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| Not a real instructor, I was given the patch after my 50th student flight |
Since 2000, I have had the privilege of introducing the senior class
at USAF Test Pilot School (TPS) at Edwards AFB to the history and characterisitcs of the Long-EZ as part of the school's Qualitative
Evaluation Program.
Originally, I participated partly because of the chance to fly with
the folks at TPS, and partly because they promised me a ride in a T-38 (greatest experience of my flying career - I was like
a kid in a candy store).
Thanks to a careless Navy submarine which surfaced underneath a Japanese
fishing boat, civilians are no longer allowed at the controls of most military vehicles, so I have continued my participation
in the program because of the chance it provides me to teach the strengths and weaknesses of the Long-EZ to a group of skilled,
motivated pilots and flight test engineers.
The first class I instructed (see picture above) was Class 00A. They
set the tone for all future visits. I would arrive on Monday morning and immediately present a 1-hour briefing on the Long-EZ,
its characteristics, and what to expect while flying it. I also covered operational considerations, since the pilots in the
class would be flying the plane from the front seat.
The very first TPS student I ever flew, Jim "Mash" Dutton, was just
selected in the 2004 class of NASA astronauts. Probably because of the additional skill he gained from flying a Long-EZ.
The flights themselves are usually pretty tame, including some basic
handling tests (control inputs, trim shots, wind-up turns, steady-heading sideslips, acceleration tests, and roll reversals,
to name a few) and mild aerobatics (aileron roll, barrel roll, wingover, loops), all over the barren northern edge of Muroc
dry lake.
If you would like to see a copy of this presentation, you may download a PDF copy of it
(7.2 Mb) by clicking on this link:
Downlaod a copy of the TPS Briefing
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| Student's view of aerobatics from the back seat |
One truly stressful aspect of my visits is the requirement that I
allow the student pilots to fly my plane from the front seat, with me in back as an instructor. There's nothing quite like
trusting someone else to fly your pride and joy. Letting my kids drive my car will be easy by comparison. On the whole, the
TPS pilots do a great job handling the plane, although its pitch characteristics are much more sensitive than most planes
they have flown.
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| Maj. Kelly Latimer, a TPS instructor, gets ready to fly the Long-EZ from the front seat |
What makes the flights interesting, besides the chance to share my
love of flight and EZ's with the students, are the unusual planes we usually encounter in flight. These have included U-2,
F-14, F-15, F-18, F-22, F-35, B-52, B-2, Global Hawk, V-22 and P-51. It really gets your attention when the controllers tell
you that a flight of 3 F-16's is approaching you head-on at Mach 1.5 and "please maneuver to provide separation".
It is also a blast to fly over the shuttle landing runways painted
on the dray lake bed.
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| Runways painted on the lake bed seen over the canard |
As of September 2003, I have instructed 5 classes, and although some
aspects of the missions might get a little monotonous, such as flying the exact same lesson plan 13 times in 4 days, I still
enjoy the intelligence, eagerness, and professionalism of all the TPS students and staff. It is especially rewarding when
one of the students suddenly realizes that flying something smaller and slower than an F-16 can actually be just as much fun.
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