Healy-Guttman Blog

Bo takes to the air in the Air Combat “Fighter Pilot for a Day” program - a civilian dog fighting school. This fighter pilot experience includes some classroom training and an hour “dogfight” in a SIAI Marchetti SF-260 Italian aeorobatic aircraft that flies like a small jet. The aircraft is fitted with onboard cameras and a tracking system that verifies an air-to-air “kill”. Everything is real except the bullets!

Last year, Suzanne and I were attending an auction for the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts (WICA) and one of the items was the Air Combat “experience”. I had heard about this and thought it would be a whole lot of fun, so armed with my auction paddle, I bought this item (and made a nice donation to WICA). Since Bo is going through the UND Aviation program, I decided this would make a really cool Christmas or Birthday gift. So this last Sunday, he finally “cashed in” this certificate and we rode our bikes to Boeing Field.

We were met in the “classroom” by Dave (aka “Smudge”), Gary (aka “Bluto”) and Bo’s “opponent” for the day, Ian Knox. Smudge went through an hour briefing and training session covering things like how to use the parachute and barf bag. …hey, the flight includes 5 - 6 G maneuvers - take the biggest roller coaster ride in the world and multiply it by a factor of 10. That bag might come in handy!  …I was smug in my decision to let Bo do this on his own…

…yeah, they’re smiling now…

So after Bo and Ian changed into their “flight suits”, went through the briefing and selected their helmets, we all went out to tarmac to get ready for the flight.  First there is the obligatory Kodak moment with yours truly:

You get the parachute on - that’s a real confidence builder…  Well, actually the FAA requires it.

You get strapped in: 

And you’re ready to go.  Ian was doing the same thing in “his” airplane:

Then they were off:

 

One of the cool aspects of this experience is that you get to take off and land in formation - well, actually the instructors take off and land - you get to do everything in-between.  After they got up in the air and into formation, Ian took these photos of Bo’s airplane:

Apparently they got about 10′ apart:

 

Here is an edited version of the in-flight video I posted on YouTube - The g-forces are incredible and at one point, Bo thought he might lose it. They each got one practice “kill” and then during the next 4 dogfights they were on their own:

I went and hung out at the nearby FBO and had coffee and popcorn relaxing with some magazine advertising multi-billion dollar corporate aircraft (…if only our company was a little bigger..) while Ian and Bo went after each other in WW II dogfighting style.  I saw them land and rushed back to the tarmac to get a few more shots.  Bo looked a little green:

…once again I felt smug in my decision… At least he’s smiling:

Next we took a look at the full videos from each airplane and watched them side-by-side - incredible stuff! After a short debriefing, it was back into “civies” and we headed back to our island. Bo got a notation in his logbook for his time in the Marchetti (pronounced “Mar-Ket-Tee”) which was a nice bonus and he got to keep his barf bag - still unused just barely.

I thought I would really want to do this myself, but after tagging along for the ride, I think I’ll stick to racing and the 2-dimensional world. Although Air Combat, USA’s safety record is impeccable, my vintage racing seems a little safer (and easier on the stomach!).

Now for Bo’s take in his own words:

“Some of the first words I heard out of the instructors mouth were “This is like a roller coaster, only on steroids”. Nothing embodies the physical experience quite like that statement. On the mental level, however, it is more like being thrown into a video game, only it’s real. My “opponent” was a nice guy and we were both thrown into something pretty unfamiliar to ourselves. While I have flown planes for some time, it is nothing like dog fighting. Sure, I could formation fly “like I’ve done it my whole life” (words from Bluto), but figuring out how to out-maneuver and play aerial chess with another person is new. Aside from getting queasy on the second to last dogfight, I toughed it through the last one (pulling 6 G’s, no less). Flying to the edge of one’s abilities is an experience everyone should give a shot”

…well, not everyone…