Anticipation

Well it’s taken me several days to find words for my first flight in an F-15 Eagle.  Last Thursday I went up in the back seat of a two seater with the squadron commander, who is one of the most experienced Eagle pilots in the world.  We were in a four ship fighting another four Eagles from Portland.  We started out with a bone-shaking takeoff in full AB (afterburner) and it just got better from there.  We got into a pretty good BVR fight (Beyond Visual Range) though I didn’t know exactly what was going on.  At one point though we were screaming just a couple hundred feet over the desert at about 700 mph!  If I hadn’t been wearing a mask (and you had a very high speed camera) you would have seen a huge grin on my face. 

    Then today I rode in flight where we went out and fought over the ocean.  That was weird cause we had to wear dry suits since the water is so cold (in case we had to punch out); they’re pretty hot when you’re in that miniature greenhouse we call a cockpit.  But it was awesome to be in the middle of a close up dogfight.  At one point I was looking over my shoulder at the other guy (not a good sign when he’s behind you) and the dude flying tightened down to 8.7g’s all of a sudden (somewhat painful and one of the reasons it’s better to be the guy flying).  He let me fly a little fingertip on the way back and it was crazy to think how far I’ve come that I could just jump on the controls and fly such a huge jet only a few feet away from another one. 

  Yet those two experiences were just to whet my appetite for what is soon to come… Tomorrow I will pilot the Eagle for the first time!!  I will strap in as the pilot of a $35 million dollar war machine built for the sole purpose of being the most deadly air-to-air fighter in the world.  Yes, I’m excited.  Very Excited!