When
I first began working for Sandia National Labs, I lived in a studio
apartment complex at the end of the Kirkland Air Force Base runways.
It was a pretty nice place to live with a pretty good turnover of
interesting people including Frank and Joanie. I'll get back to her
later...
Frank
was also a ham radio operator as well. We had plenty of good talks
after work while waiting for the evening “air show.” Just as the
sun went behind the Sangria de Christo mountains to the west, the
evening flights began. F-15s in staggered pairs, sometimes as many as
eight, lifted off the end of the runway with full afterburners lit
up, turning WNW to start the festivities. With the purple evening sky
and the blood red sunset behind the mountains, the shock diamonds
from the burners was something to behold!
That's
just a stock shot, no mountains! No red setting sun either, gotta
love the high desert!
Following
the main attraction were a mixture, A-4s, A-10s, cargo, and tankers.
A lot of iron in the sky, a good way to say goodbye to another day!
One
evening Frank asked me if I'd like to go on a routine flight with him
one night. I knew the regular Air Force did things like that with
civilians all the time. Jet jocks gave their gals a ride worth
remembering, then took them flying! Illegal as hell, just not
prosecuted.
My
father was a light plane flight instructor, charter pilot, and mostly
a barn-stormer! I had been flying since before I could ride a bike
and loved it! Got some tales about that as well.
Also,
by August, 1977, I had 2 million commercial air miles logged. Got the
privilege of the right seat of a Lan Chile 707 when going to the
Las Campanas Observatory in Chile and the right
seat of a PSA 727 at their training field in Arizona (you'd be amazed
what a totally empty 727 can do!), however I had never been flying in
a fighter/bomber before.
You
don't need a lot of time figuring out my answer to Frank. Couldn't
wait!
I
won't trouble you with the details except for following one rule. Act
as if the flight was routine; cause no stir. Un-enforced rules are
still enforceable.
We
took off late one night carrying no arms of course, so we were quite
light. “Frisky” is putting it mildly! We headed south climbing
initially to 47 thousand, then proceeded east when we headed toward
Dallas. I did not know the aircraft was capable of such an altitude,
however I didn't know a passenger jet could make 43 thousand until a
flight I was on from LA to New Orleans did so. ...more on that
later.
You
might be curious as to why a member of the Texas Air National Guard
was doing stationed in New Mexico. Seems he had an ex-wife in Dallas
that wasn't very friendly. His presence caused “difficulties.” I
didn't ask, he didn't volunteer. Let sleeping ex-wives lie.
Now
I'm having the time of my life, lots of new knobs, switches, and
instruments to play with, plenty of fun flying in a sky-Corvette! I
wasn't paying much attention to the radio chatter as we approached
Dallas, don't recall any of it coming from Frank. We were headed
approximately 120 degrees and Frank turned to a heading of close to
300 degrees when we were over Dallas. Then he did something
completely unexpected. He dove. Under acceleration. We had been
dropping altitude for some time so instead of 8 miles high we were
approximately 3 miles up when he began our dive. We were not into it
very long before the aircraft went into a pair of what felt like
lengthwise shudders. Since we were at nearly 600 knots before the
dive, it was pretty easy to figure out that we'd broken the sound
barrier. A bit rough for a normally sub-sonic craft like the OA-4.
Frank
pulled us out in time obviously, however I watched the accelerometer
passing through 9.2 G's before blacking out. He was wearing a G suit,
I wasn't.
When
I came to, we were at 500 feet at 500 knots. He had the
terrain-following radar auto-piloting us due north. My flight suit
was covered in blood from my nose, I felt like shit, and I wasn't too
sure what in the hell had just happened. Yeah, he just dropped a
whopping big sonic boom on top of his ex-wife's (formerly his) house.
No problem. The Air Force will
not pay for any
damage caused by military aircraft! Call Moody.
Wonder
how far the damage extended? Most sonic booms are heard from the side
with the aircraft more or less horizontal and at high altitude. This
was a sonic bomb!
There
is more to the trip including some good stuff. We popped up for radio
contact in Utah, landed and re-fueled. Frank let me run the take-off
(easy), then we leisurely flew out over California and the Pacific.
BTW, Frank got in no trouble at all. One thing still bothers me.
Having someone transferred from the Texas Air National Guard to New
Mexico is pretty easy now, however what was he doing with a Navy jet?
...to
be continued
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