I have always felt a sort of kinship with those IP's who took on initial
transition training for guys coming off the Tweet and into the Talon. The
girls used to say these guys had the fastest hands on the base. Little did
they know!! :-))
Dudley Henriques


"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 8 Jan 2007 13:38:16 -0500, "Dudley Henriques"
wrote:


"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
. ..
On Mon, 8 Jan 2007 10:00:26 -0600, "Danny Deger"
wrote:

What is your favorite "lost" story?


Every IP knows that you have to let the students go a little bit, so
that they can see the outcome of their errors and then the lesson is
reinforced. The difficult judgement call is knowing how far to let
them progress and still be able to make the recovery without damage to
the airplane or the landscape.

Correct of course...............and this can no doubt take on some real IP
"decision making moments" as he sits in the back of a T38 on final with a
student up front starting to develop a rather LARGE sink rate :-))))))
Dudley Henriques


I've not done the UPT thing in a T-38, but spent about 1500 hours (in
.9 increments) as an IP (and IP's IP) in the AT-38 at Fighter Lead-In.

Generally the landing wasn't much of an issue. The flight attitude
would tell you most of what you needed to know--if you had the right
pitch and the airspeed was ball park, you were OK. But, things happen
occasionally.

I had an old friend who had been a UPT student of mine, come through
Holloman for a fast jet requal after a staff job. He'd been a Raven
and was generally crazy, but a good aviator. First traffic pattern,
just as you describe. He falls back on his old FAC flying patterns and
goes to "flare"--not the thing to do, in the Talon which responded to
holding constant attitude until entering ground effect and then when
the airplane tries to lower the nose in response to the increased wing
effectiveness, simply adding back pressure to hold the landing
attitude.

He flares at about 40 feet AGL. I sense impending doom and calmly
adopt a mezzo-soprano tone as I scream "I've got it!" Grab the bird,
freeze the stick and simultaneously reach for a yard of throttle.
Bottom falls out, we impact and bounce into the air about 25 feet just
in time for the burners to light and I gingerly milk it back into
controlled flight.

"Let's try another one, and this time lets do it like the briefing,
OK?"


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com