Like Snoopy, Red Baron : Dogfights No Longer Limited to Only Pilots, Pooches

Charles Eyberg never dreamed of spending his 40th birthday at the controls of an Italian fighter plane, soaring in the heavens over the sparkling blue Pacific Ocean.

Nor did he think he would be shot down by an enemy fighter and go plummeting toward earth with smoke billowing from his engine.

Eyberg, after all, is an architect, not a pilot.

But there he was the other day, high above Long Beach Harbor, not only flying but doing loops and rolls, only to be caught from behind and blasted out of the sky.

And as he tumbled toward earth, leaving behind a smoky trail, all he could think about was his wife, waiting down below. It was she who had gotten him into this mess.

“He’s always wanted to fly one of these planes,” Debbie Eyberg said, holding her 14-month-old daughter, Kara. “I surprised him with this for his 40th birthday.”

What a surprise: Mock combat at 5,000-plus feet, in an SIAT Marchetti SF-260 fighter, a prop plane with a top speed of 270 m.p.h. and G-force enough to turn one’s stomach inside out.

Flight instructor Stephen (Skids) Donnelly put Eyberg in the air, then handed him the stick. And Charles Eyberg, though no Charles Lindbergh, had become a flying fool, indeed.

After recovering from the first dogfight--with the help of Donnelly--Eyberg confronted his enemy again, this time outmaneuvering his opponent, who had unwittingly stalled and become disoriented while attempting a high-speed, looping turn.

Eyberg “locked on” with his electronic tracking device and recorded a kill of his own.

The two fighters went at it again and again, flying right side up and upside down, climbing and divebombing.

Eyberg was on top of the world.

Trouble was, the world wouldn’t stop spinning. When the dogfighting was finished, so was he.

Back on the ground, his clammy face the color of his gray flight suit, he turned to his wife and flashed a sickly smile, as if to say he owed her one.

“She won’t turn 40 for another two years, so I have some time to think about it,” Eyberg said, half-jokingly.

Still too queasy to drive, he handed her the car keys and they rode off.

*

It may not be the most popular of outdoor activities, but aerial dogfighting is certainly unique. And although few people know about this sport, if it can be called that, it is slowly gaining popularity.

“We’ve spent thousands of dollars in advertising, but people across the street don’t even know about us,” said Gene Baker, chief pilot for the Fullerton-based Air Combat USA, the nation’s first company to offer such an experience. “We haven’t cracked the code on that yet.”

Letting everyday people handle the controls of a fighter plane--with real pilots on the master controls--to match wits with “the enemy” was the brainchild of former airline pilot Mike Blackstone. Blackstone owned an aerobatic plane and he and a friend used to fly together. Eventually they started mock dogfighting and, to determine who shot whom, eventually developed an electronic gun-sight tracking system.

In 1989, dogfighting became a reality, or virtual reality. The bullets aren’t real but the flying is. The accompanying instructor is in the cockpit primarily for guidance and in case of an emergency.

People from all walks of life have walked into Fullerton Airport, shelled out $695, signed a two-page waiver of liability, sat through a briefing, donned a flight suit and parachute, climbed into a genuine fighter plane and gone off to war for a day.

“We have people who come all the way from Germany, Switzerland and Australia,” Baker said. “And we’ve never had an unsatisfied customer, no.”

Well, there was one who claims to have injured his back when the plane he was in was forced to make an emergency landing in a field short of the runway. But other than that, out of more than 8,000 flights, the company’s safety record is perfect.

“My only concern is driving to the airport,” said Lancaster’s Jim Mumaw, who three years ago put his daughter, Katrina, behind the stick of the plane. She was only 8.

“I felt real free, like a bird,” Katrina Mumaw said when asked to describe the experience.

She was so small that her pilot had to take all the cushions from the Air Combat office couch and put them on her seat to enable her to see over the control panel. But as the plane ascended the cushions compressed and she still couldn’t see.

“Then I realized that if I flipped the airplane upside down, I could see better that way (through the plastic canopy),” Katrina said. “I love flying upside down.”

Loves it? Katrina Mumaw is obsessed with flying, period.

Having flown 37 sorties with Air Combat she has moved on to other things. She has flown everything from hot air balloons to parasails to full-scale military jets.

Last year, shortly after turning 11, she became the first child in history to pilot an aircraft through the sound barrier, doing so in Moscow in a Russian MIG 29. “I sold my car and got a loan on my Jeep to get her there,” Jim Mumaw said. “It cost us $10,000.”

Financially strapped Russia has a program to allow ordinary citizens to fly military jets in the company of an instructor. Mumaw flew to Russia alone and she and her instructor, Vladimir Danilenko, went soaring seven miles into the sky before leveling off and setting off a thunderous sonic boom.

“Then we did rolls and other moves,” Mumaw said. “It was real fun, but real fast.”

That was last July. She is still flying high, hoping someday to realize some lofty goals.

“I want to go to the Air Force Academy, become a fighter pilot, go to test pilot school, then join the astronaut program, and then I want to be the first astronaut on Mars,” she said.

*

Katrina Mumaw is not a typical Air Combat customer.

Most are males with no flight experience. And most are thrill seekers looking for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“About 25% of them, for lack of a better word, are rich and just looking for something different to do,” Milligan said. “About 25% are retired people that flew in World War II who are reliving the experience, which is kind of neat because we get to hear some interesting stories. And the last half are gifts. A lot of people give this as a gift.”

On the day that Eyberg was there celebrating his 40th birthday, Vance Caesar was doing the same on his 50th.

“My wife is a clinical psychologist and she gave this to me because she wanted to bring out the child in me,” Caesar said.

A psychologist himself, Caesar arrived early and quickly determined that most of the instructors are extremely confident in their abilities.

Understandable, considering that most are former military pilots who were unable to land airline jobs.

Donnelly, for instance, graduated from U.S. Naval aviator school, has extensive experience with F-14s and only recently left the Navy. He was in Iraq as part of the “Southern Watch” aboard the carrier Nimitz and helped enforce the No Fly Zone.

Writing down this information for a reporter, he added, “Needs a job with United, Northwest, UPS, Fed Ex . . . “

Milligan, who has an Air Force background and extensive experience flying F-16s, is in the same boat. Or in their case, the same Marchetti.

*

On dogfight day, each fighter has to sit through a briefing, during which the instructor explains the rules of combat and the physiological effects of flying fast.

After takeoff, the fighters head toward the coast in formation, if it can be called that. The pilots immediately discover how responsive the control stick is. An inch to the right and the plane turns on its side. An inch to the left and it overcompensates and the left wing dips sharply. Until they get the hang of things, they fly over land like two drunks.

After a few practice maneuvers, the stage is set for the first of six dogfights over an area between the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Santa Catalina Island, which is approved for aerobatic flying by the FAA.

At the beginning of each session the two fighters, their instructors ready to back them up, race toward each other at full speed, keeping the enemy to the left at about 500 feet. When the planes pass each other, the fight is on.

The object is to turn toward the opponent and never let them out of sight. The kill occurs when one fighter gets behind the other and closes to within 1,000 feet. Using the electronic tracking system, the attacking fighter “locks on,” pulls the trigger and records the kill. An on-board video camera documents each dogfight for the “top gun” to take home.

Strategies include everything from high looping turns to long, sweeping turns. Since both planes are flying at the same speed, variations of maneuvers called high and low “yo-yos” are employed to close in. To get the nose around quickly, one strategy is to pull back on the stick so the plane climbs to the point just short of a stall, then turn abruptly to one side or the other.

“That’s when G’s start,” Milligan said.

The Marchetti, which is used by several NATO countries as a trainer and in actual light combat, is capable of producing a positive G-force of six, or six times the normal gravitational force. For comparison’s sake, F-16s produce nine Gs.

“By fighter plane standards we have a light engine out there,” Milligan said. “But by light aircraft standards, that’s a hot rod out there.

“In a nut shell, the G-force tries to take all the blood and put it in our feet. And since we don’t have our brains in our feet we don’t think very well with our blood in our feet.

“So we have to help the body push the blood to the brain. We do that through isometrics, curling our toes, close our throat and pushing out with our muscles. If you’re not doing it correctly the eyes will be the first thing affected.

“The eyes quit working . . . vision changes and you’ll see only gray and then you’ll have tunnel vision. Right there you’re right on the edge of passing out. But we’ve never had anybody lose consciousness.”

But some have lost their lunch.