McKay: 7 seconds.

Engle: It wasn't too hard to get on the alpha this time, and theta came just about on time, not any faster than programmed. I was using the 70,000 foot point on the climbout for a handle for pushover and it came just about the right time. The rate of climb indicator I think probably had as much to do with going high as anything. I was indicating 25 to 50 feet per second rate of descent while we were in level flight and at launch. The scale isn't linear on the rate of climb indicator in the cockpit. At about 700 to 800 feet per second this 25 to 50 feet per second increment becomes about 100 feet per second. So at 70,000 it was indicating 800 feet per second rate of climb which was about 100' high from our simulator runs. Subtracting l00' would have made us come out just about right. As it turned out I think probably the rate of climb indicator was about right because a l00 foot per second high in the simulator put us 3,000 or 4,000' high. I'm not sure but what there may be some bias in the rate of climb instrument. It might be worthwhile checking into. Level out and shutdown didn't seem as "busy" as I thought it would be. I had plenty of time to watch the velocity indicator, and I shut down on it. Engine burn time was 82 to 83 seconds I believe on the cockpit clock. On the initial level out I was indicating about 84,000 in the cockpit and I toyed with the idea of pushing over to get some more q because I knew we would never reach 92,000 starting the pull from 84 ,000.

Question: The radar indicates you held level flight as planned. Did you let it drop at all intentionally?

Engle: No, I thought about pushing over but it didn't seem like there would be time. I went ahead and pulled up and started the pushover on 50O q at which time we had about 500 feet per second rate of climb rather than the 600. This made us come out a little low on peak altitude. The turns worked out real good. As for control response, the airplane is as good or better in pitch than the simulator. Jack, I think the correction back to Cuddeback wouldn't have been quite sufficient. I had Cuddeback in sight and went ahead and bent around visually had to pull all the way from the time I finished the second rudder pulse until just about when I was over the target. I think you called 8 miles and I rolled level then. I think the correction that you gave would have been good from that point if I could have established that track immediately, but as you know better than I, it takes awhile to effect a change in course up there. I didn't turn using the heading indicator, I was turning visually and I was pulling a little over 3 g'. I had about 15° alpha and I didn't want to go much higher than that. After we passed Cuddeback and got started down hill, I turned the yaw damper off and looked at the stability. It didn't seem a lot worse than with the yaw damper on "low." We entered the pattern at about 37,000 hi-key. I was a little high on velocity so I used speed brakes a bit. It foxed me again on the landing spot. I thought I was going to be high and long all the way around to base. From there it seemed like it would be a little bit short. The airplane seemed to want to go to left again on the skid out. I had full aileron deflection in and I believe I had full rudder also towards the last. It held until the last 150 yards or so and then started off to the left.

McKay: We were asked by the stable table people just about the time we went to igniter idle to check the H dot and we hated to butt in on you.

Engle: I was a little bit leery of the stable platform because I was reading a thousand feet per second going downwind and 1,000 feet per second coming back on launch heading which I didn't feel should be normal on the inertial.

Question: You had a .......... knot crosswind at that time?

Engle: Was there a crosswind? That would account for it then.

Question: Did you apply any forward stick at touchdown?

Engle: Yes, I did more than the last time but I don't know whether I got it in time. The last I looked I saw 220 to 215 on the indicator and I think I touched down about 200 knots; Russ could probably give us a better handle on that. I'm sure it was a higher touchdown speed than the last one.

Question: Did you have any trouble holding it straight after touchdown?

Engle: Not until the last 150 yards or so. I couldn't hold it anymore then with full deflection on both rudder and aileron. Jack, I couldn't read you on the radios at all from launch until after I got established on climbout.

McKay: This has happened quite often. We can't explain it. Sometimes even the chase can't hear NASA 1.

Vensel: How about the launch panel?

Butchart: Fine, I just wanted to ask about the altimeter.

Question: We used the first pilot's altimeter. I think the co-pilot's are out. In the rate of climb altimeter lead the pilots and also the difference was much greater.