It was a pleasure to fly between 6 and 60,000 feet. One centerline engine with no torque, cable and pulley flight controls, glass cockpit—it’s truly a pilot’s airplane. Outside those altitudes though it gets really difficult, especially in the latter half of a 12-hour mission when you’re exhausted, hungry and dehydrated, and extremely sore. I recall one mission when I was brand new where I had to hold an altitude in the mid-sixties, where you’re basically riding the L/D max due to the coffin corner. But you have to manually adjust the throttle (normally you push it up to max on takeoff and leave it there until final descent, letting it slowly climb as it burns fuel) to keep your airspeed within the narrow limits while the autopilot will hold the altitude.

I got busy and let my airspeed/throttle drop from my crosscheck. A little while later, I heard the stall warning tones as I approached within 3 knots of my stall speed (let’s just say 90 KIAS was my stall speed). The autopilot was pitching up to maintain altitude, but as all competent pilots know, when you get below L/D max (98 KIAS), pitch controls airspeed and throttle controls altitude.

So now was in a situation where I had to pitch down to keep from stalling, as the throttle would only make me climb, but then I would break altitude and bungle up the collection. Even worse, the mission controller would ask why I was busting altitude and it would get debriefed and as a new guy, I absolutely did NOT want to start my career like that. So I checked the target deck and waited until after I took an image, then bunted the nose down to break the “falling leaf” stall, and zeroed in on my airspeed. As soon as I hit L/D max, I GENTLY pitched the nose up to maintain EXACTLY 98 KIAS (had I been aggressive with the pull up, I would’ve entered an accelerated stall) and successfully climbed back up to my assigned altitude without anyone noticing. So flying up there has its own unique challenges.

And of course trying to land an aircraft that just wants to fly is tough too, especially when you can’t see the runway due to the nose, pitch attitude, and 30 pound helmet. So having the mobile officer tell you how high you are is great.