“The people who succeed are the efficient few.  They are the few who have the ambition and will power to develop themselves.”

I went to Air Force UPT (Undergraduate Pilot Training) in 1978 at Laughlin AFB. I can’t remember the address of the house I lived in or the phone number, but I can still remember the BOLD FACE EMERGENCY PROCEDURES for the T-37 and T-38 jets I flew there.

I am going to share with you the first time I used the BOLD FACE EMERGENCY PROCEDURE for SPIN RECOVERY in a T-37. You will find that the lessons I learned that day, are the lessons you will find useful in your career and life.

The T-37 is one of the few jets in the Air Force inventory that can STALL (your airspeed gets too slow for the aircraft to fly and the jet will drop out of the sky) or SPIN (if you stall with incorrect control inputs the jet drops out of the sky and “spins” like a top on the way to the ground.) and the pilot can perform procedures to “recover” (get the aircraft flying again.) Unfortunately for a friend of mine who was flying a T-38 a few weeks before my incident took place. Tom somehow got his jet in a stall and the jet crashed killing Tom and an Iranian student pilot who was sitting in the back seat. T-38’s cannot be recovered from stalls or spins.

On CONTACT training missions, you fly to the practice area to practice various acrobatic maneuvers. Loops, Barrel Rolls, Cuban Eights, Immelmans, Split “S”s, Aileron Rolls and every other maneuver you’ve ever seen at an air show are practiced to perfection. Since the T-37 is the first jet you learn to fly and as I’ve already mentioned, accidents happen, one of the first things you learn is stall recognition and recovery, spin recognition, prevention and recovery.

This is my first contact mission and this is a dream come true.  I have wanted to be an Air Force Fighter Pilot since childhood.  I have wanted to fly since the age of two and here I am, about to go and do what all my childhood heroes have done, I am thrilled, but I now know that pilots die doing this stuff and I’m feeling some of the nervousness I used to feel when I was getting on a roller-coaster ride (unfortunately 3,000 hours of high performance jet time ruins you for the thrill of a roller-coaster).

I’m in the practice area; I set up for spin entry.  I have to do a Power-On-Stall and put in all my rudder to get the jet into a spin.  When she goes, she goes fast and I’m surprised how violent the entry is.  The nose of the jet drops fast and begins to spin.  In the movies it always looked so gentle, here in reality she starts spinning fast and even though the nose stays low pointing at the ground, I’m also surprised at how hard the nose is bobbing around.  I studied hard to prepare for this, read the manual thoroughly and memorized the BOLD FACE PROCEDURES as I was required to do.  I begin reciting the BOLD FACE out loud; I can hear my own voice coming from the microphone in my oxygen mask, piped to the headset in my helmet.  I can hear my breathing in the mask and I can hear the loud click of the inhalation/exhalation switch in my mask as in switches from allowing me to breathe O₂ to exhaling CO₂.  I notice that the clicks are coming quicker than they were before.  The spinning quickens and the nose stays pointed more or less at the earth. I know from my study that I have stabilized in a spin and I also know that only the procedures I have memorized, performed correctly will get me out of this spin.

I hear myself saying as my arms and legs are moving in synchronization to:

1. Throttles – Idle

2. Rudder and Aielerons- Neutral

3. Stick- Abruptly Full AFT and Hold

4. Rudder- Abruptly apply Full Rudder opposite spin direction opposite turn needle and HOLD

5. Stick – Abruptly apply FULL FORWARD one turn after applying Rudder

6. Controls- Neutral After Spinning Stops, Recover from Dive

Unfortunately, things didn’t go the way I thought they would. I MESSED UP! Before I realized what was happening the jet flipped over on her back.  I’m now hanging in my parachute harness, my helmet is up against the canopy glass, the jet is now spinning twice as fast as before and the earth is going by in a blur, but I can tell that the earth is rising rapidly toward me with what appears to me every intention on smiting me.  This analysis is going through my head while I simultaneously realize that I have to repeat the procedure… Fast and with as quickly as the earth is coming for me, I know I only have one more shot at it before I join my buddy Tom in that great big “Officers Club in the Sky.”

But at that thought, something FAR…FAR… WORSE happens!  I hear a voice in my helmet saying… “I have the aircraft”!  It is my IP (Instructor Pilot) and when he says those words, I, the STUD (Student Pilot), am required by the “Rules of Engagement” (ROE) to relinquish the controls to him.  Now I have nothing better to do than hang in my parachute harness and watch him flawlessly execute the procedures I had just performed.  The most noticeably difference was he did them 10 times faster!  He was reciting the BOLD FACE out loud just as I had, but only at RAPID FIRE!  He also finished the procedure long before he could finish the 43 words!

When he got the aircraft back straight and level he said… “You have the aircraft” … I said “I have the Aircraft” and shake the stick to demonstrate I’m flying the aircraft.  Once again following the required ROE.  He asked how I liked my first spin and I told him it was definitely an E ticket Ride!!!  He is laughing in my headset and I realize that all of this has been a test of character, more than a test of my following procedure.  The Air Force wants to know that the pilots it selects to fly the Multi-Million dollar Aircraft in combat can stay clam, cool and collected even when they may be about to meet their maker.  When this realization flashed in my head I added”…that was fun… I want to do it again, only better this time.”...And I did!

There are Five Lessons I want you to learn from my experience:

1. Procedures Work:  Performed correctly the procedures, outlined in the IFPA Manual will keep you out of trouble and keep your clients safe.

2. Know Your Stuff:  Despite hours spent on studying, the books are not the same as real life.  You have to DO IT in order to really KNOW IT!

3. GIVE 100% ALL-THE-TIME:  You have to give your best, be your best, try your best with each and every training session. Timid, lazy and half hearted attempts will get you in trouble, lose you clients and ruin your reputation, career and business.

4. DON’T PANIC:   The reason you learn your procedures is so you will be prepared and will always know what to do when any problem or emergency arise.

5. STRAP IT ON TIGHT! :  For the rest of my flying career, I always strapped the jet on tight.  The jet was an extension of me, it would do what I wanted, when I wanted and would go where I wanted. I was NEVER going to hear those words again:  “I have the Aircraft!”  It was my aircraft, I was in command… PERIOD!

You to have to make the same commitment to your career.  You to have to take personal responsibility for every aspect of your business.  You have to control your client’s needs, goals and gains.  You have to control all aspects of both their success and your success.  You have to control your career, your business and most importantly… yourself.

Jim Bell, PhDc.

President, IFPA