HILL Air Force Base — “I was excited, nervous. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

Those were some of the reactions Syracuse Mayor Jamie Nagle recalled from her July 17 morning F-16 flight from Hill AFB to the Utah Test & Training Range and back.

The mayor got to soar in the fighter jet because she is an honorary commander for the base’s 388th Squadron.

It meant being at the base by 7 a.m. to go through a flight briefing, meet pilot Capt. Matthew Belle, and receive specifics about the flight. The mayor had gone through some flight training previously, including emergency procedures and was fitted for equipment.

“It was ‘wheels off’ at 9:20 a.m.,” she said, using the military term for liftoff. She was in the air for about 90 minutes.

“It was seven and a half G’s that I experienced. It’s a lot of pressure. You’re just focused on breathing. It’s a lot of force,” she reiterated.

G force is the effect of gravity upon anything that is under acceleration. We experience it in our daily lives through coughing, sneezing, etc.

The amount of force Nagle experienced in the fighter jet was astounding, she said.

For more information check out the July 26 edition of Davis Clipper.