All this T-38C stuff is strange to me, as the last model I am familiar with is the AT-38B.
You T-38 guys can thank me, at least one moderator here (who I will not name), and a bunch of other Holloman IP's for bending the jets all to h3ll. Our mission was to teach BFM, ACM, and ground attack in a dedicated course now long gone... it ended in the early 1990's.
Our biggest challenge was to take a fresh UPT student, usually a tad cocky, and teach them to fly a fighter, not a precision instrument or contact platform. Make them put the jet where they want it RIGHT NOW.
Case in point - the gun jink. Easily one of the hardest maneuvers we had to teach. There you are, almost out of energy, about to get some 23mm upside the head. What will you do? WHAT WILL YOU DO? (Sorry, that's Karl Malden) The student's best was maybe 15 degrees of roll, and add another G.
I've got the jet. "No that's lame, here's how you do it. First what's corner velocity on a T-38? Let's get there. OK, when his nose comes into lead, I want you to unload, roll 45 to 90 degrees, and as HARD AND AS FAST AS YOU CAN, SNATCH THE STICK TO THE SEAT PAN AND HOLD IT THERE."
"Won't that over G the aircraft?"
"Watch the demo, grasshopper."
At corner, we'd unload, roll, and snatch. The G would REEF right to the absolute, symmetric maximum G, then fall off. The maneuver was eye-watering, for a T-38. Unload, roll, pull, unload, roll, pull, and hopefully force a scissors with the bad guy.
The problem was this - as IP's, we had decent judgement on our speed, and would rarely over-G, but the students would do it too fast, or add rudder, or do it rolling. oooopsie. **(*&^^%% I pulled 8 G. Knock it off. Our options were to lie and continue the sortie, or RTB. If it was bad, we'd do the right thing, but countless minor over-G's added up, and all the outer wing panels on the HMN birds were bent like crazy. They looked like F-4's sitting on the ramp.
Thanks for allowing an ex-T-38 old fart reminisce a bit.
