PILOT'S FLIGHT
COMMENTS
Flight No. 2-34-57
September 29, 1964
Pilot: Lt/Col. Rushworth
Rushworth: As we were
climbing up through 35 - 36,000 feet, the chamber pressures were oscillating
a little bit between about -45 and a -25, and each time it did, the cabin
pressure would slip up. It finally started holding around 40 to 41,000
feet and finally ended up at 41,000 feet, oscillating back and forth with
the mixing chamber pressure. I had the feeling it wasn't going to hold
if we launched that way, and it would seek some level, probably 70 or 80,0O0
feet. It came right on back down with the aux cabin pressure switch on
without any problem. I was holding left stick at launch, so that I tried
to get no roll off. After launch, I pulled up to 10° angle of attack
and held it for just a little bit, then put in full aft trim, and it held
just 10° all the way up to q
of 30° on the vernier. Thirty degrees on the vernier did not correspond
to 30° on the ball. The ball was mis-set somehow, but the remainder
of the climb was real good. Upon pushing over to zero-g, zero-a,
I got on zero-a,
and it started to go a little bit negative. The g-meter again stuck at
about 2 to 3 tenths positive g, and I couldn't ever get it less than that.
I observed about half a degree negative a
across the top of the push-over and tried to trim that out. At 3,000 I
was a little bit low; at 4,000 I was right on; and at 5,200, I shut down
at 92 and still had a little bit climb left and did go about 2,000 feet
high. I saw 98 when Jack called lt. The first pulse in pitch will have
a double pulse on it; the first one was a little bit weak, so I increased
a little bit. This was normal and what I expected to see. Into the 5°
angle of attack yaw pulse, and everything went well there. For some reason
or another I was thinking that if anything was going to go wrong, it would
go wrong about now, started to pull the airplane up, and got to about 6°
angle of attack when the little door came open. This, of course, I heard
and saw it on the ball nose, and the pressure airspeed started jumping
all over the place. So rather than increase immediately up in angle of
attack, I tried not to pull any more g-loads. I got it to about 1 1/2g
a little bit later but just tried to hold 1g. and slow it down a little
bit to get the q off the airplane. The airplane seemed to handle a little
bit worse with the little door open than it did with the full gear out,
because every time I rolled into a bank angle, sideslip seemed to change.
I noticed this also when subsonic in the traffic pattern. Things went well
all the way through the traffic pattern, and I maintained 300 knots all
the way down from about 30,000 feet. At about 290, I started out the flaps
and about 270 pulled the gear out the first time. I know I pulled the gear
lanyard to the bottom, and the nose gear didn't come out. I didn't hear
it come out, so I yanked it again just about the time Joe started talking
about the gear not being out. I heard it clunk into place Just about the
time he said, "Hold it off. It looks like it's coming down." There was
no more holding it--it was on the ground just about that time. There was
no smoke, or just a minor amount of smoke, in the cockpit from a little
door being open. I waited for that, but it never did show up except for
just a few whiffs.
All the way through
a good part of the flight, I had a little sideslipping - needle right,
and best I can recall with the door open, it went to the other side. It
changed about a degree. Every time I rolled over to see where the field
was, the airplane yawed and stayed yawed in the direction I was rolling.
Yes, I sensed it
was the little door, because the magnitude of the bang when it came open
wasn't as large as the other experience. I knew it had to be up around
the nose because it was affecting the q-meter and the pitot head in the
nose.
Question: Landing
normal?
Rushworth: Yes,
it wasn't sharp at all although the pitch rate was sharp--higher than the
normal airplane, but the force when it hit the ground was fairly normal.