Posted for "John Barrett" <2thman@cablespeed.com>:

I hope it's nothing like doing so in an F-9 Cougar.  I recall an incident in
the Navy training command in 1968 when T-cells rolled in over Kingsville
while about 5 training flights were underway.  I was one of the airborne
students when the Duty Officer panicked and called all the flights in
directing us all to different runways and to use the emergency cables to
avoid convergence at the runway intersections.  I was lucky enough to get
the runway that had a quartering tailwind that left me in a high overshoot
turn from base to final.  The LSO and the instructor in the back seat both
told me to cut power at about 50 feet in the air.  I did so and dropped the
nose to keep from stalling.  I flared it back to landing attitude just
before smacking the runway.  I caught the wire and nobody got hurt but both
main tires were bald right down to the cord where they hit the deck.  Any
more rate of descent and the mains would have gone through the wings I
think.  If the Duty Officer had waited about ten or fifteen minutes, the
T-cells would have passed over the field and life would have been easier for
everyone.

John Barrett