Casey showed up at the flight room the next morning dreading her next EP sim with Carter. Looking at the big schedule board, she saw that he was scheduled for RSU Training all morning. When she realized she didn’t have to fly with him today, she let out a sigh of relief. Instead of postponing the sim until tomorrow, she was still doing the EP sim but with Captain Hardesty instead. She wasn’t sure what she was more scared of, Carter or Captain Hard-Ass.
Captain Hardesty walked in the flight room, checklist in hand, and sat at Lieutenant Carter’s table. “Ready for your sim today, Casey?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Good, because we have a lot to cover. Our sim starts in one hour and I will brief EP stuff right up until we walk out the door. First, tell me what’s the emergency boldface for takeoff abort?”
“Throttles—idle, wheel brakes—apply.”
“Now ejection.”
“Hand grips—raise, triggers—squeeze.”
“Correct. What is the single engine best glide speed?”
“One hundred and twenty knots.”
“Good. You know your stuff. These EP sims are probably the most valuable training you will ever get in pilot training. You get to face disaster and practice recovering from it without killing yourself. Emergencies in an aircraft are not a matter of ‘if it will happen,’ it is only a question of when it will happen. The most important thing you have to do in any emergency is fly the jet. What are the three rules in handling any emergency?”
“Maintain aircraft control. Analyze the situation and take proper action. Land as soon as conditions permit.”
“Correct, and those rules are in order of importance. Flying the jet always comes first. We’re going to go through your checklist and discuss the different scenarios and decisions for each emergency procedure. That way when it does happen to you, you will have already considered the options, come up with the best solution for that situation, and then you can focus on flying the airplane to a safe landing or ejecting, if required. You’ll want to take notes, Casey.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Other students gathered around them as Captain Hardesty briefed the emergencies. They wrote down every word like she was the Oracle of Delphi. They knew this information was vital to saving their lives some day.
They walked to the simulator building together and Casey was focused, but calm. She climbed into the sim, strapped in, and heard Captain Hardesty’s calm voice in her headset.
“All set, Casey?”
“Yes, ma’am.” She was ready for this simulator mission this time.
Captain Hardesty gave her engine start malfunctions, a ground fire, and engine failure on takeoff. Casey handled them correctly and with confidence. If she made a mistake, Captain Hardesty stopped the sim, explained what she did wrong and how to correct it, then let her try it again. The emergencies got more challenging as the ride went on. Captain Hardesty had Casey close her eyes then said, “Recover.” When she opened her eyes, Casey was upside down, in simulated clouds, with an engine fire light flashing.
“Oh shit!” She tried to right the aircraft and pull the fire handle at the same time, resulting in burying the nose into a steep dive.
“My aircraft, Casey. Remember—fly the jet, fly the jet, fly the jet. In this situation, you do a nose low recovery first, then deal with the fire. You won’t fall out of the sky or blow up if the engine is on fire, but you will die if you hit the ground. Let’s try it again.”
Casey took a deep breath, repeated the maneuver, and performed correctly on the second attempt.
When the sim was over, they walked back to the squadron building together. It was a beautiful, balmy spring day in the desert with a sunny blue sky and birds chirping. Casey’s hair was wet with sweat and she had a headache from the intense simulator ride. She couldn’t help but notice the golden highlights in Captain Hardesty’s sandy brown hair. It looked soft as the slight breeze blew through it.
“What’s going on with Lieutenant Carter, Casey?”
“I’m not sure I know what you mean, ma’am.” Is this a trick question?
“You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
“Um, he just gets frustrated with me because I don’t seem to be able to pick up things as fast as he thinks I should. He’s a good instructor. I’m sure it’s just my fault.”
“That was very diplomatic, Casey. Now, how about the truth. This goes no further than you and me. I promise.”
Casey knew in her heart she could trust Captain Hardesty. “He yells at me all the time. He makes me feel like I can’t do anything right.” A huge weight came off her shoulders as she spoke the truth for the first time.
“That’s what I thought it was.”
Kathryn stopped and turned to face Casey, looking directly into her eyes.
“Dave Carter is an IP who is a known screamer. This is an ugly tradition that’s a carryover from pilot training of the past. It’s kind of like child abuse. Some IPs were yelled at when they were students, and they think they have to do the same thing to their students. My Tweet IP was a screamer, so I know what it’s like to fly with a guy like that. It’s difficult to learn anything, it destroys your confidence, and it’s poor instruction. Casey, you have done nothing to deserve this. I’ve trained a lot of student pilots in my career, and you have what it takes to fly. You have to learn how to fly under intense pressure as an Air Force pilot, and you will encounter your share of assholes in the process, but don’t let anyone take this from you. You deserve to be here.”
“Thanks, ma’am,” Casey answered softly.
When they got back to the flight room, Captain Hardesty filled out her grade sheet for the sim ride. “Do you have any questions on any of the EPs you saw today that we didn’t already debrief?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Remember what I said today, Casey. Good job.” She stood, handed the grade book back to Casey, and walked out of the flight room.
Casey opened her black grade book and looked at her grade sheet. Every maneuver was graded Good or Excellent. Overall mission grade, Excellent. She fought back tears as relief flowed through her.
*****
Casey walked into the flight room the next morning with a new confidence and resolve. She could handle anything Carter threw at her today. She was hoping to see Captain Hardesty again to thank her, but her name wasn’t on the schedule board. She found her own name on the board—a second period flight with Carter. She had three flights left before she was supposed to solo and knew he had to see dramatic improvement in her flying before he would let her solo. She was fully prepared to show him that today.
They went out to the jet, and he started in on her almost immediately, yelling at her for the way she put the canopy handle down. I’m a duck. I will let his shit roll off my back. She repeated this mantra for the whole flight as he continued to scream at her. Even as they taxied in, he pounded the glare shield with his fist and yelled, “Well, goddamn it, you finally made a decent landing!”
His debrief was short and he gave her an overall grade of Fair on the ride, and he still didn’t give her very good grades on the individual maneuvers. She had to earn grades of “good” or better on all the maneuvers before she could solo the jet. Her grades were not even close.
After everyone left the flight room to go fly, she was alone in the room with Captain Arnau, who was working on the schedule board for the next day’s flights. An idea came to her.
“Excuse me, Captain Arnau, can I ask you a question?”
“Sure, Lieutenant.”
“Is there any way you can schedule me to fly with Captain Hardesty for the rest of my flights?”
Captain Arnau stopped what she was doing and turned to look at Casey. “She’s a guest help IP, Casey. She flies with all the flights in the squadron, not just ours.”
“I know, ma’am, but I was really hoping she could solo me out.”
“Why?”
“Um, she’s just really experienced and she communicates really clearly.”
“We don’t normally have guest help IPs solo out students unless there is a problem with your regular IP. Are you having a problem with Lieutenant Carter?”
“Well, ma’am, I’d rather not go into that. I’m just more comfortable flying with Captain Hardesty. Please, Captain Arnau, I’d really appreciate it if you could help me out.”
“Casey, I’d like to, but I can’t unless the flight commander authorizes me to. Maybe you need to go talk to him.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll think about that. Thanks anyway.”
“Sorry, Casey.”
She had a very big decision to make now. Most student pilots didn’t ever want to talk to the flight commander. You only spoke to him if you were about to be washed out or had committed some big infraction. Student pilots didn’t ever complain about their IPs. It simply was not done. You were supposed to suck it up, endure whatever abuse was dumped on you, and just get through it. If she asked the flight commander to change her IP to Captain Hardesty, this could be seen as weakness on her part—like she couldn’t hack it. This was a huge risk she was contemplating, and she had to decide fast. She could either get what she wanted, to solo with Captain Hardesty, or it could blow up in her face and Carter would be even more enraged with her. She had to be tough and show Carter she could fly in spite of his abuse. Her future as a pilot, and her life’s dream, depended on it.
*****
“Captain Hardesty, could you come into my office for a minute?” asked Captain George Stavros, the Good Grief flight commander.
“Sure, George, what’s up?”
“Guess who just asked the scheduler to not fly with their assigned IP? The first such request from anyone in this class, by the way.”
“I give, George, who?”
“Lieutenant Casey Tompkins. And guess who she wants to fly with, to solo her out?”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. She hasn’t spoken to me or made this an official IP change request yet. Care to tell me what’s going on with her?”
“I’m honestly surprised she asked to fly with me, but I’m not surprised she asked Barb to not fly her with Carter.”
“And why is that, Kathryn? What do you know that I, as the flight commander, obviously do not know about my own troops?”
“First, Dave Carter is a screamer. She just doesn’t respond to instruction like that. Plus, he didn’t teach her how to trim, he’s been giving her low maneuver grades, and he’s trying to document a failure to progress. He’s setting her up to wash her out, George.”
“Dave is going to throw a hissy fit if I have her solo with you, you know that, don’t you.”
“Yeah, so what if he does? What’s more important here, George? Catering to a screaming IP’s delicate ego or teaching a student how to fly?”
“I was your assistant flight commander for two years, you taught me everything I know about running this flight, and you know I have nothing but the highest respect for you, but you are putting me in a very difficult position here.”
“George, there is a student pilot who needs help. She wants an IP who will teach her to fly and not scream at her, but she’s reluctant to ask you because she doesn’t want to look like a wimp. If anyone put you in a bad spot here, it was Dave Carter, not Casey Tompkins. Why don’t you let me solo her out. If she can’t cut it, I will bust her and build an airtight case for you to wash her out. As always, the decision is up to you. Do what you think is best.”
“I’ll let you know what I decide.”
“Sure thing, George.”
Well, well, well. Lieutenant Casey Tompkins, you’ve got some guts, girl.