| Blackout Modeling in Sim Design
by "Smoke." CO, Fighting 189th VFS Six Shooters |
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I pressed them further: how long can you really keep this up? Big Daddy said, "Quite awhile. A lot depends on how conditioned you really are." But he went on to say that if you fail to meet any of the above requirements, a quick 9G snap could lead to "lights-out." He reiterated the importance of "condition and preparation." Captain "Smurff" Murff backed this up by saying that during air combat maneuvers thirty seconds of sustained 9-G presents no problem at all. Major Mike "Pink" Floyd added that "you can sustain 9-G's as long as you need to in a furball." How long is that? I have viewed tapes where our test pilots and DCMC pilots have been engaged in furballs practicing their ACM where they have gone at it for several minutes. These several minutes have consisted of several long sustained Hi-G positioning maneuvers. In real life someone would have been whistling " Great Balls of Fire" as the other went down long before either one of them got tired.
 I went on to ask them, "How about a sustained 6 to 7-G turn?" They all said that it wasn't even an issue, no problem at all. I received an interesting letter from an F-16 pilot regarding the first release of this article: I'm a USAF F-16CJ pilot at Misawa AB, Japan. I've enjoyed goofing around with flight sims for several years, and have been having fun with Falcon 4.0 since it came out. Compared to other F-16 sims out there, it's by far the most realistic. Nevertheless, there are still some things that aren't quite "real." Your article about the "blackout issue" is accurate. The only way a guy is going to blackout is if he's screwing up his AGSM (anti-G straining maneuver...we stopped calling it the L-1 a few years ago.) The AGSM is a high-emphasis item when guys go through F-16 FTU at Luke AFB. The whole topic is taken pretty seriously, and the emphasis continues throughout a fighter pilot's operational career. Checking the "blackouts" box is like saying you want to simulate you're a pilot with below average physical conditioning who doesn't belong in the fighter business. Karl "Gash" Gashler
 I would like to add that every F-16 that rolls out of the Factory here in Ft. Worth, TX. and comes to the Flightline performs several Functional Check Flights (FCF's). During those flights as part of the profile they are required to pull 9-G's, and if the aircraft doesn't do it, it doesn't pass until it does! |
 To provide further information I asked one of LMTAS' flight test pilots, and a good friend, Mr. Troy Pennington to give me his thoughts on the subject. Troy pretty well confirmed what our AF pilots had said. He went on to add that while in high G maneuvers, i.e., 9-G's, as you start to notice a blurring of your vision at the very edge of your peripheral field, you do that L-1 (AGSM) maneuver and it goes away (forcing blood in the veins of your eyeballs). This blurring acts as an "Early Warning System" to let you know it's time to perform the L-1 again (just in case you forgot you were pulling 9-G's… Fat chance, right?) Troy went on to tell me of an experience he had while a Marine Test Pilot. He was part of an inter-service swap program with the U.S.A.F. doing centrifuge tests. This is a great story. Picture it. Troy is at the test center and gets strapped in the centrifuge. During the preliminary checks with the "Fuge" operator the conversation goes like this: Fuge Guy : Sir, would you like to break the record for sustaining 9-G's today? Troy : Not today, thank you. Fuge Guy : Sir, you’re a Marine right? Troy : Yes I am. Fuge Guy : Sir, the record is held by an Air Force person, are you sure you wouldn't want to try to break it? Troy : No, not today thank you! Fuge Guy : Sir, you're a Marine right, and you know that the record is held by an Air Force person, did you know that person was an "Enlisted" person? Do you want to try to break the record now? Troy : No, not today, thank You! Fuge guy : Sir, well you're a Marine, and you know that the record is held by an Enlisted Air Force person, but did you know that the Enlisted person is a woman? Troy : What's the record ? Fuge Guy : Sir, 30 seconds. Troy : Let's do it ! Troy went on to do 61 seconds at 9-G's without blacking out. The Fuge operator shut it down, not Troy! He got out and asked why the operator stopped it and the operator told him that the Doctor overseeing the test shut it down because nobody was really sure what damage may occur to the internal organs when sustaining those G's for so long. Troy : You bunch of @#!$#$#! Fuge Guy: Sir, At least you broke the record. Go to Part III
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