PILOT QUESTIONNAIRE

Flight 1-49-77

Date: June 30, 1964

Pilot: John B. McKay

Flight Resume

Purpose: Phase II Optical Degradation Experiment and Pilot Altitude Buildup

Launch: Delamar Lake #1 on magnetic heading 214°, SAS Hi-Lo-Hi (8-4-8), ASAS ARMED, both BCS "ON", RAS "OFF", Auto Cutoff ''OFF". heading vernier to "Standby," Ventral OFF.

Launch Point Coordinates. 37° 18' N, 114° 36' W.

1. Launch, light engine, increase to 100% T. Rotate at 11° (» 2g) until q = 28°.

2. q = 28°. Maintain q = 28°.

3. Shutdown. Pushover to a = 0°. RAS "ON," Auto cutoff "ON."

4. Nellis - (Manual "D").

5. q = +8°.

6. Peak altitude. Maintain q » O to 20° a.

7. Pahrump (Manual "E") - Maintain q and f within ±8°. Extend speed brakes to 20°.

8. a = 20° - Maintain a = 20° until Hdot » -600 fps. RAS "OFF."

9. Hdot » -600 fps, pushover to maintain Hdot » -400 fps, extend speed brakes to 35°. (Max reentry g » 3.0,)

10. Pilot Knob - Maintain q and f within ±8°. (Manual "C").

11. Cuddeback - Maintain q and f within ±8°. (Manual "C"). Vector to High Key, speed brakes as required. Engine Master Off.

12. High Key.

I. PRELAUNCH AND LAUNCH PHASE A. Evaluate briefly flight performance of the following items during the prelaunch period and/or the launch maneuver. 1. Pressure suit operation - O.K.

2. X-15 radios - O.K. except over the base on landing.

3. APUs - No problem except suspected vibrations from the aft part of the airplane that wouldn't have necessarily been APUs but they functioned very well.

4. Damper System - Excellent.

5. Flow Direction Sensor - Excellent.

6. Launch Space positioning - Excellent.

7. Launch transients (q, f, y) - I don't remember any real transient in yaw. I had a little roll-off but not too much and I would just say they were normal. I didn't feel this 7° b on drop.

8. Engine Start - O.K.

9. Unforeseen incidents - I noticed the stable platform dropped out right after I got the engine going and started uphill. (Did you have a b?) I had b but I wasn't watching that. I took my feet off the pedals on the climbout somewhat because I was concerned with going to the alternate plan. We weren't using "^·psi," we were on "standby" all the time.

II. BOOST PHASE A. Evaluate flight performance in the following areas, during the "power on" portion of the flight.
1. Engine operation - Excellent.

2. Target acquisition - O.K.

3. Experiment performance - It was running, I would suspect, until we got to Cuddeback and that's when I started looking out of the cockpit and started in.

4. q control - I think my primary instrument was the q meter. I wasn't worried too much about what the angle of attack was. I got down to the minimum q that I could and 2/3 of the flight was made with full back stick against the stop. (35° stabilizer?) It was right against the stop, all the way back. a was about 12 or 13°. What were you people reading down here? (15°). This would be more in keeping with what our q was telling us. The simulator would give us just a little bit more than this when we get down to around 200 psf.

5. Low a control - Not applicable.

6. Altitude profile versus simulator - This alternate altitude profile was very similar to the simulator except I ran out of trim, ran out of back stick. If you get into any type of alternate situation like that, you've got a big spread that you can go between.

7. Unforeseen incidents - Just the platform going out.

III. GLIDE PHASE A. Evaluate flight performance in the following areas during the "power off" portion of the flight.
1. Burnout transients - I did not feel any burnout transients. However, there was the usual pounding and stomping around the airplane as the thing was heating up and cooling off.

2. Experiment performance - It worked in the cockpit. It depends on the lens.

3. Controllability in ballistic flight - We didn't use BCS on this flight.

4. Controllability during initial and terminal reentry - There was no real reentry.

5. Glide energy management versus simulation - Very good.

6. Approach and landing - were normal. A little speed brake used in there. I didn't shoot for the 2-mile marker. I shoot just a little ahead of the lake shore. I think this is the thing to do inasmuch as you don't know when you are going to be going into these lakebeds. I still insist if you keep shooting for the 2-mile marker you're going to land short on one of these short lakes out here. I was still shooting for somewhere inside of the lakebed shore line and I think I hit just past the l-mile marker, which would have got me in any of these lakebeds.

7. Unforeseen incidents - None.

B. Describe and rate the most adverse piloting task experienced on this flight.

q 2 , f 2 , y 2 .

The worst area of the flight was during the pushover inasmuch as I didn't have a roll reference, no peripheral vision. It was about 46 seconds. I had to keep looking out to the side to keep wings level configuration. However, this was no strain. If you keep your head moving I don't think you're going to lose that. I think you can still do this on a steep climbout. This was really no particular piloting task, but it kept me busier at the time and I would just rate it as shown above. Even down to 250 q the airplane felt like it had a lot of aerodynamic control. There was really no decay on this. This is the most severe rating I'd give the whole flight .