Sled Driver

Once we taxied off the runway, the mobile car guided our path back to the
hangar. It was only then I began to feel the drain of the past several hours. Popping
off the gloves and loosening the helmet felt great. My body, which had been on
adrenaline most of the past several hours, now began to feel stiff and fatigued. It
was a good fatigue; exhaustion that was the result of meaningful effort.
Taxiing into the shutdown area, we were always greeted by a large number of
maintenance people, technical representatives, mobile crew, PSD, and any visitors
who were being escorted on the ramp. Normally following a flight, we were hungry
and couldn't wait to get out of our space suits. No matter what our mission, we
always felt relief, joy and satisfaction each time we returned. Each mission flown
increased the bond of trust and respect between pilot and RSO. In the Blackbird, I
experienced a greater sense of accomplishment at the end of a good flight, than in
any other jet I had flown.
It was hard to sleep after a long mission, even though I was exhausted. It took a
while for the adrenaline to subside. Often I would stay up late into the night feeling
my inner ears pop and squeak from the effects of long hours of breathing one
hundred percent oxygen.
As we progressed through our training flights, I began to feel more comfortable in
the jet. Most of us would never be completely comfortable in the airplane because
we didn't get to fly it more than one or two times a week. She would talk to me in
flight, and the more I got to know her, the more she'd tell me. She had many secrets,
and it seemed as if she enjoyed sharing them with me in her own time.