Learning the Eagle

Most of you probably realize that you can't just walk out to a state of
the art fighter jet, jump in and start flying. However, I think you'd
be surprised at all there is to learn before you even get to start it
up. After two intense weeks of learning the F-15s systems (hydraulic,
electrical, engines, fuel, etc.), avionics, controls, and more I have
another two weeks before I will strap in and take it to work. You see
all this stuff is especially important when you're talking about flying
a single seat jet cause there's no one else to back you up.
This beauty is incredibly complicated! Unlike other planes I've
flown this is primarily an instrument of war and the normal flying
instruments are almost an afterthought. The cockpit is crammed with
displays, switches, dials, knobs, encrypted radios, radar, weapons
controls, electronic warning systems, countermeasures and more. On the
stick and throttle there are 14 switches which each can be pushed,
pulled, or prodded in 4 or 5 directions, and combining them does even
more - meaning that there are over two hundred things that can be done
without taking your hands off where they need to be (nice in a
dogfight, yet way confusing). I love learning all this and am having a great time.
It's tough but we have our lighter moments. One dangerous, yet funny thing that
happened this week was a guy in the class ahead of me was air refueling
from a tanker and as he was disconnecting he hit some switches by
accident and started popping off flares (super hot phosperphous
fireworks we use to confuse IR missles). Not a great thing to do next
to a flying tube full of over 10,000 gallons of gas!