As Martin neared that point, he crosschecked his airspeed. He was going much faster than he wanted to. He had flown heavier F-16 Block 42s with smaller engines in school, but this Block 30 F-16 was a hotrod. Its thrust to weight ratio easily exceeded 1:1 in its current configuration, and the big General Electric engine had no trouble accelerating the slick F-16 through 500 knots – way too fast.

Martin tried cycling the throttle from full afterburner back to military power, but it was too late. He had to start his turn in that instant or he’d fly right out the back of Magic’s turn circle and he’d end up defensive. Martin took a deep breath as he prepared for the onset of G-forces and squeezed his abs and legs.

As Martin started his pull, the jet stabilized in the turn at a sustained 9G pull. He was now feeling the force of nine times his bodyweight pressing against him, pulling the blood from his brain into his feet as his G-suit inflated against his legs and torso. Martin strained against the G-forces as he took short breaths every three seconds. If he exhaled completely, he wouldn’t be able to get air back in his lungs, and would eventually be starved of oxygen. He strained as hard as he could as the G-forces caused his vision to tunnel slightly.

Magic reoriented from slightly nose low to a more oblique turn as Martin continued his pursuit. Martin tried to maintain his position of advantage as Magic spiraled toward the crystal blue Atlantic Ocean below them in an attempt to shrink his turn circle and keep Martin from being able to employ weapons.

As Magic neared their training floor of ten thousand feet, Martin maintained an altitude advantage, waiting for Magic’s turn circle to open back up as he could no longer go downhill, increasing his turn radius. Once Martin had his attack cues, he traded his altitude advantage and saddled in behind Magic. As they transitioned to the floor, the G-forces subsided and Martin focused on his gun employment.

Martin pulled his nose around to put the computed gun pipper on Magic. Seeing that Martin was in a gun employment zone, Manny immediately rolled into a tuck under jink, forcing Martin to reposition before he could saddle in and shoot. As Magic rolled out, Martin squeezed the trigger and watched as the imaginary bullets went through the fuselage of Magic’s aircraft.

“Gator 12, kill Viper left hand turn,” Martin said over their fight frequency.

“Copy kill, Gators knock it off, Gator 11 knock it off,” Magic replied, signaling that the set was over.

“Gator 12, knock it off,” Martin responded as he repositioned his aircraft in a loose formation behind Magic.

As they climbed back up to their starting altitude for the next set, Magic did a fuel check over the radio and set them up for another fight.

“Not too bad,” Magic said, offering a real time assessment of the previous set, “just a little slow to get to a guns track, and a slightly late turn circle entry.”