I thought the Marines had signed off on IOC.
A Day in the Life of An F-35 Test Pilot
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — Here at the F-35 integrated test force, pilots spend their days simulating real missions to prepare the jets to one day operate on the battlefield.
Defense News got a glimpse into the day-to-day life of an F-35 test pilot during a May 4 visit to Edwards Air Force Base. We followed Maj. Raven LeClair, assistant director of operations for the 461st flight test squadron, as he zipped up his flight suit, climbed into the cockpit, taxied to the runway and finally took off into the clear, desert sky.
Around 10 a.m., LeClair walked out to begin checking his jet, which was loaded with a version of the Block 3F software that will eventually give the plane its full combat capability. AF-3 was set to fly a captive carry missile test using AIM 9X and AIM 120 missiles, an exercise meant to test that the loaded weapons can communicate with the jet's main computer.
The first sign of trouble was the appearance of a “nuisance ICAW,” which stands for indications, cautions and warnings — essentially a false indication that the 270-volt battery that powers up the aircraft had failed. The team had to restart the jet's main power plant twice to get the false warning light to go away. Then, the jet’s electronic warfare system failed to power up correctly. The team tried recycling the different systems to avoid fully restarting the jet, also called a “cold iron” reset, but had little success.
Just before 11:30 a.m., the team shut down and rebooted the jet, starting the entire process from scratch. But this time, the startup was clean, according to John Day, AF-3’s flight test control engineer. At 11:40 a.m., the pilot got a thumbs up, and Day took a bow. “The second startup was so clean, it was ridiculous,” he said.
LeClair finally lifted off around noon, lighting up his afterburner to cheers from the team.
But problems continued after liftoff. During the flight, one of the weapons had problems talking to the main computer, and LeClair was forced to land again so the team could reset the stores management system. AF-3 eventually completed the planned mission, but the team observed a number of “anomalies” during the flight. They plan to review the test data to determine a root cause.
The startup issues LeClair and AF-3's team experienced May 4, though just one test point, are representative of what F-35 pilots are seeing every day....."