by Julie Tizard
“Great. Now I have to take you off the schedule and find someone else to fly with your other student.”
Casey realized that Jeff, having thrown up on their IP, might prevent her from flying today.
Captain Hardesty then walked in to debrief Mike on his flight.
“Captain Hardesty, my favorite guest help IP, I need you. I need you, bad,” Captain Arnau said.
“What’s up, Barb?”
“Carter’s student barfed all over him and he didn’t bring a spare flight suit. I need an IP to fly with his other student, Tompkins. Please, I don’t have anyone else.”
“He showed up for dollar ride day without a spare flight suit? What a dumb shit. I need to call my office and reschedule my meeting with the T-38 maintenance chief first. Anything for you, Barb. I’d rather fly again than go to a meeting anyway.”
“Thanks, Kath, I owe you.”
“Lieutenant Tompkins, front and center, you’re flying with Captain Hardesty now,” Captain Arnau said.
Casey was both relieved and apprehensive as she walked over to Captain Hardesty.
“Ready, Lieutenant?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Then let’s go fly.”
Chapter Five
As Kathryn briefed the flight, Casey looked back at her with such intensity that it almost derailed her train of thought. After a momentary hesitation, she ran through the briefing items in her checklist like she had over a thousand times before. “I will demonstrate the first takeoff, point out the ground references, then have you fly. When I want you to fly I will say, ‘You have the jet,’ and you will shake the stick and answer, ‘I have the jet.’ If I say, ‘My jet,’ let go of the stick immediately. If we have any emergency, I will take the aircraft. If I say, ‘Bail out! Bail out! Bail out!’ eject immediately or you’ll be flying solo because I will be gone. Do you understand, Casey?”
“Yes, ma’am, I do,” Casey answered nervously.
Their first stop was Life Support. There were rows of wooden locker spaces, each with a metal bar holding a parachute and an open cubbyhole above it with a helmet inside. The room smelled like a men’s locker room with a hint of rubbing alcohol and rubber mixed in.
The life support technician showed Casey the proper way to clean the helmet visor and her oxygen mask.
Casey put on her helmet and checked her communication cord and oxygen mask in the tester. She hoisted the forty-pound parachute onto her back and buckled the chest and leg straps of the harness. Captain Hardesty scrutinized her up and down, shaking her head with a frown on her face.
“Lieutenant, your parachute harness is too loose. If you have to use this, your body will be hanging in midair attached by only these three straps. Make them tighter.”
Casey tugged on the ends of the heavy nylon straps.
“No, like this.” She grabbed the end of Casey’s chest strap and yanked hard, crushing her breasts in the process. Captain Hardesty went to reach for her leg straps, Casey grabbed them herself and pulled down hard until it hurt her thighs. Her face flushed having Captain Hardesty so close to her body. “I can’t stand up straight with them this tight, ma’am.”
“You’re not supposed to be able to stand up with them on correctly. They’ll feel okay when you’re sitting in the jet. You can unbuckle them when we walk to the plane.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
They walked across the ramp together with rows of white jets in front of them. Casey was tingling with excitement. She glanced at Captain Hardesty walking with her. She walked with authority and purpose—the epitome of confidence. She gave friendly waves to several of the aircraft crew chiefs as she walked.
When they got to the jet, she showed Casey how to review the aircraft logbook and where to stow her gear. It was very loud on the ramp as planes taxied around them, so she had to shout so Casey could hear her. “Follow me as I do the walk-around inspection. I’ll show you what to look for.” Casey nodded and followed dutifully.
Casey watched intently as Captain Hardesty’s gloved hand slid across the leading edge of the wing. She moved the ailerons up and down scrutinizing every inch of the plane—looking, checking, and testing. She pointed out hinges and locking nuts on the control surfaces and where to check for oil drips. Casey watched her trail her fingertips across the other wing almost like she was caressing a lover. Her touch on the plane was firm, precise, in control. If this was a horse instead of a machine, the animal would have been calmed by the sure touch of her mistress.
Captain Hardesty had Casey climb into the jet on the left side and watched her strap in. Casey tried to remember everything she’d practiced in the sim—parachute harness, lap belt, shoulder harness, parachute key, oxygen hose, comm cord, gloves, and helmet visor.
“Pull the lap belt as tight as you can, Casey. Remember, you are the one flying, not the airplane flying you, and you want to strap this jet to your body.”
Captain Hardesty climbed into the compact jet on the right side, her shoulder brushing against Casey’s as she strapped in, in one-tenth the time. Casey heard her voice through the flight intercom and felt calmed by the sound of it.
“Can you hear me, Casey?”
“Yes, ma’am, I can.”
“I’ve got you loud and clear also.”
Casey started her preflight checks very conscious of her every move being watched.
“I’m going to start the engines and show you the hand signals we use with the crew chief to check the speed brake, pitot heat, and flaps. I’ll do the initial taxi out, then I’ll have you taxi the plane.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The sound of the jet engines coming to life with their high-pitched whine filled Casey with electricity. The crew chief motioned them forward with his hands, gave them a thumbs-up indicating everything on the jet looked good, then he snapped to attention and saluted as they taxied out. Captain Hardesty returned the gesture of respect with her own salute.
“The most important thing when you are taxiing is to look outside. You will steer the jet with your feet using the rudder pedals and step on top of the pedals for braking. The horizon should look like it’s halfway up the windscreen. Remember this picture. You will see this again for the level flight attitude. When I take off, I will pull the nose up so it looks like one-quarter ground and three-quarters sky. That will be the takeoff pitch attitude. When I’m flying, I want you to put your right hand on the stick and your left hand on the throttles and follow along with me as I move the controls.”
Casey finished the taxi out checks, lowered the big canopy, and waited anxiously at the end of the runway for their turn to take off.
“Tango 61, cleared for takeoff, runway three-zero left.”
“Tango 61, cleared for takeoff,” Captain Hardesty responded over the radio. Her radio voice was lower in pitch than her speaking voice. She sounded confident and a little bit sultry. Casey wanted to sound like her on the radio.
“Step on the brakes hard to keep the jet from moving as we run the engines up to full power and check the engine instruments.” Casey felt Captain Hardesty push both throttles forward under her left hand. The plane shook and the engines whined loudly, like the plane couldn’t wait to get into the air. “Four green lights, no reds, no ambers, two good engines, release brakes.”
The plane jumped forward as they accelerated down the runway. “Look down at the end of the runway and use your feet to steer and stay on the centerline. At sixty-five knots, we rotate and pull the stick back so the nose comes up to that one-quarter ground, three-quarters sky picture. At ninety knots, we lift off.”
Casey smiled under her oxygen mask as the plane gracefully lifted up into the air.
“Positive climb, landing gear up, accelerate to one hundred and ten knots, flaps up,” Captain Hardesty said. “Casey, you have the aircraft.” She shook the stick with a short side-to-side movement indicating the exchange of control.
“Roger, ma’am, I have the aircraft.” Casey shook the stick in repl
y. I’m flying, I’m actually flying!
“All right, Casey, start a left turn to depart the traffic pattern, keep climbing, and trim the airplane for one hundred sixty knots.”
“Trim for one hundred sixty, ma’am?”
“Didn’t you learn that in the sim?”
“No, ma’am, I’m sorry, I didn’t.”
“My aircraft, Casey. This is one of the most important things you’ll ever learn about flying. Trim is your friend. This small button on the top of the stick is the trim button. Use your thumb and flick this button forward or backward to trim off the pressure of the stick in your hand. If I feel the stick push forward against my fingers, I flick the trim button back. If the stick is pushing against the palm of my hand, I push the trim button forward. We trim the airplane for the airspeed we want to maintain. If it is trimmed properly, you can take your hand off the stick and the plane will stay right there. Your goal is to fly with just your fingertips. No death grips on the stick. Understand? Your airplane, Casey.”
“Roger, I have the aircraft.” Casey tried the trim button and discovered that it was so much easier to control her airspeed and altitude. It felt like she had received a revelation from God.
“Casey, I have the jet.”
“Roger, ma’am, you have the jet.” Casey wondered what she had done wrong.
“I’m going to show you a few things so you can feel the airplane. Flying is not just about memorizing procedures. You need to be able to look outside and to feel what the jet is doing. We’re at two hundred knots in level flight, and I want you to listen to the sound of the plane and the air.”
Casey was confused but tried to hear the sounds the airplane was making. It was kind of a low roar mixed with the engine whine.
“Now I will pull the power to idle and slow the plane to one hundred and twenty knots. I want you to hear how the sounds change.”
Casey heard the roar sound decrease and the pitch of the engines change.
“Now I’ll push the power up to full military thrust, one hundred percent RPM, and accelerate to two hundred and fifty knots.”
It was clear as a bell as the air noise increased to a loud roar and the pitch of the engine whine went up the scale.
“You don’t have to look at the airspeed indicator to know that you are flying fast or slow, just listen to the jet.”
“Yes, ma’am. That makes perfect sense.” Casey understood she was listening to a master of her craft, that every word this woman spoke to her was pure gold.
“Let’s try some maneuvering turns. Unlike civilian flying, we don’t make gentle turns. We yank and bank and make sharp, aggressive turns. Show me a sixty-degree bank level turn.”
Casey pushed the stick to the side, looked at the attitude indicator for the sixty-degree mark, then pulled back on the stick. The plane started climbing and Captain Hardesty took the jet again.
“You’re looking inside at the instruments, not outside. Do it like this.” Captain Hardesty snapped the plane into a sixty-degree bank. “Look at where the horizon intersects the windscreen. This is the sixty-degree bank picture. Then pull on the stick to keep the horizon in the same place on the windscreen and your turn will be level. Try it again.”
Casey repeated the turn and was amazed that the bank was exactly at sixty degrees and the altimeter showed level.
“Better. You pick things up quickly, Casey. How are you feeling? Are you queasy at all?”
“No, ma’am. I feel great.”
“If you feel airsick, tell me. Now I’m going to pull some Gs so you can practice your anti-G straining.”
She rolled the jet to ninety degrees of bank into a tight spiral as she pulled back on the stick. “This is three Gs.” Casey felt her oxygen mask pull down on her face as she sank into her seat. “Start your straining. Here is four Gs.” Casey tightened her leg, butt, and stomach muscles. Her arms felt heavy and she had a hard time holding her head up. “Keep breathing, Casey, short, forceful breaths. Here’s five Gs.” Casey had to keep all her muscles tight as she huffed out air and quickly sucked in hard.
“It’s…like…an…elephant…is…sitting…on…me,” Casey grunted.
“That’s right. Keep your muscles tight and use quick short breaths,” Captain Hardesty answered.
Casey was tingling all over and saw sparkles of light on the edge of her vision.
“I’m rolling out now and easing off the Gs. How do you feel, Casey?”
The heavy weight lifted off her body as they returned to wings level. “I think I feel okay. That’s hard, ma’am.”
“You’ll get the hang of it. Remember to start your muscle contractions as soon as you start to feel the G-forces. If you’re at high speed and you pull back hard on the stick, you’ll get into high Gs very quickly. Would you like to try an aileron roll?”
“Could we? Oh, yes, ma’am!”
“Follow along on the controls with me. Entry airspeed is two hundred and twenty knots. We pull the nose up so the air vents look like they are on the horizon. That’s ten degrees up, then snap the stick all the way over to the side and hold it there but don’t pull back.” The airplane quickly rolled upside down then back upright. “As we approach wings level to the horizon again, snap the stick back the opposite direction to stop the roll. Now you try one.”
Casey tried to do exactly what Captain Hardesty did but rolled out with twenty degrees of bank instead of wings level. “Crap.”
Captain Hardesty laughed. “Not bad for your first try. Let’s head back for some touch-and-go landings.”
On descent into the auxiliary airfield, Captain Hardesty pointed out ground references for the entry points to the traffic pattern. Casey could see the ground points clearly through the big canopy and took a moment to look at the beauty of the desert they were flying over—the buttes, the dry riverbeds, the mountains—it was spectacular.
“I’ll demonstrate the first landing, then I’ll have you fly a few landings. The most important thing in landing is keeping the aim point, the threshold of the runway, one-third of the way up from the bottom of the windscreen. Keep the aim point at the same place in the windscreen, and that’s how you control your glide path. Then set the power to seventy percent and check your airspeed. That’s all you have to do. Watch your aim point and airspeed, then flare the jet and touchdown.”
She makes it sounds so simple.
Casey felt Captain Hardesty’s hands through the stick and throttles, like they were connected.
“As we slow down and get the landing gear and flaps down, be sure and trim off the stick pressures.” Captain Hardesty’s thumb flicked the little button on the top of the stick.
“When landing is assured, power idle, bring your head up, look at the horizon, then pull back smoothly, and hold that landing attitude picture.” The plane touched down softly on the centerline of the runway.
“Lower the nose, power to military, use the rudder pedals to stay on the centerline, then lift off at ninety knots.” As she got airborne, she brought the gear and flaps up, then snapped the plane into a sharp turn, rolled out exactly perpendicular to the runway, and said, “Your jet, Casey.”
Casey flew the next pattern, but it didn’t quite look the same as Captain Hardesty’s. Just as she pulled the power to idle to land, she felt Captain Hardesty on the controls and the throttles move forward rapidly. The plane slammed onto the runway and bounced into the air as she heard, “My jet.”
“You started your flare too early and ran out of airspeed. Next time don’t pull the power to idle that soon. Fly it down closer to the runway, then flare. Try it again, Casey.”
Her second attempt was better. It was firm but not bone jarring, still nothing like Captain Hardesty’s landing. This was tough.
“Let’s fly back to Willie and make this one a full stop landing.”
Her last landing was sort of decent with only small inputs from Captain Hardesty.
They taxied in and she completed the after landing checks. As they climbed
out of the jet and filled out the logbook, Captain Hardesty put her hand on Casey’s shoulder. “Not bad for a dollar ride, Casey.”
The warmth of Captain Hardesty’s hand on her shoulder, even through her flying gloves, gave Casey a little tingle. She was on cloud nine.
Chapter Six
Casey was so excited after her flight with Captain Hardesty she didn’t even care that every maneuver she’d flown was graded U—Unsatisfactory. She took notes on everything Captain Hardesty said and wrote down everything she’d seen. She was scheduled to fly with her regular IP, Lieutenant Carter, the next day and couldn’t wait to get back in the air.
Her second flight with Lieutenant Carter was very different from her first flight. Her initial takeoff was good, but when she started her turn to depart the traffic pattern, Lieutenant Carter jerked the stick out of her hand and yelled, “No! Turn the jet like this.” He yanked the nose around the turn and rolled out with a snap. Casey felt her stomach lurch when he pushed forward and got some negative Gs.
The rest of the flight only got worse. He yelled at her constantly and took the stick out of her hands throughout the whole ride. She was dizzy and nauseous when she climbed out of the jet after her second flight. “You’re going to need a lot of work to get through this program, Lieutenant.”
Casey felt like she’d been punched in the gut. How had things gone from good to bad so fast? She tried to listen to his debrief after the flight, but everything he said to her made her feel like an idiot.
“You need to chair fly these maneuvers a lot, and I expect you to know all the ground references and the traffic pattern procedures down cold before the next ride.”
Casey had a big systems test the next day. She would be up all night studying and memorizing this stuff.
After Lieutenant Carter left the table, Casey turned to Mike. “Did he scream at you on your flight?”
“Yes, he’s an asshole. I didn’t learn a thing, he was so busy yelling at me.”
*****