class

Well, after about a week and a half, we've determined they should call academics, slacademics. Truth be told, there is a lot of information to swallow, but not all of it is on the tests. This is the one nice thing about Air Force training as opposed to the Navy. In the AF the tests study guides are basically the questions on the test, so as long as you stick to the guide, you'll pass the test, the Navy isn't quite like that. Each day, we usually have about one class with a contract instructor, who is a retired military pilot, and several CAI's to do. CAI's are computer aided instruction, which is the military way of saying they are lessons on the computer. The classes are awesome as the instructors are super cool and want us to learn, on the contrary the CAI's make me want to stab my eyes out. They are soooo boring and dry. I don't think it is a effective way to learn, but hey, it's cheaper, and they don't care whether we like it or not, Vance is a pilot factory.

Another event of note happened today. Right now, we are in academics with the contracted instructors, not active duty military. Today, as a full class we went to the squadron to watch an example formal brief. The formal brief is what separates the Air Force from the Navy. Every day for a period time, once we get to the squadron, we have these formal briefs. They consist of all the traditional military formalities of standing at attention and such. During the brief, though, two students are presented a situational emergency procedure (ep). They go stand in front of the class at attention and work their way through the ep. It is not fun and kind of a pain in the butt, but whatever. Then there is the "shotgun" questions that involve the IP asking us random questions about the aircraft limits, etc... This is also not fun. So, anyway, we got to see an example one today. Hopefully this won't be too painful.

Until next time, pray for SURF.

Chris