Tuesday, May 24, 2011

M600/A Black Eagle docking with C-5M Super Galaxy, 12,000 MSL at 285 mph.

      Mama Bird had leveled off at 12,000 feet AGL and reduced her cruise speed to 250 knots true airspeed. The rear clamshell doors were open and the ramp was in the level down position. Jill, in Eagle One, was on the ramp. Mike, in Eagle Two, was in the trail position fifty feet below and two hundred yards behind Mama Bird and had matched her 250 kts. speed while Jill was docking.
   As Jill's Eagle One was being pulled inside Mama Bird, Jill came on the BEF common frequency,
   "Not to worry, Cowboy, it's only like threading a needle at 285 miles per hour during an earthquake. Pieceacake."
   "Easy for you to say," Mike responded as he gradually pushed the throttle and crept forward twenty feet below and fifty feet behind the ramp of the giant dark gray aircraft. He started to work his way into the somewhat stable air pocket just under her tail. Eagle One had disappeared into the black hole of Mama Bird's cargo bay.
   Without warning, an invisible clear air mountain wave grabbed the massive cargo craft and shook her like a rag doll in its unyielding fingers. The four hundred thousand pound craft dropped almost ten feet instantaneously as the huge T-tail came down like a gigantic fly swatter toward the tiny Eagle Two. A split second later the same wave struck the much smaller fighter with more intensity. Mike instinctively slammed the stick forward to provide separation from his intended landing site. The Eagle pitched down and rolled hard left, then snapped right as each pilot's helmet, in turn, bounced hard off the canopy.
   "Jesus!" Mike blurted as he fought to control the aircraft.
   "Crap! What the hell was that?" asked Maria as she automatically covered Mike's hand on the stick.
   "I got it," he said as the Eagle leveled off fifty feet below the extended ramp.

Excerpt from Black Eagle Force - Sacred Mountain - Chapter 3.

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