Ride In An F-16 Flight Simulator

It was a thrill, several weeks ago, when a friend of my father’s invited us to visit the F-16 simulators at Luke AFB.  We met ‘Brad’, a Major in the US Air Force Intelligence, outside the gate.  He took us to tour the base control tower first.  It was a slow afternoon that day, with only a few flights in the air, but what we saw, was interesting.  The pilots were practicing “Short Approach Landings”.  The planes would fly over the runway at 2,600 feet, turn about halfway down the runway, and come back around.  They would then fly a little ways past the end of the runway and make a very quick base turn to come out on final approach.

          We then went to the simulator building.  Here there were two pairs of simulators.  Each simulator cost $2,000,000 US Dollars, and took up an entire room.  The floor of that entire part of the building was raised two feet off the ground so wires could be run underneath it.  There was a third room, “Control Room”, that held the computer that operated the simulators and displayed the view from inside each simulator on two large screens.  The simulator itself is an open cockpit of an F-16.  After sitting in the cockpit, the cockpit slides forward into an area enclosed by projection screens.  The scenery is very detailed.  It is taken from Google Maps.  I could easily recognize major streets and landmarks.

We started flying at about 18,000 feet.  It first took some time to familiarize ourselves with the aircraft.  The first thing I noticed was that the control stick was very different from what I had expected.  An F-16 is not controlled by moving the stick to the left, right, up, or down.  The stick itself does not move.  It feels like it is bolted down.  The pressure applied to the stick controls the aircraft.  An F-16 is “Fly By Wire”, meaning that its computer moves the control surfaces and compensates for stability.  This plane is so unstable; no human pilot would be able to control it without the computer’s help.  Because of this, the plane was very easy to fly through the air, though we did not attempt any take-offs or landings.  I attempted some of the maneuvers learned from Basic Flight School:  Aileron Roll, Barrel Roll, Loop, Split S, and Dive.  The plane could perform them all and was very stable through all of them.  You could not jerk it around at all like the Zero.  There are limitations built into the system since the plane is capable of performing high “G” maneuvers that a human pilot cannot endure.  Then I got my bearings, found my house, and flew downtown to buzz Chase Field in Phoenix.

          Later, a third plane, target bogey aircraft, was introduced into the simulation.  This plane is controlled by an operator from the Control Room on a regular computer.  This system is not programmed for accurate flight modeling, so the target bogey aircraft can do all kinds of crazy things.  At first, the plane was a Mig-29, then a KC-135, and then an A-10, but the flight characteristics were the same for all.  It was really something to watch a tanker do rolls and flips.  When the real pilots train, the operators have to very careful how they fly.  Apparently, F-16 Pilots don’t like being out flown by tankers and bombers.  I could not seem to get a missile hit out of several attempts, but I did manage to close with an A-10 and destroy it with guns.

          It was a very fascinating experience.  It is clear how useful these simulators are for our pilots.  While the simulators are very expensive, in the end, a greater amount of money is saved on fuel costs.  Pilots train in simulators for critical situations that would be unsafe to practice in the air.  The simulators are also used to re-create crashes in order to help determine what may have gone wrong.  The pilots are trained in combat situations.  Studies have found that a pilot is ten times more likely to win an air battle if he has experienced two previous engagements.  The simulators provide invaluable experience in a variety of situations.  In fact, the Air Force is planning an upcoming virtual air battle in which simulators all over the country will be linked.  Pilots will fly in a massive war game exercise.  Simulators also provide an opportunity for a few fortunate individuals to see what it is like to take to the skies and fly over their home town at 800 knots per hour……..