A C-17 Sim Experience

In 2009 I had the pleasure of coaching my son's soccer team with an outstanding individual, a certain United States Air Force Colonel. (I am leaving his name out since he is a pretty important man around these parts). I knew he was an accomplished aviator so I approached him during one of the practices and asked if it was possible these days to get some stick time in the C-17 simulator at the base.  With the wars overseas I knew it was going to be a challenge. To my surprise, he agreed.  One year later, that experience is on the books! 

When I met the colonel at his office, we immediately sat down and reviewed some of the basics he thought could be covered to save some time.  Since the C-17 has an all-glass pit, he explained the MFD's and HUD symbolics.  Most I already knew, some I did not.

We then walked the two blocks to the simulation building.  We were greeted by a very nice lady who I am assuming is the coordinator for the sim scheduling.  She spoke with the colonel briefly and got his credentials, then to my dismay asked that we put all electronic devices into a locker.  So much for my picture documentation. My cell phone, my camera, and even my car key bob. Nothing allowed.  Since I didn't want a visit from the nice Security Police officers, I complied and stashed the items in the provided locker. No worries, it seems that there is now some more leeway for 'classified' discussions within the sim, they want to make sure those discussions don't make it outside.  We were greeted by the sim technician who would be administering the simulation program, and we entered the sim hangar.  In the center of this huge room was something that looked like it belonged on a NASA shuttle mission.  A clean, white, futuristic shell with the plenty of aviation technology logos plastered on the outside.  The unit was raised on a complex housing of hydraulics (for the full motion features) and had a long shallow flight of stairs that seemed to be 3 stories tall leading up to the entry door.

Entering the simulator enclosure was like walking into the real thing. The only exception was the technicians computer station on the rear left.  This person inputs your flight data program, settings, can throw situations & failures at you, and acts as ATC for the pilot.  I was given the choice as to which seat I wanted, naturally I chose left.  I slid into the seat and was helped to position it so that I could read the HUD correctly.  The 'glass' in this cockpit refers to the MFD's that are installed rather than conventional gauges, although I saw a few manual ones, only used as backups I am sure.  The HUD is similar to, one you would see in fighters.  The reason for this? I'll touch upon that later.  Also, the C-17 is a stick flown aircraft, not a typical yoke. 

The next thing that caught my eyes was the views outside the cockpit.  Now this isn't your home-based sim display here.  We are talking pretty realistic ground textures, soft white-sand beach lines where the land meets water, even scenery objects that match the military installation you are taking off from.  The aircraft was parked on the DAFB 01 runway ready to take off.  Looking left out the window, I saw the base.  It looked like the base. No cheesy Microsoft stuff here.  This was designed to give the military pilots as real of an experience as possible.

The Colonel was nice enough to not put any of the complex stuff on me. He was going to just let me fly the plane, not having tor worry about flaps, gear, or anything else.  Not that I could learn any of it in an hour anyways.. (so many buttons, so little time....) He input the flight plan data and set whatever switches were needed and soon we were ready to start rolling.  To my surprise, I got the aircraft right from the start.  He instructed me on where to put the throttle readings on the MFD, let the engines spool up, and once the rpms caught up we pushed the throttle all the way.  We were rolling.  Now I am not sure how they do it exactly, but with the full motion device you would think there would be limitations on how real the sim would feel.  I could feel the accelleration, the subtle bounce & sway of the aircraft as I tried to keep it center while watching the HUD for the rotate speed to hit. It was an amazing feeling.  As the aircraft climbed, I was pushed back into the seat. 

We flew a right pattern around the Dover area, headed out slightly over the bay before turning in to the 01 approach again.  Now I had been given a quick pre-briefing on landing the C-17, and this is where things started to get interesting.  From what the Colonel explained to me, the flaps on this aircraft work like any othe aircraft only down to a certain degree.  Past that point, the effect on thrust on the flaps changes how the plane flies.  From what I remember, it becomes sort of like a fighter jet.  You have a sort of 'pipper' circle that is displayed on the HUD and when it matches another indicator a pinky switch will lock the angle for your approach.  Now this won't get the plane onto the touchdown point on its own, the pilot still has to control the descent rate but only with the throttle.  The more throttle/thrust, the slower you descend.  It really is a ballet of the throttle and the stick to keep the plane where you want it to be but the locked in pitch is just one less axis to worry about.  Again, the feedback on the HUD helped  by letting me know if I needed more/less throttle to keep the plane on glide slope. 

We landed, and I stood on the brakes to bring the bird to a stop.  Seeing that I was showing a little perspiration, I told the Colonel to go ahead and take over;  after all, he was there to log some refueling time to stay current on his certs.  Technician loaded in the program and all of a sudden we were about a quarter mile behind and below a military refueling tanker.  He pushed the throttles up slightly to close on the tanker at a slow rate.  After a few minutes we closed the distance and were getting ready to pull into position, but the Colonel had to pull back and try again due to some drifting.  This was in no way a reflection his skill, it was just that he was explaining everything to me as it happened, and wasn't paying attention to detail as he should.  He then pulled up a second time and locked with the fuel boom from the tanker, and we heard the hiss of the fuel transfer.  (Yup, still realistic.)  The whole onloading of fuel took a only a few minutes.  When complete, we unhooked and backed off directly behind the tanker in order not to cause any turbulence which would not end up well for either aircraft.  At a safe distance, we turned out.

At this point, we were a few miles out of Charleston AFB, SC. All I saw in front was the blue waters of the open Atlantic, and behind was the white sand shores of the Carolinas as far as I could see to the north and south.  We got clearance to land there for a tactical landing.  Tactical (or assault) landings are those where they come in fast, hit a target area near the beginning of the runway (usually a small window of 100 feet). They come to a quick stop, unload cargo or whatever, then take off from that point.  This practice is obviously done in combat or other conditions that require a quick in and out.  I watched as we hit the mark exactly, and we stood on the brakes to stop.  I lurched forward in my seat from the braking. (There's that realism again.. )  I was given control of the aircraft and proceeded to take off again in a steep 12-15 deg climb to a right hand pattern.  It was my turn for the assault landing. 

Now I had just watched and listened to a military aviator conduct this landing procedure, but remembering and applying what I heard and saw was not as easy.  I had a little trouble seeing the runway as we glided in on final, mostly because I had the HUD brightness turned up from earlier in the flight. That, coupled with trying to remember all the instructions on what to keep where and on what other indicator in the HUD was pretty overwhelming.  As a result, I kept drifting left of the centerline and was constantly correcting.  As we glided into the landing zone, I pushed the throttle up to soften the landing, but hit slightly beyond the target zone.  Brakes brakes brakes.... we stopped about midway down the runway.  The Colonel then threw the plane into reverse (yes, I said REVERSE).  It is a jet after all, and by applying the reverse thrusters we moved back to the spot that I should have stopped at.  Pretty neat stuff.  We were now at the end of our time slot and had to make way for the next pilot coming in to run the sim.

I am truly fortunate to have had this experience, not only for the fact that this is a multi-million dollar piece of machinery owned by the military or that I have also flown the C-5 sim at the same base, but also for the Colonel to include me in his busy schedule of both running a major Air Force installation and showing me the ropes of flying the latest in transport aircraft.  The only thing that could have been better would be some photo or video records of the whole thing.  Nevertheless, the memories of this sim flight will stay with me for a long, long time.

I'd like to thank him and all soldiers for serving our country.  And to those who keep complaining around here about the jet noise, I have one thing to say:  Jet noise is the sound of freedom