Well, last week I got to play Jet Jockey for a day. Slightly different from the world of the Cessna 172.....just slightly. Okay, so it was in every way different and rediculously awesome. Way more exhilarating than the Skyhawk, which only gets that way when a student who doesn't know any better is trying their best to kill you. Anyways, I got an offer from a corporate pilot based at Love Field in Dallas, KDAL for you aviation buffs, to fly as his co-pilot in an Israeli Aircraft Industries 1124A, better known as a Westwind. And here's where I made my first mistake, I was so excited about the trip, that I didn't even take a picture of the exterior of the plane. Hopefully the ones I took will suffice.
Our trip was going to take us from KDAL to Colorado Springs (KCOS) to Palm Spring, CA (KTRM). Before leaving Dallas, we loaded up with 730 gallons of Jet-A (glorified diesel) and our one passenger. My duties for the flight consisted of running the radio communications and checklists, and whatever else the real pilot felt brave enough to let me do. 30 seconds into the flight my mind had already exploded, because we didn't even take off until we were going faster than a C172 can do in a dive. Well, close to it. Rotate speed was between 125-132 knots. Climbout was faster. I don't remember because I was focused on the Altimeter spooling up at the rate of 2500-3000 feet per minute, and we were accelerating.
For the leg from KDAL to KCOS, we finally leveled at FL360 or 36,000 ft above sea level. We kept accelerating until we reached Mach .77, or.....heck, I don't know, a lot faster than I'd ever flown a plane before.
Once we reached our cruise altitude, KCOS was about 1hr 10min away. Fortunately we didn't have much headwind, even though we were heading West, so our groundspeed (gs) was almost identical to our true airspeed (tas), and that was anywhere between 440-455 knots.
Heading into KCOS we flew over a line of thunderstorms, then started our descent into the airport once passing those guys up. We loaded an ILS approach to the airport into our GPS, but were able to take it in visually instead.
The approach speed for the Westwind is typically around 125 knots, or twice that of the C172. And when your plane weighs in at 18,000 lbs, you've got a lot of F = ma going on. Needless to say, once all the wheels are on the ground, everything comes out, spoilers, speed brakes, reverse thrust, parachute, oh wait....nevermind the last one.
We made a quick turn in KCOS, picked up 4 more passengers and some more gas and were on our way again. It was a little bumpy heading out of Colorado due to a few cloud buildups, but once we got up higher it smoothed out pretty good.
For the leg to KTRM, our final cruising altitude was FL380. The bad thing was that for most of that leg we were still in and out of clouds, so not many good photo ops. We did pick up a slight bit of ice on the wing, which melted once we were out of the clouds and descended a bit. We did a little more storm-dodging on the way there. Once we were clear, Air Traffic Control (ATC) cleared us direct to a VOR near Palm Springs. When it came up on the GPS, the distance showed just over 500 nautical miles. For some reason, my brain was still in Skyhawk mode and I thought,"this'll take a little while." That thought was blown to pieces when Justin announced that it'd be a little over an hour away. I'm glad I was sitting down when I heard that.
ATC kept us up above FL300 for so long that our descent into KTRM mimicked the space shuttle coming in to land. Once we cleared the mountains East of the airport we had to drop it in. We'd stayed up high for so long that when we were on downwind from the runway (downwind's when you fly parallel to the runway opposite the direction you're landing) we were still around 4,500ft. And the airport elevation was -114ft. But that's not as big of deal in a jet, cause you can just pull the power back and drop like a somewhat aerodynamic brick.
The landing went off without a hitch, and, minus a rental car debacle, everything else went smooth. When we locked up the plane, I don't know if it was tears or sweat running down my face (it was over 100 degrees). But whatever it was, it was salty. I don't think anyone saw me.
We finished up the night with an excellent steak dinner, courtesy of Justin's company. All around it was the sweetest flying I've ever been able to do, and I'm thankful for the opportunity. And it definitely whetted my appetite for more.....flying that is, not steak, well, I guess both.
