I was chatting with a flying friend on FB about his latest adventure. He has his own small airplane (Piper Cub style) and travels with a group that performs at airshows around the country. I decided to tell him about my flying adventure in Denver back in the '90's with my son. It brought back lots of fun memories, so, in case you're interested, I decided to post it here. It's a tad long so warm your coffee before you start, lol.
We flew in T-34 Mentors at Incredible Adventures in Denver. They're out of business now, but there are others. It was extremely cool (fun, not cold, lol.) My son would have been maybe 12. He flew in one plane and I in the other.
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They started with suiting us up in flight suits and helmets (The suits all had name tags. I think I selected "Top Gun," LOL.) Then we underwent an hour of flight training - mainly explaining flight dynamics/characteristics, angle of attack and tracking. I forget the names of the maneuvers, but they went over attacking from the rear and from the side. They covered one where you flew up, then rolled over and came down on the enemy from the top. The other was diving down and coming up from under him. A number of basic maneuvers are explained here if you're interested.
https://https://tinyurl.com/ydrctsxh
The night before, I gave my son some instruction via Microsoft Flight Simulator. I showed him the Instrument Panel (cars call it the dashboard, lol) so that he would have an idea of what to watch. Things like the Horizon Indicator, Altimeter and Vertical Speed Indicator and touched on the Attitude Indicator, Didn't explain that one much, as I felt he could look out the window, lol. We wouldn't be going IFR - altho, by the end of the flight, we raced a thunderstorm back to Denver and flew thru some rain.
The actual pilot sat in the back and we sat in the front. There were two cameras - one facing us and one looking out front. The pilots handled the take-off and landings and also the throttle, while we did all the flying. Once we were at altitude (5,000' AGL or so,) they gave us the planes. First we practiced basic formation flying. That made me nervous, but we did well, one in front and one trailing. Every maneuver we did, we did twice, so that both pilots got to experience everything. I forger the maneuver name, but it involved the trailing aircraft (only trailing 20-30'? Pretty close, to me. And yes, we had parachutes, if I remember correctly,) dropping a bit and then 'sliding' from the right side to the left, or vice versa.
Once we got out to the practice area, we started. We each did the 4 basic maneuvers we had been taught. The pilots talked us thru it, but we did the flying. In the rear facing videos, you can see the pilot holding the hand-hold with one hand, while his other was on the throttle.
The idea was to come up behind the 'enemy' and shoot him down. The pilots would talk us into position as necessary, but basically left us alone. Once both pilots said "Attack On," the pursuit plane started homing in on the enemy. When you felt you had him, you pulled the trigger on the stick and you would hear the machine gun sound. I am not sure how they determined this, but If the front pilot felt you were on target, he would let go a stream of smoke (and you felt a rush of (GOT 'im! lol.). At that point, both pilots would announce "Attack off!." Then the rear pilot would say to his customer, "peel off right" (or left as warranted) and the pursuer would somewhat slowly turn away. If they felt you were NOT on target, the lead would release a series of 'dashes' instead of a steady stream, and we would try it again. Then we would switch positions so the other guy could do the same maneuver. About the only time the pilots took over the aircraft was when he had to roll and turn a little seriously to get into position for the next move. For example, after an attack, the front pilot would pull a 360° so he could get into position for his turn on the attack. Then he would give the stick back to his customer.
Four maneuvers each, then we headed back to Denver. As we got close to Denver airspace the pilots took over and finished the approach and landing, A 90° approach, right turn to downwind, turn to base, then final. We flew and landed in formation, altho I think we separated a little more at this phase.
Probably one of the more exciting things I've done. I have GOT to find that tape.
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It's 168 miles from the NM/Tex border to the NM/Az. border.
