In their own words: A night landing on a carrier

Cmdr Kimo Buckon, Super Hornet pilot and executive officer, VFA-31, the Tomcatters

It's hard to describe or explain, but there's definitely a point in which you get really close to the ship and everything just happens very quickly. And that's where your scan has to be the quickest, because you're trying to look forward to make sure you're landing straight down the landing area of the ship. All the while, the lights are kind of rushing at you.

So there's this point, right as you get in close, where there's a huge rush of lights and energy and adrenaline right at that last second, and that's typically where people kind of make or break their landing. Because, typically, everybody's looking pretty good until they get to that one spot.

And that's usually where the rush either causes people to feel like they're going high so they pull off power, then they actually go low, or the rush makes them feel like they're sinking when they're not, so they add power, then they go high.

And so a lot of times, people are kind of battling those sensory effects, even disregarding what the landing system's telling them. So that's the hardest part, again really hard to explain, because you watch the tape afterward and it sure looks calm.

Lt. Rip Gordon, Super Hornet pilot, VFA-31, the Tomcatters

Once you've touched down, there have been nights where your legs are shaking so bad you can hardly even taxi because you're just so keyed up and so nervous and now all that stuff is gone and now your body just - you can ask anybody and they'll be like, 'Yes, I've landed and my legs will not stop shaking uncontrollably.'

You can't stop it. It's just that intense. You land and you're like, 'I can't believe I just did that! Ah, let's go do it again,' you know, piece of cake.

And that's the whole reason why there's a bit of false bravado to it. Everybody comes down and says, 'Ah, piece of cake. Let's go do it again.'

As told to Matthew Jones, The Pilot