As you know, the F/A-18C is very much Early Access and their are going to be bugs and problems with it at the start. I found one that I would like to let everyone know about before they start carrier operations.
Now, I have landed successfully on the Stennis a number of times (I've also crashed into the back of the carrier twice so... good and bad I guess) But I've had this bug show up twice on me so far. Take a look at this picture and you'll see what the problem is.
As you can see I hooked the third wire but it stretched out into oblivion backwards and I flew off the edge of the carrier (and promptly crashed into the ocean). I've hooked the forth and first wires with no problems but the third, for me at least, seems to cause this strange behavior. So If you hook the wire and fly off the edge, quickly pause the game and hit F2 and see. Maybe you landed just fine and the bug is causing you problems too.
Personally, I'm going to just land at runways for now and try again after the next update.
I just wanted to let you all know what I found.
Be safe landing until this get's fixed.