Brothers Patrick and Scott Mayfield have always been close.
On Aug. 4, Patrick, a U.S. Air Force Captain stationed at Holloman Air Force Base took his brother New York Islanders hockey player Scott Mayfield on an F-16 flight.
Capt. Mayfield is a pilot instructor with the 314th Fighter Squadron.
The flight was intended to show the similarities — and differences — between physical training for fighter pilot and that of a professional athlete.
“The whole idea of Scott flying along with us really came along when they started bringing the optimizing human weapon system program to the base,” Capt. Mayfield said.
“Our commander thought it would be a really great idea to get my brother out here and see the facilities and then, between he and I, started pushing for getting a flight for Scott so that he could actually see what those workouts and physical training sessions and everything else go into.”
The optimizing the human weapons program helps aircrews with the pains that come with flying including those issues that come with experiencing G forces.
Much of the physical training focuses on how the G forces affect the neck and lower back as well as promoting lower body strength, Capt. Mayfield said.
Scott was excited at the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go on an F-16 flight.
“The similarities between how I train, how our team does it, and then how these guys train, how their team does it, it’s just really cool to see that the past couple of days,” Scott said.
Scott was a little nervous about the flight but was in otherwise good spirits the day before the flight.
“It’s cool,” Scott said. “I’ve met a lot of really nice people and I’ve had a great time.”
Scott went through physical training under Jeremy Graves who is a coach with optimization of human weapons system program.
“I think it’s interesting for the athletes to see the similarities between the program that we offer here (at Holloman Air Force Base) and the program that they probably utilize back home,” Graves said. “What we basically try to do is here is treat the pilots as sport-specific athletes basically in the sport of flying fighter jets.”
The Mayfields flew for 45-minutes on an F-16 on Aug. 4 which included a sonic boom over the 314th Fighter Squadron headquarters.
Those inside the 314th Fighter Squadron Headquarters heard and felt the traditional thunderous boom while in the plane, the Mayfields did not feel it.
“That was one of the easier things,” Scott said. “You just kind of fly straight and fast There wasn’t much to that. You don’t hear much in there… It was pretty loud down here.”
Sonic booms happen when object travel faster than the speed of sound.
Civilians rarely get to go on F-16 flights.
“Leadership ended up letting us do it,” Capt. Mayfield said. “It was absolutely awesome. Something we’ll always remember.”
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