HOLY FRIGGIN COW! Today, quite possibly, could have been the best day of pilot training yet! First off, it's a FRIDAY, which, in itself makes it better than every other day. Second, I am on the schedule to fly not only once, but twice! And even better yet, my second sortie of the day is not only another formation sortie, but one where me and an IP each fly our own jet out, so I get to fly solo on his wing!
The first flight was my seventh formation flight, once again with my wingman Jeff. We did all the normal maneuvers with me leading out and then switching halfway so I could practice on the wing. He led us back in for a formation approach to the overhead pattern, where we just broke up and flew single ship into land.
Then I got into the flight room to debrief that flight, and we were already at brief time for my second flight. These new (as of when we started) turn times (times between our first group of flights and the second group of flights) are pretty rediculous, cause they only allow for about 15 minutes of debriefing your sortie before you have to brief for the next one. It really cuts out on alot of feedback, but I guess they have their reasons for maintenance for scheduling it this way. Anyhow, Captain Johnson and I brief, and its pretty short because this will be the sixth formation flight I will have flown with him so he can concentrate on only what would change from the last flight. Once we step to the jet, I get all strapped in by myself, go through my off and on circles (where I turn all the equipment off, and then only what I need to check back on) and wait for him on the radio, channel 1, because he is Flight Lead and will be checking us in. Once he checks us in, I have clearance to start up my engines. Once that's done, I wait again on Ground Frequency for him to request our clearance to taxi to runway 15L. We taxi out and get positioned on the runway, doing all the appropriate checks along the way in uniform. I am taxiing 150 feet behind him, being careful not to get to close or too far away. In formation, a part of it is being in sequence with your Flight Lead, and in turn, that makes the formation look good. We do all control checks at the same time, all radio changes, and even lower our respective canopies at the same time. It really does make it look good from the outside when it is done together.
Anyhow, we get lined up in formation on the runway, where I am 10 feet from his jet and a few feet back, and watch for his signals for the runup and eventually, brake release. From that point on, my sole job is to stay right where I am and do everything that he does. I raise the gear and flaps on his command, change radios on his command, and do this at the same time as keeping my jet about 3 feet from his off his wing. It's one of the greatest feelings I have ever had knowing that he trusted me and my flying skills enough to let me fly on his wing. The Flight Lead really does put his life in your hands, expecting you not to hit him. In turn, you put your life in his hands, because he is responsible for keeping you from hitting the ground, other aircraft, and keeping the formation inside the area boundaries doing what you need to be doing.Once we get into the area, we do all the normal formation maneuvers, starting with some wingwork on each side. This is basically just flying modified Lazy 8 maneuvers, over and over. Then we do some Echelon Turns, where he turns away from me and i tuck in just beneath his jet in a 60 degree 2-G turn at about 5-10 feet from his jet. We do some break-outs and rejoins, then a pitch out with a Anti G Straining Maneuver (AGSM - squeezing out abdomen, butt, legs, and calves to keep the blood in our heads during high G turns), and then I practice some overshooting rejoins. On one of my turning rejoins I decide to overshoot (where I am coming in too fast and go under/behind his jet to lose some of the airspeed) but I do it by performing a barrel roll around his jet! It was pretty damn cool!
Once we get done with all of this, we start heading back home and he leads me into the pattern for some overheads, and I get to fly my last solo patterns and landings in the Tweet. Not a bad way to end my solo Tweet career!
After the flight was over, H Flight was scheduled to get fitted for G-Suits. We will start wearing these in the T-38 Talon when we are Tweet Complete next month! The G-Suit helps you recognize when to start your AGSM when you begin to pull multiple G's. Considering we can pull up to 7 G's in the T-38, this should come in handy! It's basically a lower abdomen/leg pressure suit that inflates with air when you begin to pull G's. Anyhow, we finally got ours fitted to us and I can't wait to start wearing them! And just for the record, she told me to put a fist in the front so she could fit it correctly! HAHA!
The last thing that went well today (so far) is I got my stitches out of my lip! Woohoo!
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