Training the Best

Okay, we did not fly this morning due to low ceilings and the threat of thunderstorm activity in the area so I got to go back to sleep and I'm now taking a study break. The studying never ends, even if you've got the next flight down cold, you need to be studying two or three flights ahead so that you are not scrambling the night before.

I was, of course, nervous as hell yesterday morning. Not nervous about the flight, my instructor had told me he would do most of the flying, I was nervous about the brief. Before every flight we brief the flight. You sit in a room no bigger than a medium sized closet with a table and two chairs and discuss the flight you are about to take. Mostly it is the instructor's chance to grill you and find out if you really know what you are doing. You will talk about every maneuver you will do on the flight, every emergency procedure that you will practice, actual emergencies, procedures, and any "discuss items" that are listed for that flight.

The reason for the nerves in the brief is that if you are jacked up in the brief and the IP doesn't think you are ready to go fly, you get a ready room "down", which is very bad. A ready room down is an express ticket to see the CO to explain why you are not prepared for your flight and why you are wasting everyone's time because you are too lazy to study. Bad news.

As it turns out, I was fully prepared for the brief, at least as much information as my IP wanted, and it went fine. The first brief was really basic anyway, kind of an introductory brief. I've learned about myself that I constantly worry that I am not prepared enough. I hate the feeling of not being prepared, like forgetting something you needed, or not knowing something you are supposed to know. It works for me sometimes because it makes me over prepare, but it's not good for my sleeping schedule. You get some really whacked out dreams when you are worried about something the next day.

After the brief I headed out to my plane. The IP had to go get his flight gear, so I walked out alone. It is pretty damn cool walking across the flight line with your gear on, helmet bag in hand. Not quite as cool as they portray it in Top Gun, but close.

Preflight went well until we got to the engine bay. There was about two tablespoons of oil in the bottom of the engine compartment. I initially glossed over it, I guess that comes from years of driving cars that leaked oil like it was cool, but my IP didn't like it. We called maintenance over and, as my IP predicted, they wiped it up with a rag, checked a drain hose, and said "We'll check it when you get back." He predicted what they'd say word for word, it was pretty funny. There was oil on the bottom of the plane too, from what had leaked out of the engine compartment, which I pointed out to my IP. He took a look at it and said "It's not really dripping; it's mostly dried; that's what we have PELs for!"

A PEL is a precautionary emergency landing, which is what we would have been doing if the engine had crapped out in flight. For the most part we would have been alright; we had altitude and speed in our favor. If worse comes to worse, we would have just climbed to 1,200' and bailed out. It sounds like a long way, but 1,200' is not a whole lot of time to bail out of a stricken plane.

So preflight done, we climbed in and strapped in. I've never said that I was huge, or had a particularly large chest, but whoever designed that parachute definitely did not have me in mind. You have to fasten it over your CMU, and that was an ordeal. It took about a minute of fighting to get that damn chest strap clipped in. Then I had to fasten the restraint harness over that. After I got all this fastened on I wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to fly the plane. I felt like I was back in TBS wearing a flak jacket; unable to move normally, with my functional reach reduced to what was directly in front of me. Forget reaching the fuse panel on the right bulkhead and slightly aft of my right shoulder; I was doing well just to see the damn thing. Fortunately, after just one flight, I was able to move around a lot better.

The checklists went well but the predicted brain fade set in as soon as the engine started. I didn't screw up too bad, just went a little more slowly than I had wanted and got lost once or twice. Many people have said that your IQ drops twenty points when that engine starts and they are true. There is so much fear of doing something catastrophically wrong and not only damaging equipment but also possibly killing someone that you second guess yourself constantly. If you don't know your procedures cold you will hesitate on steps in which there is no time to hesitate and then things just start to snowball. You screw one thing up, which puts another thing out of sequence, which further distracts you, and next thing you know the IP has to take the controls because you are about to do something stupid.

I tried to taxi the plane out, but I went back to my Cessna days. The Cessna 172 has nose wheel steering, which means that when you press the rudder pedal to the right, the nose wheel turns right. So I taxied out with my right leg fully extended and the damn plane still wanted to turn left. I couldn't figure it out. It wasn't until later that I asked my instructor and he told me that the T-34 doesn't have nose wheel steering; you have to steer on the ground by tapping the left and right brakes. I felt kinda sheepish on that one; I should know that, I just hadn't put two and two together. It worked fine for the rest of the taxiing, because I was using the brakes and once you build up a little bit of ground speed the rudder will steer a bit. My taxi out was a little ugly, but I was starting to get the hang of it.

Time for takeoff. The T-34 is no rocket ship; it only has 550 horsepower, of which we are limited to use 425 of unless it is an emergency. But this thing is almost five times as powerful as the Cessnas I flew before and it showed on takeoff. It really sets you back in the seat when you give it full power. I'd compare it to riding in a muscle car with the throttle pegged, you have to fight to keep your head forward and you can feel it press you back into the seat. In no time we were airborne and climbing out.

The weather wasn't great, the clouds were "observed" at 4,600', but on our climb to 2,500' we had to avoid a few of them hanging out low. For most of the flight I could not see the horizon, so I wasn't allowed to do much flying. For the most part we flew around while he showed me the training areas and corresponding checkpoints on the ground. He did have some fun with me too, snatching on some Gs with little warning. "So Greer, what altitude are we supposed to be at over that bridge?" "1500 feet sir" "Ok, Gs coming on now, now, now" He said that last part so fast that by the time I figured out what he said he had already yanked the stick back and we were in a 2.5G climb up to 1100' It took us about two seconds to gain that 600' before he relaxed the stick pressure and made an easy climb up to 1500. He jokingly added that he just wanted to check the Marine's G tolerance. Fine, bring it on. I can't wait for Precision Aerobatics, where we get to pull 4.5 Gs while doing loops and split s maneuvers.

The landing break is one of the coolest things we get to do as Naval Aviators. To approach a landing field, you fly over it at 1000' until the end of the runway then you flop into a 45 degree angle of bank turn and head back the way you came. The maneuver is based in carrier aviation, so that you can over fly the carrier and get a look at the deck before coming back around to land. Also, that steep turn allows you to bleed off speed quickly so that you can fly up to the carrier quickly and then just as quickly get down to landing speed. Of course the break involves some Gs, which makes it so cool. My instructor did a short break, which only IPs are allowed to do, and really put on some Gs I'm guessing we did around 3 Gs.

I'm starting to ramble and I've gotta get back to the studying so I'll summarize. It was exciting as hell, but I know that I have a lot of stuff to learn. Everything happens very fast and you not only have to fly the plane, you have to make radio calls and do checklists while you are doing so. A lot of new student pilots get sick on their first couple of flights, and with no visible horizon, I was set up to puke all over the place but I held it down. I did get kind of queasy a few times but it passed. I'm excited to get to the point where I can fly this plane as well as my instructor can.

Walking away from the plane felt a little more like a Top Gun moment. I was kinda sweaty from the ride and was feeling a lot better about my proficiency in the airplane so I had a bit more of a strut. I forgot to put on my issued Tom Cruise shades though. I'll have to remember those next time.

// posted by Josh @ 3/28/2006 02:42:00 PM