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What was your biggest mistake in UPT or IFS?


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I'm just glad the tweet didn't have a downloadable MX computer.

Ha ha. As long as you pressed reset on that old school G-meter, nothing from a student solo could be "downloaded." Great little jet. Kind of makes you scratch your head when you hear about kids getting hooked on solo rides several hours after landing in the T-6 or the new T-38.

I'm not saying I ever pulled more than 6.67 Gs and didn't report it, I just figured it would avoid any questions or funny looks after having the G-meter stuck at 6 Gs from a pattern only sortie.

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  • 2 months later...

Earlier this week, SPS T-38 solo student on departure notices that his cabin pressure is continuing to rise as he climbs through 10K. He levels off, declares an emergency with departure, then begins to RTB and calls the SOF. As he explains what's going on, the SOF asks, "Confirm you have the ram dump switch to cabin pressure?"

Brief silence.

"Yes sir, that fixed the problem."

He had a taco salad waiting for him when he landed.

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A solo student in the T-6 at Vance last week flew into a cloud in the MOA. Being the steely-eyed aviator that he was, he immediately decided that the best way to recover was to roll inverted and pull as hard as he could in max power. Once he was 80 degrees nose low, he discovered the error in his ways. Let's just say that when you're flying about 20 kts passed the airspeed limitations of the plane and decided to burry the stick in a nose-low recovery, you will 1) pull enough G to ground just about any fighter in the inventory, and 2) amazingly not rip the wings off a T-6.

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A solo student in the T-6 at Vance last week flew into a cloud in the MOA. Being the steely-eyed aviator that he was, he immediately decided that the best way to recover was to roll inverted and pull as hard as he could in max power. Once he was 80 degrees nose low, he discovered the error in his ways. Let's just say that when you're flying about 20 kts passed the airspeed limitations of the plane and decided to burry the stick in a nose-low recovery, you will 1) pull enough G to ground just about any fighter in the inventory, and 2) amazingly not rip the wings off a T-6.

Fair?

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Solo T-38 ride at SPS rocketed out of the top of the airspace by 6-9k feet, turned off mode C over the top. Note at ops desk upon return to go see ADO.

"Why do you think you're in my office?"

"Because Ft Worth center called you?"

"No, it was because you knocked me over as I was preflighting the jet next to you when you got stuck in the turn out of chocks and damn near went mil power to get going again. And then your crew chief called to let us know you left your probe heat on at shutdown and he burned his hand. Now, why would center be calling me?"

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  • 2 weeks later...

Solo T-38 ride at SPS rocketed out of the top of the airspace by 6-9k feet, turned off mode C over the top. Note at ops desk upon return to go see ADO.

"Why do you think you're in my office?"

"Because Ft Worth center called you?"

"No, it was because you knocked me over as I was preflighting the jet next to you when you got stuck in the turn out of chocks and damn near went mil power to get going again. And then your crew chief called to let us know you left your probe heat on at shutdown and he burned his hand. Now, why would center be calling me?"

EPIC!!!!!!!!!

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First or second solo to the area in the Tweet and I want to know what zero G really feels like. For some unfathomable reason I decide I have to be inverted to truely experience weightlessness. After a few seconds of thinking "this is fricking awesome", I look down and see the altimeter rapidly unwinding. As I bust through the bottom of the area at about the speed of Jesus, I roll wings level and pull with all my might, nearly blacking out. I think I was about 1,000' AGL or so. Scared shitless, I climb back up into the area and perform 20 minutes of MOA patrol before RTB'ing. Nobody ever said a word and I went and changed my drawers.

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T-34: Was on a navigation ride (clock-map-ground), and left my map up in the WX shop before stepping, and realized it as we were about to taxi out for takeoff. Somehow I was able to BS my way through the ride and not hook...

UH-1: performing first auto in a couple months (first ride after instruments leading into remotes), and I definitely touched down on the tail stinger, 30 degrees off lane heading, and somehow pivoted to the lane before coming down on the skids. After we came to a stop and rolled the throttle back up, the IP (the DO) turned to me and said, "Well...let's try that again." Not sure how I didn't hook, but the write-up said something to the effect of "minor deviations during first straight-ahead auto, corrected by the end of the sortie."

HH-60: C-3 or C-4, whichever was the "auto ride" during IQT, I was flying with the SQ/CC, got slow on the descent of an auto and got the "Go Around" call. What did I do? Pulled an armpit of collective and drooped the SHIT out of the rotor. I somehow remember having the time to turn and look at the FE as we were falling out of the sky with the rotor horn blaring, and his mouth was a big O, and eventually the engines caught up and we flew out of it. The SQ/CC was sitting there calmly the entire time and didn't touch the controls, and once we got back to the downwind he chuckled and asked me what I learned. 1: Don't get slow in an auto 2: don't pull in an armpit of collective on a go around, the engines need time to respond 3: Underfreq protection works. I'm not sure how the main gens didn't kick offline, that's how much I drooped the rotor.

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T-34: Was on a navigation ride (clock-map-ground), and left my map up in the WX shop before stepping, and realized it as we were about to taxi out for takeoff. Somehow I was able to BS my way through the ride and not hook...

Not knowing much about the clock-map-ground technique (besides knowing what it implies), how did you convince your IP that you had a map in your lap? Just hit the right landmarks, hope for the best?

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I’m a civilian instructor going to UPT in July.

A solo student flying a DA20 made nose low landing that resulted in a prop strike (the prop on a DA20 is fiberglass/wood meant to break off to avoid engine damage). The student then decided that the best course of action was to perform a go-around. Surprisingly enough the airplane held together and the student taxied back to the flight school. He came in and reported “excessive vibrations”. No shit, one side of the prop had about 1/3 of it missing. This student is now a regional pilot in India.

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  • 1 month later...

Was flying a T-38 Form sortie with my room-mate who was an excellent stick, but not in formation. I'm solo, he's with an IP. We start doing a set of close trail, and I'm hanging in nicely a few feet behind him. All of a sudden I notice the world spinning around me at strange perspectives along with the onset of some G-force, which was never part of any close trail I'd ever flown. I realized that my Bud never sent me back to extended trail and I was tucked in behind his jet the whole time during some aggressive, over the top manuevers. About the time I'm starting to realize this is going to be a monumental BUST, He whips into a right turn and calls out "Taco 54, rejoin right turning" I counted 10 Mississippi then gently turned towards his right wing and moved up about 20 feet into position (I should have been a thousand feet away) as I moved into position I noticed the IP wasn't even looking for me, as they usually did because rejoins could get hairy sometimes. I remember him spitting some tobacco juice into his druel cup and as I slinked into position he did a double-take! and then gave me a thumbs up. On the way back all I was thinking about was how bad this was going to be, and whether I would bust, my room-mate or both. Plus I'm pissed because I knew my room-mate screwed up but I wasn't going to drop dime on him so I'd end up busting for his Fu$# up. After we landed I grabbed him to the side and asked him, "Did you ever send me to Extended Trail?" He looked puzzled and said, "I don't know, did I?" "No!!!" I told him I was 5 feet away from his tail the whole time. We agreed the best thing to do was fess-up and take the punishment. During the debrief the IP was getting closer to the portion about our extended trail and I was dreading the moment, Then it arrived and he said, "How did extended trail go for you today?" I was about to explain when he interrupted and said, "You must have had a fast jet today because I never saw you at all!, You must have been in our 6-o'clock cone the whole time!" I couldn't believe it!! I quickly stammered, "Yah, I hung out behind you most of the time because I had too much smash!!!" then the best part, he gave me an excellent because he said, "Well, you must have been in position because when we called for the rejoin you were like, right there! I couldn't see you and the next second your parked on the wing! Good Job!!" Talk about LUCKY!!!

The night of our graduation dinner we took him aside and told him what really happened!

Edited by Vito
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