G-forces don’t translate to the big screen, or to video games, but they are a major aspect of flying fighters. Movies like Top Gun show the characters easily moving around the cockpit while chatting on the radio during a dogfight. In reality, during a sharp turn under peak G, you’re spending the majority of your […]
Justin “Hasard” Lee: Why I wanted to fly the F-35
Military AffairsIn this article, I’ll be discussing the current paradigm of air combat and what makes fifth-generation aircraft special. If you haven’t had a chance to read my previous article on what an aircraft generation is, and how we got here, make sure to give it a read for some important background information. In 2017, I […]
An F-35 pilot breaks down each fighter generation
Military AffairsI hear the term “fighter generation” a lot these days, such as Fourth-gen or Fifth-gen. What does that mean? It’s a great question. A fighter generation is a period of time where aircraft were designed and built with similar technology, under a similar philosophy. There’s no clear-cut distinction between generations—engineers simply build the best aircraft […]
The gravity of the situation: How to fly a fighter upside down
Military AffairsWhat happens when you fly upside down in a fighter jet? Does everything fall-up and hit the windshield? That’s a great question. As fighter pilots, we go upside down all the time. However, we rarely maneuver the jet so that objects float, or “fall-up.” When we turn, we start by rolling in the direction we […]
How video games really can make you a better fighter pilot
Military AffairsDoes playing video games and desktop simulators, such as Microsoft Flight Sim, prepare you to become a fighter pilot? As a fighter pilot, much of our training takes place in a simulator, which is the ultimate video game. Stepping into these rooms, you’re dwarfed by a giant sphere that projects a 360-degree view of your […]
Forget New Year’s Resolutions and set goals like a fighter pilot
LifestyleMy take on goal setting is different from what most experts recommend. The start of a new year is a time when many of us reflect on the previous year, and what we’d like to improve going forward. Growing up, I did what most of us are taught: Make SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and […]
Why even F-35 pilots still have to fly ‘by the seat of their pants’
FeaturedBeing able to fly by the seat of your pants is still an important skill for a fighter pilot. Although modern fighters have an incredible array of sensors that feed them real-time information out to the horizon, a good pilot still listens to how the aircraft is talking to them. When aircraft were introduced in […]
What it’s like to hit the afterburner in an F-16 for the first time
FeaturedThe first time you select afterburner in a fighter is an experience you’ll never forget. Over a decade later, I can still remember every second of it. I had made it through the attrition of pilot training and was now in the 9-month B-Course learning to fly the F-16. After several months of academics—going over […]
What actually happens when fighter pilots take off their masks?
FeaturedWhat happens if a fighter pilot takes off their mask? Movies like Independence Day and Top Gun portray it as a final act of desperation that’s strictly against regulation. But is this true? Before we get to the answer, let’s first look at the purpose of the mask. A fighter pilot’s mask is primarily used […]
Taking a stripped-down F-16 on a max speed run: ‘At 1.6 Mach, the jet started to shake’
Air ForceAnything close to the maximum structural speed for a jet is usually just for the glossy brochure—99.9% of the time we don’t come close to reaching it. There was one time, though, that I pushed the F-16 as fast as it could go. I was stationed in Korea and there was a jet coming out […]
