No matter what your medical condition is, when you get to Brooks, everything is looked at so they could build their database. So a heart patient with dilated eyes talking to an eye patient with a heart monitor was not unusual.
I retook the stress EKG and once again went 18 minutes. This time the cardiologist who monitored the test told me my heart was perfectly fine. He attributed the previous negative results to an over-developed heart muscle wall. He said this happened frequently in competitive athletes. The wall of the heart thickens and gives off erroneous electrical signals. The next test, an echocardiogram, confirmed this. The echocardiogram showed a view of my beating heart on a video screen. The video screen showed a healthy heart. I was relieved that these tests came out positive, but as my doctor explained to me, they couldn’t release me to fly again until I had a cardiac catherization. Even though that first doctor at Beale had been proven wrong, his evaluation was part of my permanent medical record and there was only one way the Air Force would let me fly again. I had to pass the cardiac catherization.
My cardiac catherization was pretty painless but it was stressful. My flying future was on the line and I wanted resounding proof that my heart was disease free. They inserted a catheter into my right inguinal artery. The tube was threaded up into my heart while the doctor and I monitored its progress on a screen. Once in the heart, they pumped dye through the catheter to get a good view of the coronary arteries. The attending doctor declared my heart to be in perfect condition. I was back baby!
Chapter 4
During this whole medical process my family had remained in Selma trying to sell our house. We needed to move regardless of what assignment I received. With San Antonio in my rearview mirror, I made a brief stop at home before flying on to Beale to complete the evaluation process.
The selection process for the U-2 was markedly different than for any other airplane assignment in the Air Force. First of all, it was a “special duty” assignment. For normal assignments, a pilot would fill out an aircraft and base request, commonly referred to as a “dream sheet.” This dream sheet listed the airplanes and bases he wanted. The administrators at the Military Personnel Center would choose a base and an airplane, and then send you the results. The pilot had little control over the process. For example, you may have requested an F-4 fighter at MacDill AFB, Florida but you got a B-52 to Minot AFB, North Dakota. To get a special duty assignment, one had to request a slot directly from the unit you wanted to join. If they liked your record, they would invite you out for an evaluation and interview.
The U-2 program called about 10 % of all qualified applicants out for an interview. Of those called out, about 10 % were accepted into the program after their medical condition and flying skills were evaluated. I was now cleared medically but I still had to demonstrate that I could fly this beast.
The flying evaluation for the U-2 is like none other in the world. Most military aircraft and civilian airlines have simulators for training and candidate evaluation. The U-2 had no simulator. Its flying characteristics are so unique; no simulator could ever duplicate them. To become a pilot in this squadron, you had to demonstrate your ability in the airplane, no simulator warm-ups allowed. For years, there were only single seat U-2s available. The candidate would be thoroughly briefed by an instructor on how to fly the airplane. This interview style resulted in two aircraft accidents. They weren’t fatal but the airplanes were damaged. The Air Force decided to find a better way to evaluate U-2 candidates, so they consulted with Lockheed. They took the wrecked airplanes and redesigned them, adding a second cockpit behind the flying pilot. Now an instructor could ride along and prevent the candidate from killing himself and/or wrecking the airplane.
The flying evaluation consisted of one, two, or three flights. If the first flight was really bad and the pilot decided he wanted nothing to do with this airplane, then the evaluation was over and the pilot went home. If the first flight was bad and the pilot wanted to try again, he was given a second ride. If the second ride went well, a third ride tiebreaker was given. However, if the second ride was also bad, the candidate was sent home. If both the first and second rides were good, the pilot was in.
The U-2 evaluation is taken in the “C” model, which has a wingspan of 80 feet. Most airplanes, like the T-38 with a wingspan of 25 feet, have landing gear in a tricycle configuration with one wheel in front and two in back. To save weight, the U-2 was set up like a bicycle with a bigger wheel in front and a smaller one (6 inches) in back. Landing an airplane with this gigantic wingspan is like riding on a tightrope at 90 m.p.h. When on the ground, the huge wings were supported with curved metal mini wing struts called pogos. These struts had a wheel on one end and a metal fitting on the other end. They were attached to the underside of the wings with the fittings at the midpoint of the wing. The pogos kept the wings from scraping the ground during taxi. During takeoff, as soon as the wings developed lift (about 50 knots), the pogos fell out onto the runway. The mobile crew retrieved them and placed them back under the wings after the airplane cleared the runway after landing.
The large wingspan and engine thrust combination made each landing an adventure. The airplane had to be landed in a full stall with the main strut one or two feet above the runway. Landing an airplane this way went against every instinct I possessed. In every other airplane, I would fly down to the runway, gradually decrease power, and then touch down. To make a good U-2 landing, you need to fly down to the runway, throttle back, and then hold the airplane off the ground until it stalled and fell to the runway. My instructor described it as landing a footlocker on the runway, dropped in from two feet. It had to be done this way for two reasons. If you brought the airplane down to the runway without stalling, it would bounce off the runway and leap back into the air. Even with idle thrust, the tremendous lift from the giant wings forced the airplane to keep flying. If on the other hand, you stalled too high (above 2 feet), you risked pushing the main strut up through the fuel tank. So it had to be just right every time. Adding to this complexity were the flight controls. The aircraft had no hydraulics, so operating the flight controls was totally manual. Normal airplanes have hydraulically operated flight controls, usually rated at 3,000 PSI, making them easy to move. Flying the U-2 was like driving a Cadillac with no power steering. Now I would have something in common with those Russian AN-12 pilots — no hydraulics.
To fly the airplane, a yoke was used instead of a stick. The yoke came out of the floor up between the pilot’s legs. This yoke took up space in an already cramped cockpit. When I sat in the airplane with the canopy closed, only my hand could fit between the top of my helmet and the canopy. If I raised my elbows up and out, I could touch the sides of the cockpit. The nose of the airplane was especially long. In the landing attitude, you could not see out the front of the airplane. You had to constantly look from side to side to remain aligned with the runway, a skill I had learned on my no flap landings in the T-38.
The airplane was crosswind intolerant. If the crosswind exceeded 10 knots, you had to divert to another airport. In a crosswind, airplanes land using either a ‘wing low’, or a ‘crab’ technique. These two techniques are used to keep the airplane centered on the runway when the wind is trying to push you left or right of the centerline. In a normal airplane, using the wing low technique, for a right crosswind, the pilot lines up the airplane fuselage with the centerline using a combination of rightwing down and left rudder. Using the crab technique, the wings are level and the airplane is turned into the wind to prevent drift. With its long wingspan, the U-2 could not use the wing low technique because of the risk of dragging the low wing before touchdown. Landing the U-2 in a crosswind required using the crab technique with one important caveat — you had to be aligned with the runway centerline on touchdown. If you were cocked off, the airplane would instantly align itself on touchdown and possibly snap the steering control on the tail wheel. When this happened you were essentially riding a 50-foot long unicycle that automatically turned into the wind.