Sunday 15.12.2002 - 14:00 local time
An enervating noise was sneaking into my dream of sun, virgin sand beaches and cool drinks... when the phone was ringing at 06:30 in the morning. My Hornet instructor was on the phone, demanding my physical presence at the hangar in 45 minutes (at latest!). This is how I describe the beginning of a bad day...
I am a very peaceful person, unless you wake me up with demands and orders. I hardly found time to get a proper shower and a hot espresso, before I had to rush to the airfield, so I was maybe reacting a bit harsh to the taxi driver when he tried to start a small talk session on our drive. But I will contact and invite him for a drink one of these days for recompensation...
In short: today was the day for my first attempt to the rocket attack training, and my instructor wanted to brief me in full details. This poor lad still had some confidence in my abilities to achieve at least an acceptable result on this mission. Not me. I was very confident in my INability to handle the thunder bird well enough to do anything else than struggle for survival...
Anyway. Regardless of my bad mood and my lack of confidence, the instructor was smiling yet very serious while we were flying the whole trip just in our minds. I had to speak loud every single task I will have to perform on the trip, and I had to start all over whenever I made a single tiny mistake. We were calculating expected speeds and eventual correcting throttle momevents for at least two hours. Finally, it was already past noon, I was very happy that I could stop prepare - and go out to fly the silver bird.
Take off was scheduled for 1400 local time, and I was sitting in the Hornet, all ready and set to roll onto the runway 31L. At exactly 14:00, I disengaged the brakes, and started the timer - a few seconds later, I was already high up in the sky. At 01:46 trip time, I was already established at 5000 ft agl and on the planned leg speed, preparing for the first, sharp turn at waypoint zero.
Despite the anti-g-suit, my blood went downwards on the very first turn - just as expected and experienced in all my training flights. But I managed to stay on course and keep the speed high enough to not loose precious time. It seemed that the mental briefing payd off...
At 03:32, I was passing the waypoint 1 - the oil tanks. Shortly after passing the waypoint, I was fumbling with the vrious knobs, preparing for the next leg - which was planned to last only slightly more than one minute.
I wasn't able to establish on the planned course as tight as I wanted to, and I noticed the effect of that, when passing the waypoint 2 - the radio tower. Passing the waypoint at 04:57 meant, I had already lost 12 seconds - in a leg time of 1:06!! I knew the instructor would either yell or laugh at me for that...
So, I had to recalculate the leg speed for leg 4 - towards the waypoint 3. Luckily enough, the GPS helps in keeping a calculated ground speed, but being late made me nervous, and this is no good for such a mission. I began to become unsure if I am doing the right thing in the proper sequence... and the result was that I arrived 20 seconds late at the turn point - even if I flew faster than I calculated beforehand.
Obviously, I increased the speed a bit too late on the last leg, but having that surplus of speed was good for the next leg, especially, because I had to dive quite a bit to reach the required 300 ft AGL. So, on waypoint 4, the Target IP, I arrived at 10:40 - still too late, but I improved the schedule a few seconds ...
Then followed a manoeuvre that I will hardly ever forget... with 514 kts ground speed, I had to pull left hard, and adjust for the target, while climbing insanely in the middle of the turn. I was near a black out, and I thought I heard the bird cry under the harsh movements. But I simply had no time to notice anything. Too much to be done at the same time. I don't remember how exactly I managed to get the bird pointing even only roughly towards the target. Shortly after reaching 2250 ft AGL, I prepared for the rocket launch, hastily searching the scenery for a target. And I swear I would have taken ANY target that was in range. There was NO time to judge...
At exactly 11:12 (and thus 18 seconds too late), I released the rocket, pulled the stick and tried to get the bird back into a stable flight.
The flight back was ok, with a steady 460 kts cruise, but I was soaked in my own sweat. I am not used to handle that many tings in just one wink of an eye... I found it to be surprising that I managed to get ANYTHING even near the target ring on the HUD.
On the way back home, I was already speaking with my instructor, who was following my flight via the real time data link built into the Hornet. He didn't sounded like I did a really bad job. Somehow, I think he was happy to see I did not crash at the rocket launch site...
The forst attempt to land went sour, and I had to declare a "missed approach", and fly an extra round. But the second attempt went fine, and after 26:32 min of flight, I was taxiing towards the parking space.
So, now I am away and occupied for a couple hours in the debrefing with my instructor. I am sure he will have to tell me a hell of a bunch of things I did wrong... but hopefully he willl be able to teach me how to do better in my next and final try.
I wish you all a better flight...
Clear sky!
Hak