A friend of mine, call sign ‘Rat,’ once flew with a Tweet guy (T-37 IP) on a staff assistance visit somewhere or another. They were in formation with another T-38. At one point while in ‘fingertip’ formation (on the wing) Rat offered to let the Tweet guy fly the jet (a T-38). We often did this – as kind of a “professional courtesy” I suppose.
When they landed back at Randolph, Rat asked the Tweet guy what he thought about flying the jet in formation.
“Well, Sir,” the Tweet guy began, “I felt real comfortable in ‘bounce,’ but was not comfortable at all with ’tilt.’ WTF, over?!
Rat just looked at him. He had never heard anything so stupid – and from a Air Force pilot! So, he asked, “Bounce and tilt?”
“Oh,” the guy began, “‘bounce’ is when the aircraft ‘bounces’ up and down; ’tilt’ is when the aircraft leans in and out, toward the other aircraft.”
And that’s the way it was – we learned something new every time we event up. “Bounce and Tilt” – who knew?
I would have loved to have seen Rat, as he sat through this explanation. It had to have been killing him! Bounce and Tilt! YGBSM! (It’s killing me now!)