I got one of those 5 minute sight seeing rides in a Jet Ranger in '89.
Joe, my ride was a full training mission, dropping bombs and firing the 20mm at the range. (The bombs are 25lb. practice ordinance, they have a spotting charge that lets a big cloud of smoke. They have the "drop" characteristics of a 500lb Mk82 slick bomb.)
We did 6 bomb passes, two each of low-level {300!ft @600mph}; 20 degree pop and 30 degree pop plus three passes at the gun pit. Total flight time was 1.2 hours.
The accelerometer bugs were at +6.5 and -4.5 at the end of the mission. And I can tell you those weren't 'one-time' peaks!!
I discovered several things on that flight:
1: Pilots are all crazy;
2: It is possible to kiss one's own...knees. (I had my head down during a high-g turn.)
3: Your first high-g experience will reveal that you can sweat from areas you thought couldn't;
4: The cockpit air conditioning WILL cut off during combat flight, and will resume full-cold once you get to cruise altitude, turning you into a popsicle;
5: Jenny Craig has nothing on a good combat flight on weight loss, I lost 6(!)lbs, all in sweat;
6: It's true that you don't get into a fighter jet, you wear it!!; and
7: They're a lot of fun to fly and take a surprisingly light touch to control.
Best of all, since I was training for my pilot's license, and the pilot who flew me was a rated instructor in the Phantom, I got to log the 1.2 hours in my logbook as "multi-engine jet,.5 as pilot in command."
