but frozen, requiring massive amounts
of force to initiate movement around
any axis of flight. I deployed the speed
brakes and lowered the landing gear
in order to slow down, fairing the gust
passing through 180kt. It was time
to balance fuel and head back to the
pattern for our first dance.
Approaching the runway at 1,500ft in
the overhead pattern, I was surprised
at the spectacle below. It seemed
that the entire airfield was lit up with
red rotating beacons mounted atop
the entire mobile fleet, staff cars,
maintenance and PSD vehicles. It made
me wonder whether this huge audiencewas anticipating a fireball or an ejection!
After rolling out on downwind and
completing my landing checklist, I rolled
onto final approach, reciting the pilot’s
prayer for the last time.
I managed to fly ‘the Lady’ to 10ft over
the ‘T’ but was 3kt hot on air speed.
This required a longer wait until the
stall at 3ft to a resounding thump as
the main gear hit the tarmac. Thanks to
the roll spoilers, wing control seemed
more manageable in the U-2R than in
the U-2CT, and thankfully my landings
improved throughout the flight — but
all the time ‘the Dragon’ was lurking in
the background.On my next-to-last planned touch-
and-go, as I extended the flaps ‘the Lady’
rolled sharply to the right, indicating
asymmetric flaps while I instantly
reversed the flap switch back to the faired
position — to no avail.
After conversing with ‘Swanee’ and
running the emergency checklist, my
final landing turned out to be my first
no-flap emergency landing with one flap
extended by 4° and the other faired. I had
survived my first dance without stepping
on ‘the Lady’s’ toes, but also had a taste
of the ‘inner Dragon’. I was subsequently
presented my coveted solo patch at
the bottom of the howdah by the wing
commander, followed by the U-2 ritual
of downing a yard of ale, containing an
equally coveted black U-2 pin, worn only
by those relatively few who had soloed
the ‘Dragon Lady’.
The remainder of my MQ flights were
flown above 70,000ft, terminating with a
maximum of three landings. I was graded
on manually adhering to a route drawn
up by one of our staff navigators and
captured on the 35mm tracker camera
residing in the nose. Photo interpreters
would grade the entire route, sending
it back to the squadron showing any
deviations of my actual track compared
to the plotted track. With the aid of the
viewsight — an 8in scope mounted inAbove: Today’s
U-2S pilot has a
‘glass’ cockpit
and many more
aids than their
counterparts
did in the 1970s.
However, the
basics have not
changed and the
U-2 remains a
challenging pilot’s
airplane.
USAF/SrA
Gwendalyn Smith
Left: A U-2S flies
past the Golden
Gate Bridge during
a photo mission
from nearby Beale
AFB. USAF/SSgt
Robert M. Trujillo‘SKUNK WORKS’ AT 75 // U-2 ‘DRAGON LADY’
96 September 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
90-97 U2 part2 C.indd 96 20/07/2018 11:39