Week 3 (20-24 Feb 2006)

Well, Monday was a federal holiday, so I only had 4 days of school this week. Same morning routine with academics. I had my mechanics exam on Thursday morning, and it seemed very straightforward. I think I did well. We also had a new class.... Airplane Performance. I suspect this class will be just that. More to follow as I get into this class. I was on the flight schedule on Tuesday, but was cancelled because of weather. Same story on Wednesday. I wasn't on the schedule on Thursday, but I DID show up on the Friday schedule.

My first T-38C flight! My pilot was the Chief Flight Instructor at TPS, CDR Blake. He's a fellow longhorn! Graduated in the mid-80s with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. Really cool guy. We briefed the flight and walked down to the paraloft to get suited up. After a short delay for maintenance to fuel the airplane, we were walking out to the jet...Tester 12. The T-38C is a fairly easy jet to get in to. As long as the boarding ladder is hung on the side of the plane, it's a piece of cake. First thing I had to do was place my parachute in the ejection seat, secure it to the seat with two connections, connect my oxygen mask and comm cable, then jump into the jet. Once I got in, that's when I slide into the parachute pack, secure my mask to my helmet, and connect my G-suit to the airplane. The final step is to pull the inertia reel restraint straps over my check and connect them up to the 5-point harness.

Preflight checks out of the way, we taxiied out to Runway 32. Winds were gusting pretty good, but they were within the aircraft limits. CDR Blake let me taxi the aircraft to the runway. Taxi response was very sensitive! Once we got there, our final checks complete, we rolled onto the runway and pushed the power up to MIL. "Good checks, here we go..." With a release of the brakes, CDR Blake pushed the throttles to MAX (afterburner). I could feel the afterburners kick in as I watched the exhaust nozzle position go from nearly closed to almost full open. It didn't accelerate as much as the F-18 did, but it was still damn impressive! Once we were airborne and above 1000-ft, he handed me the controls and said "Give me a climbing right turn up to 35,000-ft."

"You want a MAX power climb?" I asked with a big grin. "Yep, just pitch for airspeed and keep us in the restricted area." "Roger that."

Wow... I was at 400 knots and what seemed like a 30-deg nose high attitude climbing like a banshee! "Ok, try to maintain around Mach 0.8" "Ok, will do." Easier said than done. As your altitude increases, your Mach # increases if you try and maintain a constant airspeed. I did it nevertheless.... Here's the cool part. We went from 1000-ft to 35,000-ft in just about a minute and a half! YES.... 1 minute 30 seconds to get to FL350. DAMN FAST! My ears were popping continuously.

So, why FL350? Well, because we are fuel limited with the T-38 (it doesn't carry much), any fuel eating maneuvers should probably be done first. That's what we were gonna do. I'm at the controls at M0.85, out of burners, leveled at FL350. "Ok, Pat, push 'em up to MAX, pitch about 2-3 degrees nose down and watch the Mach meter, oh and don't go below FL300."

Sweet...... I got to FLY the T-38 from subsonic flight, through the transonic region right up to Mach 1.1. That's all I could get out of it before having to level off and throttle back. Still, we were faster than sound! As we neared Mach 1 (and passed through it), the controls felt very light and sensitive to inputs. I watched the VSI and altimeter do a little jiggle accelerating through Mach and also decelerating through Mach. Other than that, it was actually very uneventful. No canopy vapor flash, no weird noises...nothing.

After the Mach run, we descended and performed a sustained 5G loop, and 5G pull turns. All good stuff! CDR Blake then demonstrated a bombing run technique. The ideas are simple....
FIND, FIX, TARGET, TRACK, ENGAGE, ASSESS....
First, FIND a target. In our case, a small island in the Chesapeake Bay
We placed an electronic mark on the target (via the onboard targeting computer), then rolled into the target in a descent. At 6000-ft we released the simulated bombs, and the onboard computer calculated our "simulated" results. Not too bad. We hit the target.

After the simulated bombing run, we did some aileron rolls. I did one that impressed me, but the CDR Blake said, "wanna see how fast this thing will roll?" Ok, the only reasonable response is "HELL YEAH!"

"OK, coming right in 3...2..1...mark."
"Ok, I'm ready go ahead."
"We're done." What????
It wasn't really like that but damn close. For all you aero nerds out there, you'll love this. We rolled a ful 360-degrees (wings level to wings level) in LESS THAN A SECOND!!!!! SHEEEIITTTTT!!!! It made me queasy, seriously... Only one, that's all I needed.

Headed back to Pax for a 60% flap touch and go, then a zero-flap touch and go, and a full-flap full-stop. The T-38 lands very fast! A 60% and full flap approach speed is about 160 knots (as fast as my Mooney will cruise). A no-flap landing is about 175 knots with a very flat approach (much less than the normal 3-deg glide slope).

We taxiied back to the TPS ramp and shut down. A 0.9 hour flight. What a great first ride of many-to-come for the T-38!

-Vanna