There isn't a pilot who can honestly say they've never been at least a little bit behind the aircraft, even for a short time when task saturated. So Aviation Safety magazine set out to tame the dragon with tips on getting and staying ahead of even the fastest airplane. And none better than former U.S. Air Force T-38 instructor pilot Matt Johnson to lay it all out.
Best article regarding said topic I have ever read. This guy could not be more dead on right. Thanks for publishing this article. I have to read it again.
In my opinion, the nose has always been the worst location for an engine and prop. There are many other locations that distribute the weight and power like the twin engine which is much better.
Great info Matt about ways to stay ahead of the airplane. I can see why the F111 WSO did well in the T-38. He was used to navigating at 200 feet and 550 knots so he had developed a strong ability to stay ahead of the airplane. The only stall recovery in the 111 was to eject… I “trained” a few of my WSOs who wanted to fly and there were a few who could aerial refuel etc and became pretty good sticks. On take off( like the 38) you had to yank the gear pretty fast,(limit 295) retract the flaps (easy to over speed) and sweep the wings all within about 10 seconds, oh, and fly the airplane, join up etc. One of my WSOs on a closed pattern final turn when coached to use a little bottom rudder to get the pig to turn/decend stomped the rudder and yanked the stick and snapped us inverted, the tower calmly asked my intentions. I think I mumbled something about re-entering the pattern. In my own UPT case, I had great instructors, mostly guys just back from a billion missions in Nam( F105s, F-4s, F100s) Turns out that being over West Texas and not being shot at, even with a dimwit in the front seat, was great fun for those guys. I was glad that I had 300 hours of complex airplane time when I went to UPT, allowing me to have a great deal of fun.
A lot of people think that flying happens between the ground and the sky. Well, some does but 95% happens between the left ear and right ear.