#TomcatTails Number 87 #TomcatTuesday “Opportunity of a Lifetime” During my career flying the Tomcat, I had the wonderful opportunity to take deserving Sailors for a ride in The Big Fighter. These Sailors had typically distinguished themselves by going well above and beyond and performing their duties in a “highly exemplary manner.” Military pilots have a unique relationship with the men and women that maintain their trusty steeds characterized by gratitude for the endlessly hard work required and the trust we have that they do the right thing, all the time and every time. A chance to take one of these deserving maintainers was always a true honor for me. And in that light, of the half dozen or so I did (3 off the boat!), my key focus was to make the flight as enjoyable and fun as the Sailor wanted. There are some pilots who try and be the tough guy and black them out with high G or make them puke, and I always thought that was a totally douche move. I mean, this kid is having a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one he will talk about forever and tell his grandkids about. Why on earth would you want to cheapen it with tough-guy antics? The beauty of the flight for me was that there was no mission attached to it; just a “day dick-around” as I’ve talked about before. “Here’s a Tomcat with a full bag of gas. Take it flying, do whatever you want, and bring it back in one piece.” Yes, SIR!!! For a Sailor flight, we’d brief up in the Ready Room with a RIO that was going to help start the jet, then help strap him in. We’d talk about what we’re going to do, discuss safety procedures, and what not to touch in the cockpit. There was plenty of the latter. You’ve all seen photos of the convertible Tomcat where the guest rider in the back inadvertently ejected himself; no repeats of that, please. And key for me in the brief was to relate to the Sailor that this is YOUR flight. We’ll do whatever you want and can tolerate. If that’s a 20,000 foot level sightseeing tour of the area or the ocean (off the boat), we’ll do that. Or if it’s an hour of full aerobatics or rooting around on the deck on a high G low-level, we can do that too. I wanted this to be a core memory for the Sailor; not a puke fest. And I had the full range of the above on the times I got to fly a Sailor. For one off the boat, it was a beautiful day in the Western Pacific with plenty of puffy clouds to surf and this Sailor had no problem with air sickness. We shot off Cat 3 and then spent his hour cloud surfing like we were doing a low level, through “mountains” and “valleys” (that couldn’t kill you!). Then we came back to the boat for the trap. He was literally over the moon in the Ready Room afterwards. Mission accomplished. On another flight, the Sailor was very nervous and really didn’t like flying but he didn’t want to pass up the opportunity. Can’t blame him, right? This one was out of Miramar, so launched and hit a decent VFR cruising altitude then proceeded to head north and sight see over the California coast. We flew over LA (yuck), then Malibu, Ventura, Santa Barbara, then the beautiful Central Coast areas (Morro Bay, San Louis Obispo), then onward to Big Sur and Monterey. This is some of the most glorious scenery in the world and he got an eyeful the whole time, asking questions about the terrain. We then turned around but came South via the Central Valley, taking in Fresno, Bakersfield, and the stunning desert scenery east of LA and San Diego. We even did a long straight in approach back to Miramar so he could look around the local area and wasn’t interested in high Gs. Again, mission accomplished. There was ONE thing I’d do to screw with the Sailors a little bit. Most wanted to go supersonic, which I happily obliged. Going faster than the speed of sound is on a lot of bucket lists. So on the flight we’d set up for the SS run and talk about what we’re about to experience. Then I’d ask “Have you ever heard of the speed of heat?” Naturally, they’d say no because that’s not really a thing. So as we started the SS run, as we got to 350 knots, I’d reach down and start increasing the air temperature in the cockpit (pilot had the “thermostat”). And as we got to about 500 knots, I’d have it cranked all the way up and really hot air was filling the cockpit. Me: “You feel that?!?!” Sailor: “Yeah!!!” Me: “That’s the speed of heat!!!” Then I’d turn the thermostat back to normal cool temperatures and tell them I was kidding. Those flights were so fun and truly an honor to give a little back to the Maintainers whenever I could. All you wrench turners out there? Love you guys and gals. **Image Note** Attached image is from an original that AI has “cleaned up”.