Launch: Hidden Hills on magnetic heading 230°, MH-96 Adaptive, R.C. "OFF", BCS "OFF", heading vernier "Standby", ventral off.

Launch Point Coordinates: 35° 55' N; 115° 09' W.

1. Launch, light engine, increase to 100%T. Rotate at 10° a until q = 20°.

2. q = 20° - Maintain q = 20°.

3. Pushover to O "g".

4. Reduce to minimum thrust (42%).

5. Modulate speed brakes ( » 35°) to maintain slow longitudinal acceleration. Increase a to maintain H = 75,000 ft.

6. Burnout. Retract speed brakes, maintain H = 75,000 ft.

7. Roll to » 70° left bank, increase a to 11°, maintain H-dot = 0.

8. Roll level, extend speed brakes to 35°, descend at » 40O ft/sec.

9. Roll to » 60° right bank, vector to high key (mag. heading 230°). Speed brakes as required. Engine master OFF. Roll and Yaw damper off - pilot option.

10. High Key.

P.C.: Prelaunch was accomplished without any real incident except for this 25° stabilizer indication at the end of the MH-96 analyzer check, and I retrimmed back to zero.

B. Was the launch accomplished without incident?

P.C.: Launch was fine. I rolled off, I believe a little to the right and then over-corrected to the left. I'm not sure that I was doing this or it was the roll hold, but when I glanced at the compass again it was right on. Note: Date indicates "Roll Hold" disengaged at launch. By the time I got the engine lit I was already up to 10° a and I held this all during this time. Even when NASA 1 called that I was low I still had 10°. I dropped off a little bit to about 8°a and then came on in again, and I may have been a second or so late on getting theta.

P.C.: The boost phase compared real well with the planned profile according to my internal time. The only place it seemed to vary was in the region from about 71,000 ft. on up. I still had higher H-dot than I should have had, so I came back on the throttle early, at about 4600 ft/sec instead of waiting until 4700 ft/sec. I think I was a second or so early on my clock and from there on just let it accelerate up to about 5000 ft/sec. I started the speed brakes out just prior to 5000 ft/sec and had only gotten them out about 20 degrees when the engine shut down. Shutdown according to my clock occurred at 88 seconds.

B. Was any change noted in the directional control characteristics during the heating run? (H » 75,000 ft, 4800 < V < 5050 fps, 0° < a < 3°)

P.C.: There was really no control problem at all. There was no indication of a change in the directional control characteristic during this fairly short, what I'd call, stabilized period. I didn't use the rudder at all and even had my feet back off the rudder pedals.

C. Rate the piloting task during the heating run.

q 2.5 , f 2 , y 2.5 .

P.C.: The piloting task during the heating run in pitch, was about 2 1/2. It gets a little touchy there as far as the response you get, at this high q-Mach number combination. In roll there was no problem at all. I didn't even worry about it, so it would be about 2, I guess. And the directional control was no problem since I didn't try to do anything. That's about 2 1/2, I guess.

P.C.: In the power-off phase I got the brakes in fairly soon after shutdown, and then just sat there and waited. I started down, I remember, picking up some negative H-dot, so about that time I came in with some angle of attack, and shortly thereafter reached 400 ft/sec. and started the left turn.

The airplane, even in a 70° bank, felt more stable than it does on the simulator. In other words, you could go to a 70° bank and just forget about the bank attitude and concentrate on angle of attack.

B. Rate the pilot control task.

70° left bank q 2-2.5 , f 2.5 , y 2.5 .

60° right bank q 2-2.5 , f 2.5 , y 2.5 .

P.C.: Holding angle of attack during this period was no problem at all, so again the rating would be between 2 and 2-1/2 in pitch. Roll still about 2-1/2, and again I didn't pay any attention to heading until I rolled out of the turn, so it was still good - about the same as the previous rating. I would assign all the same ratings for the right bank because by the time I rolled level, opened the brakes, and then checked to see how far I'd have to turn, I was only about l0° - 15° off heading at the most.

C. Compare the airplane response with the simulator during the "damper off" portion of the flight. Rate the pilot control task.

P.C.: I didn't get the dampers off because about the time I decided to turn them off NASA l began getting more and more concerned about how much energy I had, so I decided I'd look to see where I was, rolled over, saw Cuddeback, and intentionally headed off to the right of the lake so I could keep it in sight out the left window.

D. Was approach from high key and landing accomplished without incident?

P.C.: During the approach I was watching angle of attack to make sure I didn't go overboard on that, during the turn, and I never really did see anything higher than about 10° - 11°a. I was getting quite a bit of buffet in here so I finally - I had full brakes out by the way - I finally looked down at indicated air speed and I had 250 knots. I think I had somewhere in the order of 1-1/2 to 2.0 g at this time. I picked up air speed in excess of 300 knots after I closed the speed brakes and I was still getting buffet occasionally every time I'd pull some "g".