Harry Miles, ace F-15 fighter pilot in the mother of all air-to-air battles against 8 Iranian fighters. . . . We pick up Harry in the midst of the air battle.
"Fox 1 on Flanker number 1."
Harry's throat was on fire. He felt his breath come in spurts. Even though he had selected 100% oxygen a few minutes ago, it didn't seem to help. Seconds ticked by like hours.
"Number 2 is a splash. Two bogies headed your way supersonic. "
The third AWACS controller chimed in to advise Harry he had control of the missile,
Harry was too busy to hear.
He was out of AMRAAM missiles!
Do I go in with the Sidewinders or exit? No, I’m not running!
Harry was trying to calculate when he might be in Sidewinder range when missile warning tones filled his ear. He looked down at his cockpit display and saw 3 air-to-air missiles headed his way. Both of the remaining Flankers had gotten within launch range.
Holy shit!
Harry jammed his stick forward and pulled his airplane down and to the right as he began evasive maneuvers to get away from the danger. He managed to evade two of them but he didn't know if he was going to lose the third.
He had pushed the stick forward again and started to climb but it didn't seem to do any good. His throat constricted and tightened. Harry had tunnel vision and things were going black. It felt like his consciousness was jammed into a cone with the exterior sides at 45 degrees angles and some giant force was pushing the sides together closing the gap of consciousness. It seemed there were these two giant hands pushing at the edges of his mind pinching it and closing it. The fear crept in. His world spun. Normally, he could handle the g-forces that all the F-15 pilots dealt with on a daily basis. Lack of oxygen caused everything to turn gray.
Damn. Everything's spinning. Everything is going black. Did I get hit?
His body jerked in a convulsive spasm and when he did so, his hands pulled back on the throttle. With the lack of thrust, his plane hit that combination of forces that all pilots dreaded. His airplane began to spin and gyrate in a 360-degree circle on a horizontal axis while careening down as gravity worked its inexorable force. Known as a "flat spin," most pilots considered it the kiss of death. The textbook answer requires the pilot to eject as soon as possible for there was no recovery.
Harry didn't consider ejecting. He wasn't even aware his plane had gone into the "flat spin." Lack of oxygen had caused Harry to black out."
This is one scene from the novella, HARRY'S WAR.
Amazon Kindle US: http://tinyurl.com/7oqwv3n
Amazon Kindle UK: http://urlcut.me/aFZ
Barnes and Noble NOOK: http://tinyurl.com/758ubdw
No comments:
Post a Comment