Scorching Ballooners at M 0.99, ~650kts. "Great Balls of Fire!"
"Dark Matter",
xM!G out of KLGB. auto-throttle 0.99 Mach with burners on/hi.
Pinned to the seat on the takeoff roll.. 40, 60, 120, 180.. 220.. 340.. 380kts before the end of the runway. Dragster quality takeoff launch. Now where's thems infernal Ballooners! I admit.. I clipped the first one with a wing and looked back to see them falling with a limp ripped balloon into the Pacific. I think banned guy #1 was on that. Rolled in on the second balloon.. at 652kt
Lined up along the Malibu coastline heading towards Oxnard...
Feeling onrey.. and after rattling the roofs and nerves of ppl on PCH.. at 650kts @ 400', I stood her on her tail in a 90° ballistic climb at full power, full burner, Mach 0.90+ headed to space..
The digital VVI off the scale.. must have been about 20-30K ft/min to a nose high, tailslide stall at 43,200'.. with stars in view. "maybe next time I'll get there."
Let it fall over and 'lawn dart' into a nose -90° dive, nothing quite like the feeling of looking down at terra firma coming up to meet you at several hundred mph. Leveled off, and resumed my way at ~650 to Camarillo. Overflew the aiport VFR pattern at ~630 for a midfield cross, left pattern outbound to the west. cut power on downwind and felt the thick near sea level air slow the lil M!G down like flying through marshmallow whip. turned base while slowing through 250, gear down sub 180, flaps down sub 160...
Re-applying some power to stay on the landing speed bubble of ~130kts, dragging into the air at +3 AOA arriving at the arrival end of the runway on PAPI at -1000fpm vvi. Gave it a little more juice for the flare, when stabilized in high speed ground effect, rolled off the throttle and settled on with a measurable nose-off flare at about ~115-120.
GALLERY