hitting the same spot time after time. They're actually having to put some variance in the system.

www.dodbuzz.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58


Those traps look baby soft compared to legacy aircraft.

Just put a wear pad in
Will see how well they go in rough weather and night time ops..

DT-III was completed August 25th, one week earlier than planned, after hitting all 613 planned test points.

Remember when the F-35 apparently wouldn't be able to land on an aircraft carrier because of hook to landing gear geometry and would be difficult to control due to the large single engine with slow spool up?

234 carrier landings without a miss during this deployment.