I am Andrew Novak . I am a K C 46 T
seven test pilot .
Uh the KC 46 is our new air refueling
tanker . It's going to be a multi
mission and then I can also do
aeromedical evacuation and cargo
transport and personal transport . But
its main mission is a flying gas
station . So projecting force and lots
of large force battles require gas
stations close to the fight that an
airfield would be . So the mission of
the KC 46 is to take off and keep the
other combat er transport aircraft with
enough gas to get their mission done .
Uh and then however else we can help by
moving supplies around the theater as
well . Uh the T seven is the new jet
trainer for potty training , primarily
replacing the venerable old T 38 is the
plan . Uh and that will be a stepping
stone from the T six to the fifth gen
and sixth gen fighters . So it'll be
two very big leaps in aircraft
performance to make up . So , um ,
T seven will be a replacement to
provide the main pilot training on a
lower cost basis and should be a good
bridge to the capabilities of the fifth
gen and six jet fighters . Uh So the T
seven is a brand new airplane that's
actually not flown yet at all . So ,
our job will be to take the aircraft up
and define a safe envelope
for students to operate the aircraft
and we'll have to very slowly build
that envelope out an air Speed ,
altitude , angle of attack , different
parameters , making sure the aircraft
is structurally safe and flies well and
that whole envelope to provide safe and
effective training for students at this
point in the KC- 46 is life . It's
mostly adding receivers to the
aircraft portfolio . Every airplane
that wants to get gas from K . C46 has
to go through a testing process to make
sure that it's safe and for that
aircraft to pull up really close behind .
In fact we're touching to pass gas so
it's got to prove that it's able
to safely be there and receive gas
and that can take a couple of weeks
each quite easily , sometimes a little
longer depending on situations . Uh
There's also a few modifications to the
KC 46 coming on the road that will be
uh working on
uh there's lots of fuel system we're
talking about then the T seven using a
lot of new technology in terms of data
links and simulated sensors to keep the
costs low . So we're electronics and
automation in the T seven . The KC 46
is also trying to increase the
automation to the tanker fleet uh and
reduced workload . But we do a lot of
structural and mechanical engineering
going on with determining whether
aircraft are safe to work together in
terms of air refueling or just safe to
fly in terms of T six , like uh
structural loads , loads on the
aircraft during dynamic maneuvering .
The T seven uh flutter is a concern in
all aircraft . We got to under
different aerodynamic and loads
situations . You get the wings to shake
and obviously that's typically not good .
So we'll go out and make sure that
everything stays safe and stable .
There's also lots of straight up
math in terms of range and speeds and
fuel flows and fuel capacity
that we deal with every day , just
planning a generic sortie . But then
our job as testers is to develop the
tools that the operational pilots will
use to plan their missions . So we have
even one step within them
in the , in the KC 46 so far it has
been uh , rewarding , remember where I
first took the program . There were
maybe five receivers that had been
approved to receive gas from the KC 46
it's now somewhere on the order of
having counted about 20 in in the last
few years . And so , uh , and I can
look back and see that most of those I
flew missions for and to know that the
capability of the aircraft to support
the war fighter is drastically better
now than it was when I first showed up .
And so it's not so much a single event
for me as it is the culmination of all
of that work as a whole and that that
aircraft is much better
soon to be a support asset that it's
supposed to be than it used to be .
I have always loved airplanes . I
switched to my first air show which was
at El Toro when I was still in a
stroller with my parents and I
went to every air show I could get my
hands on , so to speak . Uh , ever
since through all the time through high
school I came to Edwards Air show
multiple times . I remember watching
chuck , Yeager broke the sound barrier
and an f 15 to open the air show for
the 50th anniversary of supersonic
flight 1987 . And uh I just loved
airplanes . And so I geared my whole
high school career towards getting into
the Air Force Academy . And then that
was four years and then I got my pot
slot that I was hoping for did potty
trained on texas . Uh , that went ,
flew um actually I flew turboprop
surveillance , I . S . R . Intelligence
surveillance and reconnaissance
aircraft for a few years before I went
back into top pottering again . And now
I'm , I'm here at Edwards doing the
test thing . Um , which was uh , that's
been the goal since the academy I
discovered flight tests as I think uh ,
when I was a cadet at the academy ,
I try to keep , try to tell people to
keep a perspective um , on the big
picture is often times easy
to be bogged down and whatever the day
to day you've got going on is um , I'll
use this example . Um I remember when I
went to pilot training and it's a
marathon of a year . It's a lot of hard
work and I remember being stressed the
whole time and , and I was probably
three or four months in before I
realized that I was getting paid to
learn how to fly airplanes and that
that's a really cool job . And from
then on I tried to make it a point when
I was teaching power training to take a
minute , five seconds even every day ,
to remind myself of the big picture and
how much I really like what I'm doing ,
even when I'm stressed and busy and
tired and there's a lot going on that I
like this , this is cool to keep the
big picture and it's easy to forget
that when you're just grinding through
concepts of class and you have a math
test tomorrow and history test the next
day and um that there is a big goal ,
there's a big picture that these little
things are not defined . One little
thing doesn't define the big picture ,
but it is the culmination of little
things that will make make the , the
big goal happened . A journey of 1000
miles starts with a single step . You
can falter a couple of steps and it's
not gonna really affect the end game ,
but you do have to take 1000 steps