Marine Corps cleared him as a Landing
Signals Officer (LSO) for the F-35B.
The UK element of the ITF will lead the
Queen Elizabeth flight trials out of Naval
Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, off
the east coast of the US, with the ‘Black
Knights’ in support. It will see the System
Development and Demonstration (SDD)
F-35Bs and test pilots from ‘Pax’ taking
the aircraft to the ship for the first time.
Two of these phases will clear the aircraft
to operate in all configurations and recovery
weights, in all deck conditions in carefully
planned periods of specific testing. It will be
followed by two operational test embarkations
(OT-1 and 2) where No 17(R) TES will play front
and centre. The first of these will be in mid-
2019, again off the US east coast. “By then
we will have all the clearances and we will
be looking at things such as how we launch
as a four-ship, mission support and loading
weapons, that type of thing,” explained Tidball.
As an ex-Sea Harrier pilot, Tidball is well
placed to understand the complexities of
operating from the carrier, as well as to
contrast the F-35B with his previous mount.
“We can land vertically here at Edwards, but
being up at 2,300ft elevation and usually very
hot has an effect on the aircraft’s performance,
especially when we are carrying our 1,000lb
instrumentation pod in the weapons bay.
“Generally for STOVL work we go down
to MCAS Yuma, and we don’t expect any
performance problems at the carrier. The
simulator is so good that we don’t see a need
to live fly our STOVL work on a regular basis.
Compared with flying a Harrier, this is night
and day. The aeroplane really looks after
you – I can take my hands off the controls
in the hover if I want to, even alongside
the ship – it’s rock solid. The automatic
deceleration means the pilot will get an
indication as he or she approaches the ship,
simply press a button and the aeroplane will
come and hold station alongside the ship.
“Flying the Sea Harrier from the ship
at night, in the back of your mind there
was always the fact that you had to
land back on the ship; it took up an
element of your brain capacity during
the mission. You can now feel complete
confidence that – as long as you follow the
procedures and use the aids provided – the
aeroplane will take good care of you.”
When it comes to launching from HMS
Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales,unlike the Marine Corps’ flat-deck carriers,
the British ships have a ski-jump.
“Feedback from Pax River is that you
simply line up and off you go,” smiled
Tidball. “The aeroplane detects that you’re
going up the ramp and configures the flight
controls appropriately. You’ve got one
hand on the throttle and the other guarding
the control column. The aeroplane will put
you at the optimum climb angle, in STOVL
mode, and you accelerate out and can start
control inputs once you feel comfortable.”Future plans
Aside from the live-flying element of the
F-35, synthetics are undoubtedly going to
play a major role in day-to-day operations.
Indeed, its advanced capabilities mean that
for certain security considerations, there will
be some training that will be conducted only
in the secure environment of the simulator.
“There are certain capabilities that we don’tBK-4, ZM138, taxies back to parking at Edwards AFB following a local test mission in October.
68 // JANUARY 2018 #358 http://www.airforcesmonthly.com