Quoted:

Twenty years ago, my oldest daughter and I went to an air show, and I got an interesting education about the Corsair.

This old man was grumbling to himself while one was flying, muttering something about ‘gettin’ that ‘sumbitch back onboard’. I asked him about it, and he said that he was the kid on-deck with the paddles, and that recovering the Corsair was a gold-plated bitch. Something about the length of the struts and propellor blades making it difficult for the pilots to ‘feel’ where they were on the glide slope. He said that it was more common than he wanted to remember for one to come in too high, bounce halfway down the deck, and be unable to climb back out. The result was a splash in front of the boat, and too often, a drowned pilot.