Flight of fancy

By Brian Livingston
blivingston@themeridianstar.com
It was absolutely the most fun I've ever had with my clothes on!

Flying in, and actually being able to take the stick in a high performance fighter jet such as the F/A 18 Hornet was an adrenaline rush like I've never felt before. It was also the culmination of years of dreaming of what it must feel like to pull massive Gs and live to tell about.

The media flight I took courtesy of the US Navy's Blue Angels Wednesday afternoon was made all the more memorable because of Lt. Frank "Walleye" Weisser. He is a combat vet and air show narrator for the Blue Angels. He was also like a brother in the front seat as we cut up the sky doing most anything the jet is capable of doing. Simply awesome!

Understand, I'm 48 years old and when first told I might have a chance to do this made the weeks prior to Wednesday drag by like a bad movie. I had several fears rolling around in my head namely if I'd even pass a physical. In the back of my mind I knew I wasn't a young guy anymore. I still get aches and pains from playing a round of golf or mowing the yard so I was really questioning myself as to if I could take 2 Gs much less six or seven. I certainly didn't want to throw up in the cockpit.

I not only saw this opportunity as fulfilling a lifelong dream of flying a fighter but I wanted to know if I still "had it" or some semblance of moxie I used to have when I was much younger. Aging makes you wish for the days of youth. I wanted to see if I was man enough to take it.

I've flown in a lot of different aircraft from helicopters, both civilian and military, civilian, commercial and military planes but nothing on the scale of a high performance fighter jet such as the Hornet. I've also had the utmost respect for all pilots who break the bounds of gravity and fly. Even civilian pilots who take off on weekend flights have to be on their toes and not get too complacent. Bad pilots don't fly for very long.

With an elite aviator such as Walleye in the front seat I was surprisingly calm as we taxied out Wednesday at NAS Meridian. All the anxiety had gone once I sat down in the seat and got strapped in. I was ready, I hoped.

You are taught in the briefing, and the lessons are gone over again by Walleye in the air, to try and stand up in the seat whenever high Gs are coming. You are in a 12-point harness system and can hardly breathe much less stand up but try you do and it helped me out a great deal. Trying to stand up tightens all those lower body muscles as we weren't wearing G-suits. This keeps the blood flow to your brain so you don't black out. You also have to take deep breathes while saying the word "Hick." This also helps keep blood flow to your brain and upper body. As I watched the cockpit tape today I noticed I wasn't saying Hick but instead, Hut! I guess that's the old football player in me. Whatever it was it helped.

The flight itself was simply awesome. Very few people get to do what I did so I remain very thankful to the Blue Angels for picking me to fly.

After years of playing combat flight sims on the home PC I often wondered what it felt like to pull serious Gs. I'm here to tell you it is serious work while at the time trying to fly and fight. Kudos to all combat pilots, Navy, Marine and Air Force, who have to endure these effects on their bodies as they fight for their lives.

You also have to be a math wiz, which Walleye is. That is why I didn't go into flying seriously out of high school. I was horrible at math but I was also smart enough to know that. Walleye said from the time he gets into the cockpit to when he leaves he is constantly doing the math in his head. It's intensive.

We went from flying .98 mach at low level to doing loops, rolls and much more at 8,000 feet. The awesome power of the twin engined Hornet at your fingertips was mind blowing. At the flick of a wrist you could go from 200 knots airspeed to afterburner to mach whatever. It took us about 15 seconds to transistion from 120 knots to a hair under the sound barrier. In fact you could feel just a little buffeting as the Hornet flirted with Mach 1. But alas, we weren't cleared for supersonic flight so we reluctantly backed off.

High G turns, such as the one over NAS Meridian as we prepared to land in which I pulled 7.9 Gs without blacking out, is like having an elephant sitting on your chest. Almost eight times my weight of 190 pounds. You do the math, I can't.

I didn't sleep at all Wednesday night. I was replaying the flight over and over in my head. I was wishing I did more when Walleye handed me the stick but I have to admit I was a little tentative and conservative. That was OK because during some of my higher G turns, somewhere in the 5.9 to 6.5 G range, Walleye admitted he had to do some Hick technique so he wouldn't start to gray out. That made me feel good.

Walleye, I just can't say enough about him. I couldn't have picked a better front seater for this dream come true. The man is built like a statue. While we were all sweating and panting when we landed, he popped out the jet and walked around like he was at the Bonita Lakes Mall. I didn't see the guy sweat one time! But he's young, in excellent shape and confident. Bullet proof? Oh yeah.

I have to admit I've been walking around today with a bit of that aviator swagger. It's not arrogance or anything like that. It stems more from the fact I faced one of my lifelong challenges and came out a winner. I was 18 years old again standing in the middle of the football field I played on in southeast Arkansas celebrating a state championship in 1977. When Walleye told me about hitting the 7.9 G mark, he was as ecstatic as I was. He said I was a G-monster and had done better than any media rep who has flown with him. Now, this guy is super nice and he may have been telling me that to make me feel good but I doubt it. I think he was sincere and I appreciate that.

It's not often we get to realize our dreams. Many dreams and goals fall by the wayside as we try to eke out a living and raise our families. We get older and believe we can't do some of the things we wish we could. Well, here's to reaching out and meeting the challenge. I'm not going to pretend I'm a fighter pilot on par with all those serving our nation's military. I'm far from it. But I have tasted the life and I like it. I've felt the power I'm addicted. Thanks Walleye, Blue Angels and everyone who helped me reach my goal.