HAIR on fire: the T-38 phase
In the T-37 phase the program came at us so fast and furious with flying and academics we felt we were trying to drink from a fire hose. Then we moved next door to the T-38 squadron building and felt the blast of a different kind of pressure: the heat of afterburners and the mind boggling blur of raw speed.
We called it simply, the "Dash-1."
It was four inches thick.
The dreaded morning "Stand-up"
Daily an instructor posed a hypothetical emergency situation, then at random called out a student to stand up and recite verbatim the Dash-1 "bold face" procedures for that situation followed by reference to the appropriate checklist. An occasional mistake was allowed but repeated goofs resulted in reprimand and counseling. We sweated bullets-- 20 mike-mikes.
Some of this stuff was the same as it was in the Tweet, yet much was different. The airspeed indicator, for one, had a lot more numbers on it. It went up to 850 and after that changed to something called "mach." But now that we had a private office, we thought our mistakes would be hidden from the IP in the rear cockpit. Such naive ones, we were.
The first few times you take this walk you feel butterflies swirling in your stomach and at the same time you want to pinch yourself to rule out the possibility of a dream.
The IP's view over the student's head. The spike serves to break the canopy in case it fails to blow off during ejection. A new seat system was installed in the early 2000s. On instrument training missions the student sat in back with a canvass cover pulled over his cockpit (on the inside of course) to eliminate any visual reference to the outside world.
On your first taxi out to the runway the thought that played rather vividly in your skull was that this was no Cessna.
This link is to a video from the back cockpit of a T-38 taking off. The plane is one that has been modified in recent years with an updated electronic cockpit. The noise is what the camera heard. With a helmet pilots only hear an electronic hum.
We each had to make this map and take it with us on every flight into the "tubes."
Formation flying came near the end of the course. it was the last big hurdle.
The Talons in this photo bear the fin letters of Columbus AFB, Mississippi ("CB")
Echelon turn
This landing T-38 was photographed from the Runway Supervisory Unit (RSU), also known as "Mobile."
This is a typical RSU and may be an actual one at Vance. Students were periodically assigned to tours in the RSU where we sat behind IPs who were in radio contact with jets landing and taking off. The base's main tower ceded control of the runways to the RSU during training hours, except for the center runway which was the instrument runway. The IPs in the RSU issued takeoff and landing clearances as well as safety commands such as "FINAL, GO AROUND!" We students recorded tail numbers, takeoff and landing times, and grades the IPs gave the solo students. It was good duty.
A rare photo of both the old and new control towers before the old one went to control tower heaven. (Photo by Alan Cockrell)
We flew the White Rocket through one of the coldest winters in Enid on record, then it was graduation time. (Photos by Chip Little)