CPT Check

Well,  it appears that it has been a week since I last posted. I that time Stefan and I completed our first 5 CPTs, aka Cockpit Procedural Trainers. In these almost fully functional cockpits, we would practice our Emergency Procedures (EPs), something that every military aviator is very familiar with. If I didn't know any better I would think that UPT is all about memorizing procedures in very short time spans and being comfortable enough with them to be tested while completing other checklists and listening to your IP. 

There were five CPTs, with one on each day. I started out pretty strong on the first two or three, but then on the last two I got kind of scatter brained. It is very frustrating when you know a procedure by heart and muscle memory with your friend but the minute another, in this case an old retired military aviator, asks you do the same thing, you can't do it. I guess the cream will rise to the top. But it is still very, very early in this process. 

Tomorrow, Thursday, we check back in with my squadron (VT-3 Red Knights). Tomorrow, we will meet a few important people and I guess get a feel for how this thing is going to go down. The people we are going to meet are our On-wings and our flight leader. Each student gets an On-wing and each flight (class) gets a flight leader. So, in essence, our on-wing is like our coach. He will fly a large portion of our missions with us and will help decide with the squadron commander, among others, what track we will take out of primary. He is probably going to be most important person to me over the next 6-8 months. Our flight leader is like a big brother for our flight. He will take care of any problems we have and probably do a lot of other stuff I don't know about. 

I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, hopefully the weather will cooperate and I'll be able to catch some good waves from Hurricane Ike.

Chris