The Rock

Little Rock, Arkansas, home of the mighty C-130. All that is C-130 passes through here. I am in PIQ, or pilot initial qualification. There are three phases to PIQ, each approximately 2 months long. Being a first lieutenant, I was worried I was going to be the class SRO, or senior ranking officer, much to my surprise on that first day, there was a captain and a major. Sweet, no extra work babysitting people, because that's all the SRO really does. Come to find out a few minutes later, the captain and major were only staying for 4 of the six months, thus I was the most senior person stay for all 6 months. Sweet, now I am the SRO.

Class began that afternoon beginning with propellors and engines class. We had this class for the rest of the week. The C-130 engines and propellors are sooo complex and powerful. It is really impressive technology from the 1950's. To be able to design these systems with slide rules and raw engineering and no computers really put things into perspective about how complex our new planes are with computers and such. We continued class all week, until Friday.

On that Friday, a storm hit that covered the area in freezing rain and sleet. The base and basically the entire state shutdown that day. I was not able to go anywhere. Friday and Saturday were horrible. I think I found new levels of boredom not thought possible. Anyway, we had the pleasure of making up the class we missed on Friday, on Sunday. Nothing like a six day work week. Anyway, this past week we learned the electrical system and navigation systems. The C-130 is a super old airframe. The instructors like to call it the frakenherc because there are so many variations. It can get very confusing, for example, there is the EC-130 and the C-130E model, or the MC-130 and MC-130P. Anyway, we are learning the C-130E which was made in the sixties and its avionics are ancient to say the least. It should be fun to learn how to fly, because the T-1 had very advanced avionics, a sharp contrast to the herc.

In other news, I've been trying very hard to figure out a living situation. It is not easy when you don't have time to prepare when PCSing. I've pretty much been figuring Little Rock out as I go along. So far, it has been hit or miss. The area has a lot to offer, but I don't know many people. Also, the base is on the far north side of town, kind of away from stuff that I like. I'm struggling to figure out where most people live, where the nice places are, etc. I also can't decide if I want to buy, rent, live in a condo, house, or apartment.

Until next time, pray for SURF,

Chris