Viper Pilot_ A Memoi..

Following that cheerful interlude, I went off to the primary F-16 Replacement
Training Unit. This was located, thank God, in beautifully sunny Phoenix, Arizona.
Oklahoma had left me culturally starved and Washington gave me frostbitten
testicles, so Luke Air Force Base was nearly heaven. After packing everything into
a blue Stingray (I obviously didn’t own much), I showed up at Luke’s main gate
thawed out and, again, very full of myself. I got over that quickly.
At that time, the F-16 was only nine years old; the newest and hottest fighter in
the U.S. inventory. Incidentally, only the uninitiated call it a “Fighting Falcon.”
Everyone else calls it a “Viper,” because (a) it looks snakelike when viewed from
the front, or (b) it resembles the fighter from the old Battlestar Galactica TV
series. Or both—take your pick.
Fielded in 1979 as a lightweight, daytime jet, the Viper quickly showed itself to
be much more capable than imagined. This was largely due to a computerized,
modular concept that permitted easy expansion as technology and weapons
advanced. A lethal dogfighter, the F-16 can only fly by using computers to offset its
aerodynamic instability. This designed instability is like starting a fistfight with your
first swing nearly complete. The Viper’s engine is tremendously powerful and,
coupled with the jet’s small size, it produces greater thrust than the fighter’s weight.
Because of this power, the F-16 can sustain nine-G flight, which means it could
outmaneuver any threat in the world. The F-16 also uses electronic signals, instead
of conventional cables, to move the flight controls. This fly-by-wire system
compensates against the instability and helps the pilot physically fly under
sustained Gs. As mentioned, this is always potentially deadly to the pilot, as the
sheer force of high Gs drains blood from the head, can snap cartilage and tear
muscle.
For the next eight months, I learned how to dogfight with another jet at 500
miles per hour. The pain of pulling eight to nine times the force of gravity became a
daily event. I learned how to fight as a pair and as two pairs. We slowly qualified in
employing each type of weapon the F-16 could carry. General Purpose bombs, airto-ground
missiles, air-to-air missiles, and the cannon.
Every conceivable emergency that could happen in an F-16 was taught,
practiced in numerous simulators, and etched forever in the forefront of my mind.
All the systems on the aircraft were painstakingly dissected in classroom lectures
and presentations until we knew how each component of the jet functioned. A
roughly $40M jet fighter traveling at 500 miles per hour with a live human inside
was a valuable commodity. We were instrument rated for bad-weather flying
anywhere in the world, and we also became qualified to refuel in the air.