What it's Like to Fly in an F-16 Fighter Jet with a Demo Pilot - 9.5G's with Cockpit Audio!

Alright. Ready to do this? Let's do this thing. America. Hell yeah. Alright. Gonna make a little bit of noise here. Here we go. There's the afterburner. Just a little bit of power. Alright. There's 200 knots. 300. There's 400 knots. Channel 420, here we go. How you doing? Yeah. Nice. Yeah, this is cool. 8 G's. Alright, we're gonna roll. Okay. Piper 01 is leveling 10,000. Alright. Doing good? Yeah. Money. Woo. Not too bad, right? Yeah. Alright, so we're 10,000 feet. It's pretty up here. Yeah, it's actually a little hazy. Usually you can see Columbia and sometimes you can see all the way out to the coast. What's that steamy stuff over there? Which side? On the right. The smoke? Yeah. It's probably... Piper Direct 6002. It's probably just a controlled burn. Okay. That's kind of what it looks like. It's a little hazy. Lake Marion there at 11 o'clock. Beautiful. And then down at 10 o'clock low, there's the range complex. You can see the big circle. Yes. And the four strafe rags I was talking about. Yes. And then back at your 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock now is Shaw. It's a slightly different view. Oh, wow. I didn't know that pond was there. Oh, yeah. It's a nice chemical pond. Piper 01, stand by for RCA. He's on his way to the tower. Piper 01. It's nice and bright green. Real natural. Yeah. All right. So the guy's walking up to the control tower now. We'll get handed off to him in a minute. And then we'll start getting ready to go. Oh, man. Giddy up. Be kind of nice. Fair enough. This is nice. Yes. This is kind of what the... Piper 01, hold it in the confines. Restrict area 6002. Piper. This is kind of what the profile would be like, just different. Okay. Just more violence. So now I'm just staying inside the gray lines there on the left-hand screen. But really I'm just looking outside and kind of I use that as my geographic reference. As far as how far away to get and where to fly from. Altimeter 2991. Bird mode. Piper, surface 18,000. Piper's tail number 91048. Okay. All right. You ready to do this? Okay. Let's do it. Pull a few Gs for God and Country. All right. So we're just kind of pretending like we're tipping in here behind the crowd. We're going to surprise them. We'll pull a few Gs as we accelerate out here. There's 500 knots. 560. You ready to pull some Gs? Okay. All right. Here we go. Whoa. All right. 9.1. Welcome to the 9G Club. How are you feeling? My mask is slipping. I'm going to tighten it. Okay. Sounds good. Push those bayonets up. Let me know when you're ready. Okay. Ready? Yep. All right. Here comes the Cuban 8. Here comes some Gs. All right. Gs are easing off. Kind of catch your breath. We're going to hang upside down for a second. I like upside down. All right. We've got more of that coming. Get ready. Was that the figure 8 thing? That was. Yeah. There's the afterburner going back in. We've got some Gs. Here we go. All right. Triple. Gs easing off. How are you doing? Good. Money. All right. We're going to do a triple roll now. Maybe an extra one or two. All right. Getting a little bit of air speed here. Ready to start rolling? Let's roll. All right. Here we go. Here's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. We're stopping. All right. How are you doing? Good. Money. All right. Min radius turn. Do a little bit of air speed here. We'll be turning left. And then we're going to hang upside down. Since you're a fan of that. Ready. Gs coming left. Here we go. All right. And we're floating it. And hanging upside down a little bit. How about that? And we're rolling left. Yep. How are you doing? I'm doing all right. All right. Get a little air speed. Catch your breath here. Four point roll is what we're doing next. Some four 90 degree turns. All right. We're going to get ready to wave to the crowd. Ready? Ready. Here we go. One. Two. Got to hang upside down and wave to everyone. Bye. Long time hanging upside down. When Rob sees this, he's going to be really proud of you. Still upside down. All right. Rolling out and up with that stuff. All right. How are you doing? Good. Awesome. All right. Next up is the Falcon Turn. Some few Gs. And then we're going to slow it down. Can we do two seconds before we turn? Yep. Okay. You just tell me when you're ready. I'm ready. All right. Gs coming left. Here we go. A few more Gs. All right. Do you still like hanging upside down? Yeah. All right. Money, money. There's a bug in here. There's been worse, so that's not too bad. All right. We're rolling. We'll slow this thing down. Good time to catch your breath. Perfect. I see why it's important to empty your bladder before you do. That's why I needed a second before because I was like, oh. It definitely did painful. Too hydrated. It was definitely unbalanced. Don't worry about yelling warning. The jet just didn't like flying slow, but if you look out to your left or right, kind of get a sense just of how slow we're going. About 100 knots across the ground, which is pretty slow for an F-16. But the cool part is doing this. Doing an afterburner. And then we can just climb up and up and up and up. And we're accelerating. All right. We're going to roll here. And guess what? What? Hang upside down again. Yay. And rolling all the way around from the left. Ready? Ready. Rolling left. Jeez. All right. Next up, we got the knife edge. I forgot what that was, but let's do it. Your head might hit the canopy. You ready? Okay. Here we go. All right. Wave to the crowd. We're waving. And up that. Here we go. Jeez. All right. Jeez, we're easing off. Next up is the dedication pass. Oh, dear. Giddy up. How are you feeling? Good. Money. Well, you hit 9.3, so let's see if we can beat that. And the dedication pass is only 15 seconds? Yeah, give or take. Okay. I mean, if you go to sleep, then you won't feel the pain, right? I'm kidding. All right. Here we go. Jeez, coming left. Woo. That's it? That was it? Yep. 9.5. You want to do it again? No. Fair enough. How about we drop down low and go fast? Yeah, let's do a pass. All right. Nice. Wow. That's 600 knots, about 700 miles an hour. If they do this, we're going to pull some more jeez, then we're going to go straight up. Sound good? Prepare for jeez, is that what he said? Yeah, in just a second. Okay. We'll go wake up all my neighbors first. All right, jeez. And we're going to roll a little bit. All right. 1,000 feet to 15,000 feet. Pretty quick. How are you feeling? I'm mostly good. Mostly good. Do you want to fly some? Can we do some just looking around? We can do some looking around if you want. I don't ever get to be up here, so. Yeah, let's bring it down low and go fast one more time, then go back to the pattern. We can go back to the pattern. Completely up to you. Sure. Do you want to drop down low, then head back? Sure. Okay. This was awesome. Yeah, I'm glad you enjoyed it. This was really cool. The best part is you saying, that was it, to 9.5 jeez. I think I worked myself up too much. Point set, Viper 0-1. Go ahead, Viper. Like to RTP in about three minutes to Shaw. I'd like to go direct to inside downwind if able. Roger, Viper. Thank you. All right, let's go fast. I understand, direct to initial. If I can go direct to inside downwind, that'd be great. Alpha 2. So. Alpha 2. We'll zip around here. We won't pull as many jeez. Bingo. What does bingo mean? It's a fuel warning I set just to give me awareness of where we're at. That way we don't run out of gas. That'd be awkward. Real awkward. Yeah, we don't want that. Yeah, hard pass. We're going to head over this way. And hopefully those guys are drinking coffee. And buzz the tower. The only thing I don't like is what it makes my elbows feel like. Are you having all the towel racks? Like up on the rear? Yeah, look at those little airplanes. Yeah, so down there say hello to them. Viper, over to 4. We'll see you. Shaw, Viper 0122, inside point set. Viper 0122, Shaw departure. Identify your request. Yeah, Viper has Shaw on sight. Let's go direct to the field. 1-0 mile south of Shaw, northeast. Viper 0122. Viper 0122, radar contact. Receive direct initial. Report with Shaw on sight. Viper's got Shaw on sight. Direct initial. Viper 0122, contact tower. Viper, over to tower. See ya. Oh, wow. You're really slowing down. Yeah, it's a lot different. We're still going 220 knots. This is about 250 miles an hour. Viper 0122, left base gear, low approach. 22 right. Viper 0122, right wind 220 at 13 gusts, 18 cleared low approach. Are those cows? Uh, yep. Yeah, right down there. What's up, cows? Yeah, just chilling out. Viper 0122, cleared low approach. 22 right. Yeah, just a different perspective. It's pretty out here. I like it. Yeah. It's kind of, it's real hazy. Like, on a clear day, it's awesome. You can't really beat this type of day for flying, that's for sure. Still a blue sky day for us, though. Yeah, today is pretty awesome. Just being real needy. That's all I am. Right close check, approved. That looks like the med group right there. The shiny one, yeah. Yeah. We got enough gas to go around one more time, if you want to do it. Sure. Okay, cool. Maybe even two. We'll see. Viper 0122, right base gear, low approach, 22 right. Viper 0122, runway 22 right, wind 210 at 14 gusts 18, cleared low approach. Viper 0122, low approach, 22 right. Yeah, so right here we're going 180 knots. By the end of the runway, we'll probably be doing about 380, 400 or so. So that's a big speed difference. Try to wave at our friends again. Yeah. They'll get huge brownie points. Wave at these guys, taxiing off. Yeah, give them a little... Double down? Yeah, double down. All the gamblers taxiing out. Altitude. Viper 011, request to close. Viper 011, make right close traffic report base, runway 22 right. Viper 011, right for the right. A little med group again. What's that, med group? Yeah, that's definitely it. Do y'all live on base? Nah, we're off base. Actually, we flew over it. We're probably, like, 15 minutes, like, door to door. Viper 011, request to cross 22 right. Viper 011, taxi up to hold short, runway 22 right. Okay, up to hold short, 22 right. You wanna go around one more time? Sure. Okay, cool. Viper 011, right base, gear low approach, 22 right. Yep, we do. Viper 011, runway 22 right, wind 230 at 13 gusts 18, cleared low approach. Viper 011, cleared low approach, 22 right. Yeah, so definitely throw the double down to these guys. Are they waiting on us? Yeah, they're gonna try to... They wanna cross the runway and go in between. They're probably waiting for some other jets for a fight. Alright. Boogie 401, cross runway 22 right with 4. Alpha 2. Boogie 401, cross 22 right and call for 4. Viper 011, request to close, stop. Viper 011, make right close traffic, forward base, runway 22 right. Viper 011, right for the right. Viper 011, traffic, 4F16's crossing runway 22 right. Viper visual. Copy. Bingo. Alright. It's time? It's time now. Well, thank you. That was awesome. Glad we could do it. That was awesome. I'm so excited right now. Yeah, you did a pretty aggressive profile too. So, it's pretty awesome. Thank you. Yeah, I'm glad we could do it. I think those boys just didn't know how tough I was. They weren't giving you credit. No. Viper 011, right base, gear, stop, 22 right. Viper 011, runway 22 right, wind 240 at 11 gust 18, cleared to land. Viper 011, cleared to land, 22 right. It's always a sign when we come back from the pattern. If we're going around and around, then they know. Because if you didn't do well, it's one to a full stop. Alright, down three green, we're clear to land, 22 right. What do they grow here, do you know? I'm not sure what that is. There's a lot of cotton fields around here, but I don't know what that is off to the right. It's definitely really green. Yeah. Looks cool, the patterns. Yeah. Just different perspective. Alright, welcome back. Man, oh man. That was neat. Your job is awesome. There's worse things to be doing, that's for sure. I'll take it. Alright, I'll make sure the little brakes work. Boom, alright. You can go ahead and save your seat. Oh, yes, okay. Save mine. Save? That's the yellow handle thing, right? It is, just behind your left knee. Yeah, I did that one. And then, if you go ahead and stow all your loose items, when we get under the sunshade, I'll crack the canopy so we get a little bit of air flow. I don't think I have any loose items. Just in case you brought a book or something like that to read that I didn't know about. That would have been funny. This is so boring right now. During the turn. That would be pretty epic. I couldn't lift my arms up. I tried. That was my G-meter in the backseat to see how high I could hold my arms up. It's quite painful. It's a good workout. Yeah, no kidding. On a warm day, if I do a demo, I burn anywhere from 300 to 600 calories. Oh, wow. That's pretty good. Yeah, it's a good little workout. But, you know, it counteracts stuff. I'm like, alright, I don't have to run today, so that's nice. Actually, the air is working now. It feels nice. I'm not uncomfortable. My air just started working up front. It's glorious. Yeah.