P.C. The way I had my check list squared away the prelaunch seemed to be real nice. I don't see any problem in turning the APUs on. Even though it's listed under 9 minutes, the APU start generally carries me into 8 minutes, so by the time I'm down to 7 minutes I'm caught up again or ahead of the check list. I can't have the head bumper down so far in advance as is listed on the checklist, so I put it down at the 2 minute point. I can't get to all the switches if I have to hold my head in that position. I can't reach anything at the bottom of the center console.

B. Was the launch and initial rotation normal?

P.C. The launch was real good and initial rotation was normal. I was asked to pull up to 12° and see how it felt because it appeared there was going to be an error there. The airplane felt real good at 12°.

The normal acceleration wasn't 2g at that time and it settled on down to about 10°a, and then started below 10°. I pulled it back up to 10° and very shortly after that as I approached 2g I transferred over to the attitude indicator on the 3-axis ball. The ball was working real well The difference between the simulator and the actual airplane is that the pitch attitude reference comes down quicker on the simulator than it does on the airplane. I had gotten to 20° q on the ball and all of a sudden, the vernier needle came right down and matched it, so I held that and everything went off real good.

I reached 39 seconds and pushed over to zero g. I was holding zero g on the gage with the angle of attack needle nulled to zero. All indicators were lining up for me and I was holding everything steady. I was a little surprised, therefore, that I came out low on profile. Most of the time on the simulator, if I made a real smooth pushover, it would take me right to the altitude I wanted. If I was a little short on the pushover, I came low. I felt in the flight I was right on zero g and pushing over at a normal rate and I should have been right on profile, but I came out a little low.

C. Please rate the pilot control task to affect recovery from launch and the initial rotation to 2g normal acceleration.

P.C. There was no problem at all. I noted a little rolling attitude change a couple of times until I got the airplane leveled to where it felt good. I had the impression I was coming a little bit to the left of course but NASA-1 said I was right on so there was no problem. I made the small control corrections that were necessary but I don't think there was any problem anywhere. Pitch would have been the only mode that would have given any problem anyway, and it was very satisfactory. q 2.5, f 2.5, y 2 .

The simulator is better than the airplane because it's not under 2g. Once again, I tried to fly the airplane just like I did the simulator. In other words, when I launched I rolled in the trim and I think I came very close to the simulated runs. I didn't have to pull the stick back to get into the rotation.

D. What indicated angle of attack was reached at 2g?

P.C. At 2g I would estimate I was somewhere between 8° to 10° angle of attack. Just about the time I got it up to 2g, I was ready to start pushing over again. I originally went to 12 a, then settled down through 10° and pulled it back on up to 10°, so I guess it was somewhere between 8° and 10°a. This also matched the simulator very closely.

P.C. I don't think there was any difference. I had seen on some of the simulator runs, exactly the same profile I ran. I pushed over a little bit quicker and came out a little lower in altitude. The technique I could use on the simulator to correct this was that I had good altitude and airspeed indications. I didn't feel I had anywhere near as good indications on the flight, as I did on the simulator.

B. Was the head rest used during the climb?

P.C. I did use the head rest during the climb and it was real comfortable. The position was almost perfect for what I wanted. It was a little bit far back but I could see all the instruments.

C. Was the sensation of an overturning rotation noted?

P.C. I didn't get any sensation of overturning rotation. The problem that existed for me the last time was that my head was far back and I think that's probably causing the trouble.

D. Estimate ^·q held, and rate the pilot task during the 20° q portion of the climb. q 2.5 , f 2 , y 2 .

P.C. I pulled up to 20° q and held it right on. As close as I could see I didn't move anything until my clock said 39 seconds and I started the pushover. I was apparently about 2 seconds ahead of NASA-1.

The vernier (q) was nulled at 20°, the ball indicated 20°, and at this time between 25 and 39 seconds, the angle of attack indicator on the ball was a little low. It came up when I went to zero g. I did catch l.Og on the g meter during this time period. I looked over and I was right dead on l.Og and didn't feel any oscillation there at all, in any axis.

E. Describe airplane motion upon slowing to 30% thrust.

P.C. I didn't get any airplane motions at all on slowing to 30% thrust. I had expected a lot of deceleration force. Apparently, I reduced the throttle position at a rate that gave me little deceleration. I think I just stopped accelerating or had just a little acceleration at the time.

F. Estimate ^· speed brake required to hold 5,000 fps.

P.C. The indication on my gage was that I went to a maximum speed of 5,200 ft/sec. I would estimate at that time I had between 15° and 20° speed brake. It felt like I had only moved it about 15° but on the simulator I was using 25°. I don't think that I got them out as far, but it's hard to say. (Data shows speed brakes were deployed to 16°.)

G. Estimate ^·q, ^·a, ^·H held during this time. Comment on pressure airspeed meter as a constant q sensor.

P.C. I don't have any idea what ^·q would have been. The problem with the airspeed indicator was that it was a different gage from the one I had been using on the simulator. I had become used to the one in the simulator but neither the gage graduations nor the needle position matched the one in the airplane at all. From what everybody said, I'd guess that ^·q was maybe 200 lb/sq ft. I'd estimate the change in altitude was about 2,000 feet.

I didn't touch a from the time I set up that last correction until burnout and then I got a nose down pitch. I didn't change, the airplane assumed this. I just let it go that way. (No discernible pitching motions can be seen in the data during the time period immediately before burnout. The pilot, however, applied a nose-up stick force followed by a nose-up trim change as the engine burned out. This control change was initiated in the last second before burnout.) I would say I was in the neighborhood of 3°a, for the last 10 or 15 seconds before burnout. It may have come down to 2°a after burnout.

I would guess that from the time I hit 5,000 ft/sec until burnout, altitude may have changed 3,000 feet. (Data shows limits were ^·q 262 psf, ^·a 2°, ^·H 1,800 ft, ^·v 168 ft/sec.)

H. Rate pilot task to fly the precise conditions noted in II.G.

q 4 , f 1 , y 1 .

P.C. I had no way to tell except from the ground what initial conditions I had to start off with and which way to correct them. Pitch wasn't hard to control but it was hard for me to tell which pitch attitude I should be flying. The degraded rating in pitch applies more to a lack of adequate instrument display for this pilot task than to the airplane handling qualities.

I. Was any evidence of heating noted in the cockpit area?

P.C. It was late in the flight that I noted any heating in the cockpit area. It was probably the last 2 or 3 minutes before I got to high key. I began to feel a radiation of heat through the suit. I'm sure it wasn't from suit vent or heat, or anything like that because I had shut off the suit heat. I didn't think it was working anyway, and I shut it off and cranked the vent down low, so that I wouldn't get a cold spot where it came in. I had the impression I had stepped out in the sun, and it was all from the waist up. I was still nice and cool down below the waist line.

Right at burnout, there was vapor over my right knee but I don't think it was smoke. I got pretty good indication of vapor. It boiled up and seemed to be too thick for smoke. By the time it got to the middle of the cockpit it was all gone and I didn't bother saying anything about it.

Everything happened at once. I saw the vapor and the engine quit, my suit inflated, and I checked the cabin altitude which said 40,000 feet. I went into the turn, and by the time I got out of that turn everything had settled back to normal. There was no vapor and my suit had gone down.

P.C. I pulled up to 4g. I'm not sure whether I got full back trim or not. I was aiming for 48 at full back trim. The airplane rolled in real easily. It rolled in with less force required on the stick than on the simulator. So, the airplane handles better than the simulator. The roll rate that you get out of the simulator isn't quite as smooth as in the airplane and the force required on the stick isn't as large.

B. Describe airplane motion resulting from dv step input.

Rate pilot task to recover from dv step input. q 2 , f 2 , y 1 .

P.C. I didn't have any problem with sideslip. I gave it a left rudder pulse and something tells me now that I didn't do something right. I don't know whether I jabbed it in and didn't take my foot off the rudder pedal. I think the rudder pedal came back and hit me in the foot. I had my hand on the stick but I'm positive I didn't put any inputs in the stick so it should have been a free rudder pulse. The damping was extremely good. It just moved over and came right back. I'd say a damping ratio of at least .7. I've had lower damper gains but I've seen the airplane move, and this one didn't move at all, it was steady all the way.

C. What a was attained at max stabilizer trim?

P.C. I'm not sure that I got max stabilizer trim in, but I got the 4g. Whether I was holding it at that point, I don't know. (Data shows a » 10° at a maximum normal acceleration of 4.5g.)

D. Describe airplane motion upon disengaging roll SAS. Rate pilot control task with ASAS roll damping, and normal roll damping. ASAS q 2 , f 2 , y 1 ; normal q 2 , f 2 , y 1 .

P.C. I noted a little transient of very small amplitude, but sharp. I could till when ASAS came on. It was just like a servo clanking; I don't think the airplane rolled. It was more just a transient in the control system. Damping with ASAS looked to me to be as good as the damping with the normal system.

P.C. Ground control was all right. For some reason or another I didn't hear NASA-l calling me when I asked twice for velocity. I don't know whether I didn't hear, or it didn't get into the airplane. The last I recall NASA-1 talking was during the climb at 68,000 feet and I must have heard something because everything seemed to be okay in my mind that I was in the neighborhood of 5,000 ft/sec. I don't know whether I didn't hear him, or whether I didn't pay attention to him. I didn't need anything from the ground control, nor did I think the flight profile was critical. I didn't think I could go over the q by more than 200 or 300 pounds and I didn't think I'd go over temperature by even a 100°.

B. Recommend a maneuver which, in your opinion, would be adequate for obtaining a quick 3-axis handling qualities evaluation of this airplane.

P.C. The best thing I can recommend for checking the handling qualities is just 3 quick pulses, or 2 pulses, one in pitch and one in yaw and then observe the resulting motions. If you just want to get handling qualities you needn't bother about roll inputs if you get a good rudder pulse.

P.C. I reached high key point lower than I wanted to be and was 360° from my touchdown. I had to start my turn a little bit short of the touchdown point but once I got squared away, and turned around looking at the runway, I realized I was a little bit high. I would much rather have circled out around and made the approach in the normal way but I didn't have quite enough energy. Everything went well until I realized that I was going to be a little bit high and a little bit long. Rather than use speed brakes and have to worry about them I just pushed it on down to about 310 knots. I think I was about 290 knots when I punched the ventral off. Since I was using the sidestick for the first time, I decided to let my touchdown point go and try and get a good touchdown.

I was long on touchdown because I had made a sharp turn and I was in real tight. I started to flare right after I called flaps out but I probably waited a couple of seconds and then started the flare. This time I didn't catch the full effects of flaps until I was level. I was continuing forward on the stick and just maintaining altitude. I would estimate I rounded out the first time about 50 feet in the air. I pushed it on over and got the airplane coming down, and then I could reach up and trim. I can't seem to get my thumb up to trim, however, when I'm pushing forward on the stick.

Pilot rating during the approach q 2 , f 2 , y 1 .

Pilot rating during the flare q 2.5 , f 2 , y 1 .

RR:dmo

Typed: 5-21-62