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F-16 Sortie Tests Writer's Mettle On Supersonic Training Mission


F-16 Sortie Tests Writer's Mettle On Supersonic Training Mission

It was a half-century ago that the first F-16 rolled off of the General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin) production line. Since then, more than 4,500 have been manufactured, and in many different configurations.

The plane, a U.S. attack fighter jet, has seen combat too many times to count. The jets are also used by the famous Thunderbirds air show team, and, get this, are in operation now in some two dozen countries.

To celebrate the plane's 50-year anniversary, the U.S. Air Force decorated one with the same YF-16 colors that were painted on the first one. That aircraft, which resides at Shaw AFB in South Carolina, is a one-seater, so media folks and distinguished visitors can't fly in the back.

But at Eglin AFB in Destin, Florida, there are five two-seaters, sometimes used as trainers for burgeoning pilots. As part of this report on the F-16's anniversary, I was privileged enough to ride in the back of one with the 40th Test Flight Squadron.

Mind you, I'd been in an F-16 before, a few years back, out of Eielson AFB in Fairbanks, Alaska, but it was in uncomfortable, bulky cold-weather gear (see story at end). The extra clothing was protection if, say, we needed to eject over the Arctic and survive in the wild until a rescue party could find us. The Eglin flight, given the gentle Florida clime, would only require a standard flight suit, G-pants, helmet and oxygen mask.

Still, anytime one flies supersonic in a fighter jet it's serious business. The week started with a requisite physical exam at the base. Then it was on to intensive parachute, physiologic and egress training, the parachute part in a hanging harness and the bailout part in a mock ejection seat.

Ejection is a last-ditch maneuver, of course, as you will pull up to 20 G's in less than two seconds upon initiation, not to mention the tens of millions of taxpayers' dollars that will be lost when the plane crashes. While my pilot, Lt. Col. Alec "Bulldog" Spencer, a 45-year-old with 2,300 hours in the F-16, and I were to be under the same canopy cockpit glass - he in front, me directly behind - we each had command of our own ejection seat.

The flight was scheduled for Thursday, December 5, but due to maintenance issues (an environmental control system part in our F-16 needed replacing), it was pushed back to Monday, December 9. So I hung around Destin over the weekend, scouring the pristine-white sand beaches on the Gulf of Mexico, and dining in places like quirky McGuire's Irish Pub.

Josh White, an Airman who hosts a podcast called HeroFront, usually has on as guests military standouts, but found me interesting for some reason, so we taped his show for a future episode. I also had time to think about what I was to do on Monday, and about the chances of anything going south. It would be the seventh - yes, seventh - separate plane I would fly supersonic in.

Depending upon how you look at that, it's either good or bad. On one hand, I had been lucky as far as not having a mishap. Viewed another way, how statisticians might look at it, the luck factor is misleading. The longer you do something risky, the more the odds stack up against you. Since 2010, 43 F-16s have required bailouts, and, of those, eight pilots were killed.

Monday morning dawned with iffy weather. My flight was to be part of a larger war-games exercise involving five other aircraft. Four F-15s were to chase down our plane and our wingman's, another F-16, to see if - and how long it might take - to destroy us, electronically. Because of the complexity of the mission - tactical testing of new weapons - things like wind speed and direction, cloud cover and precipitation could have scrapped it.

But the go decision was made, so we suited up and made our way out to the flight line. Once strapped into the plane, it was a long taxi out to the runway. Along the way, with Bulldog's verbal okay via a radio installed in my helmet, I armed my ejection seat by pulling down a yellow-striped lever near my left leg.

Our takeoff was uneventful, and without afterburners. One objective was to run the plane up to Mach 1.6, its limit, and to achieve that meant saving as much fuel as possible. We gradually made our way up above 40,000 feet, through two layers of clouds.

While waiting for the F-15s, Bulldog asked if I wanted to fly the plane for a bit. Sheepishly, I put my hand on the computerized control stick near my right leg. A slight pull to the left turned the plane left of horizontal. A slight push to the right turned itbin that direction. A pull back put us into a climb, and a push forward pointed the plane's nose toward the ground. The aircraft was incredibly responsive, like an Indy car at high speed. They say you don't really get strapped into an F-16, but strap it on. They're right.

Bulldog then took the plane to 30,000 feet and began to climb - and accelerate: Mach 0.9...1.0...1.2...1.4. Eventually, at 40,000 feet, we hit Mach 1.6. Whoa. We were cruising at more than 1,200 mph!

Once the F-15s had had their way with us and moved on to their bombing target, we had some spare fuel to play with. First, it was a rapid descent to 200 feet above the Gulf to conduct some low passes. At more than 600 mph, the waves were rushing by frenetically. Then we abruptly pulled vertical and climbed up to 10,000 feet in less than a minute. The G's on that maneuver got my attention.

After an hour and 10 minutes in the air, we landed safely back at Eglin. I was stoked but tired, and my ears hurt. When we had reached apogee at 44,000 feet, Bulldog explained at our debrief, the cockpit was pressurized to only 19,000 feet. If not for the oxygen masks, we would have gone hypoxic in a couple of minutes.

I left Eglin with a better understanding of just how important the F-16 still is to the U.S. military. While only a fourth-generation fighter jet, its ongoing evolution puts its performance close to that of fifth-generation jets like the F-22 and F-35. In future stories, we will explore that idea. Stay tuned.

[Editor's Note: This is Part 1 in a series about the F-16 and Eglin AFB.]

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