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U2 Utility Flight Handbook


BigTex

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I saw this posted on one of the Mooney Lists but thought I'd cross post it here.

 

This is a total time waster... but for me it's great.  I've literally wasted hours reading this handbook and enjoyed every minute of it.

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/119476487/Utility-Flight-Hb-1-Mar-1959

 

For me, it's been a real treasure.

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I guess we have here some fans of Kelly Johnson and Ben Rich? I am one. My bookshelf is full of Skunkworks related books! My favorite aircraft is the Blackbird. This is probaly why I acquired trhe fastest aircraft I can afford!

 

Yves

C-FQKM

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One of the sections I found pretty interesting is the landing procedures and dealing with crosswinds.  Having to only slip, no crabbing.  Also, having to make sure you don't touchdown on the mains first otherwise you'll bounce and be SOL.  Reading this I found a lot of similarities to landing Mooneys.  Bouncing/landing as well as landing fast and forcing it onto the runway.

 

Also the fast decent procedure... 70,000 to 20,000 in 8 minutes.  6525 FPM decent!

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Very Interesting.  I retired out of Beale in 2004... I never worked the early versions, but know some guys who did.  (Disclaimer - I never had my name in a set of U-2 aircraft forms, but did get some hands-on and signed a lot of Exceptional Releases -forms reviews- before flight.)  The current U-2S model has three full-color MFDs and still the one INU.  The drift site is gone.  The pilots mount a hand-held GPS up on a corner of the windscreen for back-up to the back-up emergency navigation.  They keep the hand-held charged up on long sorties with a patch cord that plugs into the cockpit fan cannon plug.  I've got a picture somewhere of a hand-held GPS at some 62K altitude over one of those middle eastern countries.   Here's a photo-shopped picture that floated around awhile back...

Oh, and the U-2 has the same tail as the Mooney... the vertical fin tilts fore and aft with the horizontal stab trim.

post-8595-0-06772600-1357859696_thumb.jp

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