[youtube]https://youtu.be/EW7M4CDHIes[/youtube]

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That was the best flying of my aviation career. I miss working with all those incredibly talented and dedicated folks!

It really is a simple airplane. Cables for the flight controls, single engine, only one hydraulic system, no gas gauges (used a dip stick prior to flight and then used the clock). A well designed aircraft for its mission. We've only used about the 30% of its designed life. It can fly well past 2050. Don't know if it will continue to get funding though.

Depot maintenance happened every 1000 hours unless it was used for pattern training, then it went on cycles (touch and go's). Then it was around 200 hours.

Same thing that a Commander goes through with it Grand Rennisance program right Bruce Byerly?

It was a very interesting project from the very begining. I was a crew chief 1957-1958 4028th ( U-2A) Spent time at the Ranch and at Laughlin AFB.

I saw several take off from Moffett Field years ago. They climbed at an insane angle. Does anyone know what the normal initial climb angle is?

Vince

Sort of depends on the weight of the aircraft. Empty without fuel or payload the aircraft weighs 17,000 lbs. The engine makes 17,000 lbs of thrust at sea level, so it could theoretically climb straight up with a minimum fuel load. However most of the time we climbed from 45 to 60 degrees up. Didn't really look. We were just trying to keep from overspeeding and using pitch angle to control the airspeed.

I've attached a YouTube video which shows a takeoff while light but quickly pulling back the power to not shoot through pattern altitude. They are then some U-2 crashes at the end. Incidentally, I am in the second white U-2 departing the runway at the 4 min mark, on my first and only interview flight (I broke the only two seater). It wasn't my fault. Tailwheel broke.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5D9pHfiBBo

My brother-in-law was an IP in T38s. I had seen that gear up of the T38 before. The student in the front see runs like crazy away from the plane, then takes off his parachute/oxygen pack and throws it on the ground, not realizing it was still connected to his helmet, watch closely.

Stephen, did the tailwheel break after you went into the grass?

Vince

In the U-2 program, we also flew the T-38 when we were not TDY away from Beale flying the U-2. It was used for overall pilot proficiency flights. So we got to fly both the T-38 and the U-2 at the same time. Both the pilots you see in the video are U-2 pilots and good friends of mine. Neither of them are IP's. You had to be an IP to land from the backseat. We think the guy in back tried to land from the backseat (something that was against regs) and had a hard landing, brought up the gear on the subsequent touch and go, and then the gear stuck up. Don't know for sure, since those were the only two in the aircraft. But that is what is generally believed in the U-2 community.

On my excursion off the runway, that was my fourth landing on my first interview flight (to get in the program requires 3 interview flights where you show you can learn how to land the U-2). After my third landing the IP (Pete Balzi) told me to make the next landing, then transfer the controls to him and he would bring it to a stop, we'd remove the pogo's, and then continue with the rest of the flight. This was a good sign to me as the first flight is usually conducted entirely with the pogo's in, so the interviewee does not have to worry about flying the wing after landing and reduces the workload. I'd done well enough on my first three landings that we were progressing to what is done on the second interview flight. Right after I gave Pete control of the aircraft, the tailwheel broke, bent over to the left and we essentially had no steering.

One of my claims to fame in the U-2 world is having the shortest interview, four landings with the fourth one being a crash. Regs said you had to have at least two flights to get in the program and I had broken the only flyable two seater at the time, so my second flight was in a T-38. I was Chief of the T-38 Check Section at Reese AFB (here in Lubbock) at the time, so I did ok. My nickname in the program is Farmer, because I "plowed the field".

Stephen,

Fascinating, thank you for sharing your knowledge. Did weather ever present any takeoff/landing issues? I suppose a x-wind landing was next to impossible.

How many hours did you accumulate in the U2? Long missions must have racked them up quickly.

Jgreen

All landings were a challenge (it didn't get the Dragonlady nickname for nothing) but the cross wind and no flap landings were particularly hard. For a cross wind landing you dropped the downwind wing onto the surface of the runway and drug it, creating a turning moment around it to counteract the wind blowing on the tail trying to turn the aircraft the other way. Ordinary weather was not much of a problem other than we had no deice and no radar and didn't like turbulence. On final we flew at 90 knots so you had plenty of time to get on course and glidepath. Our minimums for PAR's were 100 and 1/4 vis where the rest of the AF was 200 and 1/2. There was no weather at altitude so we were only in the soup on the climb and descent.

I had around 1300 hours in the Duece. I was the 101'st pilot to get over 1000 hours. We flew two types of U-2 missions. At home at Beale we flew low pattern sorties where we practiced approaches, Simulated Flame Out patterns, and our landings. We only flew the long 9+ hour missions when deployed. Then we only flew those every four days. Your body needed the rest to recuperate. Our cabin altitude was 29.4K so your body sort of destroyed itself during the high flights. When deployed we only flew operational missions, no training. Deployments were two months long. The body was ready for a rest and your skills at the emergency type stuff had degraded to a point you needed to return back to Beale and spend two months getting good again.

At home at Beale we usually flew one low sortie a week but mobiled for others flying low sorties and flew the T-38 two to three times that week too. Additional duties were minimal so a U-2 drivers main focus was on becoming and staying highly proficient flying.

I'm attaching a photo of our instrument panel. We are so blessed with the stuff we have available now!

Great Video!! I was in charge of the Com/Nav shop in the 99thRS at Beale from 95 to 99, then moved up to Wing Safety until 2003. Got to see the Skunkworks once, fascinating facility. U-2 drivers racked up some massive hours in the Duece, but almost always considered a local flight because you landed at the same airfield you took off from!
BTW, Stephen wasn't the only one to take the Duece off-road. At Beale it usually isn't much of an issue because the airfield environment (Infield, etc) are flat and (in the summer) hard as a rock.

Great to have a fellow Blackcat on BT!

First time on this forum here, although I had joined some time ago. Some friends saw this thread and sent me here.

Good to see you on here Steve!

Update on the T-38 event: the pilot in the backseat is a friend. He says he was doing a practice instrument approach and when he hit minimums, he passed it to the front seater for the landing. And the front seater dropped it in real hard. Gear problems ensued, and a gear up landing was their best bet.

There are still 11 T-38's flying at Beale... and more than a few Deuces.

Huggy

Hey Huggy, Good to see you on here. Hope your AF retirement is going ok.

I know both of them and know what the story is on the gear up. They are the only ones who know for sure. Just much easier to have a hard landing from the back seat if you aren't checked out there than in the front seat where you are. I always had a little bit of difficulty from the front seat because I could see too much compared to in the back seat. Bottom line, no one but those two know for sure.

Ha! Yes, very true.
And Bill swears it was not him!!