Before I took my supersonic flight a few weeks ago in the back of an F-16 at Eglin AFB, I had a chance to meet and interview my pilot, Alec "Bulldog" Spencer. Spencer's been flying the F-16 for 22 years and owns the rank of Colonel, so I figured I was in good hands. Plus the 45-year-old is married with two kids, so I figured he has a pretty good incentive to keep us both safe.
At Eglin, which is near Destin, Florida, Spencer not only tests upgrades to the F-16 by flying the planes himself, but oversees other strategic areas of weapons development at the base. Following are edited excerpts from a longer conversation.
Jim Clash: Did you ever think about becoming an astronaut?
Col. Alec "Bulldog" Spencer: It really was one of my passions. I saw all of the moon-landing footage as a young teen, and I did apply. It's a challenging process. The first time, in 2012, there were 4,000 applicants. Unfortunately, I didn't get in. The number of applicants more than doubled by 2016. I like to tell my wife that I have the "Independence Day" letter that [actor] Will Smith got, saying, "Sorry, you have not been selected [laughs]." But my heart was in it. One of my test pilot school classmates, Josh Kutryk, was selected to the Canadian astronaut program. So at least one of the 12 in our class made it.
Clash: When you started out in test pilot school, what was it like?
Spencer: The intent there is to make us comfortable in an uncomfortable environment. I've been in 33 different cockpits. You want to know that all of that training, that world-class risk mitigation, will help when you need it.
Clash: Of those 33 planes, which was your favorite? Any others you haven't been in you'd like to fly?
Spencer: My favorite is no secret: the F-16. But I do like flying other aircraft. The F-18 puts in for a good case. I really would love to fly the U-2. I know you were in one earlier this year. It would be amazing to see that curvature of the Earth, getting closer to those astronaut wings I pursued when I was younger.
Clash: You have management responsibilities at Eglin, but are also hands-on as a pilot testing new software systems.
Spencer: I'm in charge of certifying weapons, a primary strategic mission for Eglin. The land test ranges we have here, coupled with the over-water ranges, are immense. We can test in the Gulf [of Mexico] to more than 120 miles off of the Florida coast, away from prying eyes.
As a test pilot, I'm always looking at how can I make systems as automated as possible so that the new lieutenant pilot just coming in has pertinent information, can find it quickly. We don't need him spending 45 minutes of ground ops just to get the thing turned on. In an ideal world, I want to throw one switch and everything comes up ready to go. So when I test software, I ask myself: Does this display help the pilot, or is it more confusing? If it's more confusing, what's the reason and how can we make it easier to use?
Clash: Not too long ago, you had a supplier, Lockheed Martin, fixing glitches in the new systems you were testing on the F-16. How long did it take the USAF to purchase that capability from Lockheed, to bring it in-house?
Spencer: I believe they started that study in the early 2000s, and didn't pull the trigger until 2014. They finally decided that the purchase investment would save twice the costs. It was implemented when I became a program manager at Wright Patterson AFB in 2015.
Before they bought it, when we tested new software and found a deficiency we had to send the data back to Lockheed to make the fixes. Once they were made, the improved system was sent back to us, a multistep process. Now, instead of sending the test data to Lockheed and waiting for the fixes, I can put the data into our own system. The coding people will look at it internally, and have fixes to me within two to four weeks. It saves a lot time.
Clash: You've been a test pilot for two decades. Give me a situation where you felt a bit vulnerable.
Spencer: One thing I really enjoy as a test pilot is doing something for the first time. This FMS [Foreign Military Sales] partner wanted an improvement in their aircraft engine. When you add a new part, you can test it on the ground. But the real stress test for an engine is when it's airborne. So I had to fly this single-engine aircraft up to 20,000 feet and then turn off the engine three separate times. Each time, it got really quiet in the cockpit.
When it was ready to restart, I put the throttle back into the on position, verified the fuel flow was starting and watched as the needle slowly crept up to give me usable thrust again. If the engine hadn't started by 10,000 feet, I planned to just land with no engine. We always test with a runway close by so there's a safe place to come back to. But the engineers had done their homework. The new part worked.