McKay: I have one question before we get started. What is there to be said about a flight that went according to schedule and flight plan? We went out under the B-52, made a 180° turn and returned to Edwards separately. It made me feel good to help the B-52 out just before drop with the radio problems. I had very good communications throughout the whole operation.

Proceeding out to the launch point; I began to doubt my own word on the weather flight. After drop, the first recognizable land mark was Edwards. I believe the weather was somewhat on the no go side as far as the success of the type of mission we were flying, however, it wasn't too good from the operational aspect either.. If Edwards had been over flown, I am certain the base would not have been seen from the southwest because of the cloud cover.

Other than getting a little to the right of the flight path, I believe we covered the track OK and probably obtained some pretty good data. The flight itself appeared to be rather straight forward. From the very beginning after launch, it was apparent that we were not developing all the thrust available. All of the altitude check points were slightly low in velocity and at the shutdown time, the velocity reading was only 4400 ft/sec instead of the required 5050 ft/sec. I did retard the throttle from the 100% position but decided to go to burnout to help the energy picture. Also, the velocity readouts from the ground were much lower than what I was able to read from the inertial instrument, and this greatly influenced my decision to go to burnout. Bob gave me a reading of 4400 ft/sec from the control room just about the time I was going through 4800 ft/sec. Wasn't this right, Bob?

Rushworth: I did, yes.

McKay: Velocity at shutdown was about 5400 ft/sec. On top inertial was reading about 108,000 ft. The prelaunch activity went according to the numbers and everything appeared to be right on the money. The mixing chambers were holding very steady, and I wasn't getting the oscillation on No. 1 that Bob reported on his last flight. At launch, there was a little roll off to the right but was easily corrected. Considerably more effort was needed to rotate to q = 32° than was experienced on the simulator; in fact 32° q was actually never attained. I believe the key to the whole problem of the climbout is to rotate as soon as possible, much sooner than what is required on the simulator, otherwise the climbout will be low on profile. I came level about. 108,000 and as I stated before, went to burnout. I received the call. from NASA-l to make the correction to the right, and held a little right wing down for most of the remainder of the flight. After burnout I felt a little residual pounding in the rear of the airplane but not as much as I have experienced in the past. We were over Mach 5 for a considerable length of time. We don't have a q meter in this airplane, but indicated airspeed was reading about 460 knots. Everything appeared to work OK. Roll SAS tripped out during the launch phase, but I reengaged OK after burnout, Also after burnout, at 100,000 feet. I remember getting a little residual pitching oscillation. Although I couldn't see any exhaust coming out of the nose rockets, it felt as though they were trying to work for me. The period was probably about three seconds, Ron.

Ron Waite: Reengage

McKay: No, the ASAS was not engaged. I had already reset roll SAS. This was the first time I had experienced this oscillation. Other than this there was nothing unusual. I started my down wind leg to a landing from 48,000 feet. The landing felt good but I didn't give a hard push on the control stick as was planned. The squat switch was used and apparently worked.

Question .......... .......... .......... ..........

McKay: What was the touchdown velocity?

McKay: 3 feet a second.

Question: Did the squat switch work for you, Jack?

McKay: The squat switch was on. I saw 200 knots go by before touchdown.

Question: When did you rearm the ASAS?

McKay: Right after the burnout. I couldn't reach the SAS switches until after

burnout because of the acceleration. As far as chamber pressure, I was

reading around 600. What were we showing in the control room?

Answer: 580.

McKay: The attitude gyro was working very good. There was no trouble in holding theta.

Question: What about vibration?

McKay: Only when we let down through some rough air. I get quite a bouncing around at 35 or 40 just about the time I was turning downwind.

Question: What about the lakebed winds?

McKay: Appeared to be right down runway 23. That runway appears to be OK for this type of an operation, and I think we ought to use it more often when necessary.