Mark Smith on What It's Like to Be a Fighter Pilot

I got a text from Pete Spratt, the OG. And Pete Spratt let me know about your background. Like I did not know you were a fighter pilot. I did not know that you... did you work at Area 51? I cannot confirm or deny that. I worked at Nellis Air Force Base, which is in that general vicinity. So you can't talk about like experimental shit or anything like that? You know what I did? The first thing I did at Nellis was when I flew into Thunderbirds. And then I went away for a couple of assignments and then when I came back I was an aggressor. And if you remember the movie Top Gun, Viper and all those guys that were in the camouflage planes, they acted as the enemy forces and trained blue forces before they go off to combat. That's what I did the second time around. So the Nellis Ranges are probably up in that general vicinity. But as far as being someone that worked at that, nah, I worked at Nellis Air Force Base. We flew in that general area. I don't believe you. I think you're lying now. Now I think you're holding back. Did you feel it, Jamie? All of a sudden he's like smiling. You guys don't want guys in dark suits and shades to come in here and be like, Mr. Smith, we need it. I already talked to those dudes. They're good guys. They're just trying to protect us from the aliens. You know the crazy thing is, in that area when people used to think they would see UFOs and stuff like that, you know there was a book that came out a couple years ago called Red Eagles that explained a lot of that stuff going on and what they thought were UFOs or, you know, transportation planes that were landing at some of the bases and stuff up there. Yeah, a lot of people see wacky shit. The first time I ever saw a stealth bomber, I was filming Fear Factor in Palmdale, which is near, was it Edwards? Out right by Edwards, yeah. Yeah, and I saw a stealth bomber flying overhead. I swear to God, I thought it was Darth Vader. When you see one of those things in real life, you would think, especially if you didn't know, that the United States was developing one of those. Like when they were first developing them and flying them before they made it public, that thing looks like it's from another world. So, that's part of you say that. So when I was on Thunderbirds, we do incentive rides for like media personalities and other people. And I was out at our training area, which is over Death Valley. And we're talking to the Navy controllers, and they come over and say, you know, I was Thunderbird 2. T-bird 2, I need you to fly straight and level for five minutes. So there's going to be an aircraft off your nose. I need you to, you know, diverge to the right and stay away from it. And I'm like, what in the world is this? So I threw my radar out there, which is snag anything out there. And I'm getting these intermittent hits. And I go, I don't see anything on the radar. Next thing you know, I look up and I go, what the shit is happening? And I look up and it's a B-2 that has, you know, an escort plane right next to it that comes right next to it. I looked at it for the first time and I go, there's aliens out here. It's a sub kind of spaceship. Look at that thing. Yeah. I mean, look at that. That does not look like it's from here. Yep. That absolutely looks like it's from another world. Yeah. Like all those when people talk about seeing those triangular spacecrafts in the sky. I mean, maybe some of them are from another planet. Yeah. So if you've never seen one of those and like for me as a pilot perspective, I've never seen anything like that. You know, you hear about the F-117 from the Gulf War and then you see this big thing coming towards you. And that's what everybody always reports to. A triangular object with like a light on each corner. I mean, that is a stealth bomber. Yep. That's a crazy looking aircraft, man. Yeah. So I had somebody in my back seat that was like, oh my God, what is that? What is that thing coming by? I mean, if we thought that we were being invaded and then you saw things like that flying overhead, that is what I would imagine they would be flying. They came from another planet. That thing is out at Whiteman Air Force Base. You know, you see it flying out there all the time. So there are folks here in a local area that will see it taken off. Are there some new ones that they haven't released yet? I don't know. So I retired about eight years ago. Right. I heard a crazy story one day that someone was hunting up in Montana and saw something similar to that that he had never seen before that like came out of the ground and like a vertical type thing and then took off, which, you know, the F-35 and planes like that will take off some of them in a vertical stance and then go forward. But to see something that size and that scale do something like that, it kind of makes me wish I was still in the military. Just so you can be in the know. That's right. So which one can do that and take off the F-35? Yes. So there are a couple of variants. So the Air Force one does traditional rolling takeoff, but the Marine one, you know, it's almost like a Harrier. So the back engine will rotate. So it'll take off vertical. And then as it's going forward, the engine will rotate back the other way to give it forward propulsion. But man, just technology wise, the stuff that we're flying now. So I will tell you this. The first time I fought on the range against the F-22 Raptor and I fought against everything in the world. So I'd have Nellis with the aggressors. Everybody comes there to train to get prepared for combat. There is no better plane in the world than the F-22. When that thing passed me and some of the stuff that I saw it could do, I go, there's no better plane in the world. So as far as air superiority, F-22 is at the top of the food chain. What is the difference? F-22 is primarily air superiority, you know, so like air to air dog fighting, long range, short range missiles. F-35 is, you know, command and control platform. It still has weapons on it, can drop bombs, shoot missiles, etc. But the role is a little bit different. So yeah, that's F-22. You go to air show and see that thing. You're like, is that a plane or helicopter with some of the stuff that it does? But fighting against that, you know, as a fighter pilot, your average fighter pilot is the cockiest person that you will ever meet in the world. Just like Top Gun. Exactly. That's all real. We're better than everybody. That's our philosophy. But it's very hard to have that philosophy. Yeah. I mean, look at that. Look at that. That's insane. Oh, my God. That's insane. It just shoots straight up in the sky. Yep. Oh, my God. I mean, it doesn't even look like a real, a real plane. That is a mean machine right there. So I got friends that fly that plane and you know, you see it. A, it's designed in combat. You know, the United States is still going to be at the top of the food chain as far as the personnel that we have, the men and women that fly these airplanes and then the equipment that we're flying. You're not going to find anything to match it. That's incredible. That turn that it just made in the sky. So is that what the maneuverability of it? Is that what's superior? Look at the what the fuck? That's insane. So thrust vectoring on the back, you know, plus the flight controls. I mean, look, he just flat plated that. And the amount of thrust is coming out of it. So, you know, internal avionics, the stealth capability and the maneuverability of it. Nothing in the world is going to be that. But they can't fly very long, right? You know, it's a total package. So whenever you go to combat or something, you're going to have tanker support out there. So you're going to meet a, you know, a air refueler up at 20,000 feet and get gas. And I think can carry external fuel tanks. But the goal is to be able to plan a mission to be able to go in, escort, have guys drop your bombs or do whatever and get back out with tanker support. You know, there's always that philosophy without the gas. You know, no one is going to go. So like when I was in Iraq and stuff, we take off in Saudi Arabia, fly hour up, meet a tanker, go fly a five hour mission, come back to the tanker, get more gas, go out and fly for another couple of hours and then go back to the base. How long can that fly for? You know, I don't know. It obviously depends on how hard you got the gas power down. Right. I think in the F-16, if we stayed in full afterburner for, you know, five minutes, you probably run out of gas. Five minutes. Or it could be quicker than that. Now, the goal is endurance. You obviously want to be able to stay out there to maintain the, you know, go the length of your mission. But you look at the length of the mission and fuel capacity. And the goal is obviously to have somebody there as a backup because you never want to be out there by yourself. You always want to have that support, you know, so you may have guys that are sitting back here in a cap waiting for their turn to come in. You run out of gas up front. Now you swap out those guys come back in. So total protection. So until they come up with something superior to internal combustion engines, we're always going to be limited by the amount of fuel that they can carry just because of the weight. Right. So as far as endurance, yes. Now capabilities of the plane, most fighter planes have a G capability of nine G's and actually no time to force of gravity. Do you wear a G suit? We wear G suits. So in a fourth generation, like a F-15, F-16 is a fourth generation fighter. We wore G suits on the abdomen and down on the legs. And basically what that does is you pull G's, you're going against gravity and blood starts to drain from your brain down into your lower extremities. So the G suit is just a capability to help counter it. It's really a tightening restriction of your muscles, starting with your calves, hamstrings, buttocks all the way up. And we do the hooking. Yeah, the hook. You hook and that's really to hold the oxygen in. And what that does is lock everything down to hopefully hold the blood up in your brain as long as possible. I told you I flew with the Blue Angels once and when I did that, I got to seven and a half G's before I couldn't take it anymore. So did you start to gray out or did it start to tunnel vision? Yeah, it was like an elevator door was closing. Yeah. And you know, I'm doing that. So it's weird because people think it's, you know, two G's would be one greater than one. Three G's is one greater than two. But when you start to get above five, it's not a plus one. It's exponential. So when you start to get to seven. So six is ten. That's what it feels like. And you can't explain how it feels, but nine G's is absolutely. I mean, you get back home that night from straining and everything, you know, measles, what it looks like little, we call them Jesus, where your blood vessels will actually start to pop. Oh, wow. You know, you expect someone from strain is so hard that you're popping blood vessels. But the goal is obviously not to fall asleep. We call it fall asleep in airplane G. Yes. Of consciousness. G lock is what it's called. If you do that and you're in the air, it may take you 30 seconds to a minute to be able to come back to any kind of capacity. And if that happens, you know, majority of time is going to be catastrophic. I made it through that. And then I blacked out on the way back because I didn't hook on the way back. I got cocky. I thought we're good. We made a hard turn. And I think I blacked out at like five, like four and a half or five wasn't even that much compared to seven and a half. Yeah. If you're not ready at four, you know, people like, oh, I can do G's. You get on a roller coaster. That's like a half a G or one G. I blacked out and I threw up. It was double embarrassing. Did they make you wear a G suit? No, no G suit. See, the reason they don't wear a G suit is because in close formation, if you wear a G suit, the G suit is going to fill with air to help with that restriction on your legs. And then the F 18, they have a center control stick and they rest their arm on the right leg. And if that G suit is moving up and down, it's going to move your control stick. So the F 16 has a side stick controller where it doesn't touch your leg at all. I mean, it's like you recline back in the seat in the side stick controller so we can wear a G suit. So one effect precision, you know, moving your arm back and forth. Is there any other technology that they've invented to deal with gravity, like that? Just the sheer force of the acceleration. So not just a G suit, but you will have induced pressure breathing. You know, so you wear a specific kind of oxygen mask and that's going to force air into your system because the one thing you would hate to do is this whole your breath. It's like a three second count. You know, you do that hook and then it's a three second count. Exhale, inhale right quick. And as part of that pressure breathing, would you exhale and open your mouth? It's going to force air back in with that pressure breathing system. So with the two of those together and then we combine it with you've got to be in shape. You know, you've got to lift weights. You've got to have some kind of cardio conditioning to be able to last because it's one thing to be strong enough to hold that G position. But then you do a 45 minute, you know, dog fighting mission. Your body is going to get tired. So you've got to be able to sustain that the entire time. So most fighter pilots are going to lift weights. They're going to do, you know, extreme cardio exercises to be able to sustain. But anything else other than that? It's kind of weird. Back in the day, it would be go drink a Coke and a bag of Doritos and get that sugar rush from that 45 minute mission. They want to sustain through it. Really? It's more of a health conscious thing now. You know, the total pack is standing in shape. I guess they're just smarter now about it. Probably a lot. The Blue Angel guy that I flew with was a tank and the dude was swole. He was like, yo, oh, Romero. He was jacked. You know, that was philosophy because when I was on the team, I'm six one. I probably weighed two thirty two thirty five. That's large for a fighter pilot, right? The cockpit was extremely tight. Usually they're smaller guys because is that a thing with the gravity? It's easier to sustain gravity. It is a it's a height limitation. So you can't be so tall when your head is up against the top of the canopy. Oh, that's all it is. But you also can't be that short where you can't see over the dashboard. But there's a weight limitation, too. You know, you can't be below a minimum weight because if you ever had to eject and you're below, let's say, one hundred twenty five pounds, that parachute is going to drag you. You won't be able to stop or if you're above, you know, whatever the weight is to fifty to sixty five, you're going to come down in that parachute pretty hard. You're probably going to get hurt. Yeah, they can't make custom shit for you. No, no. And it's the same basic fighter. So the Thunderbirds, it's a you know, it's a frontline fighter that they take some of they take the gun out and they put a smoke barrel in it. But it's the same basic avionics, the same basic controls. And it's just painted red, white and blue. All the professionals that are the maintenance guys for the Thunderbirds, the best in the world, the finest in the world. And I had four of the finest when I was on the team. They take them off of active duty lines and bring them Nellis Air Force Base and do all the stuff in the planes. Catch new episodes of the Joe Rogan experience for free only on Spotify. Watch back catalog JRE videos on Spotify, including clips, easily, seamlessly switch between video and audio experience. On Spotify, you can listen to the JRE in the background while using other apps and can download episodes to save on data costs all for free. Spotify is absolutely free. You don't have to have a premium account to watch new JRE episodes. You just need to search for the JRE on your Spotify app. Go to Spotify now to get this full episode of the Joe Rogan experience.