Not quite same thing I still haven't got off the ground yet. Everything is done in a sim.

They want to make sure your ego isnt writing checks your body can't cash

Dollar ride.

Today was one heck of a day.

I'll skip right to the fun.



Each person get's their own locker with personal equipment; there is no sharing of helmets, harnesses and G-suits. After dressing up, inserting little yellow ear plugs, placing two barf bags (just in case)in flightsuit and checking oxygen hoses for leaks, we are ready to hit the flight line.

A little crew bus takes at to a raw where our aircraft is parked.

We have to walk while carrying our stuff the rest of the way. Some flight members have latter flight and always eager to get a leg up on their flight. They watch and learn on mistakes of previous folks.





Chew chief prepares aircraft.



IP helps with "over the rail" checklist. To save time, student will strap in and instructor quickly does a walk around.


Before getting in, helmet rests on dash with inflight guide and kneeboard.



After what seems like forever - engine is started.



After all before taxi checklists are completed, AC is ready to taxi. Crew chief motions aircraft out of chocks and directs towards taxiway.


Continued...

Sim, I hope you get some great pictures in the air......

Unfortunately, there is a policy that strictly forbids pictures in air. There were instances there students got kicked out for taking picture during their solo ride... as much as I'd like to, pictures in flight will not be coming. Sorry.

Unfortunately, not if he wants to stay in pilot training.

AETC has prohibited cameras in the cockpit of our smaller aircraft unless approved by the OG. Kinda hard to convince an O-6 of the necessity of a camera during a SUPT sortie, especially as a SUPT student.

This hasn't prevented guys from sneaking cameras in and taking pics (boys will be boys), but the risk is substantial...if something happens, or the wrong person finds out, or the person is dumb enough to post the pics on the internet... More than one person has gotten disciplined (up to and including getting kicked out of pilot training or losing their wings) for getting caught doing something foolish like that.

It sucks of course...but there is a good reason. There have been collisions between aircraft due to picture taking, or inadvertent control activations when the camera strap catching something, etc.

Sorties dedicated to photo taking are perfectly legal when done through the right channels and for legit reasons. I have plenty of photos of T-38s in the air for instruction purposes, or to help with formation keeping in special flybys, etc. And ACC rules were different, delegating down to the squadron commander level...much easier to get approval (though they weren't instructional sorties anyway).

Enough of that...I'm assuming that was your dollar ride there Sim? If it was on Friday, I could have gone by and gave you congrats. Now the hard work starts. I actually was at Columbus AFB on that day, stopping for a gas and go on the way to Wright Patterson AFB.



I had forgotten how humid Columbus is....

FC

PS Whoops, Sim beat me to it on the picture policy...

Let's talk about my first flight.


After run up and completing "before take off" checklist, I called:
- "Number one, static"
After waiting for what seemed like 5 minutes at hold-short line, we got cleared.
I taxied displaced of centerline. While holding brakes, PCL to 25-30 % torque. Brakes release as PCL moved to MAX. Half right rudder to counter torque. At 60 I called "60 knots, good torque". At 85 I pulled back slightly on stick and we lifted off. "Climbing, Good Engine, Gear Clear?". IP replies "Gear clear". Gear handle up, flaps up. There is a distinct 'bump bump' as gear retract inside.
Compared to a sim, I could keep aircraft exactly where I wanted. Rudder provided pressure from airflow unlike where in a sim, feedback is provided by hydraulic.pressure.

After take off, I maintained climb at 180 and got cleared to fly directly to our MOA. In the MOA, IP pretty much said to get a feeling for the jet. Cool! Roll left - Roll right. Roll rate is fast. Let's go for turns. Bank 60 degrees and pull - That's two Gs. Lets pull some more...bank near 90 and pull. After 3 Gs, IP asked to go easy on Gs. So I returned to normal flight to get my basic flight in check. Trim use is a bit different and not as exact as in a sim. In a sim, I could trim aircraft for exact level flight with hands off. In a jet, I set it very near but still had to have some stick pressure to maintain level flight.

Next, let's play with speedbrake. Controls for speedbrake are on PCL. Move little switch back, brake extracts. I could sense as airframe lightly vibrates from airflow and nose pitches up. As I advanced PCL to MAX, speedbrake automatically retracts.

Pitch down with PCL MAX and at 240 retract PCL to idle, extract speedbrake and pitch a bit up. After leveling off, I placed PCL MAX again and noticed there is quite a bit lag between setting PCL max and actual acceleration. Interesting!

After, IP decided to practice anti-G straining breathing. He placed us at 2Gs, then 3 and finally 4. Around 3Gs, G-suit inflated. At 4, it inflated more as I practiced special breathing. Breath is every 3-4 seconds with a sound of "Hick" as straining lower muscles.

All of the fun made me a bit sick so I turned on oxygen to max (95%). Nice to have option to do so.

Finally we practiced slow flight and landing. During slow flight, engine produced a LOT of torque that required a lot of rudder to counteract. Landing on imaginary runway went fine.

Time to recover. I called required agency and received clearance. As I read directions back, agency called again to see if we received. I called back. Nothing. IP called back. Nothing. So we starting going through checklist of radio out procedure. To make things short - it turns out our UHF radio took a dump, but we still could receive just fine. Thankfully we have backup UHF and regular VHF.

IP had to pretty much fly all the way to final. At that time he allowed me to land straight in. It was much easier than a sim. Flare was easy and touch down was ok. After landing I could keep aircraft exactly lined up without crazy swerving like in a sim.

In the end, sim is a nice procedural training tool. Military sim could simulate fluidness of FM closely. FSX completely fails - even with 40-50$ special add-on aircraft that advertise their AC being "just like real thing".

Anyhow - it was a blast to fly 5mil aircraft. One flight down and ~62 more flights to go.

Good deal Sim, thanks for the report.

It was. But take off time was at ~1600.

I saw F-15 and C130 on a flight line. I didn't see T-38s. What time were you there?

Cool stuff! I've also found that flying in real life is much easier than flying in sims.