Louise, can it be posted on this thread? It's a great story! As I told Paul, I've never managed to get even a smile out of Van in the 14-or-so years that I've tried at Oshkosh.
Over the course of my flying career, I have had the opportunity to fly with a lot of highly skilled pilots. I’ve flown both left and right seat with guys who were the top in their class at test pilot schools. But yesterday I had the unique privilege to fly with a fellow who here needs no introduction – the designer of our wonderful line of airplanes, Dick VanGrunsven himself! The occasion was a visit to mid-winter Houston, which meant that the weather was pretty bad – but that was just fine, as we weren’t going to be flying in it anyway. We were going to be giving it our best in the world’s only Space Shuttle Motion Base Simulator.
Late last year I offered Van a tour of the NASA facilities here on the Gulf Coast if he ever got by, and it turns out he was going to be passing through after a soaring convention, so he called to take me up on the offer. Getting approval to fly guests in the “Base” is not easy, but with enough prior arrangement I was able to book a couple of hours (cancellable at any time due to a higher priority user) for a demo flight. Van brought along a couple of family members, and it so happened that Doug Reeves was available to come and take a few pictures. Louise wasn’t about to be left out, so we had a full house to go fly.
I invited Van to try out the left seat as I settled in to the right, and the others strapped in to the “jump seats”. Five point harnesses all around, as our first and most important goal was safety – this machine can hurt you if you’re not careful! Watching it lurch around the big simulator bay from the outside is enough to convince anyone to cinch down on those straps.
It took just a couple of minutes for the operator to set us up for a “50K” reset. “Van, this one is going to be all yours – I’ll back you up from the right eat, but won’t touch anything unless I think we’re going to bust something”, I said. “ We’ll be coming out of reset about 50,000’, having just crossed over the runway and headed towards the Heading Alignment Cone (HAC) – think of it as a continuous turn to final from an overhead approach. Look through the HUD, put the little airplane symbol on the guidance square, and don’t forget to enjoy the view as we land in about 4 minutes!”
Van is, as you would expect, a very good stick. As the sim came alive, I punched off the autopilot and suggested he do a couple of pitch and roll doublets to see how it handles, and it was evident he was used to ‘first flights’ – he had a very smooth and gentle approach to flying. As we approach the HAC and the guidance asked for a roll, we smoothly banked to about 45 degrees and tracked as if we were on rails. As we slid around the final few degrees of turn and on to final, I called the runway way up the top of the windshield – it tends to appear there when you are on a 19 degree glide slope! Dropping through 10,000’ on final, about 5 miles from the runway at 300 knots (+/-), I briefed Van on the “preflare” coming at 2,000’.
“The Preflare is a 1.3G pull on to a final glide slope of about a half a degree. You want to cross the threshold at about 60 feet, and then not mess with it, as PIO is very common if you try to sweeten the landing in ground effect. You’ll cross the fence at about 260 knots – be ready for the speed! I’ll get the gear at 400’, and deploy the drag chute after touchdown. End the preflare with the velocity vector a hairs-width below the horizon, and you should be about right.” We were down to 2,000’ in the time it took for me to brief all that, and the Shuttle responded to Van’s touch as we entered the preflare, smoothly changing our aim point to the runway (we had been aiming about 7,000’ short due to the planned excess energy), about 2500’ down. I called altitudes, dropped the gear, and we settled nicely to a gratifying “chirp” of both main trucks. “Chute is out, 180 knots, de-rotate” I called, and Van pushed the nose down gently to plant the nose gear, steering us to a final stop using brakes as required. The combination of visuals and motion create a very good illusion of flight – enough to keep you holding the brakes after touchdown, even though the simulator has been stopped and is turning around for the next run. “Congratulations Dick – you landed the Shuttle on your first try!” I said, as we shook hands and got ready for another try approach. I was not surprised that an experienced glider pilot like Van would have little trouble with our “heavy” – even if the speeds are five or six times what he’s used to.
It was wonderful getting a chance to share my ‘day job’ flying world with a guy who has given us all such wonderful flying machines to play with in our leisure time. With the Shuttle program coming to an end, I was really pleased that he was able to make the time before this magnificent simulator joins our other space program relics as a historical monument, never to heave it’s mighty mass about the building again. Van proved what I always say – flying is flying, no matter what the machine. You treat the airplane with respect, concentration, and dedication, whether it is a Cub, an RV, or the Shuttle…and with a smooth touch, they all contribute to the eternal joy of flight!
Paul (Dye)
Paul & Louise's photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ironflight/2010_02_01ShuttleSimulatorWithVan#
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K6NHarASMo
