Launch: Hidden Hills on magnetic heading 212°, MH-96 Adaptive, R.C. "OFF", BCS "OFF", heading vernier "Standby", ventral off.

Launch Point Coordinates: 36° 20' N; 115° 59' 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 0 "g". (H-dot = 700 fps)

4. Reduce to minimum thrust ( » 40%). Modulate speed brakes to maintain slow longitudinal acceleration.

5. Increase a to maintain H-dot » 50 ft/sec.

6. Burnout. Retract speed brakes, maintain H » 71,000' until V = 3400 ft/sec.

7. Engage f hold and a hold.

8. Roll to 30° left bank then release stick force. Roll to 30° right bank then release stick force.

9. Disengage hold modes. Set up a rate of descent of » 400 ft/sec.

10. Switch to fixed gain in Yaw, Roll and Pitch at pilot's discretion, perform control inputs in all three axes.

11. Switch to adaptive in Pitch, Roll and Yaw. Vector to High Key, speed brakes as required.

P.C.: During the prelaunch phase everything was really without incident. The only comment I have is on the radio - I just felt like I was talking in a triple tone.

B. Was the launch accomplished without incident?

P.C.: The prelaunch went without incident. During the launch I got more roll-off than I had expected with the system. I don't think I was holding in any right aileron at the time but it sure went off to the right. Just about the time I was pulling up I had to correct for this also. I was under the impression that you got almost no roll-off whatsoever with the MH-96 system and I guess any little bit that I got was a surprise - probably magnifying itself. But, there was no trouble in correcting for it and pulling up on to the profile at the same time.

Concerning the high a at launch, this may have been due to the rate command system because in the past with the other airplane, and this always stays with you, you really have to pull it back right after launch to get your required angle of attack for climb. With the attitude command system 10° - 12° a is one whale of a lot to try and pull in all at one time. However, with this system - I don't know when I went by 10°, but the next time I looked up I was reading about 18°. I eased it down, she went below 10°, and I started accelerating out. There was no trouble to hold 8°. I finally steadied on 8° because the call-out from ground control stated that I was coming up on theta pretty nicely. All my check points looked pretty good, so I held 8° and pushed over on velocity.

During the high a pullup I didn't get a bit of buffet at all. In fact, I was looking for this when I saw the high angle of attack and this was one thing that prompted me to disbelieve what I was reading on the alpha gage at the time. Of course I may have been supersonic, but at the time I didn't think I was, how it could happen so fast?

P.C.: I would say that it was very similar to the simulator except for this one point on the pull-up. On the pushover it was somewhat better to fly than the simulator because of the lack of tendency to hunt around the O "g" portion of the run.

Holding a pitch attitude is lots easier with this system than the other. The reason I say this, is because once I was stabilized I could make angle of attack or even acceleration do precisely whatever I wanted it to do. I think it was more in the system itself - in the MH system - than say practice on the simulator. In other words, in order to stabilize on dynamic pressure we were playing small increments of say 1/2° angle of attack and you could ask for it and get it in this bird. I think the records will show that. On this type of mission, depending on the initial H-dot, the airplane can dive at 3°, it can fly level at 3°, and it can climb at 3°, and to do anything with it you have to get at least 1/2° a above this. This is exactly the way we played it, and thinking back on airplanes #l and #2, I believe they were quite a bit more difficult to handle in these small angle of attack increments.

B. Was any change noted in the control characteristics during the heating run? (66,000 < H < 71,000 ft, 3600 < V < 4200 fps 0° < a < 3°)

P.C.: During the heating run with the control system in #3 it was quite a bit easier to maintain a certain set of aerodynamic conditions than with the standard control system. There was virtually no problem at all.

I had intended to take my feet off the rudder pedals on launch, and I'm sure they were sitting back - I checked beta once in awhile, and it was pretty well centered. When we dropped we were a fraction off on the right yaw direction but I don't think this was the airplane. I watched heading during the pushover and it seemed to me every time I looked at it I was indicating about 210 . This is probably what threw me off to the left a little bit, but we weren't worrying about these small increments and during the stabilized heating portion I didn't make any attempt to get back on heading. It required all my attention concentrating on angle of attack and Mach number. Also, if you pull this baby around and try to get a 2° change in heading at Mach 4, your drag is going to go up.

C. Rate the piloting task during the heating run.

q 2.5 , f 2.5 , y 2.5 .

P.C.: I'd rate the piloting task as shown. On this particular first flight there was also a matter of getting used to the airplane, but it was a very simple task. It's my philosophy that you can't class anything as 1 because if you rate something as 1 then it means it is completely perfect, that there's no room for improvement and I think there's always room for improvement.

P.C.: I did not have a chance to do any of these outer-loop holds, and roll maneuvers, or the pulses either.

D. Describe the airplane response resulting from pulse type control inputs with dampers on fixed gain.

P.C.: I also didn't have a chance to try fixed gain. However, coming around down wind I was using alpha and roll hold intermittently with a couple of shots at the CSS steering. During this time I was maneuvering to get downwind, and letting the hold modes carry me through which seemed to help very much. I had just taken my eye off the switch that I had activated, on alpha hold, and was watching the angle of attack indicator, and got the call-out to watch alpha as I was going subsonic. Being in the hold mode at this time helped me to look around and observe these conditions a lot better, particularly under the 2 to 2-1/2 "g" pull-in to the downwind leg there. It made the task of flying somewhat easier.

I can truthfully say I didn't really give the system the real evaluation that I had intended to. This was too much of a high energy flight coming out of Hidden Hills.

C. Rate the pilot control task following pulse inputs.

P.C.: I didn't do any of the pulses but as far as the pilot task during the downwind portion when I was in different hold modes, it certainly made the task a lot easier.

I don't know whether I could really put a rating on these sort of things right now because I was sort of maneuvering the airplane around. I couldn't really get a real relative difference there.

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

P.C.: It's a lot simpler with this airplane on approach, but trying to get this babe on the ground takes will power. I guess you just have to readjust your way that you're used to - using speed stability for landing. But actually looking back, it wasn't such a big chore.

The only concern was that I was afraid, at one point, I was going to get the airplane a little slow. Chase 3, when he said I was 5 feet in the air, I could have sworn I was at least 15. At that time I looked at the speed indicator and I was going down through 180 knots, so I thought, I'd better get it on the ground, and I eased over and, like I stated previously, you can put real good small inputs in here. This is where it pays off - close to the ground. You have a tendency to sit there and float, but once you do make a correction you don't have the tendency to over-control like you do in the other birds. I didn't have this floating tendency due to a control input, and then have to take some out. It wasn't particularly a ballooning, the airplane just seemed to want to sit there and fly regardless of the air speed. You just have to set up a certain attitude and just let the airplane settle. And this is what you do in the other birds, except you're just not conscious of it. But the approach and the turn into final and everything right down to the flare was simpler with this system than it was with airplanes #l and #2. And with a little more practice as far as the actual touchdown phase I think it might improve in the future.