I don't have very many comments to make about the pre-launch check list. It was pretty evident what went on, including the APU going down and restarting. Everything seemed to go just fine.

We launched right about on time, and obtained a good engine light. I spun over to a -5° setting on the trim wheel but this did not give me a pitch rate similar to what I had been getting on the simulator. I was developing a pitch rate, but the angle of attack, generally, was lower. I never got over 2g, while on the simulator I had observed about 13° angle of attack and 2-1/2g. You'll probably see a tug on the stick in addition.

The roll hold was engaged immediately during rotation, and I called out the oscillation in roll. It didn't impress me as being anything different than it was the last time, even though it may have looked different because I was using outer loop in roll. Then I rotated on up to 37° q in the climb attitude. I backed off to reduce trim rate to zero and engaged pitch hold. It was there that the first indication that the hold mode in pitch didn't really lock on and grab this thing, and hold it as tight as I thought it would.

I reached over and felt around, and this occurred throughout the rest of the flight. I was trying to find the trim wheel. My left hand was wandering all over the place. I was inclined to tug on the stick and set the pitch attitude, but I wanted to give it a chance. I had this problem all during the flight of trying to find this trim wheel and get it straightened out.

It apparently was doing the job but just not as tight as I had expected. I backed off a couple of times and got the attitude back up. It was a matter of a couple degrees excursion on the climb.

At 60 seconds I reached over with a very definite attempt to flip the reaction control switch to auto. I did it with 2 fingers to make sure I reached the center position so I could just flip it on because by this time, at 60 seconds, the longitudinal acceleration was such that I really had to reach out there.

I looked up at the clock, and started cueing for shutdown. I reached over and was pulling the throttle back and shutting off while NASA-l was saying 79, 80, shutdown. I was already off, probably in the order of that statement because this was in tune with my clock. The throttle was probably off at 8l seconds so there's some discrepancy there.

I reached over and engaged the angle of attack hold shortly after shutdown. It averaged out about 8° angle of attack. At 220,000 feet indicated I turned off the hold modes. I had roll and angle of attack engaged, turned those off and continued at 8 or 9° angle of attack. Shortly after this I got a wavering indication on the a and b needle as the reaction controls fired.

You could tell when the reaction controls fired because you could see the needles do a little dance. They do a dance each time this happens.

I could hear NASA-l all the time and I think, perhaps, they could hear me. Communications seemed to be excellent. I went ahead and touted off what the sideslip indications showed me and tried to fly the heading.

It seemed a lot easier to fly the heading than it was in the simulator. There were a couple of rudder inputs that you'll see, but no problem at all. As a matter of fact, the excursions in sideslip, although it wandered just a little bit, wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. I thought that the sideslip indications would be pretty unreliable. It seemed a very short time, I was impressed that it was a very short time, that I couldn't look at the sideslip needle and feel that I was getting some decent indication.

When I came level at the top I indicated just short of 250,000 feet on the inertial height indication. I went to pitch hold at about -2° on the attitude indicator. Here again, I was impressed that it didn't grab on and hold this, and the nose went down below the horizon perhaps 5° below, and I wondered about this.

As I came down through 220,000 feet I started paying attention to a and all of a sudden it snapped right in and started coming down and as it got to a position that would indicate about 21° angle of attack on the null indicator I engaged angle of attack hold. Again, that same impression that it wasn't grabbing on because I engaged angle of attack hold, and then the angle of attack backed right on off to maybe 16°, but I could feel it engage. I knew this was happening and reached over and finally found the trim wheel again and got it trimmed up and it seemed to be holding angle of attack fairly well although probably just a little bit less than 20°.

As I got to 130,000 feet I reached over and turned the reaction control switch from auto to off. Reentry g started there. I had l g at that time, and then the reentry g came on 2, 3, 4, and 5. It didn't get above 5 so I didn't see g limiting, because all we got was 5. I came out level at 80,000 feet just prior to letting up pressure to keep from going back upstairs. I disengaged the angle of attack hold, opened up the speed brakes, and was level at an indicated 78,000 feet.

I had plenty of steam. I was something like 3200 or 3300 ft/sec in velocity. Rather than going ahead and switching on and checking heading hold right at that time, I flipped around to see just what my relative position was when NASA-l called out Cuddeback Lake. I decided to go ahead and load the airplane a little to kill off some of the energy.

I stuck the nose down just a bit and turned first lap, and then I got over the top of the runway when NASA-l said, "You're right on profile." I pulled it off to the right, and then brought it back around to the left. I got the speed brakes closed just as the airspeed, indicated, was showing between 300 and 350 knots and the velocity was down to about 1000 ft/sec or just above 1000 ft/sec. In the turn to downwind, I got the wings level, engaged roll hold, banked to about 35° bank angle, and let it go. It rolled back, and as soon as it gave an indication of roll in the opposite direction I disengaged the hold and switched over to getting off of the downwind leg so I could negotiate the landing. Then went ahead and jettisoned and flew on around the pattern.

It handled fine in the pattern. I used sidestick all the way down. I thought I touched down a little bit sooner than I did but it was coming down very nicely. The airplane handled beautifully. There was no problem in the landing. Right after touchdown I disengaged the adaptive system. I used back stick and left lateral control deflection, but I couldn't maintain a straight path on the runway. I seemed to veer off to the right.

Generally I was extremely pleased with the system. My only surprise was that the hold modes did not seem to grab and hold on as tight as I thought they should. However, I did have an indication that they were working; this coupled with my delay in getting over and trying to trim out in that particular situation in pitch or angle of attack may have added to my impression of the system. Again, the system was excellent right on through the landing. My comments are easily just as good as they were last time as far as the landing on adaptive dampers are concerned.

Just shortly after shutdown velocity indicated somewhere around 5300 ft/sec or something in that ballpark. I felt that I had a better profile from the quick look at my altitude and velocity than what I finally received from the ground.

On pitch it looked like no better than 3° or 4°, and it looked like about the same on angle of attack. Roll on the way up was very solid.

I don't know what your comments have been, Neil (Armstrong), concerning pitch on the trim wheel but in the simulator, with your bare hand it is easier. Sometimes you engage the angle of attack hold when you've been on pitch hold, and if you attempt to adjust the pitch trim the wheel will scuff your skin because it is really spinning. With the gloves on plus the fact that I can't see the trim wheel in my position I just can't look down and touch it. In the simulator I feel as if the trim wheel is raised above the level of the panel sufficiently, but in the airplane it feels as if it would be nice to have something sticking up there so my hand could run into it. Perhaps this is going to require a little training on the pilot's part to develop a sense of feel as to which way to move, but I was invariably out of position. Perhaps if the wheel was moved further forward and to the left, and I could get over further to the right and to the rear I could reach it more easily.

The radio was excellent throughout the entire flight and in every phase. When I got up to altitude, and I got down to low pressure in the cockpit it sounded to me like I was speaking from the bottom of a barrel. Once or twice the B-52 said something about not reading me, but aside from that and during the flight it was just excellent. I had the feeling that everyone could hear me very well.

I did look around quite a bit, and I was a little disappointed because of all the low clouds that obscured the coast line. I took a couple of definite looks because I wanted to try and scan up further north, and down along the Mexican coast, and pick out some places, but the cloud cover was so extensive that I couldn't really do that. Then too, when you're up there it feels like everything's right under the nose. It was reassuring again to hear ground saying you're right on profile and track. That eliminates any concern on the pilot's part for sure.

I wasn't aware of any suit inflation. Nothing attracted my attention to see what cabin altitude was; so I really can't make any comment about it on this point.

Question: Did you ever use CSS?

P.C.: No, I'm sorry I didn't. As a matter of fact, I thought about this before the flight, and I felt in the simulator we usually knock off the profile practice each time before we get down to that last step. However, I had to make a turn to load up the airplane with g to try and kill off excess energy, I didn't want to increase the stick forces as they were high enough as it was. I just barely managed to get in what I thought was a reasonable look at the heading hold. It would roll me over to an opposite bank angle and I quit immediately because I was negotiating the traffic pattern.

My operation the last couple of flights was not to give them a light before I dropped.

Comment: (Butchart) Well, I had my hand on the switch from about 20 seconds on and I figured well I'll just keep my eyes on that gage and see when your igniter pressure comes up. I get used to how fast the igniter pressure comes up. The pressure takes a fast drop, and then it slows up, and goes by 3000 psi. The pressure stabilized and I had it timed just right. About the time you said you lifted it I put the switch in and it felt like I dropped you .

White: When I went to pump idle I got the pressures up. I checked .everything and was satisfied with it. I looked up at the clock again, and there were 3 seconds to go. To me, that is just enough time to reach over and lift the guard on the switch and throw it.

Shortly after the 5 minute call the B-52 called, "Top off complete" so I went ahead and started to pressurize the tank. This is a little bit early because we normally don't go into the pressurizing the tank until 4 minutes before drop, but I like to get the tanks pressurized right after he says "top-off." If no one has any objections that's what I did, and I will probably be inclined to do it again that way.

Comment: (Butchart) Originally, with the -11 engines, we used to reach top-off and pressurize. When we changed to the -99 operation it was NAA's feelings that we should leave a minute in there before we finished topping-off to pressurize. It has happened many times that I have had to cheat, and topping-off you'd get ready to pressurize, and I'd say, "yeh it's closed, it's off." They were probably worried about liquid being off or up against that valve that it might not work, but it's doing fine. Just think of all the times I have topped off in this way. In fact, I feel like you do, that its better to stay ahead on the checklist up to within a minute or so.

White: After the 7 minute point I wanted to make sure the B-52 had gone to inertial in azimuth, so I could start taking a close look, particularly when he rolls out on launch heading, I feel that's my best check if we have any discrepancy.

The B-52 kept calling out his heading, so I didn't worry about the small discrepancy until he went to inertial.