Records in aviation are meant to be broken. Firsts in aviation tend to last a bit longer.

I had a checkride for a type-rating in the Sea Harrier on the 4th of October. The examiner required me to demonstrate the various takeoffs and landing for VSTOL aircraft, as he was totally unfamiliar with the Harrier, so we discussed the various takeoffs and landings and the appropriate use for each. The examiner was pleased with my flying and granted me the type-rating. I am the first person to have a checkride in the World’s only privately-owned, airworthy Harrier. I was also awarded a Powered-Lift endorsement to that type-rating.

Powered-Lift is a relatively new pilot’s rating, much like rotary wing or seaplane. It specifically applies to an aircraft capable of vertical takeoff, vertical landing, and forward flight with no rotating wings. That describes the Harrier. Although I’m the first to have a checkride and receive the license, I’m apparently not the first with that particular endorsement on a license. I expected to be the first, since my airplane is the ONLY ONE IN THE UNITED STATES THAT SATISFIES THAT REQUIREMENT.

The FAA apparently issued several such endorsements for pilots exiting the Marine Corps, who were current in the Harrier at the time of application. However, they were granted a license for an airplane that did not exist in civilian registry, until my Harrier was certified. Having a license for an airplane that isn’t available is like having a license to fly Santa’s sleigh or a flying saucer. It’s useless. But I applied for the license, took the evaluation flight, and passed. I am the first to do that and appropriately, “POWERED LIFT 01” is posted on the vertical fin.

The very next day, which was a Sunday, ABC News wanted us to fly. We agreed. They had News Chopper 7 on the scene to record airborne footage of a hover and a simple pedal turn. We coordinated the flight with the chopper. The airplane and the team performed perfectly. However, due to technical difficulty Chopper 7 was unable to get the footage they desired. There is video from the ground of this flight posted on You Tube and here’s a link. This was my second hover in 16 years and my first pedal turn in as many.

Our first airshow was already scheduled at a nearby airfield for the following weekend. This would be the perfect opportunity for Chopper 7 met us at our arrival and duplicate the airborne footage they missed the previous week. The footage shows a decel to the hover and a simple pedal turn, but the angle of filming from a helicopter yielded spectacular footage, especially with all the Fall foliage. Unfortunately, it belongs to ABC. The segment will air sometime in November and likely use some of that footage. I can’t have a copy, but the footage inspired me to attempt a duplicate it with a private helicopter and a photographer - - it’s that good.

Our first airshow was at Culpeper, Virginia on the 11th of October. Culpeper is a small, hometown airfield only 62 miles from our home base. It’s the ideal site for a first show, since it’s close. 12 minutes by Harrier, 2 hours and 30 minutes by truck - - and that’s going SLOW by Harrier standards and fast by the legal speed limit. Rich Gill is known as “NASCAR Gill.” Besides, his son is a patrolman…

I opened the show at Culpeper with the L-39 Albatross and my usual routine. At the end of the normal airshow, the crowd lines were moved, per FAA requirements, and we began the Harrier demo as the closing act. By that time, the airfield was filled to capacity, and the State Police had blocked all access to the airfield. There simply was no more parking available anywhere on the airfield and several hundred cars were turned away. They were all there to see the Harrier!

As we towed the airplane to the taxiway for a start, you could have heard a pin drop. No one was talking, going to buy a drink, or visiting the john. Every single eye was on us. We started the Gas Turbine Starter (GTS) with Christian Vlahos standing on the wing, fire extinguisher in hand. With the GTS, one never knows what will happen. It could just as easily start as explode, both of which are normal. Either way, it’s pretty spectacular. When the start was successful, he scampered down the wing and the rest of the crew began final checks.

With those complete and after a snappy salute from the ground crew, I taxied to the runway, with a Paddles truck in tow. “Paddles” is slang for the Landing Signal Officer (LSO) vehicle and it’s the same procedure we use in the fleet for shipboard landing practice. Before radios were common, LSO’s actually used hand paddles to communicate with the pilot. Having two-way radio communication has been our standard operating procedure from the beginning, and we’ll continue that. The LSO is looking for anything unusual and I am communicating my checklists to him. For this round, we had two LSO’s. The second LSO was my old squadron mate - Colonel Rusty Jones (ret), along with Joe Anderson, who’s been the LSO from the very first flight. We were all squadron mates when we were young, trim Marines. Now we’re much older and wiser, but it’s great to have familiar voices on the radio - -just in case.

Takeoff checks complete, I slammed the throttle and performed a Short Takeoff. In just about 400 feet, the airplane leaped into the air and climbed away smartly. Since I don’t yet have an aerobatic rating in this airplane (I already have those ratings in the L-39), this demo was limited to a few passes, doing what a Harrier does best - hovering and short takeoffs and slow landings. I performed a few photo passes and then a high-speed pass. I attempted to reach 500 knots on this pass, and will disclose the reason for that later.

I actually achieved 537 knots (618 mph) at only 85% rpm. The Pegasus wasn’t even breaking a sweat! The top speed is quoted at 650 knots and I am confident that it will reach that under the proper circumstances. For this airshow, 500 knots was sufficient.

I then took two full turns to slow to landing gear speed and began a decelerating transition to a hover. The airplane was performing absolutely perfectly. The hover was stable, the engine temperatures were quite low and I was able to play around a bit in the hover. I did a pedal turn, a figure 8, and a bow to the crowd. With those complete, I raised the landing gear and accelerated to wing-borne flight.

I then returned for a Rolling Vertical Landing and that was it. The first demo was complete. I seriously contemplated another go around the pattern, but for another of our cardinal rules. If it isn’t on the card and we didn’t brief the maneuver, we won’t do it.

I had a specific reason for wanting to reach 500 knots. I flew from zero to 537 knots and that gives us one of the widest operating envelopes for any airplane on the airshow circuit, including the modern jets. We can actually increase that margin with a higher top speed and BACKWARDS maneuvers, up to 30 knots to further widen the gap. We aim to have the highest overall margin since we’re over 100 knots faster than the AV-8B. Those tiny little wings and small pylons have very low drag.

But there was another surprise. After the show and the crowd began to dissipate, I gathered the crew. Hidden in the airplane were two bottles of high-grade Scotch whiskey. I won’t say the name because they aren’t paying me, but it was fine whiskey. Not the low-grade rot-gut I grew up on as a Lieutenant, but excellent stuff. It is one of my personal favorites. If they PAY me as a sponsor, it will BE my favorite.

We all signed one of the bottles and certified that it had indeed been aboard the airplane for the first, public debut flight and had officially been from 537 knots to ZERO knots at 100 feet. That should make it taste better, since the Scotch molecules have been scared into submission. I know for a fact that this is NOT the first time whiskey has been a stowaway aboard a Harrier, so there’s no “first” there. But this was a historic flight and we wanted to celebrate, especially since we were all thirsty and a large majority of us were sober. As a team, we consumed one of the bottles. The other bottle that made the flight is escrowed for the appropriate occasion, along with the flight card I carried in flight.

The first airshow is history and we filled the airport to capacity. I personally met people from as far away as New Jersey and Florida, and who knows those that were turned away. I signed autographs for a couple of hours and we haven’t stopped smiling for two days.

The official model designation for the Sea Harrier is FA.2, but we may need to change it to FN 2. That’s what everyone was calling in anyway.

'Arriving in style! L-39 flown by MGen Joe Anderson with Kevin Reed, in his backseat, and YAK-9 flown by Sean Carroll with Christian Vlahos, of Chesapeake Aviation, (where you get the most for your aviation dollar), in his back seat.'

'The crowd reached the airport capacity and hundreds of cars were turned away'

'This looks like the landing emergency, but the gear are in transit. Everything worked perfectly.'

'This is my 4th hover in 16 years. Just like riding a bicycle.'

'During some simple maneuvers, such as the Figure-8 turn, the Pedal Turn, and the Bow to the crowd.'

'Work, work, work. That's all I do! I haven't stopped smiling for 2 days!'

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