Jaybird180
Final Approach
He's a new transfer at work, so I'd seen him around but we never talked until yesterday, where he shared some of his background. I thought I'd share his interesting story yet keep his identity anonymous. The end of the story is that he's has a C-ME with Jet type ratings, but he never wanted to be a pilot in the first place and so hasn't flown in 40 years. He has 132hrs TT. You can stop reading here, or read the rest of the story.
The rest of the story
He was a young graduate student in 1969 and there was military action in Vietnam. The school he attended exploited a legal loophole regarding the draft for undergraduate students by omitting 1 course from the curriculum, thereby making the student ineligible to receive a Bachelor's degree yet allowing them to proceed to graduate school. Upon completion of graduate school, the student would then complete the remaining course and would then receive simultaneous diplomas. He was "unlucky" enough that the government found out about and closed this loophole and he was drafted in 1971.
He reported to the draft board where draftees were randomly split into 3 groups to be divided amongst Army, Marines and Air Force. He went to the Air Force, where during basic training his academic test scores made him stand out. He was then required to take the Officer Qualifying Test, the Aviation Selection Test then the flight physical. Unbeknownst to him, there was so much of a shortage of pilots, they still passed him with 20/10 vision and he was then shipped off to Officer Training and flight school.
In flight school, he flew the military version of the C-172, then the T-37 Tweet then the T-38 Talon, where after 54 weeks of flying and an FAA written (from a guy from the FAA who administered the test), wings were pinned on his chest.
He and his IP (Instructor Pilot) flew XC to his next assignment for a basic introduction to his next aircraft, the B-52 where he was supposed to sit in the pilot's seat and drool over his new war machine. This was part of the tradition. He was unimpressed.
He told me that during formation training, he was disturbed by witnessing wing-flex on the lead aircraft and that he never learned to trust the structural strength of the T-38.
According to him, the T-38 has a roll rate of 1440 degrees per second, but a quick Google suggest 1/2 that at 720, which is two full aileron rolls in one second! Still very quick! He told me that IPs would sometimes use the roll rate of the T-38 to haze less-motivated students and that they were prohibited from demonstrating many maximum performance maneuvers, but they were consistently disregarded by keeping one's mouth shut and/or resetting the G-Meter if exceeding the 4.5G mandate on the 7G airframe.
After returning from his B-52 introduction, he was told the Air Force no longer needed as many pilots and he could either go home or drive a desk. His check on the economy led him to choose driving a desk while wearing a blue uniform. After reaching the rank of Captain with 4 years, he was excited about the pay and his prospects outside the service weren't as attractive so he stayed on as an Industrial Engineer.
The Air Force offered to send him to school for an MBA, he accepted where after graduation he owed them another 3 years. Another check of the economy and he decided to stay.
After 20 years in the service he retired. That was 21 years +1 month ago, according to my recollection of the story.
He never returned to a cockpit and has no interest in doing so.
The rest of the story
He was a young graduate student in 1969 and there was military action in Vietnam. The school he attended exploited a legal loophole regarding the draft for undergraduate students by omitting 1 course from the curriculum, thereby making the student ineligible to receive a Bachelor's degree yet allowing them to proceed to graduate school. Upon completion of graduate school, the student would then complete the remaining course and would then receive simultaneous diplomas. He was "unlucky" enough that the government found out about and closed this loophole and he was drafted in 1971.
He reported to the draft board where draftees were randomly split into 3 groups to be divided amongst Army, Marines and Air Force. He went to the Air Force, where during basic training his academic test scores made him stand out. He was then required to take the Officer Qualifying Test, the Aviation Selection Test then the flight physical. Unbeknownst to him, there was so much of a shortage of pilots, they still passed him with 20/10 vision and he was then shipped off to Officer Training and flight school.
In flight school, he flew the military version of the C-172, then the T-37 Tweet then the T-38 Talon, where after 54 weeks of flying and an FAA written (from a guy from the FAA who administered the test), wings were pinned on his chest.
He and his IP (Instructor Pilot) flew XC to his next assignment for a basic introduction to his next aircraft, the B-52 where he was supposed to sit in the pilot's seat and drool over his new war machine. This was part of the tradition. He was unimpressed.
He told me that during formation training, he was disturbed by witnessing wing-flex on the lead aircraft and that he never learned to trust the structural strength of the T-38.
According to him, the T-38 has a roll rate of 1440 degrees per second, but a quick Google suggest 1/2 that at 720, which is two full aileron rolls in one second! Still very quick! He told me that IPs would sometimes use the roll rate of the T-38 to haze less-motivated students and that they were prohibited from demonstrating many maximum performance maneuvers, but they were consistently disregarded by keeping one's mouth shut and/or resetting the G-Meter if exceeding the 4.5G mandate on the 7G airframe.
After returning from his B-52 introduction, he was told the Air Force no longer needed as many pilots and he could either go home or drive a desk. His check on the economy led him to choose driving a desk while wearing a blue uniform. After reaching the rank of Captain with 4 years, he was excited about the pay and his prospects outside the service weren't as attractive so he stayed on as an Industrial Engineer.
The Air Force offered to send him to school for an MBA, he accepted where after graduation he owed them another 3 years. Another check of the economy and he decided to stay.
After 20 years in the service he retired. That was 21 years +1 month ago, according to my recollection of the story.
He never returned to a cockpit and has no interest in doing so.
