Interesting profession...

My former life. The Grumman is the last ship in which I sailed, some twenty years ago. The Navy owns her, Federally employed Mariners sail her.

Grumman is a big effin' ship, quite tall and nearly 700' long. In comparison to the carrier, she looks like a dinky coastal freighter.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/navy-pumps-1-3-million-153823195.html

 

Hell....fill it up...it will only take 1,300,000 gallons....

 

Thank You for your service freddie
Cool read

 

My brother was the second mate on the Grumman in 2010.

 

I just went down the rabbit hole a bit. I had no idea what the "MC" rating was so I looked up how many rating have changed since the time I was in. I remember Boiler Tech and MM ratings were combined and made a mess but several have been renamed or created independently...

 

Very interesting.

1.3M gallons over 2 years is ~ 1,800 gallons/day, which seems remarkably low for fueling all the aircraft onboard. However, I guess in peace time and on a ship that has been commissioned (but not deployed) that's to be expected?

Love watching shows about the construction of these ships..........absolutely astounding that we are capable of building things like this.

 

Interesting how the term 'sailed' is still used.

There's no sails on that ship that I can see?

 

You have to give them your credit card first thou.

damn what does 1.3M gal of fuel weigh anyway? Close to 9M pounds??? That’s crazy.

 

4182.88 metric tons

that's for diesel, not sure how much heavy shipoil deviates from that

 

23,636 55 gallon barrels...lol. Suprised they dont refine the fuel oil right into the tank

 

I would imagine it got fuel while in port. This top up is to refill what they have been burning since at sea.

Fighters use a lot of gas...

 

Dunno why but I am enamored with sailing in most forms including crewing these big ships. (I've also never been on anything big enough to have a cabin.)

 

Look up clipper race.

Don’t be a sissy and pick a southern ocean leg.

 

What's the MPG on a fighter? Like when they go out on a usual mission?

 

I’ve heard something around 1mpg or less. Depends on weight and cruise speed etc

 

Academy or up the hawsepipe?

This was my civilian life, but thank you. My military service was decades ago...another story altogether.

To expound a bit on UnRep evolutions:
- the four biggest dangers aside from fire are loss of power, loss of steering, a fuel hose/rig parting and the loneliest feeling in the world - man overboard.
- the ships maintain a distance of ~150' from each other while cruising along at ~12 knots.
- weather does not cancel an UnRep event. My first ship during my Navy enlistment was a Knox class frigate. We received fuel from a carrier once...the carrier was taking water over the bow!
- 1,300,000 gals of fuel in 3 hours doesn't do the reality justice. If you do that math, it's ~7200 gals/min. There's manning dozens of sailors at the rig stations, lining up your ship for an approach, approaching, matching speed, comms/distance line sent, rigs and hoses sent and a squirt of fuel to be tested by the receiving ship...give it about 30 minutes. After fueling, an “emergency breakaway” drill is almost always initiated for training purposes...another couple-five minutes. They can't just cut the rigs loose, the cables might foul the screws (propellers). So you're looking at about 9000 gals/min. 12,000 gals/min is doable. Imagine hoses parting while flowing 200 55gal drums/sec. It's a mess and dangerous as fuck...it takes time to communicate “KILL THE PUMPS!”
- the cables are 1″ and larger in diameter. The sending ship has an hydraulic tensioner that maintains upwards of 15,000 lbs of pull. Talk about getting you run off the road. The helmsman is hand-selected for the job of not getting run over. They are able to keep on course within 1/2 degree for the entire evolution...no lane drifting allowed.
- palletized cargo can also be transferred while alongside. Basically the same tensioned cable set-up, called a highline, is attached to a vertical lift on each ship. A couple of slings on a trolley block are placed around up to two pallets, the highline is hoisted by the vertical lift to clear the pallet(s) of the gunwhale and away they go. A trolley cable attached to the trolley block is used to pull it back-n-forth between the ships.
- the Navy has a tradition for the receiving ship to play a song over their loudspeakers when the evolution is complete. Called the “breakaway song”, it's Captain's choice. I got real tired of hearing “On The Road Again”. Of course, there are some Captains that know their ship is a BMF...George Thorogood's “Bad To The Bone” did a heart good when you heard it blasted on 11 while the ship kicks it “all ahead, full” and hauls ass the fuck outta there. I bet y'all never considered that a ship could throw a roostertail.

 

Fighter pilots measure fuel consumption by weight and time with the extent of variables being virtually infinite.
The only totally accurate answer to the question is this...
A parked fighter burns precisely ZERO lbs of fuel per second.

Not to be a dick but, if you want a better answer, you'll need a better question.

To give an idea of how vastly the variables effect consumption...
An F-15 burning balls-to-the-walls at sea level can burn ~one ton/minute...200 gals/sec. It won't get far when it runs out of fuel 6 minutes later. It's essentially an high altitude interceptor, though.
An SR-71 might burn ~90lbs/minute at altitude...only .25 gals/sec, though an afterburner launch would, by necessity, be immediately followed by an in flight refueling.

 

200gal a second. Wow!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Don’t the planes usually launch off the catapult with enough fuel to get to the air tankers? If so, that millions of gallons of fuel on board the ship are even more impressive.

 

At least that, plus enough reserve to safely return to the carrier if the tanker can't do its job.
Now launch multiple aircraft. Someone is gonna be last in line for the tanker and he'll have to have launched with the heaviest fuel load, further increasing his fuel consumption as he loiters, waiting for his turn.
That example of a flight op evolution is an indicator of how complicated flight ops are...imagine launching a large contingent of aircraft or even the whole squadron. And are they gonna loiter in the vicinity of the carrier to form up or will they be making their way to the op area while refueling before forming up?
These are just a couple of reasons why the question of fuel mileage can't be readily answered. It's a very tightly wound clock and choreographing the flight plan leaves little room for luxuries.
Fortunately, our military is really good at what they do. We really are the best in the world...it's why our mishaps are so severely scrutinized, praised or punished. Gotta stay on top.