Mike and Jeff soloed the next day, and when the flight room was somewhat quiet, Casey asked Captain Arnau if she could be excused for half an hour to run an important errand. Captain Arnau granted her a thirty-minute leave and she rushed over to the Wing Headquarters building. She found the flight safety office on the second floor and asked the secretary if Captain Hardesty was available.
“Second door on the right, Lieutenant.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Casey answered.
The door read, “Captain Kathryn Hardesty, Chief, Flight Safety.” Just as Casey raised her hand to knock on the half open door, she heard music coming from inside. She stopped and listened for a minute. It sounded like classical music, maybe opera. It was something grand and soaring. Casey glanced into the office and saw Captain Hardesty’s back as she was looking out the big windows watching the planes in the traffic pattern. Casey couldn’t take her eyes off her. Just before she was about to announce her presence, feeling a little guilty for staring, Captain Hardesty turned to face her.
“Casey. Sorry, I didn’t hear you knock. Guess the music is a little loud,” she said as she turned the volume down.
“I don’t mean to disturb you, ma’am, I just wanted to give you this.” Casey handed her a white box.
“Thanks, Casey, but I don’t drink.”
“It’s not alcohol, ma’am. I just wanted to say thanks for your help. Have a good day.” Casey set the box on the desk.
Kathryn unwrapped the box, her eyes got big when she saw the two-pound box of See’s dark chocolate candy. “Well done, Casey,” she said as she ripped into the famous treats.
*****
Casey’s next big hurdle was passing her first check ride. She would have to pass six check rides to graduate from pilot training. Proficiency checks were a big part of every pilot’s life, and she already knew how this game worked. You had to fly like you were solo, even though the check pilot was sitting next to you, and he judged you on everything you did. If you screwed up, the check pilot might let you repeat the maneuver to try and make it better. If it was an unforgiveable error, such as forgetting to put the landing gear down, he just flew the plane back to the base and you busted the check ride. If you passed all the flight maneuvers, the check pilot then grilled you on aircraft systems, emergency procedures, and flight regulations. If you answered his questions wrong, you could still bust the ride. If you busted a check ride, you got one or two practice rides, then a recheck. If you failed the recheck, you were kicked out of pilot training. In short, the whole process was a nerve-rattling minefield.
Casey had to fly with Carter, and he still screamed at her, but she didn’t let it get to her. He showed her the loop, aileron roll, and split S, and she loved every second of flying acrobatics.
Casey hoped to fly with Captain Hardesty again, but she wasn’t on Good Grief’s schedule board. The day before her check ride, Captain Hardesty showed up in the flight room even though she wasn’t on the flying schedule.
“Lieutenant Tompkins, let’s do a pre-check ride ground eval.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Casey answered. Other student pilots gathered around them to listen in. She ran through aircraft systems questions like it was a game of Jeopardy. She asked flight regulation questions and grouped them together so they made a lot more sense. She summarized the emergency procedures into the most important points to remember.
“Don’t allow yourself to get nervous. You will make mistakes in the air. The check pilot wants to see you recognize your errors and correct them yourself. Remember, the ground eval is like a hostile interrogation. Only answer the questions he asks. Do not bullshit the check pilot. If you do, he will know it, and rip you a new asshole. Just fess up if you have no idea how to answer a question. Good luck, everyone.”
“Thanks, ma’am,” the students said as she got up to leave.
“Lieutenant Tompkins, a word please.”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“You’ve got Captain Pescado tomorrow. His favorite systems are hydraulics and fire warnings. Make sure you are up on that.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You’ll do fine, Casey. Just don’t get flustered if you make a mistake. Think of this as an opportunity to excel, to show him what you can do.”
How was it that she always knew just the right things to say to make Casey feel better?
The next day Casey was ready and also nervous to show Captain Pescado that she could fly this jet. He was completely silent as she went through all her maneuvers. She was satisfied with her stalls and landings. After her single engine landing at Willie, Captain Pescado finally said, “I have the jet.”
Oh no, did I mess something up?
Captain Pescado requested an overhead pattern and flew the plane without saying anything.
He’s not going to even let me try it again? I’m screwed.
He did a touch-and-go, requested another pattern, then called for a full stop landing. Casey was dying inside. She felt hot tears well up in her eyes, but knew she could not let him see that. He didn’t say a word as they put their parachutes away.
Finally, he said, “Meet me in my office at the end of the hall, Lieutenant.”
“Yes, sir.” Here it comes, the end of pilot training, the end of my dream.
After washing her face, with her head held high, like she was facing the executioner, she walked into his office.
“Well, Lieutenant Tompkins, you passed the flying part. Let’s see how you do on the ground eval.”
She wanted to scream in relief. He asked her every possible question about hydraulic malfunctions, fire warning systems, and a smattering of everything else from her flight books. She knew the answers to every question, replied without hesitation, and knew she had this.
“Good job, Lieutenant, you passed.” He stood and shook her hand.
“Thank you, sir.”
It was a Friday afternoon, she was done with this ordeal, and she really wanted to see Captain Hardesty and tell her all about it. Instead, she went to the Officer’s Club for several well-earned drinks.
*****
All weekend, Casey found her thoughts turning to Kathryn Hardesty. She wanted to talk to her, to fly with her, to sit next to her in the jet, and to feel the connection to her when they both had their hands on the stick together. She had to watch her conversation so that she wasn’t constantly talking about her. She was looking forward to the next phase of training—advanced acrobatics—and she wanted to ask Captain Hardesty about flying acro. More than anything, she wanted Kathryn Hardesty to be proud of her. She knew it was a waste of time to think about her all the time, but she didn’t care.
She and Mike were scheduled to fly with Carter during the first and second periods while Jeff was flying with another IP. Carter briefed all three of them on the advanced aerobatic maneuvers. “These acro maneuvers were invented by the first fighter pilots as combat tactics used in air-to-air dog fighting. They involve high-speed and high-G maneuvering, and you guys need to know all the entry speeds and power settings cold.”
This was what distinguished Air Force pilots from all other pilots, and Casey could hardly wait to try it.
In the practice area, Lieutenant Carter demonstrated the first maneuver, an Immelman.
“This is a half loop followed by a half roll,” Carter explained. “Lower the nose, accelerate to two hundred and fifty knots, tighten your leg muscles, and then pull the stick straight back to your belly button.”
The five Gs of force pulled Casey’s oxygen mask down her face and pushed her into the seat. She clenched hard on her lower body muscles to withstand the G-forces.
“Check both wingtips are even as you pull through the horizon. When you are upside down at the top of the loop, pause, then roll upright to wings level. You should be at one hundred and twenty knots now. You try one.”
Casey’s attempt sort of looked like her instructor’s demo but she was too slow at the top, and when she tried to roll upright, the aircraft started to rotate into a spin.
“My jet,” Carter said as he took the airplane and recovered from the spin.
“We are now flying the jet at the edge of the performance envelope. You’ll be pulling high Gs and flying near the stall speed during all these maneuvers. Don’t screw that up again.”
“Yes, sir.”
He quickly went through the other acrobatic maneuvers—Cuban eight, split S, barrel roll, chandelle, lazy eight, loop, and cloverleaf. When they left the practice area for the auxiliary field, Casey was exhausted from pulling Gs, and her mind was spinning trying to remember everything she’d just seen.
Back on the ground, his debrief was short. “You will practice all the advanced acro you saw today on your next solo ride. Don’t let the jet get into a spin again. Chair fly this stuff. Overall grade, Good.”
Casey looked at her grade sheet where all the new acro maneuvers were graded U. She feverishly started writing notes in her book trying to remember what the different maneuvers looked like and the entry parameters.
The next day, both she and Mike were scheduled for their first area solo rides. Carter briefed them both at the same time.
“Check your orientation and don’t fly out of the practice area. I want you to work on all the acro maneuvers. Then go to the aux field for two to three landings, then back to Willie. When you see five hundred pounds of fuel remaining, call for a full stop landing. Any questions?”
“No, sir,” they answered in unison.
They went to the supervisor of flying desk for their solo brief.
“Lieutenant Tompkins, your tail number is 0086 and your call sign today is Hook 21 Solo. Lieutenant Harris, you’re in tail number 8081 and your call sign is Hook 22 Solo. Call me on the radio if you have any problems. Bingo fuel for landing is five hundred pounds. Any questions? Have a good mission today.”
Casey tingled with excitement as she checked her gear and walked across the noisy ramp to her jet. It’s my jet today.
She was thorough with her preflight checks and her takeoff was picture perfect. She started to relax as she flew the departure to the practice area. She meticulously completed her required in flight checks—oxygen check passing ten thousand feet, fuel balance check, instrument checks—all perfect. When she entered her practice area, she did a few clearing turns looking for other aircraft. She was right in the middle of her area at exactly the right airspeed and altitude.
“I think I’ll warm up with an aileron roll first,” Casey said out loud.
She pulled the nose up slightly, then sharply moved the stick to the full right stop. The airplane quickly rolled upside down, and she snapped the stick back to the left to stop the roll.
“Not too bad. I’m wings level right at two hundred and twenty knots. How about a loop next.”
She lowered the nose to accelerate to two hundred and fifty knots, tightened her legs for the Gs, then pulled the stick back toward her crotch. She checked her wingtips even with the horizon as the jet was pointed straight up at the sky, then threw her head backward to find the horizon.
“Wings level inverted, check airspeed—ninety knots. Crap. I’m slow. I’m supposed to be at one twenty. Keep pulling.”
She felt a slight burble in the stick warning her that she was close to the stall speed.
“Don’t pull too hard, just keep the nose tracking through the top of the loop.”
As the nose came through the horizon and she was pointed directly at the ground, she heard the sound of the airspeed increasing rapidly. She tightened her lower body as hard as she could as she completed the pull to wings level.
“I’m supposed to be at two hundred and fifty knots at the end of the maneuver and I’m at two seventy. What the hell did I do wrong?”
Casey did a few gentle turns as she checked her position and climbed back up to the correct altitude for her next maneuver. She tried the chandelle but got slow again at the top of the maneuver. Then she tried the lazy eight, and it sort of looked like it was supposed to, but not really.
“I think I’m ready to try another over the top one now. What was the entry speed for the Cuban eight again? Oh yeah, two hundred and fifty knots and one hundred percent power.”
She lowered the nose to accelerate and pulled straight back like she was beginning a loop.
“Three-quarters of a loop, pause, then half a roll. Find a section line on the ground to follow, then reverse back the other direction.”
As she talked herself through the Cuban eight, the G-forces increased and decreased as her speed changed throughout the maneuver. She rolled out thirty degrees off her section line with her airspeed accelerating through two hundred and seventy knots.
“Goddamn it, what am I doing wrong? These don’t look anything like the way Carter did them. I’m going to try one last maneuver, then go to the aux field. The cloverleaf looked pretty easy, and I think the starting airspeed is slower.”
She glanced down at the cheat sheet on her knee board to check the entry airspeed.
“Power ninety percent, entry speed two hundred and twenty knots, pull up smoothly like the beginning of a loop. When it feels like my feet are on the horizon, eyes right, roll, and pull to a point on the horizon abeam my right shoulder. I should be at one hundred and twenty knots inverted going through the horizon. Then three more leaves just like it. This should be easier than the other over-the-top ones.”
She pulled back on the stick at two hundred and twenty knots, at sixty degrees nose high, she looked to her right and saw a small white puffy cloud. This was her target as she slowly rolled the aircraft upside down toward the cloud and kept pulling back on the stick. Everything looked good until she checked her speed inverted coming through the horizon. She wasn’t quite wings level and was too fast at one hundred forty knots instead of one hundred twenty knots.
“Pull the nose up a little more on the next leaf,” she said to herself.
On her second leaf, she started at two hundred fifty knots instead of two twenty, and she continued the maneuver to try to fix it on the next leaf. She pulled up through the horizon, looked right again, and saw a mountain peak to use as a target.
“Up and over, nice and smooth.”
She glanced down at her airspeed indicator as she was inverted coming through the horizon. It read one hundred seventy knots instead of one twenty knots this time.
“Goddamn it. I’m too fast again. Fix it on the last leaf.” She was getting frustrated with herself.
She looked for the section line on the ground to try to straighten out the backside of the cloverleaf. She heard the air noise around her increase to a deafening roar as she realized she was going way too fast. Her altimeter was unwinding at a furious rate, and her altitude was rapidly approaching the bottom of the practice area. She saw her airspeed going through three hundred knots toward the red line.
“Shit! Pull up!”
She yanked back hard on the stick to slow her screaming descent. Instantly, her vision went gray and she couldn’t see anything.
“Fuck! I’m graying out!”
She was pointed straight at the ground, and if she pulled any harder, she would black herself out. If she didn’t pull up hard enough, she would slam into the ground. She was blind but still conscious for the moment. She had to decide right now. Either eject, or fly the jet blind and keep pulling back on the stick, hoping she didn’t hit the ground.
“Pull, Casey, pull!”