"Two Bags" or Just Plain Nuts???

I'll tell you this. I got an "incentive" ride in an F-16D (2-seater) when I was a young Airman and Mr. Reilly's account (see below) is very accurate. I am proud to say I didn't "barf"

Anyone who has had the opportunity to experience such a ride truly should appreciate what these "fighter jocks" are capable of. It is truly amazing.

Below is an article written by Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated. He
details his experiences when given the opportunity to fly in a F-14 Tomcat.
If you aren't laughing out loud by the time you get to "Milk Duds," your
sense of humor is broken.

"Now this message is for America's most famous athletes:

Someday you may be invited to fly in the back-seat of one of your country's
most powerful fighter jets. Many of you already have... John Elway, John
Stockton, Tiger Woods to name a few. If you get this opportunity, let me
urge you, with the greatest sincerity...

Move to Guam.
Change your name.
Fake your own death!
Whatever you do...
Do Not Go!!!

I know. The U.S. Navy invited me to try it. I was thrilled. I was
pumped. I was toast! I should've known when they told me my pilot would be
Chip (Biff) King of Fighter Squadron 213 at Naval Air Station Oceana in
Virginia Beach.

Whatever you're thinking a Top Gun named Chip (Biff) King looks like, triple
it. He's about six-feet, tan, ice-blue eyes, wavy surfer hair,
finger-crippling handshake -- the kind of man who wrestles dyspeptic
alligators in his leisure time. If you see this man, run the other way.
Fast.

Biff King was born to fly. His father, Jack King, was for years the voice
of NASA missions. ("T-minus 15 seconds and counting....."
Remember?) Chip would charge neighborhood kids a quarter each to hear his
dad. Jack would wake up from naps surrounded by nine-year-olds waiting for
him to say, "We have a liftoff."

Biff was to fly me in an F-14D Tomcat, a ridiculously powerful $60 million
weapon with nearly as much thrust as weight, not unlike Colin Montgomerie.
I was worried about getting airsick, so the night before the flight I asked
Biff if there was something I should eat the next morning.

"Bananas," he said.

"For the potassium?" I asked.

"No," Biff said, "because they taste about the same coming up as they do
going down."

The next morning, out on the tarmac, I had on my flight suit with my name
sewn over the left breast. (No call sign -- like Crash or Sticky or
Leadfoot. but, still, very cool.) I carried my helmet in the crook of my
arm, as Biff had instructed. If ever in my life I had a chance to nail
Nicole Kidman, this was it.

A fighter pilot named Psycho gave me a safety briefing and then fastened me
into my ejection seat, which, when employed, would "egress" me out of the
plane at such a velocity that I would be immediately knocked unconscious.

Just as I was thinking about aborting the flight, the canopy closed over me,
and Biff gave the ground crew a thumbs-up. In minutes we were firing nose
up at 600 mph. We leveled out and then canopy-rolled over another F-14.

Those 20 minutes were the rush of my life. Unfortunately, the ride lasted
80. It was like being on the roller coaster at Six Flags Over Hell. Only
without rails. We did barrel rolls, sap rolls, loops, yanks and banks. We
dived, rose and dived again, sometimes with a vertical velocity of 10,000
feet per minute. We chased another F-14, and it chased us.

We broke the speed of sound. Sea was sky and sky was sea. Flying at
200 feet we did 90-degree turns at 550 mph, creating a G force of 6.5, which
is to say I felt as if 6.5 times my body weight was smashing against me,
thereby approximating life as Mrs. Colin Montgomerie.

And I egressed the bananas. I egressed the pizza from the night before.

And the lunch before that. I egressed a box of Milk Duds from the sixth
grade. I made Linda Blair look polite. Because of the G's, I was egressing
stuff that did not even want to be egressed. I went through not one airsick
bag, but two.

Biff said I passed out. Twice. I was coated in sweat. At one point, as we
were coming in upside down in a banked curve on a mock bombing target and
the G's were flattening me like a tortilla and I was in and out of
consciousness, I realized I was the first person in history to throw down.

I used to know cool. Cool was Elway throwing a touchdown pass, or Norman
making a five-iron bite. But now I really know cool. Cool is guys like
Biff, men with cast-iron stomachs and freon nerves. I wouldn't go up there
again for Derek Jeter's black book, but I'm glad Biff does every day, and
for less a year than a rookie reliever makes in a home stand.

A week later, when the spins finally stopped, Biff called. He said he and
the fighters had the perfect call sign for me. Said he'd send it on a patch
for my flight suit.

What is it? I asked.

"Two Bags."

Well, I can tell you first hand, as Rick Reilly mentioned many famous athletes have had this thrill. I won't say when or which base, but I remember when Tiger Woods got his flight. He was scheduled to have an autograph signing afterwards...

He cancelled the signing.

SlagleRock Out!

Posted by SlagleRock at January 13, 2005 08:42 AM