Jaguar Part 2

simulators all that sort of thing and then we started the flying and then as now it was three sorties Jewel with an instructor and the fourth sortie was in the single seater and that was my first solo and it was it was late July 1984. and the thing I remember about it that it didn't occur to me why nobody told me I remember getting into this airplane and I was really aware of the intakes next to me and that had never happened to me before throwing the hawk in the intakes all the way behind the instructor in the back and the Jet promised okay they were right but the bloke was sitting there as well and even though you got to fly these airplanes solo you were still always aware of the seat there even though it was empty or of course if you were dual you were aware of the instructor being there as well the the thing I can remember sitting there strapping in and all I could hear was my heart beating in my brain and that's what I had no perception of anything else it was tremendously exciting and I remember sort of looking over the sides and being aware there was no other seat behind me there was nowhere for anybody else to sit in this airplane it was just one seat and I was in it and remember taxing out to the end of the runway and I've got the other guy of the course to we'd taken pictures of each other to as a souvenir and I was sort of waving to him as he there's a taxied past and terrified really of what I was about to go and do but you know they don't send you a solo unless they're happy for you to go I remember sitting on the end of the runway and releasing the brakes and lighting the reheats and this thing rumbling down the runway and I was suddenly aware of how much the Pito probe was wiggling around and it was really bouncing wobbling like this and nobody ever told me it was going to do that and I thought is something wrong with this you know it's going to break off and it just does it and nobody told me and now when I send lad solo and I'm at the other end I'm now an instructor here and I send people solo and I point this out to him and I said you the first thing I was aware of is how much the Pito probe wobbles back and forth as you're rambling down the runway and it was completely distracting but yeah that was my first thought it was uh about 45 minutes to an hour and it was it was big stuff it was get airborne fly low level around Scotland at 500 feet come back and Bash the circuit it was fantastic it was it was probably the best story I've ever had in my life we we pride ourselves um by hopefully providing the best standard of flying instruction available in the world we go to Great paint to make sure that the people we get here who are learning to fly this airplane as AB initio students for for one of a better word they don't get here because uh because they're rubbish they get here because they deserve to and get the plum posting single seat airplane they have to cope with the workload by themselves if all goes it's all going to worms but you can recover it to that situation fine that's what happened and if you bust a height I don't mind as long as you recover smoothly to uh to the original height what I'm not interested in is is a yuggy old guy who's going to lose a wingman okay so keep it smooth keep it safe and we'll be there to that end they must be reciprocated by the best flying instruction available in my opinion The Lads come here and they'll go through their simulators and they'll go through the ground school and then they'll run through a four-month course that lasts approximately 80 hours and they'll be taken from an initial conversion onto the aircraft right the way through and when they leave here they're flying in for ship tactical formations at low level against simulated targets with an enemy aircraft or two enemy aircraft simulated jumping into the formation to try and spoil their timing their route planning to get them to deviate from the black line on the map and their job is to then regain it and get to the Target on time a massive learning curve over four months we've got you know young people coming through who need to be taught this amount of information in this period of time and we have to work out how best to do it the syllabus is laid down we've got a book of sorties the guy has to learn this that and the other ABC on this sortie go out and teach it as best as you can hopefully by the time you come down the individual has grasped all the learning points well I think air displays are important overall to the RAF because it's something for all our Pilots to strive towards doing and it gives them something to aim for and I must say in a in a job like this on an operational conversion unit on 16 School in particular the flying is can be it can be come after a while slightly repetitive because you're teaching AB initio Pilots to fly the airplane and I think for each of our instructors here to be able to strive towards a display is is actually a good Target for them to aim at I think that having a display aircraft for each of our aircraft types shows not only to our inwardly to our own people in the Air Force that our standards are just as high as they ever were I think it actually does a lot of good in the eye of the public and it allows the public to see actually why we do all the training we do do and why we do it the way we do it and they see the end result which is their display is not necessarily a tactical display of what we can do but it certainly shows off the skill level and the skills that all our Pilots train for and hone themselves up to and I think from that point of view it's good for us to show the public what we can do [Music] I think Andy really shows off the aircraft to its limit and that's purely through Andy's own skill I mean he's a first class Aviator a first-class pilot and a first-class instructor and I really do think that Andy is doing a fine job as the Jaguar display pilot and uh really that's all I can say is a damn fine pilot I wish I had half a dozen of them foreign on the basis of all displays what you have is a line of people and these people have to be entertained now the line can be one person over 100 yards or 250 000 people standing ten deep over three miles or I know a couple hundred people in a football pitch the the line of the display is always different and what you have to do when you're putting a display together is make sure that when something happens it's in front of the people if you've got a long thin line of people then you've got to share out the good deals you can't just have things happening right in the center and the poor individuals who've also paid their money either and they're not going to see anything and this is what the the display is based on now the airplane is not the well the world's best turning airplane small Wings mounted high on the shoulder it's designed to go fast low in a straight line it's not designed to turn so we've helped ourselves a bit by stripping it down so we can get the best turning ability out of the aircraft however it's still too large to uh to keep it within the confines of the crowd line if you like so what I've done is I've put dumbbells either end Wing overs if you like some going rolling underneath some in the normal sense but primarily they are a means to an end so that you have something happening in front of the crowd for the whole of the crowd length okay so you've got your your wing over at left your Winger over right and in the middle something Dynamic is happening what I've tried to do here is a show the airplane in the best light possible and provide comparisons I've put in a slow roll because the airplane looks good doing a slow roll I've put in a more complicated maneuver which we call the five and it's a four-point roll interrupted halfway through with an aileron role in the middle from upside down to upside down and then finish the 4.3 and four then we get to the comparison stage come around the dumbbell and do a high speed run show how how the airplane performs going fast 600 knots a hundred feet to then break back we call it break back which is basically get the airplane away from the crowd get the speed off and then come back at the other end of the speed range 115 knots full flap lots of angle of attack past the crowd and if there's a headwind this looks particularly impressive because you fly on indicated AirSpeed which doesn't take into account the headwind if you've got a 40 knot headwind that then changes the ground speed of the aircraft so you can get it flying slowly across the ground at 90 miles an hour if the wind is strong enough okay it looks like it's almost standing still on a windy day then um another Wing over and another roll into a Max rate turn to show people that even though the airplane isn't classed as a good turning aircraft it can still turn so I'll stick in a Max right turn the 360 essentially in front of the crowd okay to then roll and Pitch up out of the place to then belly over and uh and come into land and even the landing is optimized so that the maximum number of people on the crowd line can see it in that old land quite fast for the configuration of the aircraft and then juggle with the flap to keep the nose up so that the aircraft will wheelie if you like down the runway whilst slowing down and it will do this across a long distance you know several thousand feet by carefully juggling with the flap and the controls so that you know everyone gets to appreciate it you don't just have a few people here a few people there everybody has got to get their fair deal I'm just lining up on the runway now making sure the aircraft is dead straight and then I'll bring the canopy shut pushing the Locking handle fully forward and ensuring that the air conditioning is switched to the correct position all the switches are in the correct Place final check and moving the throttles up to uh maximum drive car check out the canopy make sure it's not going to rise until it's locked and release start to accelerate and engage the reheats aircraft accelerates very quickly I'm looking for 150 knots prior to rotate at 150 knots I'll snatch and stick back here it goes up and roll undercarriage coming up now turning 60 degrees off Crouch Center Line snap roll out and pull ing left underneath [Music] and the flaps need to come up now there they go air conditioning coming in looking back over my shoulder for crowd Center Line Cross or throwing back through the head off display to make sure I've got the correct height and speed for the first maneuver which is the slow roll aiming to roll out back on the center line at 500 feet and between 380 and 400 knots and aiming to do a slow roll to the right and we are back on the scent line now Quick Check and start to roll pushing now with both hands thank you upside down and being proud Center and you keep it straight all the way down check and a snap roll to the right again pulling 60 degrees off you can see the vapor trails off the wingtips as the pressure changes under the G loading snapping background to the left for the next maneuver which is a four point roll interrupted halfway through by a complete ailer on roll again looking left over my shoulder for the center line and again aiming to be at level at 500 feet at 400 knots here we are Level pause up and roll let's check on the knife edge upside down check full roll upside down and check on the knife edge and back upright need both hands for that back into reheat and again six degrees off you can see now the G loading on the eyelids 5G or so pulling up again check rolling underneath now burners in all the way the high speed run looking for 600 knots at 100 feet G loading about 5G now we come back to the center line aircraft ascending level 100 feet now 600 knots and 7g Brake [Music] idle idle air brakes out decelerate for the slow speed pass [Music] 7g down to 5G now coming around the corner looking for the center line [Music] for the slow speed crops aiming to fly the aircraft down the crowd Center just above stalling speed [Music] rolling out allowing the aircraft to decelerate with full flap air brakes in on the counter jump and just adjusting the throttle to maintain the speed at around about 115 to 120 knots indicated in a headwind this will equate to uh between 90 and 100 miles an hour [Music] looking left and right to check that I'm Central because I can't actually see over the nose because it's so high once a beam crowd Center I then give it a count to make sure the spacing is correct for the next maneuver and I am checking crowd Center [Music] starting the count very shortly I'll be unloading and engaging the reheats [Music] the goat reheats her in flaps going from Full to Mid and now pitching up to 40 degrees nose up looking for 1200 feet before starting the roll to the left this is to ensure the spacing is correct for the 270 spot roll into max rate to follow looking over the shoulder to get crowd Center again to run back in towards Craft Center 320 knots there we are running back in 500 feet and those goes up in a 270 spot roll stop pull Max right turn 5G continuous level at 500 feet [Music] a little bit of adjustment if necessary for wind to make sure we come back out again a beam crowd Center you see I'm checking over my shoulder all the time to make sure that I'm in the right place [Applause] on the rollout there will be a snap roll out followed by a complete 360 ailon roll here we go rolling and check and pull pulling to 70 degrees nose up on finals now checking three greens are down pull flat correct hydraulic pressures and aim to touch down in the correct position about 200 feet now [Music] looking for the flare to touch down on the numbers on the touchdown then keeping the nose off and raising the flap to change the center of pressure to keep the nose up touchdown now fluff up keep the nose up [Music] I can then hold this Edition as the aircraft decelerates down to about 70 knots [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] that's certainly not gently low in the nose [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and the nose wheel too [Music] gently rest on the runway and it goes down noticeable steering engagement commence braking [Music] and clear the runway [Music] [Applause] [Music] I think my lot in life can only be described as uh I was extremely lucky I um I left school 18 joined the Air Force and passed all the courses that I went to do with this in mind I mean I've finally reached where I want to go started as a four-year-old watching the Red Arrows upside down over turn house many decades later I'm doing it myself not the red arrow short but a solo display in a fast jet um going around in the summer every weekend and entertaining the pain public that's my job at the weekends during the week I become a novel instructor and have to do my normal day-to-day job and that's fine I'm extremely fortunate to be in this position and I wouldn't swap it with anybody for anything foreign [Music] [Music] foreign

Channel: Robert Cubin

Views: 40,857

Keywords: Andy, Jag

Id: cQtF5Gt9Bn8

Length: 20min 27sec (1227 seconds)

Published: Wed May 14 2014