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