The Sim Flight

 Inside the simulator is the entire front cockpit of a B-1B, with room for the instructor at a control station positioned just aft of the pilot/navigators seat. I stepped over the center console and sat myself down in the Aces II ejection seat. I felt as if I could take on the world.

 Due to the fact that we were only going to spend a half hour "flying", Capt. deAndrade cheated a little on the flightcheck list and flipped the engines on for me. The cockpit was instantly filled with the simulated rumble of the four F101-GE-102 turbofan engines. Looking out of the cockpit, I could see the rest of my sim Hill Air Force Base and the runway that we needed to get to. The captain told me how much throttle to apply in order to start our taxi out to the runway. A few seconds later we were rolling along the taxi way feeling the bumps in the tarmac as we went. The B-1 is very easy to drive on the ground. I pushed on the left rudder pedal to turn towards the runway and then on the right pedal to straighten back out. To brake, you push on the tops of the pedals (some advice - push Extremely hard when you're landing).

 The cockpit of the B-1 is very modern considering the age of it's original design. The main MFD directly in front of me provided almost all of the information I needed to fly. The only other thing I had to keep an eye on was the engine throttle indicators. (I'm sure a real pilot would need all the other gadgets, but I was almost overloaded keeping up with all the info the main display was telling me). The most unusual thing in the cockpit of a bomber is the fighter type control stick, which is a statement on how this big aircraft handles in the air.

 Once the captain gave me the go-ahead, I let off the brakes, pushed the throttles all the way forward and we were on our way. The captain had me pull back on the control stick until the indicators on my display indicated about a 10 degree climb. Almost at once, the B-1 took off almost by itself.

 I lifted the gear and we began our climb to meet up with our gas station. I've forgotten whether it was a KC-135R or a KC-10, but it was very realistic and very scary trying to purposely stick a big metal boom a few feet in front of your windscreen while in flight.

 This proved to be the most embarrassing part of the mission for me. The B-1 has a Very responsive fly-by-wire control system and I tended to be very heavy handed, which didn't help at all during inflight refueling.
 The captain made me feel a little better by telling me that nobody "hooks up" on their first try. It still ruined my model-builder-turned-pilot-prodigy fantasy though.

 After we topped off, we disconnected and dove towards the ground to start our Nap Of the Earth flight through the Colorado Mountains.
While in the dive, I felt the aircraft bump (as if we had hit something) and the captain pointed out that I had broken the sound barrier - a big no-no over the continental United States. Thank goodness this was just a sim flight.

 Flying low in the valleys was great fun because the Bone has the power and the airframe to roll 90 degrees and peel up the next canyon without any problem. I thought I was really cutting it close until the Captain took the controls to show me how it was done. I decided that Captain deAndrade could fly the Death Star trench without breaking a sweat (flagrant Star Wars reference).

 The last part of my flight was a few touch-and-go landings at Hill AFB. I thought I actually did this quite well, but then again, the credit goes to the aircraft's instrument systems. As soon as I got the aircraft lined up with the runway, the display gave me all the information I needed to set it down right on target.

 The time went by really fast, and although I can't promise I retained it all, the Captain was able to load my head with enough information to feel pretty comfortable at the controls of the simulator by the time it was over.