From: hurvitz@oscar.UUCP (Dennis Hurvitz)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation
Subject: flight report f-14d simulator. fightertown miramar...
Date: 15 Apr 92 16:38:44 GMT
Distribution: na


having never flown a jet fighter before, i've often wondered what it
would be like. would i be able to fly the thing ? could i push the nose
over and dive or snap roll without losing control ?  could i land the
thing, could i handle myself against another fighter ? could i land
one of those things, on a carrier ? i think i have a pretty good idea
now.

i briefed a naval officer into the club some time ago, and had the good
fortune to get to know the guy. i gave him an area check-out and a
check-out in a 152. he'd never flown a light recip.

he arranged for me to fly an f-14d simulator. this is a state of the art
brand new visual job. it is programmable for almost all situations one
might encounter in the airplane. i flew it last night for 1.8.

i sat in the cockpit as my friend explained the basic controls, the heads
up display, and the two multi function displays that would be used for
navigation. we didn't go into tactical stuff too much, which was fine
with me, for it was all i could do to remember where the
flaps,gear,throttle,speed brakes, nose wheel steering, flight
coordination/stabilization, heads-up options, etc, not to exclude
maintaining positional awareness at 500 knots over southern california.

the briefing completed, and "hit man" hurvitz chomping at the bit to get
on with it, it was time.

i donned the headset, my friend left the sphere or dome, for the control
console outside, and i lowered the canopy at his instruction. i'll skip
the prelim/preflight stuff. with military power set acceleration was
definitely brisk. i turned off nosewheel steering at 100 knots, rotated
at 130, gear up, flaps up, hello 6000 feet per minute ! 

the controls are hydraulic, and i'm all over the darned sky. it took
some time to get with the feeling of the controls, but i did figure them
out. the lead/lag response was not like any of the 30 or 40 makes/models
of singles and twins i've flown in the last 20 years. 

this was the fastest 1.8 i can remember. in this time i intercepted a
foreign bomber and shot it down with a sparrow. landed at miramar,
departing with a snap roll around the 20 pitch up attitude. ya-hoo. :)

i headed for the boat.

on the way i hit mach 1.3 and stopped, for fuel is important, ya know.

with beginners luck, i caught the number 1 wire on my first attempt. it
was not pretty, i waived off the next 2, and hit the fantail on the last
shot. oh well.
i did get to try a cat shot departure from the carrier. what a trip !


in retrospect, i can tell you that i think basic flight of the tomcat is
doable and conceivable for ga pilots. i did it. i even stalled it out during 
a few poorly executed loops. it recovered, no problem. 'course i didn't feel
the 31 g's it must have pulled.  :)  it is the precision flying that
navy pilots must do that obviously, i could not. landing on the ship
runway centerline, everytime, is a requirement. they line the deck with
planes and there is little room for offcenterline landings. i know
nothing of tactics.

in the carrier landing phase, i felt very comfortable flying a large
vfr traffic pattern around the boat. i could *see* it. i knew where i
was, downwind, etc. speed brakes out, gear down, flaps etc maintain 125
knots over the, ah, fence. there is no flare, just fly it on. 

departure is not all that unfamilar with flaps up gear up. hell with
52000 pounds of thrust just point the darn nose. by far, the biggest
hurdle i encountered during my brief fam flight, was 
overcontrolling. once i got the handle on that, things smoothed out
*alot*, i felt *at home* and i wanted to try more stuff. i learned, that the 
f-14 is an airplane, just like any of the kinds we fly. flying is flying. 


i'll never forget it.


dennis hurvitz
Newsgroups: rec.aviation