Military Visual izations Northr rop T-38A Quick Start Guide Version 1.3
Welcome, Lieutenant to the T 38. You have shown that you may have the stuff to be a combat pilot in fighters or bombers. However, first you have to prove yourself in the White Rocket. I am Captain Joe Buzz. I will be your IP. This is what is known as your familiarization or dollar ride. In this briefing we will discuss the basics of the Milviz T 38A and how to quickly start and fly the jet. This briefing will not replacee the Dash 1 or POH that came with the jet. We will only touch upon the must know points. The POH will provide you with in depth information to properly fly the T 38A. When we get to the jet, you will seee that she is fueled with 3790 pounds or 583 gallons of useable fuel for a gross weight of 11,800 lbs. at takeoff. If you really want to fly the Milviz T 38 like a USAF pilot, make sure your FSX realism settingss are set to high. I would turn off G effects, it sucks and you have a G Suit, anyway. Once the exterior pre flight checklist is accomplished, we will strap in and start engines. Engine starting in the T 38A is easy. Huffer (ground air cart) [SHIFT 3] will supply the starting air, since the T 38 doesn t have an APU. Make sure your Battery, Generators and Fuel Cut Off switches are all on. You will start with the right engine first. Lift the throttle finger latch and push the throttle to Idle. Push the right start engine button (Fig 1 ) and move the Throttle to 12%. After it spins up and stabilizes, you will start the left engine. After completing the checklists and checking the controls, wee will taxi to takeoff. About 60% rpm should be all you need to taxi. Don t go over 80%. It is a good idea to set the ADI to 2.5 Nose Low. (A Tooltip will help you.) This will make holding altitude a lot easier in the air. When we are cleared to take off, taxi into position, hold the brakes as you run the engines up. Release brakes then smoothly go into afterburners. You will see the nozzles swing to show good burners. Our Take Off and Landing Data (TOLD) today shows that our refusal speed if we have to abort will be 116 kts. Once past 116 kts, we will be going. Rotate at 135 kts, and she will lift off around 155kts. After liftoff you want to boresight the ADI at 5 (2.5 3 if set ADI) as you raise the gear and the flaps. Come out of afterburners before 300kts. Initial climb out will be at 12 15% on the ADI and 300 kts. We will then head to the MOA (Military Operating Area) to do some area work and burn off fuel. In the MOA we will get accustomed to the jet by doing some slow flight, stalls and a little acrobatics. The slow flight and stalls will allow you to feel how the jet handles in approach and landing. You will see that landing this bird is somewhat different from many other airplanes you may have flown. The first thing you need to know is that the wings on this airplane have very little lift to them. This means that if you bank the airplane, it will not turn on its ownn or you will get little turning. You have to pull the jet through the turn. So the technique is to roll and then pull. At first you will find yourself losing 2
altitude. You will then probably pull too hard and go into an accelerated stall buffet. Don t worry, with practice you will learn to make smooth, level turns. Slow Flight For slow flight we will drop the gear and flaps, and slow (after doing clearing turns) to about 200kts or the green donut on the AOA indexer. This is 0.6 on the AOA gauge. It will take about 93% rpm. I want you to maintain level flight, while making 90 turns to the left and right. Doing this gives you a feel for the jet at slow and dirty flight. After getting a feel for the jet s handling, you will slowly pull power to idle while maintaining level flight. This will cause you to pull more and more back pressure. Feel the buffet increase and the slow AOA chevron appear. The wings will then rock, and you will notice the VVI showing about 4 6000 FPM decent. You are stalled. Release back pressure, let the nose drop, and bring the throttles back in to break the stall. Acrobatics After the stalls, you will be at the bottom of the MOA. We will go to MIL power, unload the jet by pushing the nose over, and accelerate to 500kts. Smoothly bring the stick back to pull 4 5 Gs, then pick up the Green Donut. As you go over the top inverted, let the nose drop until the canopy bow reaches the horizon, then roll wings level to complete the Immelmann. Barrel rolls are excellent maneuvers to practice stick and rudder coordination. To perform the barrel roll in the T 38, pick a cloud or other aircraft about 30 45 degrees off the nose. Using 95% rpm and 400kts, smoothly raise the nose and bank to circumscribe a circle around the object. You will usually need top rudder on the bottom to keep the nose in place. If we find ourselves at the top of the MOA block when ready to depart, we will quickly lose 10,000 feet or so by doing a Split S. The entry airspeed for the Split S is 200 kts. You will roll inverted and pull on the AOA. As airspeed builds you will find yourself pulling 4.5 to 5 Gs on the pullout. Penetration On leaving the MOA I want you to descend at 280 kts and 80% power. In a clean configuration, this will give us about 5 nose down. To hurry down, pop the Speed Brakes and 10 nose low will provide us with about 280 kts. Once at altitude, 85% rpm and clean will hold 220 250 kts. Approach You will need to get the jet configured for landing. Once the airplane is at 240 kts or below, you will drop the landing gear. Check for three green, to indicate down and locked. Select 60% flaps and slow to approach speed which will be 155 kts plus 1 knot for every 100 lbs over 1000 #s of fuel. A decent ballpark number will be about 170 180 kts. RPM set to 90 92% should hold that speed. 3
We will set up for a straight in ILS to a touch and go landing. To fly the ILS you need to understand the operation of the T 38 s flight director system. It consists of three cockpit components, four if you consider the radios. You have the ADI and HSI (Fig 2 ). You also have the Steering and navigation Mode switches. (Fig 3) I know that is four. However the Steering Mode switch will be in Normal, and that is where you will leave it for this flight, so I didn t count it. The threee position Nav mode switch will be used for the ILS. We will walk through the procedure. A detailed explanation of the Flight Director System and its operation can be found on pages 77 94 of the POH. The nav switch can be set to TACAN, LOCALIZER, or ILS. Whenn set to TACAN and the Number 2 radio is set on a TACAN station in range, the bearing pointer will point to the station. The T 38A did not have a UHF Nav radio. The Milviz T 38 TACAN radio is faithful to the original T 38A and is UHF only. Most VHF Nav frequencies are attached to a TACAN channel. So if you need to dial in 109.8 you would use channel 28. The Milviz POH has a listing of the TACAN to VHF freqs table on pages 113 114. They are also on the Kneepad. (Shift F10) To fly the ILS we use a direct VHF frequency. It is dialed into the ILS receiver ( NAV1). The LOCALIZER position of the Nav Mode Switch will tell the Flight Director what to display on the HSI course information. So too fly the ILS you will: 1. Dial in the ILS freq. 2. Turn the Nave Mode Switch to LOCALIZER. 3. Set the approach course in the course window off the HSI with the course Knob. Now the HSI and ADI steering bars will show us where the course is in relation to the jet.. If the jet is to the right of the course the steering bar will be to the left of the airplane symbol on the HSI(Fig 2). If we turn so the bank steering bar on the ADI is centered, it will take uss to the proper courseline. The glidepath will be indicated by the marker on the left side of the ADI. Once established on glidepath, set ILS on the Nav Mode Switch and the Pitch steering bar will drop down into view. If you keep the two bars centered (Bank & Pitch) it will bring you down the glidepath. At 500 feet AGL, go visual and land. 4
Landing The number one thing to remember about landing the T 38 is that without power she flies as well as the stock market during a recession. Most student pilots want to pull power too soon. You must fly the T 38 all the way to the runway and to a complete stop. She is not a Navy jet that lands in a controlled crash. Nor is she a thick wing GA airplane that you can glide into a landing. You must fly the T 38 to the runway, flaring at the end so as to flatten the flightpath, and touch down with less than a 500 fpm descent. To fly a successful pattern and landing you will need to carry 90 93% power and aim at the threshold. As you approach the runway, smoothly pull to idle just before touchdown, allowing the jet to settle to the runway. As the throttles are retarded, increased back pressure is applied to maintain attitude. The secret is in when and how to pull the power. The Milviz POH contains a detailed explanation starting on page 129 on landing techniques. One technique is to gradually pull power just as or before the pitot tube tip crosses the runway threshold. This will be about halfway down the overrun. This picture will change slightly depending on your seat height. To really get good at landing, be sure to read the detailed landing techniques in the POH. I am also giving you some pictures taken of an overhead approach to give you an idea of what to look for up there. The hardest thing about flying this aircraft is landing it properly. Real world pilot students can take 15 or more sorties to get it right. This is after some 80 90 hours in Primary. After the touch and go, we will request a closed pattern. If we get permission, we will clean up the gear and flaps, accelerate to 260 kts (no less than 240kts) using MIL, roll to 45 degrees of bank, and make a 180 2 G climbing turn. (Think Pitch Back.) We want to roll out 1500 ft. AGL and 1 1.25 miles abeam the runway in our downwind at around 240 kts but no slower than 200kts. To gauge this distance look at the canopy rail and pick a point about 4 inches above the canopy rail. The runway should be located at that height on the canopy. Drop the gear and flaps to full, making sure they are both coming down evenly. The perch is located at a 45 degree angle from the runway threshold and/or abeam your roll out point, which is 1.25 to 1 mile from the end of the runway. You want to be 20 kts above your approach speed when you roll off the perch. (Remember approach speed will be 155 kts plus 1 knot for every 100 lbs over 1000 #s of fuel.) Roll 45 degrees and let the nose drop about 5 6 degrees. A good reference is 2/3 ground and 1/3 sky in the windscreen. Carry about 90 92%, power and pull backpressure until your get the on speed (Green donut) and.6 AOA) on the gauge. You will feel a slight buffet as you get on speed. Be careful not to get too slow. You will then drop like a rock and have to go around. You will vary bank to tighten or loosen the turn and line up with the runway. Be careful not to bank too much or you will start descending too fast. This is the most difficult part of flying the T 38. More accidents have happened on final turn than all of the rest combined. If you can t make the turn, go around. You want to roll out about 1 mile to 1.25 miles from the threshold and at 300 375 feet AGL. As you cross the overrun, shift your aim point halfway down the runway and as the pitot boom reaches your retard throttles point, smoothly pull power while adding back pressure to cut your descent rate. 5
As the gear touches, raise the nose 10 12 degrees high to aerobrake and bleed off airspeed to 100 kts. Around 100kts the nose gear will fall to the runway. Use the brakes to slow to taxi speed. Overhead Break If tower cannot give you a closed pattern we will fly straight out and circle around for the overhead. The overhead is flown at 280 300 kts and 1500 AGL ft. over the runway. At the midpoint start a 60 degree 2 G 180 level turn to arrive on downwind at 250 240 kts. The rest of the landing is the same as before. We will then come back here and debrief the sortie. Any questions? OK, let s get our chutes and gear. Takeoff is in 45 minutes. Here are some good to know numbers. One other thing before we head out to the bird. Those numbers I gave you. Well, the checklists, procedures and critical numbers are all on your FSX Kneepad. You don t have to use them. But, be prepared to give them back to me at standup. Let s go fly! 6
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T38A Numbers & Procedures Before Take Off Flaps 60% Trim set Take Off 145 KCAS Back Stick Pressure 5 NH 155 KCAS Nose wheel lift off 165 Airborne After Take Off Reduce throttles out of A/B 220 280 kts Maintain below 300 kts below 10,000MSL Climb 10 12 NH below 300 kts Above 10,000 MSL climb 400 kts MAX CLIMB AB 20 25 300 kts Level Off <6000 fpm Use 10% VVI >6000 fpm 1000' prior (if in AB use 2000') Cruise 1000 lbs fuel flow 300 kts Approach & Landing Glidepath 2.5 3.0 Gear at 240 kts Approach 180 160 kts Land 120 130 kts
Overhead Approach 300 kts & 1500' AGL Set power 90% 240 kts downwind Final turn airspeed 175 kts plus fuel Final turn 45 from touchdown point 6 8 nose down 0.6 AOA 45 bank VVI <2000 fpm Halfway point VVI 800 fpm Roll out 1 1.25 miles from end of runway Landing Throttle idle 10 12 NH Fly nose gear to runway at 100 kts Aerobatics Aileron Roll any airspeed Lazy 8 350 kts 95% Barrel roll 400 kts 95% Loop 500 kts Mil 200 kts through horizon 4.5 5. G pull Split S 200 kts Mil Cuban Eight 500 kts Mil Cloverleaf 450 kts Mil 2 3 G pull Immelmann 500 kts Mil 2