In pilot lingo, before a Navy or Marine carrier pilot can ‘trap’ he has to ‘bounce’ and NAS Whidbey Island has a great facility to do just that.

Outlying Landing Field or OLF, in operation since September 1943, is two-and-a-half miles southeast of Coupeville. Pilots practice carrier landings or ‘bounce’ with touch-and-go maneuvers on the painted outline of a carrier deck about 1,100 feet long.

The landing field is about 5,500 feet long and 200 feet wide, but Prowler EA-6B and Growler EA-18G pilots are only really interested in the 1,100 feet.

Pilots must master field carrier landing practice (FCLP) under the scrutiny of the landing signals officer or LSO before they’re allowed to head out to the carrier where they’ll need to ‘trap’ or catch one of four arresting cables and land.

While some civilians may think of the OLF as a source of horrible noise, especially during late summer nights, many more understand it’s the last chance Navy pilots have before they head out to yawing and rolling aircraft carriers where the first mistake they make could well be their last.

On average, 11 aviation boatswain’s mates take care of the OLF. They are all qualified firefighters and according to ABH 1st Class Romer Tan have attended the three-month fire fighting apprenticeship training course at the Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas.

“Most of us have done time on carriers or amphibious ships and we all bring fire-fighting skills out here,” said Romer. “Our training is primarily for flight line fire fighting.”

They have two fire trucks and two crews. Whenever flights are scheduled, there’s a crew on board along with an interior communications electrician to care for electrical equipment and lenses.

Cmdr. Daniel Worra, NAS Whidbey Island operations officer who oversees OLF says that the frequency of approaches is determined by where student pilots are in their training curriculum and which of the Electronic Attack Wing’s 13 squadrons is getting ready to go out to an aircraft carrier.

“Two weeks ‘bouncing’ they call it,” said Worra. “Pilots typically make eight to 10 day passes and five to eight night passes and once they are good enough to go, the LSO says they’re good enough to go and they head out to the ship.”

Worra says pilots also conduct about 60 percent of the required FCLPs at Ault Field at NAS Whidbey Island, but it all depends on traffic with other aircraft and adverse wind conditions.