Day 8: Cannon USAF Base

Zeron: I woke that morning with a heavy heart. I had done my best on my return from the hospital to beg if I could take the test again. The gs hadn't hurt; in fact, I knew I could pull it off. But in the life of a busy air force our allotted time had passed. I was grounded. Mike had had the good fortune and won this one. I sat in the back of the car reflecting, trying to join in with the occasional small talk but Mike's obvious cheerfulness and over chattiness was not helping. I didn't want to be in his car racing to Cannon USAF base so he could be fitted in a flight suit. I always felt that putting me in that position was just a bit insensitive. One good point was that I was still suffering from the after-effects of the water in the lung incident, manifesting itself in uncontrollable farts and burps. So was happy to let nature take her noisy revenge on the rest of the team.

Mike: I guess it was a formality when I was told this morning that I would get to fly in the jet fighter. Zeron had done really well, but hadn't made it because of his loss of consciousness. It was time to meet the F16s.

Day 9: To the victor, the skies

Mike: The day had come to go up in the F16. I was very excited but knew that I'd have to go through the emergency ejection training. It's all a bit freaky because there is so much to remember. For example, I should tuck my limbs in properly when ejecting, otherwise they could easily be ripped off. We go on to discuss what I should do if we land in the middle of the desert, how I should set up radio beacons, flares and so on, and how to react should the pilot become unconscious or die in mid-air. All light-hearted stuff then! It goes OK, and after a burger, Nerf (my pilot for the day) is ready to take me up. I make sure that I don't eat any onions because they taste nasty when you puke them up apparently.

Zeron: I didn't really have much to do today, it was Mike's day. I wanted to stay away as I was still feeling extremely disappointed. Alison said "Well, let's go shopping." I guess she thought it would help - it seems to make most women happy, but it's small fry when you've just missed out on your one chance to get the flight of your life.

Mike: What happened from then on was a blur. I put on the safety gear, checked it over, got in the plane, checked it over, chatted to Nerf, waited for instructions, the engine fired up, I felt a brief surge in my back and we rocketed down the runway.

Zeron: I made certain to get to the air base in time to see Mike take off (I'm not that much of a sore loser.) I waved him off and stood watching as the luckiest guy in TV took off in the world's most formidable fighter plane. Once again I was left in limbo with nothing to do until his plane landed. So I pulled on my roller blades and took off around the base. I wanted to pull my own aerial stunts but was warned off by Nic as we still had other Lab Rat shows to make, and me being ambulanced to hospital twice in one episode would not help his blood pressure. I chose solitude, blading around the sort of airplanes that have fascinated me since childhood. What a disappointing end to my first Lab Rats programme.

Mike: At first we gently left the ground, then streaked up almost vertically into the deep blue sky. From then it was pure ecstasy: up, down, upside down, tight turns to the left, to the right, barrel rolls, aileron rolls, Immelmens, a split S, the bloody lot. Totally awesome, and what a finale to our first shoot. Tough luck Zeron!

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Content last updated: 25/08/2005