Aaaaand today.
I'm 11 days out of the cockpit, and a month since my last high-work. To make matters worse, this is only my third flight in the aircraft. Already off to a bad start, huh?
So, today we got our high work done, did our high TACAN approach, and came around for the Partial Panel PAR.
So, to give you an idea of what I'm working with, I'm flying from the backseat under the hood, so I have zero outside perspective. This is the T-45C cockpit:
A partial panel situation is when they take away your left MFD, so you have to get all of your primary flight info from the tiny standby instruments on the left. Well, except your headings, which come from the HSI on the right MFD. It sounds like a simple scan, but that standby attitude indicator is TINY, and is NOT marked at smaller than 5 degree increments, and the difference between 0 VSI and -1000 fpm can be as little as 2 degrees. Oh, and the standby VSI lags by as much as 8 seconds. So, saying I'm task-saturated is putting it mildly.
So, we come around on course and come up on glide path. Boards out, begin our descent. It's all I can do to try to keep my descent on profile. In all honesty, I wasn't listening to the specifics of the controller's glideslope calls. I was above, I knew it, and I knew what my VSI needed to be to be on profile, so I was just gunning for that, and boy was I busy. After what felt like an eternity of juggling the throttle and stick to try to stay on profile and on-speed (On speed is in reference to the AOA indexer, not the actual airspeed indicator), I feel the IP jam the throttle forward a bit, and it all breaks down.
Now, from the student perspective, when the IP does something to any of the flight controls without saying something, your mind immediately goes to "I must be doing something horribly wrong!" and since it was the throttle, I assumed I somehow blew through my MDA (And boy, I felt like I had been coming down long enough for that to be true lol). So, I kick the power up just long enough to check by standby-altitude indicator. There is no thousand-hand, just the tumbler dial, but my eyes saw the hundreds-hand first, which was passing through the 200 point, and my MDA was 240, so my brain immediately shoots to "HOLY F***ING S*** IM ABOUT TO CRASH!" and I start to bring the power to MRT (Military Rated Thrust, or max power). Fortunately, before my hand got all the way forward, my brain processed the thousands-indicator, and I realized I was at 1,200 not 200. Okay, power back down, get back on profile and try to unf*** what I just screwed up...
Now in these moments of brainlessness, I've gotten off heading, and I hear my IP go "What's your assigned heading?!"
"169" I reply.
"What's your current heading?!"
"uh..." I've been so focused on my attitude and altitude, I haven't checked my HSI in a few seconds... "180"
"Get back on heading!"
So I start a left hand turn. The controller chimes in with "Well above glideslope and holding"
"Crap" I think to myself, "gotta get back down" as I'm fighting to try to get my scan pattern back down, and stop my brain from tumbling
"Runway heading!" my IP barks.
I look at my HSI. Need to turn left. Look back at my standby-attitude indicator, and realize I'm in a 45 degree bank to the right. S***! Roll level, look up at the altitude indicator. 800 ft and coming down. Back to the attitude gyro. Back to the altitude. I lost track of my altitude once, I'm not gonna let it happen again! Back to the gyro. Level, on profile. Over to the HSI. Back to the gyro. I'm in a 45 degree bank to the right again! Dammit! Back up to alt. 400 ft and descending. Back to the gyro. I'm falling apart, and my helmet's on fire. I'm done with this approach. Call for the missed, knowing I'm losing it.
"What's your heading?!" Barks the IP. Back to the HSI. Back to the gyro and again I'm in a 60 degree bank to the right. I'm done, I'm gonna kill us if I keep this up. I can't keep us level without being GLUED to the gyro, my scan has fallen apart, and I can't cage my brain.
"Vertigo in the back! You've got the controls!" I snap.
The IP takes it and tells me to drop my hood in the back. Even with the visual back, I can feel my head swirling... Thank god I was in the optional warmup window, so we took the option and the flight won't affect my grades. This was my first time in all of flying getting vertigo, but boy was it scary to realize how badly I was circling the drain and that close to the ground!
