Week 11 (17-21 Apr 06)

Very busy week this past week. With the exception of Friday, I didn't get home until after 9pm each night. The course work is not hard, it's just time-consuming and now it's starting to pile on.
We like to refer to our coursework as alligators. We're all in a canoe trying to beat the alligators away from us. :)

As far as flying goes, I flew 3 times this past week.
On Monday we were cancelled due to weather. Tue and Wed were GREAT days to fly. I was paired up with OD for both of those flights. On Tuesday, we flew his HQ-2 flight (handling qualities). He flew the test points like the T-38 was a fighter. We simulated dropping bombs, and did some air-to-air tactical maneuvering. Very cool! I hit 6-Gs for a short period, but we held 5-Gs for about 20 seconds. That wasn't much fun after about 10 sec. Also did some aerobatics. Nice stuff! On Wed, it was my day to fly MY HQ-2 flight. I had a few more benign test points, but nevertheless they were fun!

Thursday I flew with Kirby. It was a perf practice flight, so we did just that... practiced maneuvers. He flew a few and I flew a few. I made sure the HUD videotape was recording. I did an aileron roll (actually 2 of them) and got it on tape. So, when I get some time to convert the 8mm tape to WMV format, I'll post it here.

Friday was the TPS annual reunion, so we had a short day of classes and no flying. My class used that time to get caught up on schoolwork. Didn't really matter tho.. we are all so far behind it's not funny. I spent part of this weekend working on schoolwork just to try and get caught up, and I don't feel any closer to on-par... all I can say is a B is passing!!! :)
-Vanna

Week 10 (10-14 Apr 06)

Week 10... 22% complete.
This was a short week thanks to the Easter break. BUT, even though it was short, it was still busy as ever, and I have homework to do this weekend.

I didn't fly at all this week, but it was still fun!

Monday: I was one of 4 people to attend the Atlantic Test Range (ATR) facility to monitor a Pitot-Static calibration flight. The ATR looks a lot like mission control. We monitor one of our T-38s as it flies up the Chesapeake Bay and record it's height above the water at specific intervals. That, along with instrumentation on the T-38, allows us to get an accurate air data calibration for altitude and airspeed. It's a fairly complex thing to explain, so I won't bore you with the details. Needless to say, THAT is the homework I have this weekend... reduce that data and figure out the true airspeed and altitude of our T-38.

Tuesday: Headed down to the simulation lab for a controls event. That too was pretty neat. The simulator is set up to show us how changing the amount of force needed to move a control stick (and a lot of other variables) can affect what we like and how the aircraft will respond.

Wednesday: Safety standdown that morning. Classes that afternoon. That's it. Then headed home for a 4-day holiday weekend. Come Monday, its back to the grind!
-Vanna

Week 9 (3-7 Apr 06)

Sorry for not posting earlier. Been a very busy last 2 weeks.
As I mentioned last week, I got the check in the block for flying 5 days in a row.

Well.... I did it AGAIN this past week! Flew the T-2C on Monday and Tuesday, then the T-38C on Wed, Thur, and Friday. SWEET! Two cool things happened during the flights this week.

Cool thing #1: We spun the T-2 three separate times! My instructor flew the 1st and 3rd one. I flew the 2nd spin. The last spin was AWESOME! We pulled straight up until we had just about no speed left, then he quickly pushed full left rudder, full right rudder, full left rudder and pushed on the stick. It's called a rudder triplet departure to spin (or rudder triplet spin entry). WHAT A RIDE! Picture this... the airplane has no energy left, we force it to wag it's tail, and then it pitches over quickly and bobbles at the bottom (nose pointed straight down) like a pendulum. That bobble is equivalent to you holding a ruler completely vertical, then slightly release your grip and let it swing from the top to the bottom and pendulate at for a few swings. NOW, what does that feel like for me in an airplane? Put an ant on the end of the ruler and ask him.. :)
Actually it was way cool. I made sure my harness was locked and tight. When we pitched over, I was in negative G, then when it pitched back up, it was positive again, until it pitched back down at -1G. It oscillated a few times between -1 and +3 G, then settled out in a 45-deg nose down spin that was quickly increasing. We spun through 360 deg of heading change in about 2 seconds. The weird visual was the world spinning. I had to look UP through the canopy to see the horizon. The other neat thing was we were being safety chased by a T-38, and I can remember seeing the T-38 in a dive to keep up with us and watch us....

Too bad I can't take pics of this stuff...

Cool thing #2: Went supersonic again. This time, it was for a test and we hit Mach 1.15 in the T-38C at 37,000-ft. At that speed and with a little tail wind, we were going over 700 mph over the ground! SCHWING DADDY! The bad thing.... we used up all the restricted area at Pax River in no time flat and had to pull the throttles out of afterburner, put the speedbrakes out, and haul back on the stick for a 5-g pull to stay in the restricted airspace. BUT, we DID ge the data we needed. Here's some cool numbers...

Time to reach sea level to 37,000-ft at Mach 0.92: less than 2 minutes

From Mach 0.5 to Mach 1.15:

• Time to accelerate to max Mach: less than 1 minute
• Fuel burn rate: 13,000 lbs / hr

Keeping those numbers in mind, here's something to put them in perspective:
Max gross weight of the aircraft at takeoff: 12,500 lbs
Max fuel carried: 4000 lbs
Time until empty in full afterburner with full fuel: less than 15 minutes
Time until empty never using afterburner: over 1 hour

Don't ya just love the sports car style of the Talon? Man...what a sexy jet!
Next week will be a short week. We have Thur and Fri off for Easter.
Until then...

-Vanna

Week 8 (27-31 Mar 06)

Something I never thought would happen actually DID this week. There are two elusive things to accomplish at TPS (or so at least I've been told)...
1) Fly every day of the week
2) Fly in a different type of aircraft every day of the week

Well, I did #1. I flew EACH AND EVERY DAY this past week! Woo-hoo!!! So, lemme break it down as it happened...

Monday, 27-Mar-2006
Aircraft: NU-1B Otter
I flew with Mr. Jerry Gallagher (yes, the comedian Gallagher's brother). It was my first handling qualities flight (HQ-1). The purpose was to evaluate how well (or poorly) the Otter flew. Lemme tell ya...it was a HANDFUL! I was always having to make control input corrections to keep it in the attitude I wanted. In fact, I had to write 4 R&E paragraphs on how poorly it flew. R&E stands for Results & Evaluation. Total flight time: 1.5hr

Tuesday, 28-Mar-2006
Aircraft: T-38C
I flew with Smokin' again. This time we flew W/delta test points and gathered all our required test points except two. Our assigned altitude was FL300, and we found out that the T-38 cannot go any faster than 0.95M at that altitude without using afterburners. Logged a 1.0hr flight.

Wednesday, 29-Mar-2006
Aircraft: T-2C
Again, I flew with Smokin'. This was a performance practice flight, so we ended up doing a lot of practicing maneuvers for next week's flight tests. We wrapped up the flight with a couple of spins. SCHWING! I need to get one of those on tape for y'all to see.... The funny thing that happened was my Pitot-Statics exam. The professor said we were allowed to use laptops on the exam but his disclaimer was "digital answers get digital grades". Ok, I wrote a program to calculate a LOT of what we were supposed to look up in tables and graphs. Screw that! If I can get the answer from a convoluted equations, I'll do that instead! Anyhow, a lot of my classmates decided to use my program (along with a program another classmate wrote) for the exam. We have 35 students and 32 of the brought their laptops to class. When the instructor walked in, his first words were "Holy crap that's a lot of laptops!" I think we surprised him! He told me later that the last class had 1 guy who brought his laptop and everyone else did it the old fashioned way. I think my class 130 has just set the bar a little higher! Schweeet...... ;)

Thursday, 30-Mar-2006
Aircraft: TH-6B
My second helo flight ever. I flew with CW4 Mark Armstrong. The TH-6B is the "Magnum PI" helicopter. That thing has some spunk but definitely seemed under-powered for a hover. We collected some helo perf data for the rotes in our class, and then he let me fly about 1/2 the flight. I'm not too bad at hovering a helo, but no-where-near what Mark can do. Logged a 2.0.


Friday, 31-Mar-2006
Aircraft: T-38C
First flight with Crack (LT Sean Mathieson). It was his first perf practice flight, so we went out and practiced lots of perf maneuvers. Ended the day by landing, logging the data, and getting ready for the You'll Be Sorry Party (YBS Party).

YBS.... exactly what it says.... It's the senior's way of welcoming the junior class and introducing us to WHY we will be sorry we ever joined TPS. A lot of what happens at the YBS party is hush-hush (as in what happens at YBS STAYS at YBS), but I can tell you there was a TON of liquor, a little hazing by the senior class (and some instructors), watching a home-made video about WHY we'd be sorry, good BBQ, and lots of socializing... Cindy was witness to ALL of this as she was my designated driver. Thanks honey!

-Vanna