FLIGHT 2-35-60
November 30, 1964
Pilot - John B. McKay
Resume
2. Stability and control evaluation
3. Star Tracker partial functional checkout
Launch point coordinates:
35° 58' N; 115° 39' W
l. Launch, light engine, increase to 100% T. Rotate at 10 a (» 1.8 g) until q = 20°.2. q = 20°. Maintain q = 20°.
3. Extend speed brakes to 35°.
4. Pushover to zero g. (H-dot » 800 fps).
5. Shutdown, retract speed brakes, increase a to » 4° to maintain 80,000 ft.
6. Roll to » 60°" left bank, increase a to » 8° (g = 2.0). Maintain g = 2.0 and H = 80,000 ft.
7. Roll level (heading » 220°). Maintain H = 80,000 ft. Star Tracker switch to "Exp. On."
8. Disengage ASAS, pitch damper "OFF," perform pitch pulse. Pitch damper "Hi."
9. Set up rate of descent of » 250 fps.
10. Yaw and Roll dampers "OFF," perform rudder pulse. Roll "Lo," Yaw "Hi."
11. Pitch damper "OFF," perform pitch pulse. Pitch damper ~Hi."
12. Cuddeback, extend speed brakes to 35°, increase rate of descent to » 400 fps.
13. Yaw and Roll dampers "OFF," perform rudder pulse. Roll "Lo," Yaw "Hi."
14. Pitch damper "OFF," perform pitch pulse. Pitch damper "Hi," ARM ASAS, vector to High Key, speed brakes as required.
15. High Key - check flap and squat circuit breakers in.
I. PRELAUNCH
AND LAUNCH PHASE
2. X-l5 radios - The X-15 radios were satisfactory. When I went to my radio (the X-15 radio) it was louder and clearer than what it was on the interphone. Do you people understand when we say interphone? You're not really on an interphone; what you are doing is going through the B-52 radio instead of the X-15.
3. APUs - were satisfactory.
4. Damper System - was satisfactory.
5. Inertial Platform System - appeared to be satisfactory.
6. Flow Direction Sensor - a and b were both satisfactory.
7. Launch transients (q, f, y) - There were no launch transients to my knowledge. Got just a little roll off. I probably unconsciously corrected for it. I know I was reading in 235° throughout the climb and that looked pretty good. They kept telling me I was on course so we shouldn't have gotten much of a transient.
8. Launch space positioning - was very good. Didn't we launch just a little ahead of time here? "It looked like it." I cut it just a little short.
9. Engine start - normal.
10. Unforeseen incidents - there were no unforeseen incidents except on the pump oscillation. I asked about that but decided to go ahead. "The pump pressure?" The pump manifold pressure. We were getting about l80 psi oscillation and on a ground run this had been enough in the past to go to malfunction.
I suspect we overthrust. I understand ,that we had 76 seconds of burning time but I shut down on velocity and I shut down at 4500 feet a second. "I saw you shut: down when these guys were still counting. You must have been on velocity." I was. I was reading 45; in fact, I thought I may shutdown a little bit over, just because of the human response time there; but I understand that it came out more like 44. We will have to see what the internal records look like.
2. Roll and/or yaw out of trim indication - I saw none. This one degree left yaw, that could have been even just a 1/2°, seemed to hold throughout the flight pretty well. It may have been just a little misalignment. "Did you take your hands off at any time?" Well, this was without the feet on the rudder pedals. I make my climb with my feet back. Once in a while I might not. There was no roll out of trim indication. I believe this yaw was just in the instrument itself. The ball-nose push to test seemed to work fairly satisfactory so, I suspect that we had no out of trim in the airplane.
3. Pitch and roll controllability - during the boost phase I would class this as a good 2. "Across the board?" Across the board in pitch, roll, and yaw.
4. Altitude profile versus simulator - I would say it was right on. Except for the check points going out and this is where we feel that we were a little high in thrust. As a good example, at the 70,000 foot mark I'm reading about 6 and a 1/4 feet per second, 625 feet per second climb, and if we don't quite have this in the simulator we pull up to about 1/2° and come on up to about 80,000 feet at burnout. And here we had, according to the ground control, just a little over this. This is the only time where I saw that the simulator may have been a little different.
5. Unforeseen incidents - There was no unforeseen incidents. No tip-pod doors coming open or anything like that.
2. Roll and/or yaw out of trim indication - None that I could detect. "This is where I was wondering if you took your hands off completely and if the airplane did anything?" We did this just about half way between Cuddeback and Edwards. When I would call out a trim maneuver.
3. Controllability
following each maneuver: "Let me say something here, Jack." OK. "I'd
just as soon you'd rate these things as far as controllability even if
you have to extrapolate a little bit." OK. "From the airplane response,
I'll get more out of it in terms of controllability." OK. In other words,
scale? "If you think that the only thing that you can rate is the airplane,
if possible, indicate it that way." OK.
1. Left Bank 4300-4000 8° 2 2 2
In the left bank from 43 down, well actually I started the left bank about 44. It didn't take me long to get the brakes and I think I initiated about 44. This may not be true but this is what I felt. "This is just approximate?" Sure. Then to 4,000 and I was reading about 2g on the meter. I held this just for a few seconds and I looked down and we were reading about 220 on the compass and wings leveled at 4000. This came out just like the simulator. Pilot rating (this is dampers on), on this task it would be 2 straight across the board. Very good control, and also aircraft response.
2. Pitch Pulse 3800 5° 3 1/2 2 1/2 2 1/2
Pitch pulse at 3800, I would rate this at about 3 l/2. It appeared to be damping a little. I was looking at the data here. Once you do a pitch pulse you look at it when you might be neutral there but it starts to damp then you would class it as being convergent. I would class this as also three across the board. "3 1/2 in pitch? You rated 3 1/2 in pitch." Well, 3 1/2 in pitch. There didn't seem to be any roll or yaw associated with this sort of thing and I shouldn't say across the board but apparently 2 1/2 for the rest of them. I guess. There may have been some coupling there although I didn't see it. "You were probably too low on angle of attack." Yes, very low. It did feel squirrely in pitch.
3. Rudder Pulse 3400 5° 4 4 4
Rudder pulse at 3400. The airplane had a tendency to go off a little on the left wing although just about this time I reengaged the dampers after several oscillations. You could see a little of tuck with yaw, I mean roll tuck with yaw as the airplane made a little cyclic motion. That's the best way I know how to describe it. "Do you think it was building up or decaying?" I believe it was decaying somewhat. It didn't impress me very much. That is why I cut the dampers back on. I said, well, we have seen enough of this; there is nothing to be amazed about; then I cut them back on. I would class this probably with the roll, yaw and pitch as 4 across the board, because it would keep you fairly busy to try to control this thing all the way back which we have in the simulator and it does appear to simulate the simulator very well.
4. Pitch Pulse 3200 5° 4 2 1/2 2 1/2
Pitch pulse at 3200 the same, well now wait a minute this appeared to be a little worse than at the 3800 feet a second mark and I would class this probably as a 4, that's also in pitch. "This is interesting, why do you feel that this one was worse?" Well, I don't know, it just felt more squirrely to me. At the time I was just coming up on Cuddeback and the time that I experienced this I said I better keep an eye on this one because it might go slightly divergent and about that time I put my hand back to where I could grab the damper. I was a little bit more concerned about it probably because of the rate. I'll say 4 in pitch and then 2 1/2 for roll and yaw. "Yet the dampers were on?" Yes, that's right.
5. Rudder Pulse 2600 3° 2 2.5-3 2.5-3
Rudder pulse at 2600. I'm not exactly sure what the Mach number was. After the flight I had the idea that we had attained just about every one on the Mach number. I think that you will find that they are fairly close as we went by them. "Well, you describe it as you remember it and we will get more on the data." As far as this rudder pulse, here, I don't believe that we got too much out of it. It could be because I may have just mashed the rudder and brought it back. But we got a little roll off, but not quite a bit. In all of these you get a little yawing and rolling oscillation but this was just like I was riding on a very small wave. I think as far as controllability I'd rate this one 2 1/2 to 3, in roll and yaw and probably 2 in pitch. It didn't seem to aggravate the pitch very much.
6. Pitch Pulse 2200 3° 3 2 1/2 2 1/2
Pitch pulse down at the lower end. I believe this appeared to be about the least of any of the three pitch pulses. It didn't appear to offset the airplane very much to get it started. I wasn't particularly concerned about this one as much as I was the one with the 3200 feet a second point. I would rate this I think as very flyable, probably about a 3 in pitch and the rest 2 1/2.
7. Additional Maneuvers
- As we're entering into high key, (the class on this was on a left trim
bank trimmed on the stabilizer) I took my hands off and the airplane didn't
have a tendency to roll off either to the left or right. "Were you already
in a left bank?" Already in a left bank, yes. "You stayed right there?"
Right. I stayed right there, in fact, I knew that this probably wouldn't
be the best way to do it but if I had straightened out I would have gone
past the point that I had wanted to. They kept asking me, let's sharpen
up that bank. But in taking hands off, the airplane had no tendency to
increase its rate either to the left or right in roll. "Very good." I gave
it at least a large enough amount of time had she picked up any rate, I
would have seen it. "How would you rate the controllability here?" Well,
there were no control inputs. It was as solid as a rock. I would rate it
2 across the board. "Dampers were on?" Dampers were on, yes. Actually this
sort of thing wouldn't have made any difference whether the dampers were
on or off. In fact, if the dampers were off it would probably have masked
it somewhat. Since she doesn't have any out of roll trim the dampers wouldn't
have made any difference. I would like to comment again on this pullup
after engine light off. In some cases, it is a lot easier than #1 or #3
for me to get up on angle of attack in profile. In the other two it appears
that just about the time they get launched you look down and you're about
5 or 6° then you have to make an effort to pull it back up. And then
probably go over it. In this one I looked down at 11°, I pulled in
a little trim, went up to 12°, then eased off on it. From then on I
was working up the trim just gradually to get up on profile and then when
I got on profile I eased off on the trim. If anything I would say that
it was somewhat easier than #1 and #3. I believe the reason for Bob's comment
was because he was on both of his flights going to 30°. I think probably
that the rate that this airplane will rotate at a certain angle of attack
might be different than what 1 and 3 might be. Yet going to some small
theta like 20° you really don't notice it. I think you have ample stabilizer.
"Don't you normally use force to make the rotation?" This is right. "Maybe
Bob uses trim to come up with and doesn't use as much force." Well even
then though he said that by the time he got to 10° he was bobbing about
on trim. On this flight, as compared to the last flight that he commented
on, I had the star tracker, which is 300 pounds, sitting right behind the
cockpit and this should have aggravated the situation and it didn't.
5. Controllability during the approach and landing -
q 2 , f 2 , y 2 .
6. Unforeseen
incidents - Rolled out 1.8 miles. "Slippery lake." Yes. I believe the
coefficient of friction is less right now.
q 4 , f 2 1/2 , y 2 1/2 .
I would say that probably the second pitch pulse, although I rated that a 3 1/2. "No, 4?" Four. Well, that was probably the most adverse piloting task but then also I don't think you could call it a real adverse piloting task. "But it was the worst piloting task?" I believe it was the worst. "Why?" Well, the airplane, you didn't know whether the thing was going to go divergent on you. These are incidentally all hands off pulses at least I try to make an attempt to take my glove off the stick after I did the pulse. Now that I have done these, I think on the next flight, I would probably really boot these and see just what kind of an oscillation we get out of it But at least I think we know that as far as the pitch it's not divergent. It might be neutral and then it goes convergent. This is a very good flight plan. It kept you busy. You didn't have a lot of time to sit up there and look around "Time goes faster then?" Yes. On all these flights I get the impression that now that we have completed the high speed end of it, we are just sitting here coming back to home plate. We have this long drawn out down wind deal where we are going anywhere from l.5 to 1 where we can really get some good stability parameters and have plenty time to set up, if there is anything in there you need, I always get the impression that we seem to be losing some valuable time here. "Data time?" Data time. Because this is one time that you have time to really get set up. Of course you may not need it here, "Well we do on this airplane particularly." We could really program these flights to where we could go way down the lake and turn back in high like we did today. You have to do that normally anyway coming out of Hidden Hills and you would have plenty of time to get set up. You could get four or five good points right in there before base leg. "You wouldn't worry about if the dampers were off?" No, I certainly wouldn't. I would suggest that we do something in this area to really get data. Once you have the runway set up, you know just about where you are going to turn and all you're doing right there anyway is just marking time until you make your base leg. It would be a beautiful chance to get some 1.5 to subsonic stuff. "Sure need it, too."