Dustin Barbour

In the early days of aviation, barnstormers would often drop into county fairs and charge people “a dollar a ride” for the opportunity to sit in the front seat of the aircraft and experience the thrill of aviation. That slowly evolved into what is commonly known in military aviation as the dollar ride. The basic premise is that the student is given a no-threat introduction to the plane he’ll be flying for the next phase of his career, it’s handling characteristics and it’s general performance capabilities. You really just break the ice and the instructor’s expectations of the student are almost nonexistent. Upon the completion of the flight, the student owes the instructor pilot a dollar for the privilege… and the student should decorate the bill somehow.. choice phrases, names, dates, et cetera. Some squadrons have expanded the tradition to include the donation of a bottle of the IP’s favorite alcohol (as the 48th FTS has), but that is probably the exception to the rule. Today was my first flight in the T-1A Jayhawk, my second dollar ride and certainly not my last of either.

After taking our first morning brief in about a month, Adam Mogel, my partner for the flight, and I sat down with our IP and briefed for the sortie. The weather was lousy all across the region. Columbus AFB was experiencing layered cloud decks starting at 400′ above the airfield and going up to about 10,000′ while all of our standard outbases were the same or only slightly better. So our options were limited, but we chose Millington, TN as our destination and pressed on. After grabbing the weather and NOTAMs for the various airports in the region, we stepped to the desk, got our aircraft assignment and hopped onto the crew bus.

Rumbling down the flight line at a paltry twenty miles per hour, the bus drove past all of the T-6s I used to fly and a feeling of nostalgia came over me. Despite the stresses and hits to my self-confidence I experienced during that phase of training, I look back at the plane and honestly miss flying it. Loops, aileron rolls, 6-G turns… all things I may never experience again. But I had no time to reminisce. I was about to go on my first flight in a new plane and had to focus on the procedures for that. I could ill-afford to waste brain bytes on T-6isms.

“Tail number 044, the 48th FTS jet,” the driver called out signaling that it was time for me and my crewmates to get off the bus. I grabbed my gear, disembarked and started the short walk to the plane. As you walk towards the jet, you should already be starting the preflight checks. From a distance, all you can really do is inspect the general condition of the plane, but having an overall view is important to getting a good preflight inspection. Are the tires flat? Is the landing gear sagging on one side? Are there any plugs still installed in the inlets? Upon getting to it, Adam climbed inside the aircraft and began running through some checklists to get the interior ready for flight while my IP and I checked over the exterior. Door seal, pitot static system, wings, engines, fire bottles, so on and so forth. Preflight complete, we boarded the jet, closed the door and got to the business of getting airborne.

The sortie itself was fairly uneventful and doesn’t warrant many details here. Some things I did notice… Flying the T-1 is considerably different than the “Sixer.” You’re sitting side-by-side in the cockpit versus the tandem configuration of the T-6. You can’t see the nose of the plane from the front seats and the engines make almost 5,000 more pounds of thrust. The 5,800 pounds the two engines provide makes climbing out at 4,000 feet per minute standard and a real eye-opener. We’ve performed takeoffs in the simulator numerous times, but not having motion really takes away from the experience. Consequently, that initial takeoff surprised me as the plane screamed into the air like a banshee. The rest of the flight, however, was right on par with my expectations. The concept of having a crew and utilizing your co-pilot to accomplish tasks is something I need to get used to, but it shouldn’t be too long before I have that and him on lock. “Co, call the FBO and have them order me a sandwich” (or something like that). Ha!

After a quick stint in the MOA to accomplish some training on basic maneuvers and some approaches at Millington and me at the helm, we headed back to KCBM where we flew an ILS approach to the 2-mile-long center runway for the full stop. The weather enroute was clear and sunny which made that segment perfectly serene. Being up in the sun and knowing that it’s gray and gloomy down on the ground is something of an strange feeling. You really are in a different world and the transition through the clouds is like descending down to another planet. When breaking out of a solid cloud deck and seeing the runway lights ahead drawing my eyes to the runway’s touchdown zone, I always think to myself how fantastic my job is. Ultimately, I believe that feeling will diminish as I become a salty and experienced mobility pilot, but there will always be days that remind me how lucky I am to be flying for a living. I could easily have been sitting at a desk today in an office with a window that overlooked a “U-Store-It” or something equally dreary. Instead I was above the clouds, bathing in the sun high above the rain and mist that was darkening the rest of northern Mississippi and getting paid for the privilege. Now that is what you call one hell of a job.