Special Gift for Friends

Flying Friends –

Guys, I just came back from one of the most exciting flying experiences of my life – provided by Fighter Combat International headquartered at the Mesa Airport in AZ. Mark Solon (with valuable selection help from Mark Peterson) provided me with a gift certificate for this unbelievable adventure.

After listening to me tell about my (very slightly exaggerated) exploits in the Glasair, Mark wrongly assumed I was a candidate for the “Advanced Air Combat Mission” and signed me up for same, even though my only experience with dog fights actually involved dogs, not planes. Or, he may have thought “Advanced” referred to age….

Anyway, after a reminder call and weather check from Faye the night before, and a sleepless night, I arrive early at FCI at meet a very sharp guy in fighter pilot togs who was an F-14 pilot until a few years ago and now flies corporate jets. I learn later, he is my opponent! Soon my “back-seat” instructor (and FCI honcho), BJ, arrives – a kind, sharp, F-18 pilot who instructed in the Canadian version of Top Gun. Both these guys are like 45 years old…. It turns out my opponent is training to become an air combat instructor with FCI and his “rear-seat” is like an F-16 pilot with the Air Force…..so you get the picture – old guy private pilot and some real young talent. I get fitted for a flight suit (XL) and sit down with everybody for a 60 minute “briefing”. Mark has sent in my call sign – “Jefe” (Spanish for “boss”) a name given to me by the guys at the car dealership in New Mexico. So, the briefing starts with a discussion of our aircraft, the Extra 300. Very impressive! +,- 10Gs, 360 degree/second roll rate, and actually certified for every known maneuver – seriously. In addition, each “fighter” is equipped with a targeting HUD and a trigger on the stick that when pressed lets loose with the sound of a 30mm Gatling gun on overtime. Plus, each plane has a 4 lens video system to record the disaster – a cockpit camera, a gun sight camera with reticule, a wing tip camera, and a forward looking camera mounted on the top of the vertical fin. The pilots at FCI guarantee that they can recover from any maneuver in less than 5 seconds – I took this to mean I could fly with total abandon! Then we brief on combat strategies and tactics from “The Tactical Reference Guide, Version 3 – Rev.2” (that’s a lot of versions and revisions???) and then we play with F-18s on little sticks and use terms I’ve never heard of. The briefing is great … Hard deck is 4500’, about 2500’ AGL which is no problem for me because I don’t plan on being below 20,000’ anyway.

BJ reviews the flight profile: after some practice maneuvers and practice dogfights flown by the back seats, we will fly 3 engagements with different aircraft performance profiles to simulate the performance of 3 different MIG models. The first combat situation, I will have a performance profile advantage, the second, we’ll be more equal, and the third, we’ll be equal and all out. Scoring is simple: 1 point for a kill, another if the kill takes less than 1 minute, and if you get killed, you get a point (posthumously) if you first evaded your attacker for more than a minute.

Then, each pilot gives a little history on their flying history. Mine is very short – private pilot flying a homebuilt…. After an embarrassing moment of concern and silence, I pull out a picture of the Glasair and people decide maybe it will be OK if I fly.

We strap in and ratchet down…seat belts with ratchets…I start to think of why you might need a ratchet…. I’m up front with only the basics – stick (with trigger), throttle, airspeed indicator and altimeter and the HUD….oh yeah, and a pile of “Boarding Passes” (airsick bags). A little sparse, but considering you never look at anything inside the cockpit when fighting, more than adequate. “Jefe” and “BJ” take off on formation with our opponents and fly 10 miles to an area where there is a big enough hole in the clouds for dogfights. BJ talks me through some rolls and loops – I notice a HUGE difference between the Glasair and Extra – the Extra loses energy very fast compared to the Glasair.

Then 3 practice engagements with the instructors flying – things happen fast and furious and BJ talks to me calmly about all he is doing. We approach head on and when we’re abeam, “fight’s on”. Everything is about turns, climbs, dives, Gs and more Gs, energy management and never, ever, ever losing sight of the enemy. We do double circle, single circle, and vertical engagements. Now it’s my turn…..

Engagement 1 – (we have the superior aircraft) – Head On – we’re all over the sky, but with BJ’s help, I manage to keep the enemy in sight (in spite of limited vision from Gs) and between BJ yelling instructions and my yanking the stick around, the enemy plane actually and suddenly appears in front of us! Following BJ’s instructions, I bring the enemy to the reticule (not the other way around) and pull the trigger. Smoke billows – the engagement is over and I am totally spent. I learn later in the debrief that this engagement was all of 22 seconds long….

Engagement 2 – (equal aircraft) – Head On – pandemonium in the sky and much more trouble keeping the adversary in sight. I learn that doing gentle aerobatics with your eyes forward in the Glasair is a lot different than violent maneuvers looking backwards. The engagement includes 2 accelerated stalls that give the adversary position advantage, but not enough to get a shot off. What seems like 20 minutes later, his aircraft gets in the right place of the canopy and a quick stick pull gives us a shot….blessed smoke pours from the adversary!

Engagement 3 – (plane profiles equal, but pilots NOT) – this time is head-on with vertical engagement (not circle engagements) – almost immediately I lose him in the sun (it was cloudy, where the _ _ _ _ did the sun come from). BJ keeps yelling “he’s closing, he’s closing” – I’m thrashing around trying to live, a couple of times I lose vision – but keep flying – I can’t even get him in sight for more than a few seconds – finally BJ yells “we’re hit, we’re hit” and this time the smoke comes from us. My mouth is like a desert, my heart rate is through the roof and I’m shaking from the adrenaline OD … The effects of Gs and adrenaline are amazing and leave me in a state of simultaneous ecstasy and total exhaustion. We do some light aerobatics to “unwind” but it’s time for me to sample the ground again. I feel tremendous gratitude toward BJ and never for a moment did I think I would die from anything other than excitement,

The debrief is next and we replay the videos from the flight. A scoring grid appears and we go through the engagements. Our first kill was not the 4 minutes I guessed, but 21 seconds, the second, 46 seconds and in the final engagement where we get killed, we managed to evade for over 60 seconds and are awarded a point (posthumously). In no time, a picture on BJ and me by the plane is produced along with a certificate and a Top Gun plague – and the video tapes of the flight. But most meaningful are the laughs, handshakes, and pats on the back from some real fighter guys and gentlemen that still enjoy mixing it up, even with an old amateur. Their dedication to providing an incredible experience to “guest pilots” is unsurpassed. One of the pilots waiting for his flight asked me how it was, and I just stared at him with moist eyes and told him to get ready for the experience of his life.

Driving back to the hotel, I marveled at just how great BJ and his team are – directing all out air combat, making sure we’re safe, coaching, teaching, and encouraging, monitoring vital signs (“you awake up there?”) and switching cameras for the best coverage, and all the time, making sure they deliver some “hits” and the experience of a lifetime. And to my partner Mark, never-ending gratitude for providing me this opportunity.

For all of us that love to fly – this is an absolute must. Let’s do this….. together if we can!

- Phil Reed, Boise Idaho