Flight 3-11-20
October 23, 1962
Pilot: Major Robert Rushworth
Everything seemed to go real normal on the prelaunch up to the point where I forgot to put the stable platform on internal. I thought we could get through that even again and I could catch up without any problem, but they added 2 minutes on the run and it didn't really make any difference.
I don't know when the circuit breaker popped, if it was the circuit breaker that controlled my launch switch, but it was a surprise when I hit the switch and I didn't get the jolt I expected to get. Then I couldn't get it even after I called for it. But I was already with the throttle when I did get the jolt and it seemed like I got a little delayed lite for some reason or another. I had the throttle on and up before I felt the acceleration, which was not like the rest of the launches I've had. It seems to come up quite slow.
The climbout, I went right up to about 14° and back down to 12° and held between 11° and 12° all the way up. Got up to about 28° attitude I guess, and I gave a little pulse on the stick and I tried it out. Never did settle down good on the 32° climbout. Checking the clock and I was there in plenty of time and pushed on over to 2° at 33 seconds. From that point on, my Mach 3 in altitude and time, Mach 4 altitude and time, and Mach 5 altitude and time, were all coming out just what I expected. Jack was calling me just a little bit high. Everything looked as good as I could have seen it on the simulator.
I got the feeling then I was going to get the speed I wanted before I got the time, so I just transferred over to speed and when I saw 5500 fps, I reached up and shut it down. It came out 80 seconds on the clock, right on the nose. I watched the altitude and I saw 132,000. I still had about a 200 fps climb. That was about the time I planned to start pulling up on angle of attack. This all went along real good, I got the dampers to fix, gave a little pulse which didn't hardly move the airplane. I saw sideslip indicator moving back and forth, probably about ± 1/2° or a little more, which looked normal for what I expected. I got to 15° and shut the yaw damper off and gave it a little pulse. I got less out of it then what I expected to get, maybe I didn't pulse it as hard as I had been in the simulator.
Then for some reason or another, the angle of attack dropped on me. I think I may have pulsed it and got it to oscillating a little bit. Got down to 12°, I started it back up with trim wheel. I reached down to shutoff the roll damper at the same time, and I felt the out of trim condition when the roll damper went off. I also got the roll off. I tried to stop it and get a pulse in at the same time. I tried to let go of the stick, but it continued to roll away from what I wanted so I held on to the stick. I think I spent all the time then making sure that I had the right displacement to keep the airplane from rolling rather than getting any pulses in.
I got the speed brakes out a little bit earlier on Jack's call that we were a little high on energy. I started down hill at about 12° and realized that I had already gone by China Lake and I had too much energy, so I just pushed it on over to 5° with the speed brakes out and the dampers back on. When the dampers came on again, of course, holding the displacement in roll, the dampers trimmed it up and I rolled back off the other way. It was off trim in roll I later found out, when I got down between Mach 1 and Mach 2, the MH system was off trim and I had to roll the roll trim knob to somewhere between 1 and 2 o'clock. I left it set right there on the ground to keep wings level there. I shut the dampers off twice at low speed between Mach 1 and Mach 2, one time, and got a sharp roll off. I did it again at about .85 and got a sharp roll off. Also I got pulses there. Everything else seemed to be working real good all the way around. I got a check on cabin altitude at the top and it was holding real good.
Rushworth: Aileron. The first one was rudder and the next two were aileron.
Question: Those big ones were rudder pulses?
Question: How was the runway, Bob?
Rushworth: It looked real good when I touched down, but I think I touched down pretty fast about 220. I didn't get any feeling at all. In fact, after I couldn't control it anymore, I quit looking. I did get the MH system off very shortly after the nose came down. I had full control both ways trying to keep it straight. I don't remember which way I was trying to direct now.
Question: Bob .......... end of fuel, .......... did you get any roll off or burnout?
Rushworth: I didn't notice anything, I'm pretty sure I shut the engine down because I pulled it back to 50% and then shut it off. I felt a very small decrease in acceleration.
Question: How high angle of attack did you say you had with the roll dampers off?
Rushworth: The first one. Yes, about l2 with all the dampers on. The first one was 15° and the second one was right around 12°.
Question: Was it easily controllable?
Rushworth: It was controllable, it was kind of loose.
Question: You didn't experience any vibration in other words, like we did?
Rushworth: No, I got a vibration on the climbout somewhere. Real high frequency, probably the same thing from the flight control system. It was somewhere along about 20 seconds that I gave the airplane a pulse input.
Question: Did you get any limit cycle?
Rushworth: No, I didn't get any limit cycle again. It was way high, 20 cycles. It was that high frequency 15 to 20. It was light buffet.
Question: No buffet on this flight, Bob?
Rushworth: Yes, I did get vibration when I pulsed it. I saw the angle of attack coming down from 14, back on down to about 12, and I gave it a little jab. Then that's when I got it! Somewhere along about 15 to 20 seconds.
Question: How about on the final pattern?
Rushworth: No, nothing in the pattern, everything was real smooth.
Question: Feel like the simulator?
Rushworth: It felt more like the simulator after we decreased it by 50% or in half. The oscillations weren't as prevalent. It just seemed to wander a little bit. There was no problem controlling it. I didn't really have a good chance to look at it because I was trying to hold the roll from going further. The one good sideslip that I did get, I could feel it, I didn't get a good look at it on the needle. I don't think it was too great. I didn't see any of the magnitude of sideslip that I saw on the simulator.
Question: Any of the sideslips too difficult?
Rushworth: It never caused me any concern that I had to go after it. The roll was the only thing that was causing me trouble.
Question: Did you get a?
Rushworth: Yes, 4°. I don't know why I got that point either. I don't think we were there long enough to make it a point.
Vensel: Jack, do you have any comments?
McKay: No, I don't have except, these initial time elements that we put in there, Bob, we could have worked all of them in a little earlier but thought we would wait for the outcome first. I told Wilson they were pretty adequate. Worked out pretty good.
Rushworth: Timing looked real good on it.
McKay: Then we asked you to go back and check it. Left out item 12 on my checklist. I could have sworn you stated this on the flight plan.
Rushworth: I think I got ahead there and skipped that completely. I got ahead on the checklist and just went by that. I wasn't doing things in order, I was just doing things that I knew had to be done right at that time and didn't look at the checklist and skipped it.
Question: How much more time did you have left before you launched?
Rushworth: I don't know, maybe 3 or 4 seconds elapsed before I hit the switch. I got the "ready to launch" lite on at least at the 5 second point because the minute I saw the stage 2 come up, I hit that. I reached over and I said "3, 2, l, launch" and then it was about 3, 4, or 5 seconds later before I was launched.
Vensel: Any comment for the launch panel, Butch?
Butchart: I just
want to add to what he said though I did hear you say something about "no-drop."
What you were saying is you hadn't dropped. The platform looked real good.