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F-16C (block 52)
The next day I peeled myself away from the SPAWAR booth and just "took" the
time to wait in line for Raytheon's F-16 sim. This one was on the
convention floor housed in a very large structure. It had caught my eye
early on and I'd taken time to make friends with the techs in the days
preceding (I couldn't take the time to actually fly then, but I did have a
few minutes to talk). It helped having experience on the carrier because
I've picked up the jargon of aviators and know a little more than the
average bear about military aviation through flight sims. A steady diet of
F4, Janes F15 and the like helps! :D
There were also a few -16 pilots
hanging out around the sim the day I flew, too, so it wasn't long before we
were shooting the... breeze and comparing sea stories. (Do Air Force pukes
have "sea stories?" What do they call 'em? A rethorical question... :D)
But, with them looking over my shoulder, I ensured I'd get sound instruction
on weapons employment!
So, even though there were Egyptian Air Force officials and other corporate
heavy-hitters there, the guys made sure I got a ride. There didn't appear
to be any time limit - everyone was just taking as much time as they like.
Which was a little annoying knowing your boss is probably wondering where
you are, but I figured, "Hey, I may never get this opportunity again!" So -
to HECK with it! :D But the routine seemed to be to start out in flight,
do some close maneuvering with a KC-135, maybe do some weapons work and
shoot an approach at an airfield. Pretty much a half hour of fun. For
free, I might add (yeah - I know I'm lucky!)
The EAF guy was an older gentleman and obviously a pilot. He maneuvered up
close to the tanker and actually got in position. He was porpoising (sp?)
quite a bit at first, but soon got it under control. The tanker wasn't
flying with a real flight model and the alignment lights were inop as well.
Neither did the boom work. Nor were there any turbulence effects associated
with flying in the wake of the tanker.
Soon he was making his approach (a
tech nearby informed me that he put the boom through the canopy twice) and
broke away after a little form flying. Made an approach to an airfield,
landed, turned around, took off, flew around some more (I'm getting annoyed
about now), kept flying... He must have been a transport pilot because he
was flying around all gentle like. This guy was apparently considering a
purchase - they weren't hustling him out of there.
Finally it was my turn. Once strapped in with head sensor mounted I took a
look around. The cockpit was a full-up production cockpit - fully
articulated instrumentation and, I was told, an un-adulterated flight model!
No holds barred here. (Well, the techs whispered to me earlier that all
mention of special weapons were removed and no threat weapon systems were
present - for demo purposes. The whole conference was classified UNCLASS).
The scene was projected onto flat shapes (like a geodesic dome) surrounding
the cockpit. For the demo, however, only the forward panels (to the 3-9
line) were in place.
The sim started with the a/c placed about 5nm astern of the tanker. I was
immediately struck with the appearance of the HUD symbology. It was very
clear and very thin - but actually much larger than what I expected. After
many hours in MPS' Falcon4.0 I've grown accustomed to rather small HUD
symbology. In fact, when you press "Look" and look through the HUD in F4
you see enlarged symbology. That's what the normal view looked like.
Click to continue
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Another point: There was no physical HUD combiner glass assembly, either.
Like the system before, the projectors "create" the HUD image. Furthermore,
when your head moves, the HUD image moves on the screen to simulate what
you'd see in the the real thing (remember, it's just a reflection in the real
deal). It even disappears when the image "would have" left the glass. And
if you leaned forward, the image got physically smaller, but retained the
same apparent size to the guy in the seat since he moved his head closer.
(Was that clear as mud?)
Not only the HUD image, but the overall scene
moves so that you don't perceive any foreshortening due to mapping a curved
space (your perspective of the world) onto flat surfaces. That must be some
fancy mathematics going on behind the scenes... which would explain the
*bank* of five or six SGIs out back! (By the way, that's Silicon Graphics
for those who aren't familiar. We get excited about 133MHz bus speeds,
these machines are pushing the 27GHz bus speed. Yes, I typed "G"!)
As the world started moving I began the approach to the tanker. Controls
were *heavy* - not kidding. I was over controlling causing a porpoising
motion and during rolling motion I would "ratchet." Yes, the F-16 is a
fly-by-wire aircraft and it senses the force you apply to the stick, but you
really need to push just to get a slight roll going. And then the inertia
raises its head.
Thinking back at it now, the jet just FELT heavy. It
would keep rolling after you released the stick. So, even on approach, I
was ham-fisting it. Long story short, I never did actually get in position
- even with the F-16 pilot crouched right next to my left shoulder giving me
a play-by-play.
Interesting engine note (and you could hear the engines faintly in the
background along with the afterburner - had to concentrate to hear it,
though) - it took about a second for the engine to change to a new setting.
You could hear the wind up and it was up to speed in about a second.
One note about my "instructor" - I'd asked to experiment with the weapons
systems so all the while he was having me "push forward on the castle,"
"select TWS on the MFD," "select AIM-9" throughout my flight. Great stuff.
I was quickly getting overwhelmed!
Go to Part IV
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