aloft
New Member
Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take my camera in with me to capture proof, but I got a little over an hour in an F-16 sim at Luke AFB today. My CFI for my private ticket is going through initial F-16 training there and was my IP for the afternoon.
It wasn't a full-motion sim (no such thing in the F-16 community), but it had a field of view of about 160 degrees, and the cockpit was all actual F-16 hardware, meaning they could take it out of the sim and plug it in a real jet and go fly.
After takeoff, I flew a surface attack profile, attacking the simulated Luke AFB: made 2 level Mk 82 drops, two pop-up drops, and two strafing runs (one on the tower
). Then off to join up on a tanker for gas (much harder than it looks), and some air-to-air intercepts against a MiG-29, learning how to "play the piccolo" (all the controls on the stick and throttle), working the radar, and shwacking one MiG. Then some low-level nap-of-the-earth through some mountains and finally an ILS back into Luke. (Funniest thing of the experience: the F-16's flight director--such as it is, and used only for approaches--is called "Herm the Sperm"
)
It was a total blast, definitely an E ticket ride.
It wasn't a full-motion sim (no such thing in the F-16 community), but it had a field of view of about 160 degrees, and the cockpit was all actual F-16 hardware, meaning they could take it out of the sim and plug it in a real jet and go fly.
After takeoff, I flew a surface attack profile, attacking the simulated Luke AFB: made 2 level Mk 82 drops, two pop-up drops, and two strafing runs (one on the tower


It was a total blast, definitely an E ticket ride.