Navy F-14 Aircraft - Flat Spin Training

troll f-14s killed four naval aviators and destroyed seven aircraft costing 245 million dollars investigations show that the f-14s vicious flat spin characteristics had prevented pilots from physically being able to recover the tomcat however 1980 the navy formed a special unit on each coast to train pilots to deal with the f-14s treacherous out-of-control flight characteristics before the aircraft became unrecoverable in the five years since then more than twice as many f-14 hours have been flown the accident rate has been chopped in half and no lives have been lost in 1984 and 85 there were no accidents at all involving out-of-control f-14s for over a year one of the three elite instructors who daily fly the hazardous spin missions has been this woman naval aviator lieutenant linda shafer assigned to vf43 in oceana virginia in this exclusive report the navy allowed this cnn reporter to undergo the wild out of control flight training with lieutenant schaefer as instructor the first time that a civilian pilot has ever been allowed to fly through the course the special unit adversary squadron vf43 has the mission of simulating soviet aircraft and tactics the squadron uses a number of different jet aircraft to mimic the performance of various soviet fighters its elite aviators zoom into mock air battles several times daily using soviet tactics in order to hone the air combat skills of navy and marine corps fighter and attack pilots since 1980 however bf43 has had the added job of using these t2 buckeye jet trainers to teach naval aviators how to recover from out of control flight this risky and dangerous course of instruction is taught by lieutenant schaefer and two other instructors including program chief lieutenant commander p.j fuller it's a building process we show people the early stall phases then we kick them into departures we take them into various forms of postdoll gyrations to get them used to it then into early phase of a spin then into a steady state phase of the spin then we throw in a few interesting maneuvers to make it all worthwhile to make it all worthwhile for the navy however they made sure i was qualified i was blasted upward in an ejection seat trainer jerked in a parachute harness and dropped into the water pulled out of the water by a simulated helicopter rescue hoist and then i was blindfolded and put into a water crash trainer and dunked several more times to make sure that i was thoroughly drown proof then i was sky proof with a navy instructor i flew some high g aerobatics looping and rolling across the virginia skies the centrifugal force of the maneuvers made me pull as much as six times the normal force of gravity as i flew chase in a t-38 supersonic trainer behind three of the squadron's other aircraft up over around and down in formation then a stint at air combat training during one violent maneuver against two f-14s one of the tomcat fighters went flashing by at a closing speed of 1600 miles an hour less than 300 feet away an error at that speed would have filled the sky with exploding toll then came the hard part intensive classroom preparation for the auto troll flight syllabus via 43 assigned me their most thorough instructor lieutenant linda schaefer the only female spin pilot in the entire united states navy around the squadron only call signs are used lieutenant schaefer's call sign is peaches for days peaches drum the recovery procedures into my head until it became a sort of catechism when you get the aircraft and then f-14 procedures neutral lateral harness lock programs stick forward the aircraft recovers you'll feel recovering out of that i want you to pull it out and climb back up to 24 000. in the classroom lieutenant chafer who is determined to become a test pilot demonstrated her trademark thoroughness she meticulously detailed every aspect of 10 gut-wrenching eyeball squashing nausea inducing maneuvers part the aircraft again 24 000 throttle's off pull left right or four right off stick at 120 and uh we'll go past the incipient space and then the aircraft will be about 30 degrees no slow steady state y'all going around the horizon i'll be talking to you through all of this so you see all the phases and i'll tell you when to recover i'll ask you to recover again look at the turn needle rudder opposite stick into it after a final review of emergency procedures we headed out to the aircraft lieutenant commander fuller would fly the chase airplane with lieutenant pompier in the front seat shooting videotape we started our engines and taxied out to the active runway after receiving clearance we began a formation takeoff we headed out to the practice area some 60 miles south over the swamps of their county north carolina after some warm-up maneuvers we began the syllabus first came the ballistic departure fly the airplane straight up and then let her fall as the jet flopped over i performed the recovery procedures that peaches had drummed into me neutral lateral stick harness locked program stick forward and pull out of the dive after increasingly difficult maneuvers with names like accelerated departures incipient spins and rudder triples came the upright spin following peach's calm instructions i slowed the jet down as it started to shake just before reaching stall speed i kicked in hard rudder and opposite aileron the t2 flipped around and began to gyrate like a falling leaf the white trail behind the aircraft was normal it was fuel being automatically vented to equalize tank pressures again i recovered using the standard f-14 recovery procedures that lieutenant chaffer had taught me earlier then came the inverted spin i started a loop when the aircraft was upside down i pushed the nose up waited for the aircraft to stop flying and pushed in full rudder instantly i was upside down hanging from the harness in negative g being pushed towards the canopy it was hard to reach the stick in rudder pedals maneuver is very disorienting but i remembered peach's instruction and looked for the turn needle to see which way i was spinning then i neutralized the controls and the jet popped upright but the aircraft was going downhill very fast and started doing recovery rules surprisingly the move the peaches induced was a matter of fact [Music] as i recovered there was even time for banter

Channel: Shuttlesource

Views: 14,135

Keywords: F-14 tomcat, Flat spin training, Navy f-14, Topgun, f-14 flat spin recovery, f-14 flat spin

Id: EI7nwpSdh-w

Length: 7min 3sec (423 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 01 2022