Photos: The need for speed

Riding in a Black Hawk that is carrying passengers, even if your fellow passengers are about to be inserted into the middle of a firefight in progress, is very different from riding in a Black Hawk that has only pilots and crew.

I've been along on many air assaults and medevac missions, some involving intense ground fire. In those situations the pilots will take evasive action and weave up and down as streams of tracers rise gently past us. Otherwise, a helicopter ride is pretty straightforward — you sit there amid the thunderous noise and lazily look out the window while the world races past below you.

Taking a ride with the 101st Airborne's test pilots is an entirely different story. Test pilots, typically selected from the most experienced pilots in their units, fly helicopters that have just been serviced or repaired to ensure their airworthiness.

Chief Warrant Officer 4 Walt Jones' experience with Black Hawks goes back to 1979, when he attended the first training course learning to fly the new helicopter.

When Jones tests a Black Hawk, he makes sure the bird is safe to push it to its limits — by pushing it to its limits. After completing a quick test flight with his crew, Jones took me up with him to show me what the Hawk can do.

Tearing over a mountain pass with craggy peaks towering high above him, Jones turns the helicopter on its right side, revealing a view of a goat path just below us. Then he rolls the helicopter to the left, the noon sun glaring through the doors' plexiglass windows.

After a long steady climb in altitude, Jones suddenly noses the Black Hawk almost straight up, slamming me back in my seat. Then the nose comes down and we drop like a rock. Like a rock shot out of a cannon. The two door gunners and I float like astronauts, along with several smoke grenades, spent machine gun shells and a carton of Marlboros. Seconds later everything crashes to the floor and we do it again. And again.

That morning I had been thinking I shouldn't have skipped breakfast, but now I'm profoundly relieved that I did. The helicopter passed Jones' test, and we head back to base, grinning ear to ear.

(Photo by Ben Brody for GlobalPost)

(Photo by Ben Brody for GlobalPost)

(Photo by Ben Brody for GlobalPost)