Into the Blue

Building Eastern Block

2011-05-30T08:05:00.002-05:00

The difference between Romania and the US is about as wide as the difference between staying in a 5 star hotel and a Super 8. It looks familiar but is completely different is so many aspects. Just walking around town, you can tell the people have been through a lot, from forced communism to the breaking up of the Soviet Union to getting rid of there dominant leader via hanging. It was rare to make eye contact and absolutely no one offered a friendly greeting, quite a contrast to what I’ve grown accustomed to in Little Rock. The roads were filthy with cars parked on all the sidewalks, and just a few blocks off the main road, you could see the remnants off all the Soviet construction which likely amassed 80% of the buildings.

Our hotel was a few blocks north of the center of Bucharest, and likely the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. Five star hotels are truly in a league of their own, no matter the country. It was a sharp contrast to the building directly across the street, with it’s busted in windows and broken balconies with 1980’s era satellite dishes. All the while, there is evidence of progress. There were many upper class stores along our street along with new hotels, casinos, and restaurants. We didn’t figure this out though until the next day because we landed about 9pm and got to the hotel about 1130. That first night the hotel called ahead to a restaurant around the corner, who were kind enough to stay open late so we could eat. The food was fantastic. I had a local plate called mossakka, which is kind of like a blend between lasagna and shepard's pie.

After a decent breakfast buffet, we went walking around town to view the sites to see. The amount of history here is just as much if not more than the land we flew over the day prior. The university was a few blocks away, as well as the second largest building in the world, the People’s House. Apparently, the old president used to live there and there are many stories and rumors about what happened inside the building back in the communist days, most of which are probably not the kind you want spread. That evening we ate at a restaurant with traditional fare that is about 120 years old. Once again I tried a new Romanian meal, which was just as good as the last nights fare. Finally, on at about 3am the next morning we all left for the airport to fly to Southwest Asia.

God Save the Crew

2011-05-26T02:04:00.002-05:00

Now on our fifth day in England, this vacation to Mildenhall has been a lot different compared to St Johns. Each day is groundhog day. Each day, we wake up, eat, check out of the hotel, go out to the plane, sit in base ops or hang out at the plane for about 7 hours, decide we are not going to take off, check back into the hotel, eat, then hang out at the bar until midnight, rinse, recycle, reuse. Yesterday (Thursday) was the most obscure. First we actually cranked the engines, then after taxiing by the plane spotters, took off to only turn around no more than 10 minutes out because the wing anti-ice didn’t work as we were about to go into rain clouds right around the freezing temperature.

On a side note, it’s a funny thing about Europeans, particularly the Brits, they love taking photos and keeping track of planes and their tail numbers as they pass through Mildenhall. Off the approach end of the runway, there was at least a dozen people with telephoto lenses and I imagine radios, tracking and documenting our every move. These folks are not spies they are just aviation enthusiasts. After talking with my buddy from pilot training who is stationed here, I learned that these plane spotters have a special agreement with the base to be allowed to loiter in close proximity to the runway. In fact, they actually report to the base when anybody new or suspicious shows up to photograph the aircraft.

Also, last night I was able to relax with my buddy and his wife. It was a great change of pace from the base’s bar. They live in a quaint little condo in a small town off base. In the 15 minutes it took to drive to their home, I learned and saw more of England than I had the entire 3 day’s combined. Perhaps most obvious due to the amount of small cars, the roads are even smaller. American SUV’s and trucks would not fit on this tiny roads, and I love it. The roads were also much more curvy and utilized roundabouts instead of stop signs and stop lights. Much more efficient in my opinion.

Eventually, the next day we made it out of Mildenhall, our second try in as many days. The weather treated us nice in England, only lightly raining one evening, which made for pleasant temps when hanging out at the plane while it was being fixed. Our trip through the sky’s across Europe took over very similar routes our ancestors did in World War II. My AC was constantly calling out drop zones, airports, and battlefields as we made our way across Holland, Belgium, and Germany. In fact we flew almost directly over where the 101st Airborne Division was dropped on D-Day, think of the film Band of Brothers. Even as we were flying over that area of Europe, you could see it was a very different culture, just by the way the cities were arranged. Lance, my AC, described it as though the farmers live in the towns and drive the tractors out to the fields, which is why there are ton’s of small towns sprinkled all over the countryside. Towns would literally be 1 or two miles away from each other but there was a definite separation between the two.

As we made our way to eastern Germany and eventually the eastern Europe, where our destination of Romania lies, it became more and more sparsely populated. However, flying into Romania, it was overcast below us and was impossible to see what it looked like. Being my first trip to a truly foreign country I was not enjoying the fact we were gassing and going like we were instructed (fragged) to do from our controlling agency, TACC. Because it has taken us so long to get this far, TACC and our desert squadron were becoming very anxious to get us there. The desert is like a magnet, the closer you get to it, the more they want you there, even if your plane is not a passable flying machine.

Oh Canada, Oh Canada

2011-05-03T17:11:00.003-05:00

What a last few weeks it has been. I’m sure you’ve heard about the thunderstorms and tornado’s that have swept through the south these last few weeks. I’d like to say that Little Rock was spared as it usually is, but regretfully, I can’t. The first wave of storms dropped a tornado onto LIttle Rock AFB which is about 20 minutes north of downtown Little Rock, about a 30 min northeast of my house. Although it was a smaller tornado, it hopped it’s way through the base, doing substantial damage to some of the base houses, toppling numerous large trees, flipping cars in the commissary parking lot and finally wrecking some hangers and doing damage to 3 aircraft. As the base was recovering from the tornadoes, those from my squadron were all still preparing to deploy. Many of us wanted to help clean up, but leadership did not permit us to do so, giving priority to predeployment activities. Rumor had it that all the crews taking planes over to the desert would be delayed 24 hrs, but what ended up happening was more logical. Instead of eight planes over 3 days, it was changed to two days, with four on the first day, four on the second. My crew was slated to leave on the last day, Friday, from the start, so nothing really changed for us.

Departing Little Rock was actually very uneventful. Because of my Aircraft Commander’s (AC) status as being probably the most senior C-130 pilot in the Air Force, we were on the last plane to leave Little Rock. The last plane is usually the most broke plane, this occurs because as previous planes attempt to depart and break, that plane gets rolled to the next crew, with the previous crew taking the more capable aircraft. Luckily for us, that didn’t happen and we left on time.

On our trip to St. Johns, I was riding in the back. We have two crews on our plane so we split the duties. My buddy wanted the first leg, so I get the next leg. I was sleeping or reading 90% of the way up from Little Rock to St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada. I tried to wake up in time to see New York City as we passed by, but missed it. However I did see most of Long Island. It was kind of sobering when we passed Cape Cod because that was the last of home that I will see for a few months. I felt especially sad because even from 21000 feet I could tell there was a swell on Long Island and Nantucket. The swell was evident when you could see the large rip tides pulling all the deep brown sand out to sea. I believe it was off shore winds because the storm that ripped through the south with tornados had just blew threw this area of the country.

A couple hours later we touched down in St John’s. Winter definitely lasts longer in this outpost of the Canadian Province of Newfoundland. It has rarely been greater than 35 degrees F since we’ve been here. We tried to take off the following night, but were denied before we even left the hotel because there was a fog over the airport. We have rules about the minimum cloud ceiling and visibility limits, and it was well below and getting worse than the minimums allow. Along with us, were four other crews that canceled as well. The next night we canceled again, not because of weather but because of a fuel leak which requires at least a day’s maintenance after the parts get here. The parts were being delivered to us by a C-130J from Little Rock also on it’s way to deployment. Currently, we are scheduled to leave tomorrow morning. We’ll see if that sticks.

Flyers from Little Rock love stopping here in St Johns. It really is a nice little fishing and shipping town. St Johns has a terrific history, being the furthest east city in the North American continent, which dates all the way back to the 1700’s. At one point, the US had a base here as a base for submarines and such during WW2, but prior to the war, it received the first oceanic wireless transmission from Ireland on the appropriately named Signal Hill. We made our way up Signal Hill as well as found the easternmost point on the continent at Cape Spear.

Life in Little Rock

2011-01-02T21:17:00.004-06:00

I don't know really where to head with this journal. The paths possible are many. I feel like I've grown immensely spiritually this last year, but also felt very alone at times. I've purchased a house, that will need some work, all of which are projects I think I can manage. I'm now a mission ready pilot in the mighty C-130E/H. However, the amount of information about flying, especially tactically, I do not know is steadily growing, thus more for me to learn. There is a point in one's Air Force career that you have to start making yourself standout. Much to my chagrin, I think that point is upon me. I have become hopelessly addicted to climbing. When I left the coast, I was and still am in love with surfing, but obviously there are no ocean waves in the landlocked state of Arkansas.

So, with all these topics to choose from, it may just end up being what I feel like documenting. I am about the least narcissistic person I know, so I definitely do not do this journal looking for people to read about me constantly because honestly, if you're constantly reading about me, you need to get a more fulfilling life. Nevertheless, I do feel this is a great way to unwind or reflect on my experiences, and share what life throws my way with family and friends. For all those out there, I miss you dearly. I think about old friends all the time. I wish it was possible to time travel to old times on a whim for like a day or two, I think it would do a lot of people a lot of good to return to perhaps more humble, simple times.

So with that, I pray that God can do some good, in your life and mine.

RTB: return to the blogger

2010-12-23T14:10:00.002-06:00

All,

I think I am going to start posting again. However, I want to expand the realm of my topics. I am thinking I would like to start talking about my spiritual growth as well as my military experiences. So, we'll see how this goes. Until that happens, Merry Christmas!

Chris

Weekend Trippin

2010-04-18T17:25:00.003-05:00

I think one of the great pleasures in life is seeing friends and family grow. Since I completed my sim check about two weeks ago, I have had the pleasure of going on a couple trips to visit family and friends. The weekend after I checked out on the herc I had the pleasure of attending my old roommate's wedding. It was so fun to see how happy he is now that he is married, especially because we all know it was the right woman for him. It was also great to catch up with a bunch of old friends. I think it was so special to see everyone either with their wings or close to getting their wings. At one point in our lives we all were going through the same struggles and now we are all through the tough times looking back on how we once were.

Spring!

2010-04-03T17:52:00.002-05:00

Well, it's finally spring! I remember when I thought it would be cool to have four seasons, since I grew up with two seasons, hot and mild with some rain on occasion. Well, I have since changed my stance, having two seasons is far superior to four for many reasons. However, when those first few days of soothing sunshine arrive, they are more sweet than a summer full of sunshine. It drives me nuts when I have to be inside flying a sim when it is 75 and clear outside. Even actual flights in the aircraft are fantastic when the weather is like this. One thing that I have noticed is how fast things grew back. In just a couple days, the hills were all green with grass and trees were blossoming. I definitely think this month is gonna be the most pleasant month here. Just warm enough but not insanely hot, which I feel is coming this summer.

As far as flying goes, I am about to have my sim check next Wednesday. Instead of proving we know how to fly the herc in the plane, they do it in the sim to save wear and tear on the planes. So, on Wednesday I'll have to do a pretty standard checkride profile, which includes different kinds of instrument approaches and engine out landings. Nothing too crazy, as it's all stuff we have been doing for the last month or so. After I finish the checkride, we will go into the tactical phase. In the tactical phase, we learn how to do all the stuff that a herc does as its bread and butter. We do low levels to airdrops in formation at night to assault landings. All things that require special training and a lot of planning. I already have a little experience with low levels and airdrop from the T-1, but now we are learning it in the herc. It should be a lot of work but a really good time. This is why I wanted to be a military pilot, you do things you would never consider as a civilian or airline pilot. Should be good times.

Until next time, pray for SURF,

Chris

Little by little in Little Rock

2010-03-27T09:41:00.003-05:00

Well, first of all, sorry I have not written in a while, I guess I kind of just got out of the habit. I usually write on Saturday mornings while friends are still asleep, but maybe because I was waking up at noon also, the day had already begun and I was trying to catch up. For about 3-4 weeks there, I was on the night shift. I would go to work at 9pm, get in the sim at midnight, and get out at about 3am. It was not fun. Sometimes we did get in early, so we get out at about 2am, but that is still too late for me.

Sims went pretty well I guess. We kind of motored through them, and now I have about 5 or 6 left. The nice thing is, they will be during semi-normal hours. In about 2 weeks I'll have my sim check, which is nothing more than, hey, you can fly the sim well enough to be qualified in the C-130. Yesterday I had the EPE, or emergency procedure evaluation, which is an evaluation of how we run through different malfunctions. This was another case of not doing anything dumb, different, or dangerous so that we do well enough to pass. However, everything in it was different. I hate checkrides for that reason. They say it is just another flight, but it doesn't matter, there is always a different personality of the flight. In the end, things went fine, we both passed and that is all that matters.

In other news, I went to visit my bro in Denver a few weekends ago. It was a short, but sweet trip, that almost didn't happen. I heard that he was going on spring break and didn't have any plans, so I thought about going to visit him to go skiing. After telling him about my idea and seeing how excited he was, I immediately began searching for tickets. They were all in the $4-500 dollar range, and for some reason, I decided to wait to see if the prices might drop on a random day. Fast forward to the weekend, and I am sitting in my apartment at midnight with nothing to do, because I can't sleep and didn't want to go the bars. I decide to have a look at ticket prices for flights. Sweet! Tickets are about half what they were a few days ago. Now I see how people always get tickets for so cheap, they buy them in the middle of the night. Fast forward another few days and I am at the squadron filling out some paperwork to let them know I'm leaving for the weekend. I go to get the flight numbers and realize a huge blunder. I bought tickets for a random weekend in April and that's why they were so cheap. I guess this is what happens when you buy tickets in the middle of the night. I start to become very disappointed because now I'm not only not going to go to Colorado, but Ryan is gonna be super bummed. Also, I had convinced my other bro Dave to go, and he had already bought tickets. I try to find a way to trade the tickets to that weekend, which would have cost me $1000 dollars because I was getting no sympathy from the airline. My mom recommends Southwest, so I give them a shot. Sure enough, the lady found one ticket each direction, and it was only about $500, which was how much it was gonna cost anyway. I'll take it.

In the end, Dave and myself made it to Denver, Ryan was super stoked, and we went skiing at Copper Mt. The skiing was awesome, the companionship fantastic, and was an overall great weekend. Oh, I forgot to mention, it was a surprise for Ryan that Dave came. We also, went to visit another friend of ours who lives in Denver.

Now I have to figure out if I'm gonna go to Denver again in a couple weeks.

Until next time, pray for SURF

Chris

Low Rider

2010-02-24T22:18:00.002-06:00

After about 4 weeks of academics with a few cockpit trainers thrown in, we have hit the simulators. These simulators are incredibly more advanced than any I've ever flown. An random but interesting fact for you; the C-130 E simulators are actually national assets. Because there are so few of the sims, if too many break at one time, they get national funding or something to keep them running. I'm not sure what all this means, but they are a big deal, especially at about $30 million a piece, too.

On Monday we had our first sim and I have to be honest, if the sim is even remotely close to how the actual plane flies, this should be awesome. The plane is so easy to handle and operate. I love the feeling of props instead of jets and having a gigantic rudder creates handling characteristics we had in T-34's and not it T-1's. People give antiquated planes and equipment a hard time, but I think I really enjoy flying ghetto planes. I think it makes you a better "stick and rudder" pilot and it teaches to think while flying instead of following an arrow on the flight director because the autopilot is on. Although we weren't using any of the autopilot or anything for these first few sims, none the less, it still reminded me of what it was like flying down at Whiting.

I also decided the official song of the Herc is Low Rider by War. It completely encapsulates everything about the Herc. We fly low, we fly slow. You know when we arrive because we have loud obnoxious props. I love it. Although a large part of me still wants to fly helos, I am starting to think I was made for the Herc or vice versa.

Something I am not looking forward to is our new sim times. At the beginning of school, my class drew straws for sim block times. We will likely have the same times through out the entire duration of the course and my buddy and I drew the best slot. Nothing like showing to work at 9 pm for a midnight sim start and finish at about 4 am. I have every day off! Or not. That starts next week and should be good times. I'm not sure how I'm gonna handle this. One positive is I guess, I'll be a champ for partying on the weekends.

Until next time, pray for SURF

Chris

Boredom strikes again

2010-02-08T16:53:00.004-06:00

Weather induced boredom strikes Little Rock again. For the second time in three weeks, we have had a day canceled due to wintery weather. Although we did not get much freezing rain or sleet this time, the entire area shutdown because of the several inches of snow. The thing is, 2-4 inches of snow is not a big deal, but when you don't have the capability to clean it up and everyone already sucks at driving, it makes for a huge mess. The base closed down and basically so did the surrounding area. I did manage to be a little productive. I did a few computer lesson's called CBT's, or computer based training. After that, it was horrible. A friend and I headed out to get some food for lunch. At this point it was a full blown snow storm, with heavy wet snow. On our way out of the base, a car slid into the median. Being the gentlemen that we were, or just a lack of better things to do, we helped pull her out with his 4x4 duelly. We then proceeded to get some lunch. We spent a couple hours eating simply because there was nothing else to do. Anyway, here is a picture of the C-130 static display in the snow.

The Rock

2010-02-06T18:17:00.002-06:00

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

2010-01-29T14:15:00.001-06:00

I'll take my wings to go

2010-01-24T10:16:00.003-06:00

With a whoosh and a bang, the weekend festivities came and went. It all started Wednesday night when my roommate and I headed down to OKC to pick up the parents from the airport. It just so happened that our parents were on the same flight, which normally one would think to be advantageous. However, with two sets of parents and a brother, it still took about a half hour of searching through a severe thunderstorm to find each other. I guess I overestimated our abilities to work in adverse conditions. Anyway, after a fun time at a local pizza joint, the whole crew made it back to Enid, ready to start the next day's activities.

Red Carpet Day is the day the Air Force gets to show off to it members family and friends. It started off with a breakfast meet and greet in our flight room. Thence, we went to a briefing and slide show by our esteemed flight commander. Being Joe cool that he is, it went very smoothly and relatively funny. The video/slide show showed motivating scenes of planes in the Air Force inventory doing amazing things. I am proud to say that about half the video was the C-130 being the beast that it is. Finally, our acting squadron commander came in to talk and present us each with a squadron coin. There is tradition with the coin, however, I'll have to talk about that another time. After the speeches we started Red Carpet Day.

It began with our group heading over to the control tower to see what they do. It is a funny thing about military pilot training bases, they train pilots, as well as the controllers. So think about this for a minute, students controlling students, sounds like a recipe for disaster right? Well, they have been doing it for years, and it has worked this long so I guess why change it. Anyway, the controllers have a very difficult job, that can be very high stress at times. After the control tower, we went over to the physiological building where they do all kinds of funny tests and training on us. Perhaps the most interesting is the altitude chamber. It is a fifty year old steel chamber that seats about 20 people. Basically, what they do is give students hypoxia. Hypoxia is a lack of oxygen to the brain caused by high altitudes. It is kind of like being really drunk. You are unable to do simple tasks like patty cake with the guy next to you. It is a good time because the moment you start getting oxygen from the mask, you feel great. After the physiological building, we had a lunch break and a sim. This is where it got fun.

I got to teach my mom and dad how to fly in one of our simulators for an hour. I must admit, I am a little disappointed in my teaching abilities as neither one was competent to make a radar approach to minimums with crazy cross winds on the standby instruments with one engine. But hey, I guess they only got a half hour each. Truthfully, it was quite fun to see them attempt to fly and land the simulator. Both did pretty well, I am proud to say. Maybe these skills are genetic.

To be continued....

After our sim, we kind of had the rest of the day to ourselves, except for we had to pick up my brother at the airport later that evening. We couldn't hang out in OKC because of the big event in the morning.

The weather had been nice all week. Quite a treat for our visiting guests because the previous weeks had been downright freezing. However, before our graduation, we got some nice winds when we were standing out there in formation waiting for our guests to arrive. Anyway, we made it through, to our winging. After some speeches by people with more brass than myself, we were presented our first pair of wings. Military tradition has it that is is bad luck to wear this first set so we saved them for later. After countless pictures, we made to lunch. I, however, had to take care of unfinished business. I was supposed to go to Little Rock this weekend to start c-130, aka "herc," training on Tuesday. I had not yet received my orders to go so I had to go hassle some people to see that they got here. A little known fact about the AF and I'm sure a lot of business are the same, but no work gets done on Friday's after lunch. After much hassling, I received my orders at 4pm on Friday. I was shocked. Sweet, now I can go to Little Rock, but first there were some festivities to attend.

Friday evening we had our formal dinner. We got all dressed up in our mess dress and had a great time. It was a great time to reflect on what we students had been through and look forward to what lies ahead. I introduced my family to the base leadership and got to meet there families. After dinner it was time to party. For me it was mixed feelings. I was sooo happy to be able to officially call myself a pilot, however, I was really sad I had to leave my friends so soon. Most of them are going to Altus AFB to learn how to fly the c-17 or kc-135. This also includes our assistant flight commander who is going to learn how to fly the c-17 as well.

Until next time, pray for SURF

Chris

Winging week and beyond

2010-01-18T21:09:00.004-06:00

Everyday since about last Wednesday has been a blur. On Wednesday, I received my training RIP for Little Rock. This is a form that gets the ball rolling for any kind of training or PCS (permanent change of station). This is where the week got crazy.

A few friends and I had been planning a ski trip for this past weekend. Kind of as a reward to ourselves. Anyway, it was kind of painful trying to figure out who was coming and who wasn't. After the dust settled, there were 7 maybe 8 going. Well, then the fury of my training and PCS rip began. I am graduating from UPT this Friday, Jan 22. My RIP said I was supposed to in-process into Little Rock AFB on Monday, Jan 25 and begin my C-130 training on Tuesday, Jan 26. Well, that is an insanely small amount of time to pack up my things and move to Little Rock. So, I spent that day and the next trying to get something changed while preparing for the possibility of moving to Little Rock in a week, let alone maybe not going on this long awaited ski trip. It was looking as though they were not going to change my dates and I was going to be spending this weekend in the Rock looking for a place to live. After much frustration and several phone calls by people more powerful than myself, my PCS to Little Rock changed to a TDY. This means that instead of moving to Little Rock right away, I will be going to Little Rock for training then coming back here to Vance to move after I finish. The only downside, is I still start class on Tuesday. This is a huge improvement on my situation though. Now, I can go to Little Rock, scope the place out, figure out who I want to live with and do it right, not in hurry.

Anyway, now that the fire was contained, I could concentrate on more important things, like this weekend's trip to Taos. Seven of us ended up leaving on Friday for the 7-8 hour drive to Taos. We were lucky enough to have a friend with a time share in Taos which was a great place to stay. The weekend up ended up being super fun. The conditions weren't the greatest, as it hadn't snowed since Christmas, but the company was awesome. I'm so bummed that I won't be hanging out with these clowns much anymore come next week.

The big highlight of this week though is the upcoming winging. For so long I have worked for this day, the day I officially become a pilot. Friday is our graduation, or winging, as those of us from Whiting like to call it. It should be a great weekend, because on Thursday we have tours and stuff around the base with our family, and Friday we get winged.

In other news, our military is rapidly deploying to Haiti to help with the disaster in that country. Pray for the country and our military members going down there to help out.

Until next time, Pray for SURF,

Chris

Class 10-04 video

2010-01-11T21:08:00.001-06:00

So here is a link to our modest class video. There might be inside jokes that might need explaining, so if you have a question, just ask. Hope you enjoy it.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbtfd1_faip-search-1004_fun

The aftermath

2010-01-10T14:45:00.002-06:00

It was a night that will not likely be forgotten soon. The anxiety leading up to the night was overwhelming. So long we've waited, so hard we've worked, so relieved we were when it was over.

For me the anxiety started the days and week or two, excluding Christmas, prior. I did NOT want to FAIP. Just as a reminder, FAIP means First Assignment Instructor Pilot, it means I would stay here and be an instructor. For the duration of the program I thought I was under the radar. My roommate picked up most the FAIP jokes, as I went by unnoticed. That is, up until my second to last flight. I was flying with our Assistant Flight Commander and things were going well. In the spare time we had, I started pegging her with questions, trying in desperation to get any bit of information out of her that I could. She can't lie, so when there was something she couldn't tell me she would not answer the question. She did tell me that I was moving up the ladder for FAIPing. So, of course I freaked and started asking her about all my friends. She wouldn't give in. In the days that followed I began thinking about what I would not to kill myself by staying here. Eventually, the drop came and we went on Christmas break.

Immediately upon return, our conversation was ALWAYS about our assignment. We could not escape it. We turned in a hard copy of our dream sheets that first day back so immediately everyone started comparing and predicting what everyone would be getting. Mine went like this:

1: C-17 Hickam AFB, Hawaii

2: C-17 McChord AFB, Washington

3: C-17 Charleston AFB, South Carolina

4: C-130 Little Rock AFB, Arkansas

5: C-17 Dover AFB, Delaware

6: C-130J Dyess AFB, Texas

7: C-130e/h Dyess AFB, Texas

8: EC-130 Davis Monthan AFB, Tuscon, AZ

9: KC-10 Travis AFB, CA

10: KC-10 McGuire AFB, New Jersey

11: C-21 Andrews AFB, Washington, D.C.

12: T-1 FAIP

13-19: KC-135 to the various locations (they are everywhere)

20: RC-135 Offut AFB, Omaha, Nebraska

21: E-3 Tinker AFB, Oklahoma City

22: UAV Creech AFB, Nevada

23: UAV Cannon AFB, New Mexico

Also, immediately upon return, FAIP jokes started, for everybody. No big deal, they are just messing with our heads. Rumor had it that there was also going to be only one FAIP, however, the IP's did an excellent job convincing us that there would be two. After our fate was decided that Tuesday or Wednesday, the rumors escalated. On Thursday night, my friend calls me up ecstatic. He tells me that he heard that all of us got something inside our top twelve. Well, if you notice, my twelfth pick is none other than FAIP. He thinks it's hilarious, I freak out. I went through the program thinking I was in the middle of the pack. Now, I'm think maybe I'm higher and that they want to have me stick around. I do get along with a few of the other FAIP's. After we hang up, he proceeds to tell everyone that I might FAIP and I really really really start to worry. I slept surprisingly well Thursday night as I kind of just left everything in God's hands. This was a sharp contrast to when I had my track selection, where I didn't sleep a wink. Anyway, Friday came around and it was possibly the longest day ever. It didn't help that when we were getting one of our briefings in the morning, one of my friends, reluctantly tells me that when he picked up the phone our flight room, the person on the other line was asking for the social's of my roommate and myself. This sends me over the edge. I freak out more than I ever have. It made perfect sense. We both did well, they liked us, we are both athletic as well as roommates. The rest of the day was horrible, I just had to forget about it. A movie and a nap at lunch was just the ticket.

After a movie and a nap at my friends house, I came back calm, cool, and collected. Now time for the party to start. We all hung out in the flight room for the afternoon before walking over to the O' Club where the assignment was. I have to admit, to help the impending doom, a few of us, well, I guess, all of us, had a few beers to sooth our pain. Slowly but surely people started to show up for our assignment and before we knew it the place was packed. Our class was announced and we made our way in. It was annoyingly quiet. I think I made note of the quietness several times. We preceded to show our video, which I will post a link off youtube when it gets posted. Then came the assignments. I'm not going to go through all of them, just the highlights.

To receive our assignments, we went up to the front in pairs. I was paired with my roommate, Matt. While you are standing up there, they flash up three possible planes on the screen and then knock them away one at a time until yours remains then the location flashes up. Matt was first. Remember, he had been getting serious FAIP jokes the entirety of our training. On the screen was no less than three T-1's, each one to Vance. As they disappeared he became more and more heart broken until only one to Vance remained. I was to the side with my head buried in my hands, completely disheartened for him. To his credit, he took it like a man, and went to shake the hand of our flight commander and accept his fate. As he was reaching for the hand shake, our sly flight commander reports that he is just kidding and up pops a C-17 to Charleston! His number one choice! We both proceed to freak out. I don't think I've ever been so happy for someone in my entire life.

I was next. I'd hate to say it but mine was way less dramatic. Also, I forgot to mention, as we stand there, our flight commander reads a roast about each of us. I stand there taking my roast and three planes pop up. A KC-135, a C-130, and a KC-10. This left me perplexed at this point I still think I'm in the middle of the class. One by one, the KC-135 and KC-10 fall away leaving me with a C-130 to Little Rock. I am stoked. After Matt's assignment and mine, I can barely contain all the adrenaline rushing through my veins. We head back to join our class and high five everybody because by the time Matt and I went, the assignment had been going well for our class. The rest of our class received their assignments and the party was one. I imagine this is what a wedding day feels like. An immense amount of build up and anxiety and then everyone wants to talk to you when its over. I didn't care, I was sooooo stoked for our class as a whole because everyone got something in their top 5 or so.

Later that evening we had a party at a local place for all our friends and what not. Our flight commander and assistant flight commander also joined us. They are awesome. Period. Dot. They took care of us like you would not believe. now that the assignment was over, we also got find out some info they would not tell us prior to that evening. First, was that if one of the girls in our class did not put FAIP first, Matt would have been FAIP'd for sure. Also, if there was two FAIP's, he would be staying in Enid as well. Thank God, there was only one. Second, I was closer to being FAIP'd than anyone anticipated. She said that during the entirety of the program I was moving up each week. Although she didn't say, I feel like I was third on the list. Phew, two, very large bullets dodged for myself and Matt. Anyway, I could not sleep that night because the adrenaline was just to strong. I literally could not stop thanking God, and thinking about how awesome of a night it was. I really not convey to you how awesome it was. God could not have shown his presence any more than He did on Friday. All the pieces came together. God is amazing.

Until next time, Pray for SURF

Chris

P.S. this is not the end, I enjoy doing this, so I'm just gonna keep doing it well after I leave Enid.

C-130 E/H's to Little Rock AFB, AR

2010-01-08T20:05:00.001-06:00

Fate Decided

2010-01-06T20:47:00.002-06:00

With our assignment night rapidly approaching on Friday, today played a key role in our fate on Friday. Our flight leadership got together today and put together our assignment. Today, our fate was decided. They traded with the flight commanders at the other bases, to get us what we want and hopefully, we will all be satisfied. Rumor has it that we got all the good stuff and nobody got anything outside their top 12 choices. This scares me somewhat, because my 12th choice is none other than FAIP. Anyway, people are freaking out. We cannot stop talking about our assignment possibilities. I just want this night to be over with. It is just getting ridiculous how long we have been waiting.

To help illustrate how big a day this is for us, I will run a brief overview of how I got here. It all started in college, when I was at Mt. SAC and decided to join the AFROTC program at USC. After my first year in ROTC, I had to go to a "boot camp" called field training. We were evaluated and racked and stacked during field training. My junior year, I began attending USC and continued on with ROTC. During my junior year, I had to compete for a pilot slot. To put this into perspective, I was going up against probably 1200-2000 other students at other ROTC units throughout the country. Only about the top 500 or so got pilot slots. That was the first major milestone. Then I had to graduate. After graduation, I was assigned a casual status job at Vandenberg AFB on the central coast of California. While stationed at Vandenberg, I had to attend Introductory Flight Screening in Pueblo, CO. This was supposed to be 6 weeks but was extended to 8 weeks due to bad weather. The second milestone complete. After about 8 months at Vandenberg, I moved to Pensacola, FL to begin pilot training with the Navy. The first school was called Aviation Preflight Indoctrination (API). API lasts six weeks and is fun and a pain at the same time. A few weeks later, I began primary flight training at Whiting Field, north of Pensacola, where I flew the T-34C. I completed primary after 6 months, which is relatively fast for Whiting. At the end of primary I track selected to the T-1A. Third milestone complete. After about a 4 month break, I arrived here at Vance AFB in Enid to complete pilot training. After about 5 months of flying the T-1 I completed the syllabus before we went on the Christmas break. Forth and perhaps the most significant milestone complete. Now, after about 6 years of concentrated effort, not including the previous 18 that I have been alive hoping and dreaming about flying, a significant portion of my future is at stake. Will I end up in the dream location of Hawaii, or am I destined to fly the T-1 here at Vance for the foreseeable future? Only God and my flight commander know the answer. Until Friday....

Pray for SURF,

Chris

Flurry of flights

2009-12-23T13:50:00.002-06:00

In a last ditch effort to finish a few of us off before Christmas, I flew a flurry of flights this last week. Through all the pain that goes with flying twice a day for a few days straight, it was well worth it because I finished the syllabus in gorgeous weather before Christmas. Translation: I am complete with pilot training! Although not I am not officially sanctioned by the USAF yet, I am all but a pilot in the Air Force. About 1 year and 6 months after I started, I am now complete.

Last week was such a blur I don't remember what happened. All I know is I finally got Chipotle on an out and back and I had my checkride on Monday with possibly the best/toughest check IP's in the squadron. I think I flew 6 flights including a 7th on Monday. In the end though, it was worth it. I can now go into the Christmas break with a clear mind. That was until I found out our assignment drop.

The assignment drop is a pool of aircraft that Class 10-04 can choose from at all three UPT bases. Our has about 23 plains/locations to choose from. We had been waiting for this since last Wednesday, while several others and myself were in the midsts of our flurry. My job now is to rank 1-23 all the aircraft on that list. For many it is an awesome drop as there is everything from C-17's to Charleston and Hickam to KC-135's to Kadena AB in Japan and Mildenhall AB in England. However, I was hoping for some MC-12's and C-5's, which there is none of. There is a few C-130's which are high on my list, including EC-130's to Davis-Montham in Tuscon, AZ, but I really don't know what the EC's do. The C-17 to Hickam is awesome, I mean who wouldn't want to go to Hawaii, which is exactly the problem. Everyone is going to put that high on their list. This assignment drop has only further clouded my decision making. I'm definitely going to need God's help on this. I am hoping for the best but definitely can't be disappointed with the worst because, in the end I signed up to go where ever the AF sends me, being a pilot is just a perk.

Until next time, pray for SURF

Chris

Cool Week

2009-12-12T08:56:00.002-06:00

When God made me, I don't think He had it in mind to have me live where the high temps would not break 25. I think this is the most consistently cold and pale I have ever been. On one day in Wichita, I think the high was 15 when we took off out of there. So in that that aspect, this week has not only been cool, but down right cold.

They type of flying we have been doing has also been very cool. I was supposed to fly the second flight, the day we went to Wichita and it was 15 degrees, but our plane broke so I was not able to do my flight. I believe this was Wednesday. I did fly on Thursday and Friday though. These flights were awesome because I flew with a super chill IP. Thursday afternoon we did an airdrop mission against a couple of other IPs who were also very chill. It was what I like to call a clown show. These are my favorite flights because nobody cares. It is also when I happen to fly my best because I don't feel any pressure, plus I just like flying formations.

The next day, Friday, was perhaps even more of clown show. It was my last flight as a copilot, meaning, my job that day was to talk on the radio and do checklists. The IP flies the entire sortie. It was also called a "RAT" sortie. This is a flight we do that is meant to simulate a "real" mission in the Air Force. All we had to do was show up. No prior planning for students. We were briefed en mass about our missions to which we broke up into our crews and did a small amount of mission planning and our crew briefs. Also, did I mention it was with the IP I flew with the day prior and one of my better friends. It was shaping up to be a good day to say the least.

For the days events, we were to fly an airdrop mission on the first half, to "drop some supplies to the 10th Mtn Division". Then we had to "refuel" some T-38's on the second half. I flew in the copilot seat for the air drop. It was good times all around. We were constantly making fun of each other, making fun of our mission, and having a good time. In our mass briefing they gave us code words we could use on our mission, and we definitely put those to good use. Eventually we landed at Wichita for lunch then flew our refueling mission on the back half. That was fun, but I think we were had some food comatose because it was much more quiet. All in all, it was a super fun day, and I now only have 5 flights plus a checkride left. I am hoping to finish before I leave for Christmas. The weather is looking good all next week, so I think it can happen. We should also be finding out what is in our drop this next week. Big things are coming, and I don't know what to do with myself.

Until next time, pray for SURF,

Chris

Air Drop and Air Refueling

2009-12-05T11:35:00.003-06:00

After the Navigation Check you move into the formation portion of the training. This is where the flying gets fun. The first 4 flights we do we learn the basic formation maneuvers which are then applied in the following 8 flights. These last 8 flights are air drop and air refueling. Obviously, in the T-1 we can not actually drop stuff out the back or take on fuel in flight as it is a converted business jet, but we do our best to simulate what it would be like to actually drop troops or take on fuel. These flights are naturally the most dangerous too.

Air drop consists of a two ship formation flying a low level route, and performing an air drop type maneuver. It is pretty fun. In formation there is the lead ship and wing. When you are flying as the wingman, it is super fun because you do nothing but fly, no navigation or comm. About half way through the route, we perform the airdrop. This consists of getting in the visual position, which is as close as we get in normal formation flight, pulling the power to idle, pulling up to 1000 ft above the ground, and slowing to 140 knots. It is not exactly the most desirable position to be in for several reasons. The T-1 is not very maneuverable and at slower airspeeds, the flight controls have less authority. After about thirty seconds, we dive back towards the ground to 500 ft and accelerate to our original speed, between 210 and 260ish knots. Good times.

Air refueling can be much more exciting or much more mundane depending if you are the receiver or tanker. Being the tanker sucks because you do all the work. You have to a bunch of math to make sure your receiver gets his gas. You are also on autopilot the entire time, flying circles. As the receiver, you pretty much wait for permission to join up and get your gas. This is the fun part. Once you have 1000 ft of vertical separation and about a mile separation, you ask to join up to precontact position. This is a delicate maneuver of flying a very slow controlled vector up into the belly of the tanker. Once you are in precontact, which is about 50 ft back and 30 ft down, you ask for permission to contact. Contact permission is the closest you get. A good contact position is about 10 ft from your nose to his tail and 3ft of vertical separation. Awesome. Your eyes are fixed on him, constantly shifting looking for the correct visual references.

continued....

Obviously, my first attempt at contact was not the prettiest, but is was all improvement from there. In my opinion, I became relatively proficient at it after only a few tries. I guess if there is one thing I have always prided myself on, it is my hands. When I really put my mind to it, I can have really good control over the aircraft. So, after getting about 3 simulated "plugs" as they're called, our time was up and we headed home. This is usually mundane and boring but, my instructor was not about to let that happen. Being a former fighter pilot and B-2 pilot, he was all about having fun. On the way back, we pushed the limits of the allowed formation parameters and it was fun. For example, in the visual position, you should be able to read the "VN" on the tail but not the numbers below it. Well, not only could we read the numbers, we could have probably read the warnings on the escape hatch at the front of the other jet. To say the least, we were tight. We also explored the limits of one of the other positions we have, called offset trail. In trail, you can maneuver above, below, and abeam to abeam around lead. We were like a fighter flying around a bomber. I had no idea the tone could be man-handled like that. Now if only instructors would let us fly like that. Anyway, Friday ended up much better than anticipated, and I am so thankful for that.

On to the evening's events. On Friday, there was also an assignment night. This one in particular carried much significance. First, quite a few friends from Whiting were getting assigned. We were hoping for good things for them. Some were worried about getting FAIP'd and others worried about not getting a fighter. Secondly, it is the last assignment before my classes. We are now up to bat. Come Jan. 8 my class will get it's assignment, however we still have a lot of flying to do.

In the end, it ended up being kind of an odd assignment. Four FAIP slots were handed out, a couple UAV's also. A few people did get there first choices, including one of my friends, but others were not so fortunate. Two friends were FAIP'd even though rumor has it they were number 1 and 2 in their class. My class did not know what to think. Would this unfortunate drop continue to ours or will we fair better. Something of note is this assignment had a T-38 class also drop, my assignment will not.

Until next time, pray for SURF,

Chris

Possiblities

2009-11-30T20:43:00.002-06:00

If you haven't noticed, I've attached links to aircraft that it is possible for me to get assigned to out of UPT. I've kind of arranged them from top to bottom the order of which I want them. Top is good, bottom bad, for what its worth.

Chris

Visitors

2009-11-23T19:09:00.002-06:00

The other day, I think it was Thursday, Vance had a few visitors. A KC-135 from Altus AFB, a KC-10 from Travis AFB, and an A-10 from a guard/reserve unit in Arkansas came to Vance. I know that the KC-10 was there because one of the dudes getting his wings that day was a member of the reserve unit at Travis so they came to see him. I heard there was a similar situation with the KC-135, and I had no idea why the A-10 was here.

Anyways, it was kind of motivating for those of us still in training. They let us go up in the planes, check out the cockpits, etc. I was really impressed with the size of the KC-10. It is rather large. Also, it has a cockpit that is probably more ghetto than the T-34. It was insanely old school, dial gauges all over the place in such a new plane did not make sense. I also learned that the KC-135 is probably the only over-powered plane in the inventory with its new engines. It's cockpit was not as ghetto as the KC-10 but close. The instructors have always said that the T-1 probably has the nicest cockpit we will ever see unless we fly the C-17. I'm beginning to believe them.

Seeing all these planes only furthered my indecision on what I want out of here. The A-10 was as awesome as it always is, but that is not a possibility. The KC-10 has awesome locations in Travis AFB near San Francisco and McGuire AFB in NJ, but it is a tanker and is super ghetto. The KC-135 also has some nice bases, is kind of ghetto, small, and is still a tanker. However, if the AF ever gets it's act together and gets a new tanker, the 135's will be the first to go. In other news though, I still want to fly helo's eventually and there is an awesome Guard unit in San Jose that I think I really really want to join one day. We'll see where the Lord takes me. Also, let the countdown begin. I have only 12 flights left.

Until next time, pray for SURF

Chris

Nav Check complete

2009-11-22T21:09:00.000-06:00

After going to bed thinking that the weather was going to lift enough to do my low level, I awoke on checkride day, after not much sleep, to worse conditions than expected. Excellent, no sleep, horrible weather and no time to change anything. Perfect checkride conditions. Anyway, enough whining.

I get to work at 530 which is 4 hours before our scheduled takeoff and an hour prior to the brief. I am the first one in the flight room. After pulling up the weather, determining that it is horrible, I revert to my secondary plan as the weather is gorgeous down in Amarillo and Roswell. The weather over our local area, i.e. Enid to Wichita to Tulsa, and Oklahoma City is over cast at about a thousand with moderate icing from 2,000 to about 6-9,000. No worries. I have a plan, we can do this. Myself and a fellow classmate who was also checking that day proceed to scramble to finish a plan for the day. Eventually my brief time rolls around and with out a complete plan, I go down to the checkride office to ask for more time. Well, nobody is there. Come to find out, my scheduled IP is usually late to his briefs. Sweet, but I still have to scramble as I don't know when he will be in. Anyway, he finally makes it in and we brief. It was a lightning fast brief because we had a plane to catch. Not only do we need to takeoff on time we need to be back by a certain time called our chock time. Normally this is 6.5 hours from takeoff time, but for whatever reason, my was like 5. We both thought it was a mistake but we still had to comply.

The total amount of flying time for the two flights is supposed to total 3.6 hours, or about 3:36. Well, I new we were going to be pushing it because we were going to Roswell and it ain't close. I chose Roswell because I had been there before and I had a previous VFR leg already planned to there so it cut my planning in half. I could have gone to Lubbock or a town in Kansas, but I decided against it to comply with the student made rules for checkrides: don't do anything dumb, dangerous, or different. I had never been to Lubbock or some better options, so I stuck with my guns.

We finally take off, and I believe it was on time, even after all the shenanigans of the morning. We make our way through the icing and down to Amarillo. Funny thing about Amarillo is they give you whatever you request. I had planned out some approaches to do, but en-route my IP and I decided to change the first. This was only a small foreshadow of what was to come. The first approach was a GPS approach to a touch and go, we received instructions for the climb-out but it was not jiving with what we wanted to do next. So, I had had to then do another approach I had not planned on doing. Eventually, I made my way through 4 approaches with one to a circle and a holding pattern in about 35 mins. It was a blistering pace. Not what I had planned, but it is what we got. In fact on two of the approaches, the tower had us go around before we even got to the runway because on one there was an aircraft taking off and the other we were flying head to head with an airliner coming in the opposite direction. In then end, I think only one of the four approaches was one I had initially planned.

After holding, I had to figure out where we were on the map because now I had to navigate using a map of the ground and clock to get us to Roswell. After getting my bearings, we made our way onto the route I had planned from Amarillo to Roswell. This was the most chill portion of the flight. We climbed up to about 10000 and navigated our way across the sprawling land mass that is northwest Texas and northeast New Mexico. There is nothing but dirt for as far as the eye can see, even at 10000 feet. This is also when I began my recovery from the approach work at Amarillo. I began to realize we were short on time, really short on time. I tried to push it up a notch on the approach into Roswell, but it was too little, too late.

We landed, went for lunch at the Mexican food place and made our way back to Vance. The flight back was uneventful as he was flying and asking me General Knowledge questions the entire way. This was another opportunity to fly faster and direct, not along the planned route. We landed and made our way back to the squadron with only the EP to discuss. But first I had to fill out all the forms. This is when I learned we flew a 3.8, not the required 3.6. Whoops, maybe he'll have mercy on me because of the bad weather. Anyway, that was to be discussed after the EP.

For the EP, he put me on the runway at Roswell, with 12000 ft of runway in front of me, getting ready to takeoff, with clouds and icing above us. As I was getting ready to rotate, he gave me a caution light with all the hydraulic annunciators. This is bad, because we can't stop with out hydraulics with the exception of the emergency brake. To help setup the situation better, I had always briefed that for takeoff's we would not abort for hydraulic type emergencies. He basically called me out to see what I would do. After much deliberation, between going into icing with a bad jet and aborting on the runway, knowing what I had briefed, I decided to abort. Which, is the right answer, however, according to the check pilot, it was wrong. His point is that it was bad for me to go completely opposite of what I said I was going to do. I could delve into the ridiculousness of this whole situation and my opinions on AF UPT, but that is neither here nor there.

In conclusion, he informed me I had passed, but I had somethings that troubled him. First and foremost was the whole overfly issue. I had basically planned to do something that was against the rule. So, I guess my plan backfired. I knew it was a long shot, but he also said I could have done things to help my situation. First was to fly faster and direct on the way back. Second was to fly faster on the VFR leg. And finally, I could have done the approach into Vance instead of a fourth at Amarillo. I felt the third option was not made known to me until it was to late, because had I known I had that option, I definitely would have chosen it. The first two were definitely my fault. Anyway, I received two separate downgrades for this overfly issue, the first on mission planning and second on in flight planning. Whatever, I expected one, but not two. I also received a downgrade for the EP as I discussed earlier. Also, in my opinion, a questionable downgrade. I had three more, one of which was a dumb mistake and no big deal. The other two came with the crazy approach work. On the two times they had me go around before the runway, he said I waited too long to go around. Well, part of checkride ROE is that the IP calls the go arounds, unless I call one on myself. This was also arguable because I was waiting for him to call my go around to comply with the rules. Whatever. So I ended up with 6 downgrades. Not bad but not stellar. On a positive note, he said I did excellent with keeping up with all the changes in the aircraft. He also said my basic aircraft control was also excellent. Both things I take a lot of pride in because I don't like using the autopilot and I am super flexible, being able to do stuff on the fly, no pun intended.

Had I flown my primary plan, I think I could have gotten a 1 or 2 downgrade instead of the 6 I received. Oh well, half of checkride success luck. On another note, our class us doing awesome. We are extremely tight in performance. Those who sucked on the first checkride did awesome on this one and vice versa.

Next is formation. Eventually we will be doing low levels in formation, which are usually the instructors favorite flights.

Until next time pray for SURF.

Chris

quite a weekend

2009-11-18T21:12:00.002-06:00

As you saw on Sunday, I had my checkride on Monday. This is the big checkride they put all the pressure for success on. However, first I had to get through the 2 flights before the checkride. These are as difficult if not more because they test you to see if you really know your stuff before they clear you to check. To top it off, I flew with the IP that is generally regarded as the toughest.

For these last two flights, he definitely lived up to his billing. The weather was good enough and I had a fairly ambitious plan, which was probably my mistake as he made me pay for it. To start it off, we flew a low level route, which is flown about 500 feet above the ground. I had never flown this route before, but it was important to see as it was a possible route for my checkride. Needless to say, it was not easy to find the points on this route and I definitely heard about it. The thing is there is not much I can do to because all the programs we have don't allow you to see pictures of the route. It is not easy finding points, i.e. road intersections, off outdated maps in areas that don't have much there to guide yourself with. Anyway, I got through the low level and went to do a couple practice instrument approaches at Forbes field in Topeka, KS. After our planned full stop there, we took off and headed to Wichita to do a couple and then to Tulsa for one or two. This also where I kind of started to get in trouble. I planned to do too much and didn't complete everything I planned. Luckily he knew I was getting tired and kind of let off the tough guy persona he had all day. I was sooo thankful for that, because I have enough stress about the upcoming check that I didn't need it for the two flights prior.

Eventually we made it back to Vance. I couldn't be happier as it was Friday and all I wanted to do was go home and rest. The rest wouldn't be plentiful though, as I had a check to study and plan for. To top things off the weather forecast was rapidly depleting.

I woke the next morning and immediately began to review all that I have been learning the last few months. Luckily I didn't have much distraction as my roommate was gone for the weekend. Towards the middle of the day, I was interrupted by my friend because he wanted me to go have lunch with his wife and meet a friend of hers at work. I didn't want to go, but was forced. It ended up being a little awkward, but whatever, I was preoccupied. Anyway, I spent the rest of the day reviewing with some friend who were also going to check.

Sunday rolled around and it was also a day filled with preparation. I only broke to go to church. By the way, I love my church, our pastor, Wade Burleson is super solid. Anyway, that afternoon, I planned several options for the next day's events. The primary plan was to do a low level followed by practice approaches at Tulsa and then a full stop at Oklahoma City. The secondary plan would be to do approaches at Amarillo, TX with a VFR leg to Roswell, NM. The weather was looking extremely marginal in the local area but southwest it looked great.

To be continued. . .

Nav Check

2009-11-15T18:20:00.001-06:00

Well, navigation check tomorrow. Big prayers. I'll let you know it goes.

Chris

Crunch time

2009-11-07T08:10:00.002-06:00

Well, the biggest flight of my life is coming up shortly. The Navigation checkride is worth about 20% of our overall grade. After this flight you are basically certified as a pilot because the flights after it are more of a formality than anything. A few people have already taken the checkride and right now our class is not doing nearly as well as we did on our first checkride. So far we are one pass and three hooks. Not good. The part that sucks is the weather has been great too. I hope I check next week. I have three flights left before my check. The last two will be in the same day to simulate a checkride, because the check is two flights.

Anyway, my last few flights have been frustrating and confidence building. A few flights ago I had a couple where I was not flying with my A game. It is funny, because as a student there there are just some days where you just don't feel like flying. I had a couple of those and the grades showed it. They weren't horrible flights, but there were definitely not up to my standards. Plus, they were flights with FAIPs, (first assignment instructor pilots) and they tend to be a little more hard on the grades because I don't think they see the big picture as well as other instructors who have flown other aircraft before. After the second flight that was subpar, I had a complete change in attitude. I had been getting depressed because all the flights are the same and I am getting bored with this. Attitude is paramount in the ability of one to succeed in UPT. It changed to one of competition, instead of submitting defeat and giving up, I need to defeat this. This is not THAT hard that I can't do this. I am not an arrogant person, but to be honest, after praying about it, I think it was some arrogance in me that caused this change in attitude. Thank God for that I guess. To say the least, my last two flights have gone beautifully and are what I would say should be normal for me. I feel like I could take my checkride tomorrow and pass with flying colors.

In other news, there was an assignment night last night. These also tend to be very motivating because you get to see peoples dreams come true. Last night they decided to play a cruel joke on a friend from Whiting. He had done OK on his checkrides, but not stellar. Anyway, his last choice was an E-3 to Tinker AFB in OKC. He goes up to get his assignment and none other than the E-3 pops up as his assignment. After seeing this, he stands there for a good ten seconds, astonished, trying to figure out what he did wrong, which to us looked like the life was sucked right out of him. After finally accepting his fate, he starts to walk back to the rest of his class and all of a sudden they start going crazy, telling him to turn around. As he does, he sees a KC-10 to Travis AFB near the bay area. He then proceeds to freak out.

Now, this is super awesome. I am always super stoked for friends who get something they want. However, I still am failing to find something I want to fly out of here. A very large portion of people want to fly C-17s out of here. They are kind of the rock star plane out of T-1's. However, I don't know if I want it. As of right now, the only reason why I would want it is because of its awesome base locations. I have been leaning towards the MC-12 which is a small twin engine turboprop. The thing is, I have determined that I love flying small maneuverable aircraft with canopies where you can see everything around you, not huge freaking behemoths. I get totally stoked on the idea of formation flying and going anywhere do anything ability of small aircraft.

Anyway, the reason why I bring this all up, is our class is two assignment nights away from our assignments. We have a bunch of friends in the next one, and then we are next. If it wasn't for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we would be 6 weeks away. With the current timeline, which has little chance for change, we will find out the possible assignments on Dec 17, put in our dream sheets that week, then go on Christmas break. Our assignment night is the first Friday after we get back from Christmas, which I think is Jan 8. Graduation is then on Jan 22. It is getting close. The butterflies are starting to show up, hopefully not in the cockpit though.

Until next time, pray for SURF

Chris

Bad wx and good wx

2009-10-24T10:42:00.004-05:00

To characterize this week, you could say the weather determined if it was a good day or not. A pretty significant storm front come through and most did not fly all week. I did get out on Monday, and I think Tuesday. I was then scheduled again for a single out and back on Wednesday, the day the storm was probably its worst. A single out and back means it is only one student and IP with two flights. It basically doubles your planning because on a normal out and back you only fly one flight and the other student does the other. To add insult to injury I had to plan a low level, meaning we were going to fly a military training route at 500 ft above the ground. There is pretty extensive planning that goes into this.

So anyway after having that afternoon and the next morning to plan it, I went into the brief with the IP. The brief actually went pretty well with the limited planning time I had. So we eventually make it out to the jet, anticipating not being able to do the low level route because of weather. As we were getting ready to start the engines, the controller called over the radio that no one could take off because the winds were out of limits. We sat there for a few waiting to see if they were going to lift it but, to no avail, we went back inside and waited it out. Eventually, he let me go and we canceled. Sweet, all that trouble for nothing, oh well, I should probably get used to it because I'm willing to bet that's how it is going to be from now on.

So, I had the next day, Thursday, off, which was nice. It also gave me plenty of time to plan my flight for Friday. The other student I was flying with on Friday was flying Thursday so I kind of just had to start without her. So, seeing that the weather was going to be clear and a million to the west, I decided to go to Amarillo to do practice instrument approaches and then a VFR leg down to Roswell, NM. VFR is visual flight rules, meaning we can kind of do what we want as long as we stay out of clouds. There was not a cloud in the sky, so no prob. I have to admit, I never thought I would ever go to Roswell, NM, but yesterday I found myself there, and it was a gorgeous day. Also, in case you were curious, Roswell, is in the middle of nowhere in a barren landscape. Anyway, after having some minor concerns about the aircraft, the speed brakes would initially not go down, we made it out of Roswell, alive and unscathed by any paranormal activity. Friday was such a great flight, the plan worked out great, it was a beautiful day, and I flew pretty well.

The pressure is starting to increase as our next checkride creeps closer. The navigation checkride is the big one. It accounts for like 20% of our overall grade. I think it is really lame that such a large portion of our grade hinges on one flight, but I guess thats how the AF conducts business. I estimate that I will check the the week that is two weeks from Monday, Oct 26. I believe that is the second week of Nov. It is kind of exciting though, because we could potentially be done flying by the Christmas break, meaning syllabus complete.

Until next time, pray for SURF,

Chris

2009-10-17T09:51:00.002-05:00

People always give Whiting a bad rap because it tends to have poor continuity for students. This wasn't really the case for myself, but it is for a lot of people so it is not completely unjustified. However, I am beginning to see a trend with the Air Force program. I fly everyday one week, then not at all the next week. I guess you can't always get what you want, said the great philosopher Mick Jagger.

So, after flying four days and a sim on the fifth last week, I had two sims this week. The latter being an EP sim, which is not so much flying as it is reacting to simulated emergencies. Anyway, I'm expecting a busy week next week as I am already on the schedule for Monday.

In other news, USC is playing ND this weekend. Should be another slaughter house, but a lot of the reporters seem to think ND can upset this weekend. I'm thinking no, but ND has always been overrated.

Until next time, pray for SURF

Chris

On the road

2009-10-12T11:02:00.003-05:00

I think this last week I've spent 2 nights in my own bed. So, you could say I've been getting around this week.

On Monday, I had planned an overnight cross country to Houston, TX by way of Memphis, TN. We stopped in Memphis to get some good Tennessee bar-b-que at place called Corky's. That place was awesome, I definitely recommend dry rub ribs. In Texas, we stayed in the FBO which had little hotel rooms in it. I guess it was pretty nice, they had a bar and a movie theater. Anyway, when we woke up, we were in for a treat. In the hangar they were having a promotion for the airshow coming up. It was pretty sweet because there was a B-17, B-25, and an A-4, among other planes. After checking out all the old-school planes, we had to do some "combat flight planning" to get out of Houston. There was a serious storm front moving across northern Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, which were all originally part of our plan of getting home. We ended going to Amarillo, TX for dinner before heading home. In Amarillo, we went to dinner at the Big Texan, which you may have heard of before. It has been on TV several times because of their claim to fame, the 72 ounce Big Texan steak. It was such a tourist trap, the steaks weren't even that good, but oh well. I can now say, I've been there. Anyway, upon arriving back at Vance, I found out at 1100 that night that I was flying the next day. Sweet.

This is where things got interesting. I was flying with my roommate and one of the more chill IP's, which is awesome. I new it was going to be a good flight. Anyway, Matt had already decided we were going to go to Little Rock, which was fine as I didn't care. He was flying first to take us out there, I was going to bring us back at night. The flight out was uneventful and we went to dinner at a pretty awesome pizza joint. I dig the Chicago style pizza. Now it was my turn to fly while fighting off the food comatose. After the 20 minuted taxi to get the runway, we eventually took to promptly hitting a bird on departure. Not good. There are a bunch of rules regarding bird strikes. We got some maneuvering airspace so we could decide whether we were going to fly home to Vance or just land there, check things out and then head home. We decided to land, check out the plane, and get permission to fly home.

After inspecting the aircraft and determining there was no damage, except all the guts on the windshield, we tried to get permission to fly home. We got permission, however, our battle now was time. Vance closed at like 1030 or 11 and it was already like 930. With an hour and change flight ahead of us, we may not make. After checking some graphs for our landing, we had to let the brakes cool. Because of our heavy weight, short available landing distance, long taxi, we accumulated a ton of brake energy. This requires exponentially more cooling time than if we landed light and with a long roll out. In the end, we had to stay in Little Rock for the night, because we would not take off in time, as it was going to take about 2-3 hours for the brakes to cool. Oh well, I was prepared with a divert bag, that included some underwear, toothbrush and paste, and deodorant. My roommate and IP weren't so lucky.

We ended up getting a hotel room and hanging out at the bar for a couple of hours to have a brew. We woke up the next morning to try and take off about 1100. When we got to the airport we discovered that there was yet another huge storm front directly over Vance. We could not take off because we would not be able to land at Vance. So we had a few hours to kill. We ended up going to the Bill Clinton Presidential Museum for an hour or so and getting some lunch. Eventually, we took off out of Little Rock that afternoon, not knowing what was in store for us.

The flight was beautiful until we got to the impending storm that was still over Vance. After going through some pretty good turbulence, icing, about 30000 feet of clouds, waiting out lightning warnings, and two attempts at landing, we landed safe at Vance. That was definitely some of the most interesting bits of flying I have done. It was legit, we may or may not be landing. Good times. We were just relieved to know we weren't going to be spending the night in Amarillo or something (Amarillo was our alternate airport at the time).

Then came the weekend. I had been talking with my friends about going camping for a while. We finally had the time and the place to go camping. Five of us left early Saturday morning to go camping in the Ozarks in Arkansas. We didn't really know how it was going to turn out, but it was actually pretty awesome.

Anyway, I'm tired of typing and I need to get things done, so until next time pray for SURF,

Chris

stale

2009-09-27T19:25:00.002-05:00

This last week was pretty stale. I did not fly, as a pilot, but as a copilot and had two sims. Definitely had a severe lack of motivation at the end of this last week. We were getting excited because we are going on cross country trips this week. However, the more info we found out, the more restrictive these xc's became and by the end of the week, nobody really cared for them this week. As I've said before, the AF runs a very different pilot training program than the Navy. It became more evident with this whole xc scenario. Oh well, I guess it all can't be fun. Anyway, things are looking up as I am flying to Colorado tomorrow to fly through the mountains. Should be a fun time.

Until next time, pray for SURF

Chris

Transition complete; Navigation, start

2009-09-20T18:26:00.002-05:00

There are two major blocks of training in the T-1. The first is transition. In transition, you basically are learning how to fly the plane. It involves all the standard basic aircraft control maneuvers and learning how to land the plane. Most is done in clear weather, where instrument flying is not required. I had my transition checkride last Tuesday, finally. I am so sick of doing the same thing every flight.

In AF pilot training, checkrides are a huge deal. A very large portion of you overall score is resting on two checkrides. In a way it is kind of unfair because you could just get extremely unlucky with weather, other traffic, or a strict IP. Well, we got two out of three. On Tuesday the weather was going to be marginal but doable. Dave flew first and was flying great, until the touch and go's. Then he got hosed, big time. We had to switch airports, had to fly a lower than usual pattern altitude, and had to dodge a ton of other planes. The traffic was horrendous. Eventually he got through it and it was my turn. Magically, the traffic kind of lifted for me and I flew pretty unobstructed. The only downside was the low patterns. Oh well, I watched Dave do his for like an hour. My patterns turned out great and we headed back to Vance, with a pit stop to do some stalls and such. In the end, I thought my flight went pretty well. Made a few small mistakes but nothing major by any means. Awesome. Then I spent the next hour convincing Dave he didn't fail and that our debrief will go fine. At the end of the debrief, everything turned out great. We both got good scores, if I had to equate to something familiar, I would say we got A-'s or B+'s. Sweet, I was so relieved to have my checkride complete. However, I didn't have much time to relax in my post-transition state, I had to plan a navigation out and in the next day.

An out and in (aka out and back) is a flight were we fly to another airport, hopefully some distance away and practice instrument approaches, land, have lunch then do the same thing and come home. Most students look forward to this stage. I just wanted a day off.

Anyway, for my first nav flight, we took two jets up to Omaha, Nebraska for lunch. It actually turned out to be a great time. Omaha seemed like a super cool town, and the food was great. The flight went well, too. Sweet, maybe I'll have the next day off. It wouldn't be until we landed back at Vance about 10 hours later that I had another nav out and in on Thursday. Ugh.

This time we went to northwest Arkansas, near Fayetteville. It turned out to be a nice airport with good food. The rest of the day was relatively uneventful as I flew us back to Vance. Sweet, maybe I'll have Friday off. Nope.

Friday, I was scheduled to fly a local flight. I was so drained at this point. During the mission brief, my instructor asked if I was ok, and I was, but I was just drained. I have had no time to sit and absorb what I have learned over the last few flights. I had some motivation to make it back though, there was an assignment night that evening.

As I've said before, assignment nights are a huge deal. It is basically determining where your career is heading. I did not know anybody in this one, but it is still cool to see everyone have their dreams come true, hopefully. It turned out to be a pretty good drop too, as a lot of people were very happy with there assignment.

Anyway, I have Monday off and I'm struggling for motivation to study. So, pray for motivation please.

Until next time, pray for SURF.

Chris

I di

growing pains

2009-09-11T18:21:00.004-05:00

The last few days have not been the most pleasant here at pilot training. Things are not going bad but they aren't going the way I would like them. I was supposed to have my checkride today but because of weather yesterday, it got postponed to Monday, then today it got postponed to probably Tuesday because of weather. However, the weather is not my concern. The last few flights, I have had awesome flights overall, but in each one I have made small mental errors that would warrant a unsat for the checkride. Unsat is bad, it is also know as hooking a ride, or busting a ride. This bothers me, because I know I can fly, I know I can fly well. Each flight, instructors are always happy with my touch and go's. This is awesome because, well, we don't always have to takeoff but we always have to land. What is frustrating for me item that has been giving me trouble is on maneuvers we will never do again in this aircraft. It is also something different within the same maneuver. I'll explain.

Part of our training involves going up into the training area, aka the MOA, and performing basic aircraft control maneuvers. It involves things like steep turns, stalls, and slow flight. All of which are very easy to do and are meant to build basic aircraft control. Well, on the past few flights, I have had issues with the stall. I can perform and recover from the stall well within course training standards. Well, for the each of the last three flights, I have forgotten to "perform" certain steps of the the procedure. I put perform in quotations because the steps I forgot have no effect on how well I performed the procedure. It is simply me forgetting to verbalize things as I perform the maneuver. The more frustrating part is that each time it was something different I forgot to verbalize. It makes it hard to fix the problem when each time it is a different mistake.

To sum this all up, I would have hooked the flight I had on Friday because it was not up to the training standard and it was the flight before my checkride. Luckily, in this case the weather "cooperated" and the flight was incomplete. I get a second chance Monday to get rid of this pesky item before my checkride. Also, in general, hooking a flight is not a big deal, contrary to the way it was at Whiting. But, hooking the flight before your checkride is not good.

In other news, had a pretty successful weekend. My friend won a 1000 bucks at a bar in OKC, the Trojans beat Ohio State, and we went climbing. Fall is starting to show itself around here, too. It is starting to cool and clouds are sticking around. Hopefully, they will clear for my checkride on Tuesday.

Until next time, pray for SURF.

Chris

Slow going

2009-09-05T09:56:00.002-05:00

Coming into this week I kind of was expecting to fly a lot. Mostly because my checkride is coming up and usually they want you flying a lot to get you into a kind of rhythm for your check. This usually helps you get better scores because you are so used to doing the same thing over and over again. Well, I found out early in the week that was not going to be checking this week, but next week. Sweet, I get some extra time to study. However, this meant that I will do a lot of sitting around because if they flew me, that means I would check after a few days without flying. That sucks.

So, it ended up I was scheduled to fly on Monday, sit around both Tuesday and Wednesday, then fly Thursday and Friday. With this schedule and next Monday off, I would check next Thursday. Obviously, this is assuming nothing went wrong during the week. However, after being bored out of my mind on Tuesday and Wednesday, I was kind of motivated for flying after flying on Thursday. Then Friday came and the weather was marginal throughout the entire region. During our planning we weren't sure where to go, so we decided to go down to Tinker AFB in OKC. It seemed like a descent plan with the given situation. We got there and the weather was marginal but usable, but the longer time passed, the worse the weather became. Eventually, the instructor decided to head back home and the mission was canceled. Dave was flying the whole time, while I sat in the back. So, now I may not be checking next week either, because next Friday is supposed to be a no fly day. I hope I don't sit on my butt all next week, that would suck.

In other news, college football is here. We plan on going to experience Oklahoma State football this weekend. I miss college.

Until next time, pray for SURF.

Chris

calm before the storm

2009-08-29T08:50:00.002-05:00

As busy as the last few weeks have been, this week has been not. It started out looking like it was going to be busy with a flight on Monday and our second EP sim on Tuesday. Then on Thursday we had our first Copilot flight. These are nothing more than us sitting in the right seat instead of the left and reading out checklists and not flying. I did not touch the yoke to do more than make a radio call. It was a relatively laid back flight in that there was not a lot of pressure on us to do well. The reason is because the only things we could really be graded on were, radio calls and checklist procedures, which mostly consisted of reading a checklist. Thursday, we had our first navigation sim. Nav sims potentially can be difficult, but this one was nothing more than doing stuff we have done before. So that was a cake walk. On Friday we were expecting to fly a normal mission again, but we were taken off the schedule. So Friday was essentially a day off.

Needless to say, not much studying was done this week. This is a bad thing. The first few people in my class will be having their checkride at the end of this next week. I'll most likely have mine the following week. The week after labor day. This week was a perfect time to get ahead in studies. Oh well, I'll survive. We have talked to some friends in other classes who just had their checkride and I think we have a pretty good handle on what we need to know for ours.

Until next time, pray for SURF,

Chris

Picture of myself and the T-1

2009-08-23T14:06:00.002-05:00

SURF! Oklahoma

2009-08-23T13:49:00.003-05:00

If you have been praying for surf, your prayers have been answered. Yesterday, I'm pretty sure we were the first to surf Oklahoma. You may ask how we accomplished this seemingly impossible feat. Well, with a stroke of genius and a boat. To help us break off the stress of our week, we rented a boat on Saturday. There was one problem though, we only had a tube and possibly a wakeboard later. I am not a fan of tubing so we needed to think of something else. We failed to think of anything creative until we were on our way out the door to the lake. My one friend, who is also a surfer from CA, saw my surfboards sitting in the family room. He is the genius who thought of possibly my new favorite Oklahoman past time, surfing. Before you knew it, I was infinitely more stoked about this trip to the lake. Basically, how it worked, is you treat the surfboard as if it was a wakeboard and viola! you are surfing. Obviously the waves aren't huge, but the speed is effortless because of the towrope. After a full day of surfing Oklahoma, we can't wait to do the real thing again, or its Oklahoman counterpart.

As far as the training goes, we had our first, last event. On Friday we took the last academic test we will take in UPT. This doesn't mean we won't take any more tests, it just means we are done with academics. We take any motivation we can get if you can't tell.

Last week was also a dumpy week for flying. We sorta flew on Monday in horrible weather, got canceled another day, and flew again on Thursday. Friday we had the 515 again, but oh well, it's not like we don't always get up at 430 anyway. This week should prove to be better weather, but there is a new class joining up, so I only expect to fly two or three times this week.

Also, our first checkride is coming up relatively soon. I only have about 6 more flights until I check, so prayers for the checkride, please.

Until next time, pray for SURF.

chris

2 up, 2 down

2009-08-16T09:14:00.002-05:00

Another week down. These days are borderline ridiculous. We are at work for 12 hours each day without a spare minute, then we promptly head home so that we do not break crew rest. (we must have 12 hours off between duty days) But our day isn't over when we get home. I usually take about an hour to hour and a half to screw around and eat dinner. Then it studying the rest of the night until I go to bed.

My typical day at work has been like this. Show up at 515 and begin to flight plan for about an hour. Somewhere between 600 and 630 we will begin our mission brief with the IP. After about an hour of brief, we "step" to the aircraft. This takes about an hour to step, get out to, preflight, and start the aircraft, the goal is to meat our takeoff time by -5 to +10 minutes. Then we proceed to fly for 3 to 3.5 hours. Usually we land about 1130. After flying we have to debrief for about an hour and a half. Literally as soon as we are done with our debrief we either start formal brief, which is the annoying standup and everything, or we head to class for the rest of the day. Occasionally we have a test mixed in there. The nicer days are when we have a sim. The sims are great because instead of taking like 7-8 hours start to finish like flights, they are 5 hours. On the occasion we have a sim, I like to go to the gym because it is the only opportunity to go. All in all, this puts navy training to shame.

Anyway, other than long, dreary days, things are well. I am really coming along in landing this thing. My class is super awesome and we always do things together. Also, some guys and I are starting a Bible study group so that is cool.

Until next time, pray for SURF.

Chris

One up, one down

2009-08-09T10:27:00.003-05:00

One week up, one week down. This past week, we started what is called the 15 day program. It is 15 days of formal release (where we are required to be there 12 hours) and formal briefs. Formal briefs are the "hazing" that we have to go through. Basically, we have to sit/stand at attention while we are given random questions called shotgun and a stand up EP. Each student has to pass a stand up EP as a pilot and as a copilot before the checkride. During a stand up EP two students are called to talk their way through an EP in front of the class and instructors at the position of attention. It is really lame and no one likes doing it. If you don't do so well during the stand up, you get told to "sit down" this is kind of bad and it can happen for any reason. Basically, stand up is a pain in the butt.

Towards the end of the week, I just felt my time was coming. On Friday, I just knew it was going to happen. Sure enough, I got called up to be the copilot on what is considered to be one of the tougher EP's, engine fire on take off. Luckily, I was prepared and my pilot and I were told to "have a seat" after some time. This was awesome because that means we did a good job and the instructor was getting tired of us being really thorough.

Another highlight of the week was my first flight on Thursday, aka the dollar ride. Don't ask me about why it is called that, it is some kind of tradition and I don't know the story. The dollar ride was interesting. It is really weird trying to fly this plane, which is basically a small airliner, like a toy plane. We were yanking and banking in the pattern and which is not normal for an aircraft like this. It turns out this is a really difficult plane to land when first learning. When you get to your slow final approach speeds, the aircraft begins to dutch roll. Dutch roll is the result of having swept wings at slow speeds. During dutch roll, the nose of the aircraft does a sideways figure 8 type motion if left uncorrected. The hard part is learning how to correct the dutch roll. After going around on my first landing attempt and probably coming the closest I have come to killing myself in a plane on the second or third attempt, I began to master the dutch roll. I even got the instructor to yell at me for greasing a landing, meaning it was a really smooth landing.

Anyway, 2 more weeks of formal release, and stand up. I got a flight Monday, a sim tuesday and another flight Wednesday. Wish me luck. Also, I forgot to mention, one flight which includes prebrief, flight and debrief, takes about 6-7 hours.

Until next time, pray for SURF

Chris

Video from previous post

2009-08-02T15:37:00.002-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJzaZ5lMnZM

there are some "inside" jokes in there but i think you will still find it really funny.

Motivation!

2009-08-01T10:51:00.003-05:00

This week was all about motivation. I have been in ground school for like 5 weeks now and it's getting old. It is not the hardest thing, but it isn't the most fun either. I have to admit my motivation was getting low. It didn't help when we had what's called an EP sim and a test back to back on Wednesday. The EP sim is basically a simulator flight where the plane breaks constantly and you have to do the appropriate emergency procedures. It is fun but also a little bit stressful. I think what made it worse is that I don't think my copilot and I weren't necessarily on the same page. In the end though, we did well so all is good. About an hour after our EP sim, which was at 515 in the morning until 1030, we had a instrument test. This is supposed to be one of the harder tests in the program, so we were stressing about that a little. All turned out well there also.

However, yesterday was one of the most motivating events I have been too. Every three weeks, although it has been six weeks since the last one because of the strike, there is what's called an assignment night. This is where the most senior class gets their future assignments before their wings. I also happened to know a lot of people in the class because I went to IFS in Colorado last year with them. The motivation is super high because literally every student and IP is there plus some family and friends. So, if I hadn't mentioned it to you before, assignments for the Air Force have been really lame for the last year or so. It has not been a good time to try to become a pilot in the Air Force recently. Last night showed signs of that changing.

There had been rumors of possibly 3 fighters dropping, which is 3 times the amount of past classes. Also, there were rumors of a Hawaii assignment. So, one by one, each student walks up to the front when their name is called and gets their assignment, both airframe and location. Iwas especially excited I probably knew about 6-7 people in this drop. Sure enough, a C-17 to McChord in Washington, another to Charleston in South Carolina, and finally a C-17 to Hawaii. By the way, the event was taking place in the O-club and everyone was there. The place was going nuts. Also intermixed was the fighter drops. First a F-15E, then an A-10, finally after initially being told he was going to be an instructor pilot, they "changed" their minds and gave him an F-22. The roof just about came off the building. In the end, it was a super motivating night and I really can't wait for my assignment night.

Also, another tradition is the class video. This classes' video was the best in recent memory. It was hilarious. I'll try to find a link to it off youtube.

Until next time, pray for SURF,

Chris

busy, busy

2009-07-15T21:00:00.002-05:00

Academics is supposed to be really easy and slow. This week hasn't been THAT bad, but it is definitely not easy and slow. We have had several 10 hour days, which isn't much really, but when they start at 10 and you're home at 8, they take their toll. I have been studying in the morning before and I come home and study more. This is definitely a little more info than there ever was at Whiting. But it is just different. It is manageable, sort of. But anyway, I just got done with my second sim and I have a test tomorrow morning followed by class all day. At the end of the day, I have an eye gouger called a podium brief. This is just an IP getting with all the class and discussing emergency procedures for like an hour or two. After that I have another sim on Friday night. This sim actually has a lot of new info, so it should be interesting.

Flying the sims is cool because they have video screens out of the wind screen. They are also pretty accurate in simulating the controls of the T-1. One of the downfalls at Whiting was that the sims sucked at replicating actual flight in the T-34, this sim is much better. This is depressing for me though, the T-1 is so slow to react and is like driving a bus or something. It is kind of frustrating for me because although the yoke is all mechanical to the control surfaces, there is not much feed back on the control pressure. Basically, what I mean is that when I turn the yoke left or right, I don't feel anything pushing back, because the T-1 does not have ailerons. Anyway, if that is confusing, is just means the aircraft has slow reaction time. Not fun. But it does have a lot of very cool gee-wiz instruments. Those are nice.

Until next time, pray for SURF.

Chris

class

2009-07-09T19:49:00.002-05:00

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

Situation normal?

2009-06-30T18:18:00.002-05:00

Today, was the cluster of all clusters. Yesterday we were told to meet in the base auditorium for our little welcome brief. We thought that was dumb because there was only four of us, but maybe they had already reserved the area for a powerpoint or something. So we all get there early, about 850, because on time is late. 9 o'clock rolls around and nobody shows. 905, 910, 915.... Finally, after 915 Dave and I go to the squadron building to see what's up. We get there and they are trying to contact us to figure out where we were. Dave and I go get the other two and bring them back. Cool, no big deal, just a misunderstanding. As they begin to start, they realize there is only four of us. Apparently that was wrong, there should have been five. They start to quiz us on the the whereabouts of the fifth, while we are dumbfounded because we have not heard of said person. They start to scramble to find this guy, to which they were unsuccessful. When, all of a sudden a Lt Colonel comes in and demands us to find this guy or we are not starting. Also, he was curious as to our whereabouts because we were so late. Great, now we are at fault.

We proceed to split up to check different offices that this guy might report to. Dave and Brian figure out that he is positively not in our class to which we meet again and report back to the squadron with our findings. They figure this out also and grant us free passes. All is forgotten and we move on with the brief. Thank God. I'm not sure I could take any more confusion.

So the rest of the day went relatively well, with our first systems class and a few CAI's (computer aided instruction, basically lessons on the computer). There was only a small but frustrating snafu when I was unable to log in. This is the second time I have have been the only one not able to log in.

All told, this was quite the first day. I can't wait for a break already. Good thing we start class just in time to take a four day weekend for Independence Day. I am looking forward to have Mom and Ryan come up this weekend though. Should be interesting for them, seeing how the rest of the country lives.

Until then, pray for SURF,

Chris

situation unkown

2009-06-29T14:31:00.002-05:00

Over the last few days, the 3 people I am classing up with and myself have been put through the ringer on our start date. It seemed like we were told differently every time we went to confirm our start date. Even the colonel who is in charge of operations, didn't know what to tell us. We had heard just about every possibility imaginable. The strongest possibility appeared to be that we would wait until the class we were originally supposed to join up with, finished. As I said before, they had not finished flying in the T-6, because of the strike. This seemed like the most logical and simple answer. Yet the powers that be, determined in their infinite wisdom that the 4 of us waiting around for a few weeks was unacceptable, so we are classing up tomorrow, as originally scheduled. So now, the four of us are going to go through the entirety of ground school by ourselves, while the rest of our new class, about 15 people, sits around until we finish. Makes sense, right? Yeah, whatever.

In other news, it appears moving to Enid is bad for your health. Between playing soccer almost everyday and rock climbing this weekend, my entire body is in pain. I know I'm not old, but my body aches. Am I already getting old? I hope not.

Until next time, Pray for SURF.

Chris

Goings on in Enid

2009-06-25T10:31:00.002-05:00

It has been quite an eventful week. On Saturday, after about 14 hours of deliberation, the union and company came to a resolution. Two days later, on Monday, the union voted to ratify the resolution allowing the maintainers to start work again on Tuesday. This was the big news of the week. Yesterday there were actually a lot of planes flying. Mostly T-6's and T-38's but I guess there was a T-1 or two in the air. Yesterday, we had a briefing by one of the group commanders and basically, he said that we are to still have a neutral opinion of the strike and that each class will be rolling back a class. For example, my class, which is still in the T-6, was supposed to start next Tuesday, was rolled back to the next class. This means I probably won't be starting for like 3 weeks now. Oh well.

In other news, we found some sweet mountain bike trails about an hour south of here. There is not a lot of and they're not that long, but they are fun. Definitely unexpected for Oklahoma. Also, I found a soccer league. We were at the bike shop the other night and went to get dinner across the street. It turns out there is an indoor soccer arena in Enid. They also told me about some outdoor soccer. So, I've kind of gotten involved with them. What makes it even better though is one of the guys that plays soccer, this Scottish dude, is also my next door neighbor. Sweet, now, I'm plugged into the community. That was easy. Sure there is no surf, but soccer is super fun too. It is also much better organized than it was when I played at Vandenberg. I guess the guy who kind of runs it all used to play soccer for the Iranian national team. He is super cool, definitely a kid in an adult's body.

Things are going well here though, I'm actually really happy right now. I have been studying ahead and staying active so I could not be more stoked. Also, yesterday the US Men's National Soccer team defeated Spain in the Confederations Cup. To put that into perspective, Spain is the world's number 1 and was riding a 35 game undefeated streak. It is only the second time we have defeated the number 1 team ever. The also put us into the final of the cup which, even if we lose, will be our best finish at a FIFA tournament ever. Go WATCH the FINAL, it is on SUNDAY.

Until then, pray for SURF and Go America!

Chris

Enid...

2009-06-17T18:48:00.002-05:00

Well, I made it to Enid. The trip up here was uneventful yet surprisingly interesting. I drove up from Mobile, through Alabama and Mississippi into northeastern Louisiana and then finally through south eastern Arkansas to Little Rock. This drive turned out to be really fun and interesting. I was only on interstate highways for a short time so, as a result, I got see a lot of small town America. West Mississippi and northeast Louisiana were actually really fun to drive through. The scenery and locale were very unique.

From Little Rock I drove west through Arkansas into Oklahoma. Contrary to popular belief, west Arkansas and east Oklahoma are relatively hilly because of plateaus. Tulsa, in eastern Oklahoma seemed like a very cool town when I drove through it. It has some interesting architecture with new buildings and such.

On Saturday I rolled into Enid, and early in the afternoon I met my new roommate Matt at our home. I'm not sure whether to call it an apartment or a condo, but it is actually pretty nice. It definitely suites our needs and the location is great. There is really not much to complain about with it. Eventually I'll put up a some pictures of the house, the town, and the base.

On Monday, I checked into the squadron that keeps up in the "holding pen" until we start. I've been working on a inproccessing checklist this whole week while Matt has already been in class for a couple weeks. From what it looks like, there is a LOT of information to absorb. The cockpit is insanely more busy then the old T-34. The checklists are like 5 times as long, and you need to have them memorized. At Whiting, we had one week of class about the systems of the aircraft, here it lasts a month. I definitely want to get a head as much as possible before the storm starts, because this is not going to be a vacation. I'm not sure if the actual flying is going to be any more difficult than Whiting, but the time crunch definitely will be.

So, in conclusion, I am currently sitting waiting to class up, which should happen by June 30th. However, this may not happen because the aircraft maintainers are on strike with the company the Air Force contracted out to do the aircraft maintainance. Nobody knows how long this will last, but if it goes too long, I'll be the Air Force will get involved. Anyway, Enid is cool, I guess, my room is awesome, the base is fine, and I'm getting juiced up for class. Until next time, Pray for SURF.

Chris

So Long Pensacola

2009-06-10T13:09:00.002-05:00

My last week in Pensacola is upon me. I honestly never thought I'd feel this sad about leaving. It's weird how a place I somewhat dreaded at first can become a beloved home. I'm not saying I love it here more than my real home, but I have become somewhat attached to Pensacola. Although, I do have to admit, there could not be a better time to be getting out of here. Let's just say the summer is not my favorite season here like it is at home.

On Monday and Tuesday I had my checkout at the squadron and now have to checkout with the MPF tomorrow. (the MPF are basically the pencil pushers, once I check out with them, I am officially released from the command I am currently under) Slowly but surely I have been packing up my stuff and tomorrow I will be picking up the truck and packin' it in. Right now my plan is to leave Friday morning and arrive in Enid on Saturday. I am not sure of the stopping points because I have several options running through my head, but I'm leaning toward getting into Enid relatively early on Saturday. I am kind of tempted on stopping by the NCAA track National Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. GO TROJANS.

Anyway, I'll likely be driving all day Friday and most of Saturday so, until then, Pray for SURF.

Chris

On to Oklahoma

2009-06-02T16:44:00.002-05:00

Well, I realize it has been a while since my last posting. That is not to say I have been busy, rather, quite the opposite is true. I have in fact been through with my training here since March. Since then, I have been doing what any true aviator does in their spare time. . . working on my tan at the beach. Actually, I have been spending most of my time attempting to quench my thirst of surfing. I also have been working out a lot and on occasion hacking it up on the golf course. I was lucky enough to get stuck with a job, however.

Typically when a student completes their training at Whiting, they have to work one shift of duty a week and the rest of the week is at their disposal. Due to some drama in our squadron I was given a job as a scheduler, which may sound prestigious or something, but, no. It was just bad luck on my part. So every couple of weeks I had to go work for a week to help write the schedule for my squadron.

Way back in March, I completed Primary resulting in my selection of the T-1 Jayhawk as my follow-on trainer. The T-1 is a very capable trainer which is a slightly militarized version of a Beechjet/Hawker 400. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-1A_Jayhawk Typically, a student out of T-1's will go on to fly cargo, tanker, or recon aircraft. I think I would like to get my hands on a little known aircraft called the U-28. It is stationed out here on the gulf at a base called Hurlburt Field. The U-28 is a highly militarized version of a Pilatus PC-12. http://www.airsceneuk.org.uk/scene/mhall/070220/u28ajf.jpg Although I can only speculate what it's mission is I know that is under the Special Operations Command and therefore cool. There are also other very cool options out of T-1's. A very popular choice is the C-17 which is the new cargo plane to the Air Force inventory. It is kind like the Porsche of cargo planes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-17_Globemaster_III Another very cool attribute of the C-17 are its locations. It is stationed in such horrible places like Hawaii, northern CA, Washington state, and Charleston, SC (which I have heard is a very cool town). So, currently I am considering my options while preparing to move to Oklahoma. I am going to be at Vance AFB in Enid, OK. It is about an hour and a half north of Oklahoma City, precisely in the middle of nowhere. I move to OK on June 12 and begin class on June 22 I believe. Then six months later on January 22 I will graduate from UPT and will officially become an Air Force pilot!

Also, I forgot to mention, I am saying good bye to the very user friendly style of naval aviation and moving onto more Uncle Sam friendly Air Force UPT. I will explain the difference on a following posting. Until then, Pray For SURF!

Chris

RI's

2009-02-21T09:44:00.002-06:00

Well, sorry for not updating in a while but I have been a little preoccupied. A couple weeks ago I started RI class which lasted a week and required very long days. In case you forgot, RI is radio instruments, meaning we are learning how to navigate using our radios. There is a lot that goes into this.

To start we have to learn how to plan for going IFR (instrument flight rules). IFR flight plans are what your standard commercial airline uses, the only difference for us is we won't be going as high. With the new IFR flight plans comes a whole new set of charts, pubs, and lingo. We had to learn how to read the charts, understand the pubs, because there is a ton of info in those things and you need to know how to interpret them, and the new calls and info that new info that needs to be passed along which also includes whom you tell what. Then after we have learned all this we learn the procedures for IFR flight. How to position ourselves using our radios and now outside ground references. Along with this is the new approach procedures for coming into land at an airport.

So, after teaching all of this to us, we have to go practice these in the simulators. The sims actually can give us a very realistic simulation of what instrument flight can be like because all we have to look at in the sims is our gauges and that is all we use in IFR flight. The sim instructors can set up pretty much any scenario they want for us to maximum use out of the sims. So after doing 9 sim flights, I get to go back to the plane for a few flights, execute what I've just learned and then go back into the sim for 10 more.

Well, I just finished the first 9 sims and tomorrow I am getting ready to do my first 2 RI flights in the aircraft. They should be relatively similar flights to the sims. But we will see how it goes.

In other news, I have been surfing a lot lately, and this has definitely helped my moral. It used to be that when I was learning a lot of new material, I would kind of become a hermit. Well, not anymore, I think I am flying better now because I am getting my mind off of flying. I love what I am doing but you definitely need a release and thankfully there has been surf relatively consistently.

Also, I should be done here soon. Look for the middle of March for my track selection.

Chris

Forms are finished

2009-01-26T10:49:00.002-06:00

Over this last week, my form partner and I finished our formation flights. We kind of did it in an unorthodox manner though. I had my form solo on Tuesday while he had his form his solo on Thursday. We then had to get ready to start cruise forms for Friday. Cruise forms is different from what we had been doing. We were flying in parade, this is a much more labor intensive position for the wingman. Cruise position is much more stressless for the wingman as you are further away from the lead aircraft. During turns, instead of constantly adjusting your power, you set your power and maneuver the aircraft behind lead in a more dynamic sense. It is pretty fun.

So, anyway, we had our first cruise form on Friday. That was a mess. Cruise form 1 is different in that you only do pattern work and it is different from what we will ever do again. It was very busy in the aircraft. You are trying to maintain parade position while taking off, landing, turn around the patter, putting your gear up and down, switching the side you are flying on, off of lead. It got busy, but is was fun because it was so challenging.

When we landed we found out that we were flying on Sunday. Bummer, but not too bad because that gives us several days to get ready for the next and final chapter in this portion, instruments, aka RIs. Our flights on Sunday were rather interesting because there was a really solid cloud layer and we had to fly an instrument departure through the clouds in formation. Another situation that gets super busy. It was great for us to see though, because now we got a real world application of all the stuff we were learning.

Anyway, fun is over for now, now on to some work in RIs.

Chris

formation fun

2009-01-17T08:53:00.002-06:00

So, this weekend ended up being my busiest week here. In five days, I had 6 flights. Thursday, I flew my third form flight against my partner Jon's fourth. This created a problem that we had foreseen earlier when he did his first without me. He was going to finish the block before me. So, in all their logic, schedules decided to have me fly my fourth against another guy's fifth yesterday. Ok, I guess thats fine. Now Jon and I can do our form 5 together. But when I got to the brief yesterday, the IP's decided to change things up a bit. We were going to do what is called an out and in. We do the first flight as normal and instead of coming back to Whiting, we go to another field grab a bite to eat and relax for a few and then we do a second flight and return to Whiting. Ok, that's cool, not what I was planning on, but no worries.

It turns out that it worked out pretty well. We did our flight like normal on the way out, then he had his "solo" on the way back. In reality he didn't really solo because the IP was in the back, but he was not being graded on the flight. So, in conclusion, I went through the entire first block of formations in 4 days and should be starting the second block next week. After that, all I have left in the program in RIs (radio instruments). This is where I get my instrument rating.

Potentially, I could be done by the end of February but more likely is the middle of March.

Chris

Lead sucks

2009-01-14T20:48:00.003-06:00

Today I flew my second form against my partners third. The difference between this flight and last flight is that I flew lead instead of wing. So, instead of me constantly staring at him, he was constantly staring at me. I was in charge of the flight. I dictated where we were going and what we did. It's not really that hard because we do the same thing every time, but it did get difficult coming home. I was flying as lead and therefore making all the radio calls to the controllers. It got difficult towards the end there because as we were trying to come home, it seemed as though everyone who was in a plane at that very moment was trying to land at Whiting. We got cutoff a couple times and the radios were as busy as I've ever heard them. If was difficult to spot the other aircraft, fly a smart, stable platform in turbulence, listen to the radios, listen to the IP, and keep my sanity all at the same time, but, that's what makes it so fun. It is very rewarding, knowing what I just did would cause a lot of people to freak out. Anyway, we have another flight tomorrow morning at 600, and in case you were wondering, the guy's plane who tried to fake his death landed a couple miles from Whiting. If you don't know what I am talking about, turn on the national news.

Chris

Form = Fun

2009-01-13T19:35:00.002-06:00

Today was my first experience flying formations. What a rush. It is so awesome, flying about 10-15 feet away from another aircraft. They definitely don't teach this to students at civilian flight schools after only 45-50 hours. It is soooo cool because 1. when you are the wingman (wing) you are constantly adjusting to stay in position. So, you are actively doing something the entire time. Second, you are completely dependent on lead. He controls you life. All you do as wing is stay in position.

My IP was telling me how important it is to fly smartly as lead. He told me as story about the Air Force Thunderbirds when they flew the F-5 (a really small maneuverable plane that plane that I could potentially train in next). Basically, because lead controls the destiny of the other aircraft in the formation he is responsible to make any corrections to the formations position in relation to the outside. The wings can't see what is around them or even in their cockpit because their complete attention is on lead. So anyway, he basically screwed up on a maneuver and flew himself and the other three aircraft in the formation straight into the ground. The other three didn't know it was coming and could do nothing about it.

So, now that you know I could potentially kill myself without even knowing it, you should feel nice and warm inside. Another thing, I'm going to do this solo in 4 more flights.

Chris

Into the night

2009-01-12T20:54:00.002-06:00

Today, or more like tonight, I had the first of two night flights. Everyone so far has been telling me that these are super fun and laid back. But, for some reason I felt a little nervous heading into the brief. I wasn't nervous about the flight though, just the brief. I don't know why either. Whatever.

So, anyway I show up to fly and I see that I was cancelled with the first IP then signed on with another. OK, whatever. But wait that's awesome, I am flying with a reservist, they are always the coolest. Sure enough, when it came time to brief, it was awesome. When I came time to fly, it was awesome. We went over to Mobile, which is probably some 70-90 miles from whiting but whatever. He did some instrument work for himself, I took over and flew a bunch of patterns, it was all good. On the way home, we talked about where he used to take his wife before the were married, some good places to eat, I showed him my house. It was such a cool flight. I only wish they could all be like that.

Chris

New year, new block

2009-01-06T16:55:00.003-06:00

Well, obviously it has been some time since I have posted. Until I flew yesterday it had also been a while since I have flown. I think I flew 5 or 6 times the entire month of December. It is kind of unfortunate because I had been flying on such a regular basis, it was weird to fly once a week. I feel really bad for those who when through the entire contact phase flying once a week. It is really tough to get better at flying. But now, I am through with all my contact flights. The contacts are all the flight leading up to your checkride and the PA's after it. They are called contacts because you need to be in visual contact with the ground. The ground is your primary navigation reference.

Since the weather was bad before the Christmas break I was not able to start formations, aka forms. Also, because of the break, I had not flown in 14 days and yesterday I had to fly a warm up flight. These are usually fun, low pressure flights because they do not count for anything. However, my flight was so-so because I just was not fond of the IP was flying with. He is not bad or anything, I just don't like flying with him. Anyway, I was scheduled to have my first form this morning bright and early at 530. However, last night when I was studying with my form partner, I think I caught the cold his family had and felt terrible this morning. I felt good before the brief, but by the end of the brief, a good 2 hours later, I felt horrible. I did not feel safe to fly, which resulted in us canceling the flight. Oh well, we probably would have been canceled anyway because the weather in Florida sucks. It got up to like 75 today but there is a solid cloud layer at like 2000 ft AGL. I don't understand it. Florida is weird. Anyway, no flying for me until I get better. Hopefully soon, I need to get back in the cockpit.

Chris

2008-12-13T15:47:00.002-06:00

Well, with Christmas approaching, there has not been a lot of flying happening. The weather was not too great this past week and it is not looking upwards. I did fly a solo on Monday but that is as far as my flying went last week. However, on Friday, my squadron had its monthly safety standdown and tie cutting ceremony.

I believe the tie cutting is a Navy tradition for when a pilot solos for the first time. They cut the tie because they used to fly wearing ties and the pilot would tuck them in their shirts. They also wore them tucked in when on the ground. However, with a long tie, it looks bad because there is a bundle of tie inside the shirt. So, after you would solo, they would cut your tie so you don't look as bad when it's tucked in. However, if your IP did not like you he may cut it too short so that you would have to buy a new tie and still look bad with it tucked in.

So, since I soloed just before Thanksgiving, I was one of the people who had their tie cut. It is always a good time, with dumb/funny stories and lots of beer being drunk. All, in all, that is how my week went. Good week I guess, but I am looking to start formation soon.

Chris

PA Solo

2008-12-04T15:23:00.002-06:00

So after confidently allowing me to solo for the first time last week, the Navy cleared me to do aerobatic maneuvers by myself this week. Alright, I now have permission to do pretty much what I want in the plane. Smart decision? You tell me. No, but in all seriousness, it is not that bad. We are perfectly qualified to do the maneuvers they allow us to do. Nothing is too unsafe, meaning flying is inherently dangerous but they have deemed me qualified to do things by myself. So, after flying another dual PA flight on Tuesday which wasn't too fun due to adverse reactions of my stomach to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I had my second solo on Wednesday. This was actually kind of fun, I only wish someone was there to enjoy it with me. I was able to get some good practice on wingovers, barrel rolls, etc. So now I have another dual PA flight, which got cancelled this morning due to weather, tomorrow morning. Then I get to solo again. Yay. Watch out before you know it I'll be doing airshows. Anyway, that's all from me this week. Stefan might have his checkride and solo next week, but we'll see if he's that lucky. Chris is a long ways from checking so right now I'm dominating the race to finish this. I think potentially, if this pace keeps up, I could finish in February. Who knows. One step at a time.

Until next time.

Chris

PA 1

2008-12-01T18:28:00.002-06:00

After you solo, the next block is PA's, or Precision Aerobatics, NOT acrobatics as some new students commonly refer to them as. Today, I was on standby to fly my first PA. Eh, no worries, no one ever flies when they are on standby. Not I. I got picked up for a flight almost right away. It was quite windy today so no solo's were flying which is why I got picked up.

PA's include several new maneuvers. First, there is the aileron roll, which is pretty simple. It is just doing a quick roll of the plane, this is different from a barrel roll. A barrel roll includes a momentary gain in altitude and change in direction. But, you still come out heading the same direction you entered it in. It is very smooth, with hardly any G's. Actually, when performed correctly you could probably do it in most any airplane. The loop is another new maneuver. It is pretty simple, just yank on the stick and don't let up. The 1/2 cuban 8 is a combination of the loop and aileron roll. It is a way to change your heading to the opposite direction. You start to perform a loop, then with after about 2/3, when you are inverted, you roll over and head the opposite direction. Finally, there is a wingover. The only way to describe this is to think of a skateboarder or snowboarder in a half pipe.

All of these are fun to perform and IP's usually love doing PA flights. Nothing is too difficult to do but are kinda difficult to do well. The nice thing about today was that he already declared me safe to solo these maneuvers even though the next time I solo is after the next flight. I get more practice tomorrow though.

Chris

Also, Thanksgiving was nice. I went to my uncle's house in Atlanta and watched a lot of football. From high school to college to pro's, I saw it all, including, USC demolish Notre Dame.

Red Knight 263 solo

2008-11-25T13:55:00.004-06:00

Today I had my initial solo. Man, flying solo is a beautiful thing. No brief, just get a plane, hop in and fly away. A real feeling of empowerment. I mean this are naval aircraft, not some little Cessna or something. My call sign was Red Knight 263 solo. My squadron is known as the Red Knights and 263 is the tail number of the plane I flew. Solo, means just that, I am a solo so get out of the way.

It was really cold out there on the flight line this morning pre-flighting the plane. But it could not have been a nicer day to solo. It was as clear as it can get with only moderate winds. The entire time it just felt right. No one distracting me in the back, only the plane and me.

For our initial solo, we are pretty much allowed to do nothing. Just fly around drilling holes in the sky as we call it (think about the prop) and then get 4 touch n goes. We are not allowed to perform any of the maneuvers we have learned up to this point. So, at first I wanted to go straight to the airport and get the touch n goes over with but nobody was there, so that plan was a bust. So I just climbed to the area ceiling of 9,000 ft and glided down. I was testing whether the plane's decent rate was same as printed in the books with the plane in simulated feather. (feather is when the prop is not creating any thrust or causing drag) It says that we are supposed to get 6-800 ft/min decent at 100 kts in feather, I was not able to get near that, so I think they are lying to us. My best was about 1,000 ft/min. So after three tries of getting a good decent rate, I tried to see if the airport was open yet. Nope, so I decided to test my trimming skills. So I flew circles in the sky without touching the stick or rudders for as long as I could with out slowing down or descending. I could definitely go for a few minutes but eventually the aircraft is gonna change something. Oh well, maybe the airport is open now. Nope. Well now what do I do? How bout some more circles. No, this time with positive g's. Yeah, that was fun. Is the airport open yet, nope. So after listening to all the chatter on the radio and some more circles, eventually the airport opened and I did some landings. Only 4 though. I had to hurry though because I am only supposed to be up for only a certain amount of time, in this case, an hour and a half. The landings were uneventful, a tough crosswind but nothing too terrible. On my first landing a dog or something ran across the runway at the other end. That was exciting.

Well, after some landings time to go home. It is a long ways. To fly from area 1 to the runway they were landing at Whiting is about as twice as long as going to the reciprocal runway.

Lower Alabama, it is now safe to come out of your homes, Red Knight 263 solo is safe on the deck. (notice the Navy term, I have become so cultured)

Happy Thanksgiving.

Chris

Checkride Passed!

2008-11-24T17:36:00.002-06:00

With my luck, I figured I was going to have the hardest checkride IP and horrible weather. Well, I sort of had half of that. I had know idea who the IP was that was going to check me. I asked around but nobody had flown with him. Also, all the weather forecasts were calling for storm today with the cold front passing through.

I was supposed to have the brief at 933 but he didn't land from his flight that morning until then so I didn't brief until 1000 or so. The brief is typically considered the hardest part of the check. Well, the IP did a good job of getting all the information out of me. It lasted for quite some time, when normally it lasts about a half hour. My job was to brief the oil system and any thing else he asks me. He found some random one's that I don't think I even thought to look up. For example, what is the civilian equivalent of the oil used on the engine. I knew what the military version was but did not even think to look up the civilian version. Then we talked about the profile we were going to fly. Which we were still going to fly even though it was mostly clear outside the forecasts were still predicting doom and gloom.

Off to the plane we went. He asked me a few questions about the plane, like what things are, what are we supposed to check during preflight, etc. Nothing too difficult at all. Then we got in and left. I have found out that after flying with so many different IP's, the fact that I went to USC bodes well with the IP's because they can talk about college football all day long. So, we talked about that all the way out to the training area.

The rest of the flight went pretty well, the weather could have been better but it wasn't horrible. The winds were present but not overwhelming. In fact he gave me top scores for my landings which was unexpected. Basically what they are looking for in this flight is to make sure you are safe to fly solo. I did not do anything overtly dangerous so therefore I was declared safe to solo. Yay.

So now, bright and early tomorrow morning I get to solo. I feel like this happened fast, but I have flown 13 flights now, not including the 3 where I was in the back seat. I know what I am doing up there so, I guess that is the next step.

Anyway, the next checkride I have isn't going to be until my Instrument check, but that won't be for quite some time. I got precision aerobatics and formations to look forward too.

Chris

4200 complete, checkride next

2008-11-22T14:09:00.002-06:00

Coming into this week, I was nervous because potentially I could have flown everyday with a checkride on Friday. Also, supposedly the 4200 block is one of the tougher blocks because they are preparing you to check. So all the cards are on the table, they are throwing everything at you to make sure that when you solo, you are not going to kill yourself or someone else, literally. The entire goal of this program is to train us to fly solo, and this is the first step.

So, Monday I did my 4201 with my On-wing. It went pretty well. I was nervous coming into it but it wasn't that bad. I still think all this training stuff is kind of fun. They through simulated emergencies at you when you "least expect it." But you know it's coming the entire time. Only a couple times I got caught off guard the entire week. When they do catch you off guard your training automatically kicks in and you just react. There is no time to think, and they do a good job of getting you to the point where everything is just reaction.

By the time I got to my 4204 on Friday, it was basically as if I was solo. The IP does not do much coaching, he is only along for the ride and to give you emergencies. My 4204 was a little different though because it was super windy and he helped coach me through some landing patterns and emergency landing patterns (ELP). ELP's are the glide path or profile we fly with a dead engine. It was super hard in the stiff winds. But he said I did pretty well.

So, now I am getting ready for my checkride on Monday. Ideally, you are not supposed to check on Monday because it has been two days since you flew, but oh well, I guess I'm not that lucky. Then you are supposed to solo that same day but with the dwindling light hours, that is happening less often. Most are soloing the next day.

But things are going well, should be fine on my checkride.

Chris

Second Half of 4104

2008-11-16T13:11:00.002-06:00

Friday, a huge cold front was supposed to be makings its way across western Florida thereby canceling a lot of the day's flights. But for some reason, I had a felling I was gonna fly and the weather was not going to be as bad as predicted. Sure enough, when I woke up, it was relatively clear and definitely marginal but flyable weather.

Well, when I showed up to fly the IP I was flying with wanted to fly so we did the brief and sure enough, we got a plane. We went outside to preflight the plane and when we were sitting in the cockpit it started to rain on us with the canopy open. The weather was so weird because it was hot and humid, clear then not clear, rainy then no rain. I guess this is Florida.

There are three training areas we can go to but the third is used so seldom they do not hold us responsible for knowing the area. But, that is where my IP wanted to go that day. The area is down over the coast south and east of where I live. It was fun flying down there because you could see the entirety of Escambia Bay and into the gulf and even towards Destin which is about 50 or so miles east of here on the coast. It was a good flight, I felt like even though I didn't know the area I still new what I was doing and stayed calm and collected the entire time. I really enjoy flying with the IP I flew with on Friday. I had flown with him on a previous flight. Since that completed the end of the 4104 block, I now start the 4200 block which is the block before I check and solo. It is supposed to be intense and difficult and they throw everything at you in this block so I may not be posting for a while after this. It is only 4 flights and then my checkride. So, potentially I could check and solo by the end of this week or even Thanksgiving. I am hoping to check next week so then I have the weekend to make sure I know my stuff.

Until then,

Chris

Half of C4104

2008-11-12T18:07:00.003-06:00

Well, if you couldn't tell, I have not been satisfied with my last couple flights. Something needed to be done about that. Well, the perfect thing happened. We got a 4 day weekend. As you know Veteran's Day was on Tuesday so everyone had Tuesday off. Monday became a no fly day, so since I am only eligible to fly right now, by default I got a 4 day weekend. Wow, that was just what I needed. Thank you, Lord. It is really amazing what a couple extra days does not only for you moral but for you health too. Case in point... Chris (roommate) and I were going to take out our neighbors little sunfish sailboat out on Saturday but that had to be postponed. As we were pulling the boat out, I stepped on a rusty nail, which did pierced the skin pretty deep. Great, now I got tetanus to worry about. Like I said, 4 day weekends are great for your health. Luckily, I had a tetanus shot when I went active so I was covered there. So far there has not been any infections or anything.

I also had the opportunity to attend a concert on Saturday night. The band O.A.R. is a pretty famous band among college kids and they played over in Mobile at the university. Even though the tickets were general admission, we were able to get seats about 20 feet from the stage really easily. This was cool because this band has sold out arenas and here they were playing for less than 1000 people.

Today, I was scheduled to fly my C4104 which is an end of block flight (end of a chapter). This is kind of an important flight so I could not screw it up. But a front started moving through last night, so I knew there was a possibility I may not fly. Whatever, I'll just show up at the brief ready to go.

After briefing, my IP said to stick around. Great, that means we are going to try and fly in marginal conditions. A great way to suck at a flight. Eventually, we did try to make a break for it, but as soon as we got up in the training area it was impossible to do anything of training value. So, we went down to one of the airfields to practice landings. This turned out to be a great idea. I did very well on all my landings except for the first one, but usually the first one is considered a freebie to suck anyway. After completing about 8 or 9 landings we decided to head back to Whiting. Wow, this was great. A free flight, meaning it was no pressure, and I did well. Definitely the confidence booster I needed. The flight ended up being an incomplete flight because we did not do any high work, i.e. spins, stalls, power loss situations, so I get to do this flight again.

Currently, I am scheduled to fly again early tomorrow morning but the weather looks dismal again, but this time I likely won't fly, but then again only God knows.

But, I also need to get ready to hit it hard through the 4200 block, which is getting me ready to check.

4100 block

2008-11-06T15:28:00.002-06:00

This has been quite a week and it isn't even over. I am getting way overwhelmed. I don't know why either. There has not been anything really that new since my 4101 last Friday.

Monday, I had my BI 4003. That was a fairly uneventful flight. About an hour of staring at instruments. I did ok, but I think I could have done better. No big deal though, I still got decent grades I think.

Tuesday, I was scheduled for my C4102 with Stefan's on-wing. Great, supposedly he is a chill dude. It was another early flight that began a week's worth of early mornings for me again. Because it was dark when I drove up there I didn't realize that it was cloudy and there would be a chance my flight would get canceled. Eventually, I struggled through the brief. It is very convenient how IP's always manage to ask you stuff you don't happen to know or didn't study the night previous. As you can see, the brief did not go all that great, so I was hoping for a cancellation so I could maybe rebrief it with someone else. After a few hours I got my wish and my flight was canceled. Great, I guess. I go home, and relax/study for the rest of the day and come to find out, I am flying with the same IP as I was supposed to fly with. Well, this time I didn't have to do the brief, but it was another early morning flight.

So, I show up, a little rested but not much. And the flight went just about how the brief did. Some things good, some bad. I was sucking at the emergency procedures that were being thrown at me, but I guess that is expected. I got through the flight and made it home. That afternoon, was a good one because Stefan and I briefed each other and I told him everything I had learned that day. Now I had to get ready for my 4103 which was with an IP I have flown with before.

This morning, I had yet another 430 wake up to get to the brief. This is getting rough. However, I was stoked because I knew my material and I liked the IP. Can't miss right. Wrong. The brief went great, even the takeoff and departure but after that, it was all down hill. This flight may have possibly been my worst flight. It seems like I forgot everything that I had been doing for the last month. I was missing radio calls, setting wrong power settings, messing up simple procedures that I have done 20 times. My landings were ok, not great but not that horrible. I have been learning how to execute what's called a ELP (emergency landing pattern). Basically what it is, is a maneuver that allows you to land at a specified field with an engine failure. You execute by entering the profile (ground track) at a specific altitude an position relative to the landing strip/runway. Then you fly down at a constant speed with no power inputs because it is simulating an engine failure. For some reason, I suck really bad at it, when I had no problem with basically the same thing at IFS (Pueblo, CO). So, in my opinion, today's flight was a complete failure because I could not basic things that I should easily be able to execute by now. I am really looking forward to this weekend. I need a break.

In other news, I have started attending a men's Bible study called Officer's Christian Fellowship. I really enjoy it, as all the people who attend are flight students.

Chris

BI 6 and 7 BI flight 1 and 2 and 4101

2008-11-02T15:19:00.002-06:00

What a way to finish the week.

Wednesday, I had a third day in a row of getting up at 415 to make the 530 sim which was also a double pump, meaning I had another sim later. After the previous day's shameful performance I was not expecting much from that day. However, one thing I had going for me was I had an instructor I had previously and he was a very good instructor. So, going into the sim, I was kind of in a blur. But, after much encouragement from the instructor, I came out the first sim very upbeat. He said I had a great sim and I felt awesome, so I was stoked for that. He gave me very good grades and I was pumped to be going into the second sim. This is exactly what the doctor ordered. The second sim came around and I was feeling very ready to do well. My instructor was super quiet which made me a little anxious but it didn't really affect my flying because he was telling me how great of a job I did afterward. Awesome. Good day. Now all I was hoping for was either my BI flights in the aircraft or no flight at all. Most of all I did not want to start the 4100 block, which is the next block of contacts. Supposedly, the C4101 is the brief and flight that most students bust because they have been studying the BI material not everything else.

When my schedule came out, I was half way stoked, halfway bummed because I was flying on Thursday but I had what's called an out and in. The good thing is that these were my BI flights, the only bad thing was that there were two. However, no big deal because after talking to some guys, the BI flights are super easy, pretty much just like a sim except in the plane. And the out and in means we would fly to a field we wouldn't normally go to and get something to eat and come back to Whiting. Sweet. Come to find out, the IP I was going to fly with was going to perform a checkride for a formation flight and I was going to sit along for the ride. Cool.

So, we brief and take off. I'm just hangin out in the back seat while the instructor does all the flying in the formation. After about an hour, we break off and go do my BI stuff. I can now understand why Forms are the most popular portion of primary. It was fun. The BI stuff went ok, not too hot in my opinion, but no worries I would have a chance to redeem myself after we ate at an airport in Alabama. The second flight was even better. Awesome, another good day. After landing at about 530 pm I am just hoping for no 4101 flight tomorrow. Sure enough, after a long week, I need to go home and cram for my 4101 on Friday. Just what the doctor didn't order.

So, I rush home and by now I am freaking out. Bad news, nothing good happens when you panic. So after about an hour of not retaining any of the info I am studying, I take a break to calm down. It worked, I went back upstairs and calmly reviewed all the info I needed to know to not bust the next day's flight. The reason why so many students bust the 4101 is because there is a ton of info you need to know for the brief.

The 4101 flight is with my on-wing but the next 3 flights are off wing. So, my on-wing shows up puts me through a super long brief that thankfully I did pretty well at, meaning I had survived. After the brief, we had to wait for like an hour and a half for a plane. Not fun. But I didn't care, the brief was over I didn't care how the flight went.

Eventually we got a plane and departed for the training area. The big new item for the flight was spins. He had demoed one before but I was nervous because now I had to perform one myself. Ok, calm down, go through the procedures, you've already seen what it looks like, now just do it yourself. After doing two of them myself, I actually started to have fun. The spins were entertaining. It is totally counter intuitive because you are leaving controlled flight and entering uncontrolled flight but it is really not as bad as it seems.

The rest of the flight went pretty well until we came back on course rules. By then my brain was mush. In the debrief my on-wing told me I had a great flight until we tried to come back. He asked me what was up with that, to which I replied, "I don't know, I guess my brain just quit." He got on me for not knowing course rules, but oh well, I didn't care, I just had a good flight and all I wanted to do was go home and sit and veg. That was quite possibly the longest week I had had in while. But I wouldn't trade it for anything, I learned sooo much, improved a ton and now it was holloween. But that is a different story.

Chris

BI 4 and 5

2008-10-28T20:19:00.002-05:00

Did I say 415 is early. I mean, who gets up that early. I'm a morning person but that is absurd.

Anyway, first sim went ok to good. I got some good scores, made a dumb mistake, but it went fairly well. It is frustrating because I have had this problem my whole life. Once I start to get good at something, whether it is sports, school, or these sims, I start to have unreasonably high expectations. The sims today were perfect examples. I mess up, no big deal, recover, get over it, but, because I am now good at this, there shouldn't have been that big of a mistake to begin with. From there it is a snowball effect and I start to find problems in the rest of the maneuvers. The second sim was much more frustrating than the first. I keep getting down on myself the more I make mistakes then the more I get down, I make more mistakes. It is very tough for me to handle this, it makes me not want to do this because it tears up my mentality. Of course, I am not thinking of . . . I'm not even going to say it, but I definitely wanted to stop the second sim short because I couldn't take my personal abuse.

In other news, it is kind of cold hear. I have yet to wear pants but I was super stoked because I've worn my flannel now a couple times. Tonight, along with last night, it is supposed to be in the high 30's. It will warm up a little though, with the passage of this cold front. Anyway time, for bed, another 415 alarm clock awaits me.

Chris

BI 3

2008-10-27T19:52:00.002-05:00

4:15 am is very early. Too early. It is dark and not gonna be light for a while. I haven't been up that early in a while. But, today I had to, to make my 0530 sim. Eh, whatever, I was done by 730. Kinda nice when you've completed your only event for the day before most get on base or maybe even wake up. So, since I was up and wanted to practice in the sim later, I had some time to kill. The gym makes a nice time killer except it just showed me how out of shape I am. I think it is sad when I don't work out on a regular basis anymore yet I can still pass the Air Force Physical Fitness Test with a max score. I hope I get out of this "Air Force shape" soon. I'm not sure how much longer I can stand it.

As for my sim this morning. It went well. Made two big mistakes that were kind of dumb. On one approach maneuver, we are supposed to waveoff. I did the waveoff but forgot to put the landing gear up until I leveled off. That is a dumb mistake. Then, later when doing an instrument check, I glazed over the instruments, which is a bad habit to get into, and missed the high oil temp and pressure the instructor gave me. Oh well. Still got very good scores on everything else.

Now time for another 530 sim tomorrow. I love getting up early.

Chris

BI 2

2008-10-25T20:25:00.002-05:00

Friday, I completed my second BI sim. It went well. Got good scores, had a good instructor. But afterward, I was presented with dilemma. I needed to stay and practice procedures I don't know or I could go and surf. I know there was good surf because I checked the internet immediately after my sim. Potentially, it could be the best surf I've seen here. But, I have the 0530 sim time on Monday, so I wouldn't be able to practice before hand unless I did it Friday. So, I did what any good student would do. I made a compromise. I stayed for about another hour practicing things I already knew so I would be better at them, then I left to go surfing.

Eventually, after practicing in the sim for about an hour, I headed home with Chris with plans to go surfing with my buddy. I was soooo stoked because I have been wanting to go to the beach for a long time now, but there hasn't been any reason to go. My buddy came over and we headed down there. I have to admit, the conditions were some the best I've seen in a very long time. The winds were calm, the swell was sooo clean and a very nice size. We were so happy, we could barely put our wet suits on. (the water has cooled off to a very nice 77 but the air was cold, so I decided I'd rather be super hot then freezing)

I had a little trouble getting through the shore break because it was a little heavy but eventually I made it through. By the time I made out to the line up I was dog tired, just another proof of how out of shape I am. Oh well, my friend and I stayed out for a few hours. Man, it was a great time. What a perfect way to end the week.

Well, now back to the books. I have a very early sim on Monday, so no time to warm up that morning.

Chris

BI Sims

2008-10-23T21:40:00.003-05:00

After drilling into you to look outside the cockpit in your first four flights in the aircraft, they take you out of the cockpit and put you in a simulator with no screens or windows and tell you to look inside. Make sense? You tell me. Today I started Basic Instruments. Basically, what this is going to allow me to do is fly the aircraft without looking outside, simply relying on the instruments to take me places and perform maneuvers. Later, actually, the last section of training here is Radio Instruments which takes this and builds on it 100 fold, so this is just the basics.

Today, I learned several scan patterns of the instruments to maintain level flight and make turns at the same angle of bank, aka constant angle of bank turns, and also constant speed climbs and descents. These are the building blocks for maneuvers I will learn in a few days. Today was not too tough, the hardest part was learning how to fly the simulator because it is waaay more touchy than the actual aircraft. However, one of the most important skills this does teach me is trim. Like I said yesterday, trim is so vital to flying. Instead of the the aircraft flying you, you are flying the aircraft.

Tomorrow is a little more intense but I should be ok. I will be learning how to make timed turns and climbs/descents, more commonly known in the flying world as rated turns/climbs/descents. Then I'm on to the weekend. Hopefully, I'll be able to get in a surf tomorrow afternoon, supposedly it is supposed to be pretty good.

Chris

FAM 4

2008-10-21T19:22:00.002-05:00

Today I had FAM 4, which is the last last flight in the first block of training. Basically, what this means is that by this flight I had to meet the minimum training standards for this block. A block is a cluster of flights on the syllabus that are basically all the same. With each new block come new standards and/or new maneuvers. It is analogous to an end of chapter review in a text book.

Today's flight, I felt was much better than yesterday's flight. The way I tell if it was a good day for me was how tired mentally and physically immediately after the flight. If I feel completely whipped then either I worked my butt off or I was way behind the aircraft all day. If I feel good and energized, then I was calm in the plane and doing things right, at least this is what I tell myself. A funny thing though, IP's always have a way of bringing you back down to earth. The flight went very well, but everything else, i.e. radio calls, ground procedures, etc were horrible.

I made a bunch of mistakes before I even left the parking space, I skipped over part of checklist, said the wrong things and pretty much struggled to get off the ground. But once I got in the air, I did really well. I was able to trim (think cruise control for an airplane) a whole lot better than yesterday and my maneuvers I also thought were very good. One way I can tell they were good is because we only did them once instead of 3 or 4 times. Also, we had time for him to demonstrate a spin. Yes, we do intentionally put the aircraft into a spin, in fact I will be able to do it in a couple weeks. The spin was very cool and dangerous, we lost about 2000 ft in altitude in about 5-10 seconds. Not fun if you do it on accident. After the spin we headed over to an airport to do some patterns. I did all of the landings and yes they all sucked. But they are coming along. It gets very busy in the landing pattern, with time I won't even have to think about it.

So, after this I am headed to the simulators for Basic Instruments (BI's). Here I will learn basic scan patterns for instrument flight. It could start tomorrow, I don't know because I am on standby, meaning if there is a slot, I'm in.

Until next time.

Chris

FAM 2 and 3

2008-10-20T18:42:00.002-05:00

Well, after feeling really confident after my flight on Thursday, I found out I was flying my official FAM 2 on Fri. Sweet. And it was not with my on-wing. Don't know why it wasn't but whatever, I was feeling good.

So, Friday came, did the brief and flew. Everything went pretty good I thought. After such a clear day the day before, it was extremely cloudy at low altitudes because a cold front was coming through. No worries, we did the maneuvers without ground references and then went to do some patterns. I like cold fronts, the air is cold. Not like in my FAM 1 where when you come down in altitude, it heats up like an oven. So after doing what I thought were decent patterns we came back to Whiting. We had some difficulties because all the low clouds were at the exact altitude we were supposed to be flying at when coming back on course rules. (course rules is the preset directions we fly when coming to or from Whiting) So, getting underneath the clouds was fairly eventful. We spent some time ducking and weaving trying to get below the clouds as we are not allowed to fly through them. In the end, solid flight, got some good scores, the IP was super cool and lets face it, I think I even had some fun.

Since I flew FAM 2 on Friday, I was expecting FAM 3 on Monday. Sure enough, when the schedule came out, I'm set for FAM 3 today. My on-wing had us brief together and then Garcia was gonna fly and then I would go up when they get back. Well, Garcia got out there to do the ground runup checklist and the plane broke so they were forced to cancel. Great, now I get to fly with a ticked off IP. Well, he didn't want to fly for a couple hours so I got to sit around some more. Eventually, we got a plane, did a quick brief, and finally headed out. Let's just say that this whole flight did not go as well and my last two. I just felt like blah. I was "behind the aircraft" the entire flight. (behind the aircraft means I'm not thinking ahead 10 steps ahead, doing things as they come instead of before they come) So, although it was not a horrible flight, it was not what I was looking for coming off a high the last two. Oh well, one truth of flight school is that you will have off days. Time to bounce back and hit it hard for FAM 4 tomorrow. After this flight I head back to the simulators for some instrument sims.

Chris

Warmup for FAM 2

2008-10-16T15:29:00.003-05:00

Good news! Yesterday I was finally able to get medically cleared. It took some convincing but the flight surgeon finally signed me an up chit to fly. I don't know why and I know they are doctors, but I really think I know my own body better than doctors sometimes. So anyway, after getting cleared to fly, I let the schedulers know and they put me on the schedule for today. Because it has been almost a month since I last flew, this flight was a "mandatory warmup." Cool, a free flight where grades don't count and I get to warmup all the "skills" I lost from my first flight. (insert sarcasm here) But in all seriousness, it really was an excellent opportunity for me because, like I said, it is a free flight. Nothing counts, so I was able to learn a lot with no pressure. The flight was with a different IP who was suuuuper cool. He was talking me through everything and even though I messed up a lot, he made me feel so comfortable and confident.

For this flight we went to the other training area and practiced all my maneuvers. Because it was such a clear day, we did a very quick area familiarization as he pointed things out like 20 miles away or more. After air work, we went down to an NOLF (navy outlying field) to practice touch n goes. This is my first crack at landing, and it was definitely not as bad as it seems. Things happen fast but it is not out of control. We did about 4 touch n goes before departing for our home field, North Whiting. This flight was head and shoulders better than the last, in part because I was able to absorb information I was able to last time, I knew what to expect, and the weather was much cooler and clear. For a while there, I was actually having fun, definitely a motivating flight.

Now on my plate is my real FAM 2 tomorrow with a different on-wing who seems pretty cool.

Boredom

2008-10-12T19:29:00.003-05:00

Well, after not flying for oh, 3 weeks now, it is starting to get frustrating. Granted, I was sick for a while, but even after I got better, the doctor would not clear me to fly. So here I sit, with plenty of time to get bored, not knowing what or when is next. So, I've spent a lot of time missing home. I can't wait to comeback home for Christmas. Especially now that I've bought plane tickets and all. Moving over here has not been as easy of a transition as I expected. It shows how much I really do care for the friends and family at home. I miss you all.

Still sick, but saw Palin

2008-10-07T21:44:00.003-05:00

Today, as horrible of a day as it was weather-wise, presented a very unique opportunity. Our squadron is unique that if you are not scheduled for any events for the day, ie flying, simulator, etc, you are to sit on JCOP. Basically, it is mandatory study hall from 800 to 1200. No big deal, just a bunch shenanigans occur during this time, which is exactly contrary to its purpose. But, after JCOP, when Stefan and I got home, our roommate Clay informed us that Gov. Sarah Palin is in town today and is speaking at the civic center. I was like, shoot, I don't feel like sitting around all day even if it is windy and rainy. So, in a random act, we all went down to the civic center and stood around in a line in the wind and rain for probably 45 min to an hour before we were able to get in. Not 20 minutes after we got in, Gov. Palin was called to the stage. How cool is this? What luck? Now the speech wasn't the most moving, but the atmosphere and the crowd were quite enthusiastic when she was called to the stage. Definitely a cool experience. Now it would be even more cool if she actually became the VP. Also, before she spoke, Col Bud Day spoke. I have tremendous respect for this man. He was in the Hanoi Hilton with Sen John McCain and also received the Medal of Honor. I believe he is the most decorated living veteran and also a resident of my new home, Pensacola, Florida.

Sick

2008-10-01T16:49:00.002-05:00

So, I didn't end up flying the other day. I started to feel a sore throat coming on the night before and sure enough, when I woke up, I had caught something. Oh well, I still went into to brief my on-wing but I did not fly. Went to see the flight surgeon (doctor) after and he said I could not valsalva (pop your ears) properly so he put me med down. Hopefully, tomorrow, I will be able to get cleared medically so I can fly on Friday, but I'm not counting on it right now. This is one funny thing I have already learned about flying. I am by no means terrible sick, but because I am not 100% I can not fly. No toughing it out here, because a. it is not safe and b. it would not be a quality flight so why waste the time.

FAM 2

2008-09-28T17:24:00.002-05:00

Not much has been going on this last week. My on-wing was on leave, so I attended meteorology class for a couple days, but that was no big deal at all.

However, I do have Fam 2 tomorrow. This is my second flight, so it will be pretty much the same thing as last time, except we will likely go to a different training area. I am looking forward to this flight much more than the last one, because, well, I had more time to prep for it and I feel much more comfortable. I have spent a good amount of time memorizing more procedures and checklists, but there isn't really anything new this flight. So, wish me luck.

Chris

FAM 1 continued

2008-09-19T15:08:00.002-05:00

So, now that I have recovered and found time to write, I'll attempt to explain how challenging this was.

Before we fly, we have to brief the IP (instructor pilot) about the flight. There are several things that go into the brief. You have about 10 or so discussion items, which could be pretty much anything related to flying. These are the standardized for each flight, meaning, every FAM 1 will discuss the same things, every FAM 2 will discuss the same things, etc . Then, we have to know by heart the planned maneuvers for the flight. Meaning, we have to know how to set them up and the steps to complete them. For FAM 1, there was probably 5 maneuvers I needed to know. However, this does not include, takeoff or landing, cruising, climbing, descending, nor the procedures to depart the airport, enter the training area, leave the training area, and arrive at the airport.

On FAM 1, I was only able to practice 3 of the maneuvers. The rest of the time, my on-wing was giving me an area familiarization tour of the training area. This was difficult because the clouds were at about 4-5000 feet AGL which is a very unfortunate altitude. Plus, there was this incredibly nasty haze that severely limited our diagonal vision of the ground.

The T-34c, which we fly, is probably 30-40 years old. The air conditioning on these isn't the greatest, but it worked good enough at altitude. Down on the ground and at low altitude was a different story though. It was hot, really hot. We are wearing our flight suits, which don't ventilate at all, a vest with some safety gear on it, and a parachute. We also had helmets on. Things get hot quick. And when your hot, and not used to flying, it makes for a bad combo. I was ok at altitude, but after coming down on our way home, I admit, I got a little airsick. Definitely the worst I've ever had it, considering I don't think I ever have gotten airsick before. After I got over that, I felt like I could have flown for another hour, but it was definitely time to go home.

After landing, I was so exhausted, mentally and physically. Flying like this is an hour and a half of pure concentration, any distractions and bad things can happen, fast. By the way, we are flying an aircraft with over 1000 ft lbs of torque at speeds over 170 kts.

So in the end, my on-wing told me things went pretty average for a FAM 1. No big screw ups, nothing extremely outstanding, which is fine by me. Now I have about a week off of flying because my on-wing is going on leave. This gives me a lot of time to catch up and get back on track.

Thanks for the prayers and encouragement.

Chris

FAM 1

2008-09-17T20:32:00.000-05:00

Well, when I can stop my head from spinning I will explain how my flight went today, but until then, flying, military style, is hard. Really, really, really hard.

Chris

Here goes nothing

2008-09-16T17:29:00.001-05:00

Met my on-wing today, seemed like a good guy. Navy P-3 pilot. Have my first flight tomorrow. Got to go.

Chris

CPT Check

2008-09-10T20:52:00.002-05:00

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

Course Rules and CPT

2008-09-03T21:54:00.002-05:00

How a week can change things. Last week, we were sitting in class for 8-9 hours a day, this week, we are in class about 10 total, with other briefings to attend and some computer based training. It is said that UPT with the Navy is easier than with the Air Force. This is where that idea comes from. At Air Force bases, at least until everyone solos, all students in a class have to been in the flight room (classroom) for 12 hours a day. Not all of this is class, but you are still there. Meanwhile, down here with the Navy, we do the academics on our own time, for the most part. So, it puts more of a burden on you to ensure you get all your necessary prerequisites done. The Navy likes to think this is their way of not holding our hand through pilot training. So, Stefan and I have had a little more free time on our hands, which one would think earlier return to couch time. Nope, we have been getting home consistently at least 1-2 hours later than last week. We are both building up for our CPTs (cockpit procedural traininer) to start. These are graded events with a contractor IP (instructor pilot). For both Stefan and I, our first CPT is tomorrow, Thursday. Luckily they don't expect much out of you for this, but I think we have over-prepared for this one and we are not going to as ready for the ones to follow. Oh well, we will see. You have to pick your battles in UPT anyway. I'll let you know how it goes. Until tomorrow.

Chris

Swell Systems Test

2008-08-30T14:27:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, bright and early in the morning, we had our systems test, a culmination of 3, 8 hour days of class exclusively on the T-34C systems. This includes anything from the electrical system to the air conditioning system, and the landing gear. With all the information that we learned, the test came surprisingly easy. Both Stefan and I earned very high grades, which is always a moral booster, also, the teacher said our class average was one of the highest in recent memory. But even with all of our studying, the hot topic has been Hurricane Gustavo.

Hurricane Gustavo is worrying and exciting a lot of people. A couple of days ago, it looked like Gustavo was going to head straight for us, now the weathermen are calling for it to hit the central coast of Louisiana. However, a few years ago, Hurrican Ivan looked to have the same trajectory, but at the last minute it cut northeast and basically hit Pensacola square on. So, although we have not been told to evacuate, they have told us to be ready to. I am stoked because we are going to get some big waves. Hopefully, I'll be able to surf them, but if not, it will still be cool to watch.

Coming up next week, we have a bunch classes and briefings for other miscellaneous things. Also, we start CPTs (cockpit procedural trainer). Basically it is a simulator for the aircraft where we can practice pretty much any checklist and EP (emergency procedure). EP's are a very significant aspect of flying training.

So, in conclusion, this weekend will be spent preparing for CPT's, waiting for surf, and perhaps most importantly, watching the USC game. FIGHT ON!

Chris

System Check

2008-08-25T23:10:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow begins a three day whirl wind of the T-34 systems. (the T-34 is the plane we fly) Our class will be 8 hours a day for three days with a test of what we just crammed into our head on the fourth day. One would think that the systems for a single engine prop plane would not be that extensive, my how they would be wrong. How they managed to squeeze the systems into three days is amazing. It is official planes are more complicated than cars. Wish me luck, as I may not post for a few days, it's that bad.

Ciao.

Fay What!

2008-08-25T00:50:00.002-05:00

So, big, bad, terrible Tropical Storm Fay turned out to be a huge dud. We were all excited for our first big Florida storm and it turned out to be nothing more than windy drizzle. Talk about a total buzz kill. I'm startin to think that Florida is all talk. But in all seriousness, the area of Alabama north of us got hammered and so did Tallahassee, Fl. Both those areas received a ton of rain and floods. They could use some prayers. Other than that, the Olympics ended, which makes me really sad and I found out that I suck at Skategories.

Primary officially starts tomorrow, yay!

And good luck to all my college homefries. School starts for you tomorrow too.

Chris

The calm before Fay

2008-08-22T10:46:00.002-05:00

Well, right now it is the calm before the storm. Yesterday and today have been very hot but nice. If you've been watching the news, Tropical Storm Fay has been dumping rain on basically the entire state of Florida except for us, and tomorrow Fay is expected to hit us dead center. After talking to some locals, it shouldn't be too bad because a tropical storm is mostly just a big swirling rain storm. There will be winds, but nothing to worry about. Forecasters have predicted that Pensacola may receive about a foot of rain, though. Flash floods should not be a problem because we live, believe or not, on a hill, so water won't collect anywhere near our house, except for our pool. So, it looks like our pool will finally get filled!

Thanks for the well wishes, and talk to you soon.

Chris

Prayer for Danny

2008-08-19T17:04:00.002-05:00

All,

please pray for my cousin, Danny Eslinger. He is a Marine Corporal based out of Camp Pendleton. Tonight, August 19, he is deploying for Afghanistan for a few months. Ideally, they tell him he will be home around Thanksgiving, but there is a possibility he could stay longer. What is more important though, is he is deploying with an infantry battalion. He is trained as an A/C mechanic, not as an infantry Marine. His battalion's mission while in Afghanistan is to push the "front line" and create new Forward Operation Bases. Creating bases in this manner, puts the entire battalion in danger, as they are always moving into new territory and trying to run out the Taliban. It is very likely that he will experience fire fights and receive unexpected attacks. Very scary, even sobering for a true Marine like him. Finally, he is two weeks older than I, with a wife and two kids, and another on the way. Please pray that God will bring him back safely and expeditiously in one piece.

Chris

I say hello again.

2008-08-16T17:23:00.004-05:00

Welcome, again to my journal.

Hopefully this time I will be more consistent with my entries.

I am very excited to begin ground school and eventually start flying. As of right now I am scheduled to start on August 25. Until then I will be faithfully putting off studying as all motivated pilot students do, until after the Olympics are over. GO USA!

If you would like to contact me, as I always welcome encouragement, please email me at huddleston.chris@gmail.com. I can give you my street address or other information this way.