my name is Lieutenant Commander Alan
Jesperson and I'm the Navy exchange
flight instructor at the Air Force Test
pilot School .
So I'll start off by talking about my
journey in the Navy . So my Navy
journey began in Pensacola florida
where I joined officer candidate school ,
became an officer . Then I went to
flight training in corpus Christi in
the T 34 then Kingsville texas in the T
45 then F 80 training here in
California . I did F 18 training and
flying for three or four years ,
deploying on the Ronald Reagan . So all
over the world then from there to test
pilot school and the naval test pilot
school , which is on the east coast in
Protection river Maryland . And I did
that for two tours in between winter
Japan flying F 18 . And then my the
number of aircraft have increased since
being at TPS . And so now as a test
pilot have flown about 75 different
aircraft and almost 4000 flight hours
specifically here at Edwards . I fly F
16 and T 38 . So that F 16
probably been the most new aircraft for
me . And uh and the one that I'm
learning the most right now , every
major service has a path to become a
test pilot . What's interesting is in
the army , the army doesn't have its
own test pilot school . So what they do
is they send their army officers and
warrant officers to the naval test
pilot school . And we actually make
Army test pilots and the majority of
the Army test pilots fly helicopters
and they do a bunch of C 12 flying as
well . So that's super interesting
right ? There's also foreign test pilot
school . So we have empire in England
in Bosco and Down which is west of
London and then Epner which is in
southern France and so those are the
main test pilot schools that are have a
military type focus and then you have
civilian test pilot schools like
national test pilot school right here
in mojave California and then we have
international test pilot school in
Canada , we have test pilot school in
South Africa as well and there's other
multiple type test facilities around
the world that different countries
operate . So quite a lot of paths to
become a test pilot ,
it really begins with if test pilot is
what you want to be then stem is where
you need to start right because the
filter that happens before happens
before you get to test pilot school .
So in order to be considered to be a
test pilot right from the very
beginning , you need to have an
engineering type of mind , you need to
have a technical type of background but
I will say I know test pilots that are
political science majors and then our
history majors and so it does not mean
that you can't get here as to become a
test pilot but it just means that
there's a few few few and far between
and so stem is really the building
blocks that help you think like a test
pilot , think like an engineer because
a lot of what we do is actually
interacting with engineers and
interacting with the designers and the
aerodynamics , sis and the systems
operators and the all the folks that
are that make the systems and an
aircraft , we have to be able to think
like them talk like them , but then we
also have to be able to talk to the
operator and think like a war fighter .
And so that's where the test pilot
typically is in two camps . You know ,
they're very mission focused with the
war fighters downrange . But then we
can also translate that into technical
requirements and we can speak to the
engineers to try to enable a capability .
Perhaps
I think the thing that has kept me as a
test pilot instructor for eight years
total now is the interaction with the
students . We have students that come
from all walks of life in the Air Force ,
they have a lot of engineers that can
become test professionals and they'll
do all of the flight test type material
at TPS and also fly a lot too . So you
get to interact with folks like that
that have zero flight time coming into
test pilot school and then you get to
fly with tactical aviators that have a
lot of f 22 times a lot of f 15 times
for example . Um and then you have the
mix of types of pilots in between . And
so I think one of the interesting
things that I find as an instructor at
TPS is just the very amount of types of
students that we get . And it really it
really becomes a level playing field at
TPS because nobody has done the type of
flying that we do at TPS nobody ,
regardless if you have zero time , we
have 1000 hours . It's a type of
syllabus that challenges everybody and
that's what I find the mercy rewarding .
It's interesting because when you read
the excerpt from chuck , Yeager , when
he flew the X one right here at Edwards ,
uh that means so many years ago , his
Experience in the aircraft was
extremely dynamic . And if you've
watched the movie the right stuff for
example , you get to see the aircraft
shaking and vibrating and the pilot
almost losing control . And nowadays
our technical rigor and our experience
with supersonic flight is so much
further beyond what it used to be , 60 ,
70 years ago , I guess longer now that
it's almost a non event . So in the F
16 , for example , when you accelerate
supersonic , um you really don't feel
it at all . All it is for us is a
number in the heads up display , it
just says M mach 1.1 or
1.2 and it really becomes a non event ,
the T 38 . Another aircraft that is
extremely old I guess at this point is
60 years . We find that here as well at
TPS uh , it also flies supersonic , but
the flight controls are slightly
different . The aerodynamic center on
the wings actually shifts as you go
supersonic . And what that creates is a
little bit of instability in the
aircraft control . And so you actually
feel that in the stick and you'll
actually feel the aircraft uh bobble a
little bit as it goes supersonic . The
other thing to realize too is that peta
statics , which is what is giving us
airspeed information and altitude
information . Those rely on air
pressure and the air pressure changes
drastically as supersonic flight is
experienced or even before that is you
get up to trans sonic flight , which
typically might happen at about 0.85
mark . For example , the thing to
realize with the sonic boom is if you
think about ripples on a lake , for
example , where you have the ripples
that are evenly spaced . The same thing
happens when the aircraft is flying
through the atmosphere and those
ripples get closer and closer together
as you accelerate more and more , so
much so that they actually collapse
onto each other and now you have almost
like a wall of high pressure and that
is what is causing that boom . And that
boom , it almost is kind of a wedge
shape and it's all around the aircraft .
Uh that is the boom that we hear and
the really cool thing is , there's one
on the front of the aircraft typically
and then one of the after part of the
aircraft . So large pressure changes
all the way across the aircraft .
What's interesting is we typically only
hear one boom , but it's actually two
pressure waves that are primarily
coming at you away from the aircraft .
They typically are very
chaotic and then they typically
coalesce and when we hear it here on
the ground will typically hear it as
just a single boom . But just realize
that that is a tremendous amount of
pressure changes . And if you were next
to the aircraft , you would not
necessarily hear a boom . It would
actually sound a lot more chaotic .
Absolutely . So I will tell you , I
joined the Navy late . So I was 26 27
years old when I discovered a passion
for flying and didn't really , still
didn't really know what I wanted to do .
And so my first piece of advice is is
not to think that you need to have it
all figured out as a young kid in
school and that it's okay 18 1920 years
old to still be trying to understand
what you want to do with your life . So
that's step one is give yourself the
space to , to explore what's out there .
But the minute you decide that stem and
maybe aviation is right for you , the
key there then is to really identify
those wickets and those hoops that you
have to jump through and then just
attack every single hoop is sort of an
obstacle that you've got to get through
that hoop and to get to this side of it .
You know , I've been in the military a
long time . Uh it is 1000 hoops to that
you have to jump through in order to
get to be an instructor at test pilot
school for example . And as long as you
recognize that and you just focus on
that next tube , just jump through that
one , attack the next tube and jump
through that one . Don't be so
overwhelmed with the entire journey .
Just try to take it one step at a time
and that's my best advice .