2. Maintain 2g until q = 38°, maintain q = 38°.

3. Shutdown. (Shutdown will be accomplished at 77 sec. or 5300 ft/sec, whichever occurs first) Maintain a » 6°.

4. ^·y switch to "^·y."

5. Peak altitude. Extend speed brakes to 20°. Maintain q » O° until a = 23°, maintain a = 23°.

6. ^·y switch to "STANDBY."

7. 5g - Maintain 5g (~g" limiting) until H-dot = -1000 ft/sec.

8. H-dot = -1000 ft/sec, pushover to a » 3°, extend speed brakes to 35°, vector to high key.

P.C.: Launch and engine start was accomplished without incident.

B. Was limit cycle noted during the roundout?

P.C.: Limit cycle was noted during the roundout and climbout.

P.C.: The only unusual event was being notified that the gamma seemed to be high, at which time I reduced q for a little bit and apparently got it back on the course.

B. Within what limits was the climb angle held?

P.C.: I was able to hold climb angle within a + . 5° without much difficulty once I had established it.

C. What pilot rating would you assign to the control task required for the climb? q 1 , f 1 , y 1 .

How would these ratings compare with simulator ratings of this portion of the flight? q 1.5-2.0 , f 1 , y 1 .

P.C.: I maneuvered to the heading change and followed with a bank angle; at the same time dinged around with this change in b without any strain so I'll rate it as shown. I would rate the simulator as shown, due to the difference in launch characteristics.

D. Note differences between the actual flight and the simulated climb profiles.

P.C.: Nope, I didn't notice any difference, I apparently faked everybody out by getting rotated and on the way expeditiously. There was at least 38° on q and I got there pretty quick too. Either that, or I homed in on 2g's on the roundout and managed to pick up q rotating in there.

E. Was the engine shutdown cue elapsed time, or inertial velocity?

P.C.: I didn't use the elapsed time or inertial velocity because I found out ahead of time I wasn't reaching the throttle, and it was just a case of getting hold of it any way, any time. I was rather thoroughly reminded that time had gone by because there seemed to be a lot of static inside the head set at the moment.

P.C.: I wouldn't say there were any distracting events during the ballistic portion of the flight. I thought the automatic R. C. system was not functioning and switched to manual R. C. on MH-96 and even then discovered that an unusual amount of control deflection was required in order to retain adequate ballistic control, for the amount of movement the pilot desired out of the airplane. I didn't try to use the manual BCS handle at any tine because after due experimentation, I discovered that I could get enough thrust to do the job I was after. So that control feature was unusual. While I was doing this, some kind of search light was shining in the right hand side of the cockpit instead of the left, and I discovered it was the moon shining. Half moon, by the way, the line was straight on the disc rather than curved convex or concave.

There was a right smart amount of miscellaneous material floating inside the cockpit, and it lasted for such an extended length of time that I decided it was probably the longest zero g I'd ever had. Also, I didn't get any unusual pitching sensation or vertigo when I looked down to check the speed brake degree of extension.

There was no trouble with visibility, I was able to view Los Angeles and the Antelope Valley and the base continuously through the descending part of the flight.

B. Comment on directional control utilizing the ^·y presentation.

P.C.: It would have been all right except that we didn't have it warmed up, so I didn't like the heading when it locked on. I didn't have any trouble determining when it actually started running either. There was a twitch in the needle. I was pretty busy working with the RCS system and as I had a good heading as it nulled on the indicator any way, I didn't get worried about recycling ^·y to lock it on where I wanted it. I agree that if you wanted to do some other task up there, the use of heading hold would be pretty handy. Otherwise, the thing will go drifting along with a very low rate which you wouldn't note in particular until some maximum amplitude had occurred. I'm positive this time I went no less than +20° in yaw at least once, but I wasn't interested in being excited about it at that point. However, at the time I started sloping back downhill I made certain to correct back to the original heading.

C. Did the automatic RC System function satisfactorily?

P.C.: See III. A.

D. Rate the pilot control task required to trim the airplane attitude for the reentry. q 3 , f 1 , y 3 .

P.C.: I'll rate this task as shown. I didn't become aware of any actual amount of attention to roll once I had determined how much stick deflection I had to put in there to control it. Even with the pitch rate command I had to pay a considerable amount of attention to what was going on in the pitch axis in order to get the right amount of pitch rate and still not just sit there for a long time. I know it bothered the stabilizers, but I had to do it to get myself the proper angle of attack. Once I got that thing squared away and allowed the q to droop as long as I held on to plus a and finally worked my way up gradually, it all straightened out.

Angle of attack is easier to set in on the simulator. I was using pitch rate to be able to do it on the simulator but not to the same extent. I was very much aware of a greater tendency for the nose to drop down low in flight, than on the simulator.

P.C.: So, here we go. Now, part of this control task on y setting up for reentry was what I had deliberately left myself earlier by allowing it to wander around. I didn't have any trouble homing in on the indicated 210° I up flying on the climb and just barely got it there in time to go back to the b presentation. From that point on I didn't have any trouble directionally. In fact, it was so good I didn't notice any lateral acceleration and hence, wasn't aware of any cyclic action of the sideslip indicator. Finally, I had to zero the pitch rate in order to be able to steady on 23°a without considerable bucking of the control back and forth, so pitch control was more of a problem just due to the fact that you want to be pretty careful to hang on accurately during the build up on q.

Now, I noticed this time, a little bit of longitudinal acceleration cycling as I jittered up and down in angle of attack. Once I stayed on a, it quit. It wasn't much, but it was the oscillation that brought my attention to it. It's just like when the engine on your car is irregular, like when your timing tries to jump back and forth between advance and retard.

B. Rate the pilot control task required to accomplish the reentry.

(Early) q 1.5 , f 3 , y 1 .

(Later) q 1 , f 1 , y 1 .

Simulator q 2 , f 3.5 , y 1.5 .

P.C.: I worked that roll control a right smart, in fact, that was my major control task. In contrast to previously trying to do something about a sideslip oscillation, counteracting the rocking action was what I was doing this time. Roll rate didn't get very high, but there was a reasonable amount of amplitude involved which was the reason I did something about it with the control stick.

I was flying roll rate by my rotary sensation and the roll rate and attitude indicators. I didn't have time to look for the horizon. It was surprising but this oscillation didn't seem to change with velocity. It started with a real low q and continued until we were well up on g in the entry. I'll rate the flight and simulator control task as shown.

C. Estimate the maximum stabilizer required for trim during the initial phase of the reentry.

P.C.: See III. D. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Stabilizers were at full deflection four times during the initial portion of the entry.).

D. What was the indicated maximum q on the reentry?

P.C.: I'd guess it was 1900 q, however there's a change in calibrations, but I know it was higher than 1500 q. Maximum q was not on the reentry, but rather on the push over for energy management after the initial part of the pull out. This was after I had ceased attempting to rotate other than with full speed brakes and deliberately had the nose down. We couldn't have been any higher than about 1000 q during the entry.

E. Comment on the flight energy management situation, as compared with the simulator.

P.C.: The flight energy management situation, I fully believe, compared favorably with the simulator. I came sliding right down the pike towards Edwards.

q 1 , f 1 , y 1 .

P.C.: The whole sequence went on practically together. I pushed down, looked at the vertical velocity and saw that was still just below 1000 fps and coming back. I reached down and turned the RCS off so I wouldn't accidentally forget and throw away all the peroxide. I went on over and heaved back on the speed brakes because as far as I could see there wasn't any panic on whether I had an extra second or two, and charged on with it. I'll rate it as shown.

Of course, the fact that I lost the generator up there, that's a slight distraction. It makes controlling the airplane hard with the necessity of trying to reset.

B. Note any unusual and/or distracting events during the approach and landing.

P.C.: The only distracting event was further loss of hydraulic pressure.

I really used the rudder because I made a small "S" turn just coming on to final and did a little repositioning in order to align over the runway.