week 7 - Mid Phase

I don't know why I've been some lame, but I haven't updated this thing in forever. Its been crazy busy, BUT we're no longer the baby class and are 1/3 of the way through phase II. I'll try to give a recap of some awesome stuff thats been goin on (I'll prolly work backwards) but if you have any questions let me know and I'll elaborate.
I can't tell you where these pics
came from, but this past week I went on my area solo. There

are established blocks of sky that you are assigned and you get to play around and do whatever you want!!! I think the the US military is the most dominating force ever because it is retarded. What makes them think I am capable of taking a high performance 300 knot aircraft, 30 miles away for over an hour. Whats even more retarded: three hours before that they took me up and showed me how to do advanced aerobatics. Ya, they demo'ed it once, let me try it once and signed me off to try it by myself, alone, with nobody else there. It was crazy. When you get to your area you have to report established, and I've heard rumors of people making the call inverted, so of course I had to give it a try. The problem with that is they don't teach you how to fly upside down and the plane definitely acts different inverted so I bout freaked out. I tried it again, and decided it best to call as I rolled inverted and continued rolling, since they have been taught me that. I did a ton of rolls and some loops but kept scaring the crap out of myself so I'd motor around for awhile getting my guts back together before doing it again. This pic didn't turn out as well as I wanted, but it kinda shows what we're doing. The sky was the clearest I've ever seen it, and the leaves are at their max neontisity - it was amazing. When I got back to base the winds were pretty strong and the pattern was packed with other aircraft, I had to break out twice because I didn't have enough spacing to land behind the guy in front of me. Once when I returned to the "starting point" at a high altitude I heard someone else say they were breaking out right below me, meaning he would be climbing to my current position. Surprisingly I didn't freak out, made a call to alert them of my position, they didnt' see me, but I found them and the the controller directed me to follow him in to re-enter. Its not much of a story, but it was exciting and as we made the spiraling decent back into the pattern I started humming the Top Gun attack music and made machine gun noises as I trailed behind him.
That was definitely the highlight of the past couple weeks (except for last weekend) because I hooked my mid-phase checkride a week ago. Its not really a BIG deal but its hard to shake that failure feeling, and if you don't get a hold of it quick things can easily snowball here and before you know it you're in over your head. The general mood in the flight was really low this week, as a lot of people were hooking checkrides and the ride prior to the check. We also had a guy drop out, he decided this wasn't the life he wanted. One of the nicer IPs reassured us that this is one of the ruffest parts of UPT. It is definitely an emotional roller coaster that gets you thinking about where you place your self worth. I've always wished less people would worry about failure, you should go all out and if its not enough, thats ok, there's nothing to be ashamed of. That definitely tastes different saying it to yourself. This week I think 4 of us will be soloing at once, we might have to go to an alternate channel and make rediculous radio calls. Can't wait for thanksgiving.

Week 5

Well, i never did get to update like I wanted this weekend, so I'll give some bullets and try to come back to elaborate later: I bombed the Instruments II test on Monday, passed just barely, but it definitely got my attention so in turn I did better on my weekly EPQ (these 20 question quizes stress me out more than anything) Monday/Tuesday flights went well, I think airsickness is over for good. This was definitely a Halloween to remember, I SOLOED!!! (I flew around the pattern for about an hour by myself as the sun set) That is a fun story I'll hopefully be able to tell in full later, highlights included being able to make cool noises as I banked and climbed. The weekend brought a "career day" where pilots of just about every aircraft gave us a briefing on their platform and the life we could expect. Then we got to climb all over the planes in a private air show!!! Life is good, God is really taking care of me/blessing me everyday.

This week (week 6) looks exciting, flew twice today adding in Loops, aileron rolls, and split S's (i'll explain later) i'll fly and sim the next two days then prolly have my mid-phase check ride on Thursday with a weather test on Friday.

Crazy

Its been a crazy busy week, but AWESOME!! I'll update this weekend.

End of Week 4

We only flew one day this week due to the weather (we still usually had 10 hour days) but Friday I had my 2nd no puke flight. I went to the chair a lot during the week and I think that helped to keep my body used to it. Flying Friday was awesome, ya I messed up a lot, but I got into a competitive mode against myself to the point where the I was yelling more than the IP. (Mom don't read the rest of this one) While in the area I was refreshing myself on all of our maneuvers including spins. The second spin I was using a little aileron to keep it wings level while I induced the spin. Usually spin starts slowly and gradually progresses to a steady spin, since I had a little aileron it skipped the slow roll and went right into a fast spiral straight down. My head slammed to the left as I heard "OH FXXX" The IP took the aircraft and eventually brought it wings level after losing about 4,000 ft. I wasn't ever worried, probably because I didn't know I needed to be worried, but he said that was the only time (in the T-6) he has wanted to go straight home, crawl under his bed, and cry. We just flew around real easy and gentle for a little bit after that. No more spins on that day.

end of Week 3

The Lord really blessed me the past few days, I hit a low Thursday afternoon, but I saw 2 really good friends track select that night, then friday (I don't know why I'm just now posting this) I had my first no puke flight!!! it was pretty awesome, it is much more fun not throwing up, still stressful as all get out, but stress can be fun. And then this weekend was A-MAZING, we'll leave it at that. We didn't fly today or yesterday due to weather so its been pretty relaxed, really early days that didn't match up with my sleep patterns over the weekend but...
I've realized my brain dumped a lot of the info I learned in academics, I'm having to constantly go back and review material "I learned" and learned well enough to do very well on the tests, but now don't have a clue about. There are some extremely smart guys here.
Friends are awesome, I can't imagine what I would do w/o them, and don't know how or why anybody would want to be a loner.

graphic - strong stomachs only

So during the spinning they teach you how to breath, not so much to breath, but more to control the muscles that are contracting your stomach to vomit. Today was much better, we did a couple goes in the pattern, went out to the area for some G-ex and abnormal recoveries, then back to the pattern. I felt kinda crapy in the pattern but was able to force it out of mind and the breathing helped, but on our very last pattern I couldn't hold it back, a little bit of crunchy peanut butter came up, but I was able to swallow it down - I think that just adds to the madness, and holding it back only leads to to explosive puking that comes out your nose and sense I'm trying to ignore it I don't get my bag out in time then it filled the mask, sprayed out the top covering my visor so I couldn't see - it was kinda funny, but encouraging cuz its getting better, and I didn't puke in the chair. Turns out we went 1.7 hours if we would have done the regular 1.3 I might have made it. My performance flying is still really bad, but hopefully I can focus more on flying now.

w3 d2, no mention of "stuff"

Before you feel confident with one maneuver they move you on to others. Today we did spins (to see a video of this copy this address http://www.t6driver.com/gouge_contact.html scroll down to and click on spin video) We also did abnormal flight recoveries, they fly the plane in a really weird
position (inverted dive) then give you the plane to get back to normal. Its a strange sensation seeing nothing but spiraling green... Oh, yesterday we had an unsafe landing gear indication while flying in the area, and had to preform a precautionary return to base. It may have been a burned out bulb but it was still exciting, and that ride didn't count as a real flight. My pattern work wasn't very hot today and I hooked the ride because I didn't maintain level flight during turns. This is a vitally important task, at one point I looked up with a plane above me, looked down to see one taking off below me, then forward to dodge a buzzard. Its funny when we do the G exercise I instantly break out in a sweat, I can feel the individual beads pop out on my head.
Last blog I said this isn't any fun, and thats the general thought among the class. Everyone I've talked to in classes ahead of me say it doesn't really get fun, I haven't talked to anybody that enjoys phase II. Apparently this phase is just plain busy/stressful, you constantly feel behind and incompetent, and its just gonna be that way, you have to accept it and brush it off. Half the class has already hooked rides, sometimes with good reason, sometimes not, either way you just have to move on. I guess this is how it needs to be, it makes you evaluate if this is really what you want to do, and overtime it distinctly separates the awesome from the average. I'm fine with it being work, I won't whine any more.
oh ya, 2 A-10s taxied past me today just before I took off - awesome
ps. a buddy just talked to a guy we went to school with who hated phase II, did horrible, is now loving flying, just got back from Alaska, England, Germany, but sadly had to miss the trip to Columbia... it will have a happy ending

Week 3 Day 2, puke update

Me puking is not any fun to read about so I'm making one post about puking and another that is fun. You are currently reading the less fun one. Yesterday I went to physiology and they spun me in a chair for 2 rides 10 min each, which simulates a 1.4 hour flight. During the rides they have you make simple movements that change the fluid movement in your inner ear. They know which movements will do what so they talk you through ways to detect/control the impulses. Before this I thought the breathing tech was a bunch of crap, but I could seriously feel a difference as I did what they said. I still puked, but I learned, so it was a good thing. I was able to fend off the feeling a little bit today in my flight, but flight requires more mental capacity than I currently have and diverting any of it to controlling urges results in very poor flight. So I "hooked" (failed) the ride today because I gained/lost too much altitude during the pattern turns, and I still puked. Then I went back to the chair to puke some more, but I got a lot of good advice. The chair is a 3 day program then we'll re-evaluate the situation then. I can't tell everyone how much I appreciate the encouragement, at the same time I hope you aren't spending more time thinking about this than after you finish this sentence. I'm not, the IPs aren't (they've seen this 1000 times), and the physio Cap said he has too. those last sentences were targeted toward mom and Laurzapan.

Phase II end of week 2

I just realized I haven't kept this thing up to date at all. Over the past week I've flown 4 more times. The first 3 on meds that completely eliminated any nausea. Its amazing how much progress you make in an hour. In the first 6 flights training is focused on basic traffic pattern procedures/radio calls and situations that can result from improper inputs (stalls). I have to add a stipulation for guys who are about to start flight school: flying is ridiculously amazing. Banking/pulling Gs around the pattern and feeling the extra weight in your pants as your G suit tightens up takes your breath away. But having a million factors continuously changing around you, having to maintain SA (situational awareness) on them, and always being evaluated on your ability to adjust to and control those factors... not so much. I've been pretty horrible the first flights but leaps and bounds are made every time. Jarrell (who is 6 weeks ahead) says that all of a sudden things just start clicking, and before you know it you don't even think, just enjoy the flight, so we'll have to see... We also had an academic test this week and 3 guys failed, not because the test was harder, but probably because they didn't put the time in for it. Some days you might have the test, a flight, a sim, standups, and an EP to prepare for so you have to pick and choose. We also keep messing up our boldface/ops limits so each day we've had to turn in 7.
I puked again today on my first flight off the meds, so I'll have to go back to the Doc monday morning. I can throw up 2 more flights, then I'll start hooking rides (recieving a U or unsatisfactory). I'm not sure how many I can hook, but you never want to hook a ride. Its pretty useless to get frustrated over my performance or puking (even though thats my first instinct), and who doesn't like a good challenge. What good is something that you don't have to fight for. So in that respect this is pretty fun, and we're already getting used to the pace, good week overall, two thumbs up.

cont

I didn't realize that last post was so long, but I forgot to mention: after the flight I had another cool moment walking by all the planes in my fancy G suit and harness with my helmet bag thrown over my shoulder, that image was instantly shot down when I realized I was carrying my sick bag and vomit filled mask in the other hand... awe man

Phase II day 3 - standard day - flight #2

Since I threw up yesterday I got to the flight doc today, they just gave me a pep talk and sent me on my way. Crew rest/duty day requirements don't allow you to stay over 12 hours in one day, so that meant I got to leave early tonight. Each night the IPs (instructor pilots) record the answering machine with the schedule for the next day. I think it is a game they play to see how fast they can read it off. This week we are on a late schedule, which means we fly the afternoon/evening flights and don't come in until 1100 or so, tomorrow we come in at 0845 to do some computer lesson academics, but we're usually out of the flight room around 2000-2100. Some weeks we will have the early flights, so we'll show around 0430 and stay no later than 1630. Today we had a boldface/ops limit test, 5 people switched some numbers around so we all owe 5 perfect copies tomorrow (not a big deal, its like writing lines in school). After that we are rushed to put together and present a weather brief, followed by "shotgun questions" we sit at attention around a long table and one by one come to attention to answer a question over the reading assignment from the night before. If you get it wrong you remain standing until it is your turn again. We've noticed that they have been asking questions from the next day's readings instead of the prior nights, I guess this is a mind game to make you think you are behind... After that we are given an EP (emergency procedure) they set up a situation in the plane and one person goes to the head of the table to talk through how you would handle the emergency. This is a very extensive process, you must ask question after question to access the situation and figure out what is happening, then go into meticulous detail as to how you will handle the situation. I was called up today, it boiled down to an engine failure after take off with insufficient runway remaining to land, so I ejected. After that I had a simulator flight, most are 1.3 hours with an hour prebrief and short debrief. I came back to the flight room, ate my lunch and it was time for my real flight prebrief.
This flight was amazing!!! There was a cloud ceiling at about 5000', but we came out at 8000' to find one of the beautiful vistas I've ever seen. It looked like snow covered hills and in the bubble canopy I had a perfect view all around me. One of the whispy cirrus clouds was literally right above me, it looked like huge pheasant's tail. We played around some in our assigned area in the sky, did some 4 G turns and other stuff and descended back into the clouds to go home. When we had broken through the bottom you could see the rain coming at us from the left, I've seen it ahead of me driving down the road, next to me from a mountain, and now below me racing to suck me in, awesome - then I threw up.
Not right then, I did a tough-n-go, then he showed me a pattern landing, then started to demonstrate another type of landing and out of nowhere there was a burp, then a liquid burp that I swallowed back down, but you can only swallow so fast before it leaks out filling up your oxygen mask, not fun. So I'll go back to the doc tomorrow, where they'll probably give me some air sickness pills and some uppers to counteract the drowsiness of the airsick pills. Not worried.

Phase II day 2

Isaiah 40:31 took action today as "those who hope in the Lord... will soar on wings like eagles" the verse doesn't go on to say that eagles were created to fly, and they don't get sick when they pull 2G's in a 60* bank, 1000' @ 200 knots. Thats not extreme even compared to the log ride, but it was enough to make me yak. Other than that the flight was awesome, and I was able to maintain positive control of my wits, with a confident attitude even when confused (hard for me at times). Taxing was much easier (which was impossible yesterday) and I'll fly again tomorrow with a chance of redemption. Another guy in my sister flight is a former civilian instructor and he puked too, friends in classes ahead of me said the first few flights will do that and then you get used to it, so I'm not worried at all, even though some people (very few) eventually do wash out due to airsickness. My devotional this morning was actually about being in humiliating low points that help us 1) develop true character 2) evaluate our relationship with God 3) use for point of ministry later. Good times.

Phase II

Today was the first day of Phase II. In the last class 2 people quit after day 1, and another quit after about 2 weeks, that guy majored in Aero in college, he just decided this wasn't for him. I definitely questioned what I was doing here instead of backpacking several times today, and I don't think I ever really answered them, I was too busy and my head was spinning like mad. I'll go into more detail later as to what the days are like. I was supposed to have my first flight today, we taxied all the way onto the runway, powered up, and had to abort because my mic kept cutting out. You can't fly if you can't communicate. So we'll try again tomorrow, followed by a sim in the evening, hopefully tomorrow I can make myself relax more and soak in what is going on around me rather than messing with my gear. I mean, I'm getting to FLY!!! Certainly I have the mental fortitude to relax and play the Top Gun theme as we walk to our aircraft with our G-suit on. HA, all Air Force guys are required to make fun of Top Gun, even though they all loved it growing up.

End of phase 1

This is the last week of phase 1. We will still have some academics in phase II, but the focus will shift to more flying. Since I last wrote we've had 2 tests, I missed 2 on the first one and 3 today. I'm happy with those scores, both of them had a question everybody missed that they should've thrown out, but whatcha gonna do. Both of the tests (Flying fundamentals and Contact) are covering material directly related to flying: rotation (takeoff) speeds/configuration, how to recover from a stall, spin, inverted, nose-high, nose-low attitudes, how to plan your training mission to conserve energy.

This is all being reinforced with simulator training. You treat it just like a flight with a 1 hour prebrief, 1.3 hour mission, and a debrief to discuss performance and technique. Its awesome! Its also interesting to self examine my performance in relation to the type of sim instructor I get. I allow myself to be effected WAY too much, by their teaching style, ie positive feedback and corrective instruction.

Another awesome thing is the pity everyone has on me for living in the dorm, even though its I really don't mind. One couple has had myself & another dorm guy over a couple times for a home-cooked meals, and other classmates who live together in houses invite us over when they cook. We get invited over for football games where the wives make wings and cookies for study parties, all the left-overs go to the poor guys in the dorm. Same goes for sunday school with breakfast leftovers, i've had french-toast sticks 4 meals in a row!!!

This week should be relaxed, with all my down time (in theory) spent preparing for actual flight, memorizing departures, power settings, checklists, radio calls. Its really fun preparing for something you actually doing as opposed to lame-o literature.

good weekend, bad wakeup call

We found out how the class will be divided when we hit the flight line today. They will break the class of 24 into 2 flights next week for the entirety of phase 2. We met with our soon to be flight commander and IPs (instructor pilots) for some expectations and what I think is their first attempt to scare the living crap out of us, and it worked pretty well, at least I'm intimidated. I have to remind myself "don't look ahead, you'll only get overwhelmed" So instead i'll look back on the weekend. I took advantage of the still semi-lax schedule and went to AL game (we won't discuss that, but it was a fun game) and went to a Shane & Shane concert - their voices can't be described - they're simply perfect together, and I was blessed through the messages that their songs gave. The only justification I have for enjoying this time: academics counts for 10% of your final grade and we have 11 tests. One guy could make the bare minimum on every test and would only be 1.5 points behind the next guy who made 100s, but often times 1 point makes a huge difference...

Aerodynamics Test

So today we had our 3rd real test, AERO. I definitely felt underprepaired for the test, and I wasn't confident while answering the questions. We were taught the material Tues, Wed, Thurs, then tested this morning. What really put an extra twist in, were the two sims also during the week. Its funny how much this very small additional work and preparation added stress, and to think that in a few days we'll have more time consuming sims, then shortly after that we'll add flying. I just need to take it one day at a time. All that being said God was really nice and I only missed one, 97% a buddy I study with made a 100% but got up at 3:00 to get in some last minute studying, so I guess thats the difference between good and perfection. Unfortunately we had 2 people fail the test (below an 85%).
Its getting more stressful, but the "aw I can rest" feeling is proportionally sweeter, no matter how short lived. It monsooned for about 30 hours (mom emailed saying something bout a hurricane, but I haven't seen much TV lately) but after the test it all cleared off and it was really pretty, no humidity, and we were finished for the day. I went to the archery range and played around a little - good times. I'm meeting some old Arkansas buddies at the Alabama game tomorrow, then its back to work with a test on Wednesday, YA!!

2nd real test

So I might have lied on here the other day, our 2nd test was Monday (not Tuesday). I missed 2 for a 95% which I think is about the class average again. It was actually fun studying and learning the material we just covered (fuel systems, the engine, environmental systems, the ejection seat, electrical systems). It is a ton of information to process in less than a week but it fascinates me and I find myself going a lot deeper than I need to because it is so interesting and it might be useful to know how this thing works if it is going to keep me 25,000 ft in the air.

We turned right around and started learning new material right away. This test (Friday) will be physics focused; equations, laws, and definitions. We’ll see how that goes. Time seems to drag through the day, but once it hits 6 I blink and its already 10:45, I’m going to have to step up the self-discipline a little to keep from getting behind, but the schedule is still pretty relaxed.

UPT is pretty strange, but it is much more straight forward than I expected. Coming in we weren't expected to know anything for the BoldFace (emergency procedures you must be able to preform in your sleep) even then we didn't need to know what they meant, just be able to rattle them off. They gave us an hour by hour, 6 week schedule on day one telling us what lessons will be covered which days. Each block of lessons gives an overview of what material you are about to cover and how you will learn it (usually 85% computer aided instruction CAI, 5% instructor review, 10% simulator) The test questions are multiple choice and come straight from the test. Everything is outlined ahead of time and the expectations are laid out well. I think people end up adding to the pressure worrying about what is just around the corner, but if you just take a deep breath and take it day by day, its not to bad. There again, we haven’t even started flying yet and all of this will probably change along with the loss of a relaxed schedule when we start phase II and hit the flight line.

End of Week 3

Well, a milestone has been passed. They start a new class every 3 weeks, so as of Monday we will no longer be the "baby class" which really doesn't mean much, but we are no longer are responsible for the flags and POW table, most importantly there is now a class that will look more lost and confused than we are.
Today we attended the graduation ceremony of our "father class" 07-14 (the 14th class to graduate in 2007, we are 08-14). The ceremony consists of lots of special welcomes to all the high ranking individuals, a guest speaker (today's was the Special Operations Commander!!), the pinning on of the wings. It meant a lot to get a better vision of what we are working towards, it blows my mind how different it will be in a year, lots of warm fuzzys.
We also had our first "walk around." Before each flight you inspect the plane to make sure its good to go. They took us all out to the plane, let us ew&awe, gave us a pretty comprehensive overview, and let us ew&awe some more, lots of drool, lots of sound effects in my head. Kind of felt like a kid with his first car, that was the car of his dreams, that can fly.

Week 3 day 1

The schedule is still pretty lax, today all we had was our 3rd test (our first real test, I missed 1 of 47, which seems to be the average). Systems 1 covered flight controls, hydraulics (landing gear, flaps, brakes), intro to instruments, communication and navigation. It wasn't difficult material, but the amount was pretty good sized, I think I studied more for this one test than 97% of my classes, ya I know that doesn't say much, geography isn't known for its dense subject matter. And it all started over again today with another test next Tuesday, someone made a funny comment as we left “study hard, someone over seas is studying hard to kill you” that made me laugh.

Cool things from last week: they fitted us for anti G-suits (they’re like tight fitting chaps with air pockets that expand when you pull Gs to help push blood back to your head). We also had our first simulator. We just played with switches and did some hands on application of what we had been learning about nav & comm. It wasn’t anything big, but it felt pretty cool sitting in the cockpit making sound effects in my head. – here’s a pic of my new glasses and my new haircut of choice - enjoy

Demographics

Turns out the wives get more information sometimes than we do, but some general info about our class was finally passed down. We started class 20 Aug in phase I (academics). Phase II (flying in the T-6) starts 27 Sep. Track selection is 7 March, with graduation from flight school 5 Sept 08. Projected drops for track select: 5, T-38s fighter/bomber; 16, T-1s heavy transport; 2, T-44s for C-130s; and 1 Helo. That adds up to 24 students, 3 of which are female, with 1 international student from India. 9 are married, 4 have kids, ages range from 22 - 30, 11 Academy grads, 6 ROTC, 5 National Guard, 1 OTS, 4 prior enlisted, 6 private pilot licenses, 1 extremely ferocious Bearcat.
Today was our first real academic day, 0700-1730, not too bad. Most of the info is self taught on a computer at your own pace. Everything kind of slowed down and I got a warm fuzzy when they took us out to the aircraft and gave us a complete walk around, letting us pet it and scratch behind its ear. I'm pretty pumped.

Good Day

The Lord really blessed me today. I made a 100 on our 2nd physiology test today, which was 2 points higher than the class average, and since I was 2 points lower than the class average last time, i'm back on par. Also, all of our class passed the FACT today (a strength test). Before all of that we got to play around with some flares/smoke signals (apparently the smoke is caustic, but that wasn't explained to me until after I hid in mine like a ninja or batman. To top it off we got the afternoon off and got to eat at the sweetest down-home restaurant ever, Fleet's Eats, amazing!!
Also a Colonel gave us some insight as to aircraft choice, we really shouldn't even be thinking about this but you can't help it. He said that everything you fly ultimately becomes another job and eventually you don't even fly that much, so you need to be in the community that best fits your personality. So we'll see how that goes...

Mindset going in

I typed this up about a week ago before I had internet but just now getting around to posting it.

You can drive yourself crazy (and lots of guys do) thinking ahead and worrying about how you might do, and what you want to fly – everybody is always talking about what they want (usually fighters, but my class is about 50/50) which is funny considering we have very little to base that on. One day I think I want A-10s (which they apparently give out about 1 year), the next day C-130s or C-27s… but I’ve actually come to peace with all of that, I’ve said that in the past trying to make myself be at ease with it, but I truly am now. The indifference/peace came in the form of a message at church the other day and a new definition of “fearing God”. The sermon discussed God’s “moral, master, and my” plans. He has His master plan, and I need to forget what I think I might want at the moment, and get on board with what He knows will really make me happy – serving Him where He leads. (I can go into more depth if u gimmie a call.) Also I’ve never had a firm grasp on “fearing God” It is confusing to me how one can love Him and talk to Him as a friend knowing He wants to shower you with blessings, but still fear him like I fear failure, or opponents fear the Bearcats. But the other day in the foot notes I read “The fear of the Lord is a state of mind in which one’s own attitudes, will, feelings, deeds, and goals are exchanged for God’s” That puts a deep, new spin on “fearing the Lord”, fully comprehending/practicing that definition is going to be my goal for the next year.

Week 1

We just finished our first week of UPT!! Pretty exciting stuff, the first day 5 guys showed up late for a welcome brief from the Commander, ya that was a bad idea that earned us all the opportunity to were blues instead of flight suits all week, and be on "formal release" a program that takes away all free/extra time in the schedule. We had to go back to a classroom and just sit around until our Flight Commander felt like letting us go. Formal Release is usually reserved for when you start flying, to really annoy you, but we're that special.

Everything else about the week was awesome!!! It was all physiology stuff: how the body handles flying and all the environmental factors that play into flying. This involved spinning around in a chair and watching the crazy tricks your mind can play on you, as well as the altitude chamber in which they simulate high atmosphere and let you breath the thin air until you get really loopy. We learned some life support stuff, by far the coolest: watching the sunrise from a field as we took turns being pulled around behind a truck to simulate parachuting. They have you parasail about 300ft up and practice sailing back down. Being a redneck I already know how to fall out of a tree, so it was hard to break old habits and learn their way to fall, they played back the video of me hitting the ground and I did some kind of weird flip. We also learned the proper way to egress the aircraft, whether on the ground or in the air.
We had our first test, probably the easiest test we’ll have, and being the retard I am I missed 2, I seriously should’ve made a 100. I’m going to half to learn to except myself jacking up and move on. Hopefully I’ll learn from this, but there is so much information I don’t really know where to focus my time.

Game Plan

We got a schedule and syllabus the other day, looks pretty fun/fast paced. Most days are 0700-1800, but we’ve had one 0500-1700 so you never know. We have weekends off, first week is all physiology stuff, followed by 4 weeks of academics, the fifth week looks pretty simulator heavy transitioning us onto the flight line. From what I’ve heard once you hit the flight line (transition from the OSS to a flying sq to start flying (phase 2)) things really get busy and you have no more free time. I hear they are really intense long days for about 15 duty days then they let off some (still no free time), and we’ll ease into a routine until March when we’ll track select - find out whether we’ll go fly T-38s for fighter/bomber, T-1s for cargo, T-44s in Corpus Christi for C-130s, or down to AL for helos. From there we’ll fly in our specific trainer (phase 3) until Sep when we receive our assignments for our actual aircraft and location, but of course you have to learn to fly your final aircraft first with some survival mixed in, so we’re looking at about a year and half before actually being ready to do anyone any good.

Pubs (publications) (our books)

2 days (duty days) before class started we picked up all of our pubs for phase 1 & 2 (academics and T-6 flight). Here is a picture of them stacked up, they are 8 ½ x 11 front n back sheets, then they condensed it all onto a CD, HA. It seemed like a lot when I first looked at it, but its really not too bad. A buddy said you will read it all, but after you finish a section you move on never to look at it again. He said I’d be amazed at how fast you can actually learn it, apparently the learning curve is ridiculous.

4 - eyes

We had out PHA (preventative health assessment) today (three days before class). This is another area I could see people going crazy, but you have ZERO control over it. The AF screens you a good dozen times to see if you really are as healthy as you say you are. So they took some blood, foot prints (cuz boots don’t burn as well as the rest of your body), gave me half a dozen needle sticks, TB screening, complete physical (with cough), color blindness test, depth perception test, and the letter test. The 20/20 line on the old standard charts is DEFPOTEC, too bad they don’t use that anymore cuz it turns out I can’t see. Luckily the docs are helpful and want you to do well, so I get some reading glasses to take stress off of my eyes, but don’t have to wear them to fly (some people do). We also got some sweet drugs to see if we’re allergic to them, some antibiotics, a couple different no-go (sleeping) and a few go (mild speed).

Up-date: one of the no-to pills was ambion - it was awesome, i was as loopy as could be, and apparently called Wes after I was in bed - but I don't remember that...

NEW SUITS

Today was freakin awesome! All of your taxes are well appreciated, as I try on all of my new gear (see picture for a taste). We got a helmet bag, 3 flight suits, jacket, 2 pairs of thermal tops n bottoms, flask to fit in flight suit, G-shock watch, aviator sunglasses, a lame flashlight from the 30s, gloves, boots, fuzzy hat, crazy protractor thing, leg strap to attach checklists, and hearing protection (quickly put to use while shooting the 38 later that day). The suits/jacket aren’t in the pic cause we’re getting rank and name tags sewn up at the parachute shop, we made the name tags with a red hot stamp press that burned silver ink into the leather. I had to contain my excitement when we pulled my patch out, only to find I had mis-spelled my own name, whoops, so I didn’t do so well at containing my excitement after all...

Killing time: not really AF related

Waiting around for things to speed up is pretty easy for me, I’ve been catching up on movies and burning CDs thanks to the base library: all 10 Band of Brothers, 6 Star Wars, 3 Bourne’s, 2 Ninja Turtles, the classic series. We’ve also been working out/running a lot. There is a 4 mile route that runs parallel with the flight line, its awesome in the morning when its still hot (not yet miserably hot) and you see a dozen or more aircraft at once: some taxing, holding short, landing, taking off, in the pattern, its amazing, you almost forget you’re running in ridiculously humid Mississippi. I also enjoy bike riding around the perimeter of the base, it weaves in and out of the woods along the far side of the flight line. Head out about sunset, put some good tunes on the ipod, I feel like I’m in a movie. I figure that will be my get away over the next year, that and going shooting, we’ve been doing a lot of that too, with a little fishing thrown in here n there. I’m pretty much free to roam, just have to sign in during the day.

OPSEC

My dad, being the ever vigilant warrior that he is, reminded me that having all this info out there might not be the best idea, so I removed my name and all other personalizing info. fun stuff.

Movin to MS

I'm finally moved into the dorm - I have pictures if u want to see them. Its not much, but its plenty for a year. Everything went smoothly, they have a class of 30 starting every 3 weeks so they have this down pretty well. Class starts on the 20th and until then all I have to do is sign in by 1030, and I'm free to do whatever. I have an occasional briefing to attend, but most time is filled sittin at the end of the flight line watching planes. Life is hard. It blows me away how many students are here, this base isn't very big and it seems like there are nothing but Lts runnin around. There probably won't be any updates till school starts.

Red Flag

I just got back from a 2 week TDY at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas. It was freakin AWESOME! Nellis is the "home of the fighter" at least that what it says as you drive on base. Speaking of which, I've really been rethinking what I want to fly, and becoming less enchanted by fighters, they and especially fighter pilots are not nearly as cool as you always dream of growing up. While there I got to fly in a C-17, B-52, Huey, and Pave Hawk helicopters, and a C-130 on a low-level mission acting as Red Air (enemy) trying to avoid getting shot down by F-22, 15s, and 16s.
The 17 was cool, very new and advanced, floated a little bit in my seat when we did a little negative G action. They have a similar mission to the C-130, but seem to be babied more than a 130, so not as cool. The B-52 was cool just to be in a 52, but we didn't really do anything, just flew really high and released an ordinance (not really just simulated). They are really old and "not as nice."
The highlight was getting to act as a down pilot. They flew us to the middle of some restricted area we won't talk about, and dropped us with off with a flare, radio, signal mirror, compass, and other fun stuff. At the prearranged time (that we crashed) I sent our coords on the radio. An A-10 called back asking us for our info, and instructed us to signal with the mirror so he could get our exact location. We were on a hill overlooking an "enemy complex" and three guys came out of the village with rifles, so I called in the A-10 for cover. Just about the time, I was getting impatient cuz they were getting closer I saw a silent gray frame zipping up the dry river bed at a lower elevation than our 60 foot hill. The hog pulled up just enough to clear the hill after dropping flares because the complex shot off a "smokey sam" but made another pass to make sure he had taken care of them (they were now laying down acting dead) and it started raining little while fuzz from the flares. In a little while a black dot came down a nearby ridge, which turned into two dots that instructed me to pop my flare when they gave me the signal to verify it was really us. They circled twice to find an area to land, there wasn't enough room on our hill so they just put their front landing gear down and out rushed some of the scariest giants I have ever seen, the blast from the pave hawk was so strong it picked me up and slammed me against our down aircraft (an old van) but didn't even phase the PJs who grabbed us and threw us in the helos which proceeded to blast out of the canyon barely clearing ridges to get us back to safety. IT WAS FREAKIN AWESOME.
So this is really long but the trip was awesome, the low level mission in the 130 was bout as cool as the rescue, I got to sit in the bubble on top to look for the guys trying to shoot us down. A few times I thought we were going to hit the dirt we were flying so low, but we still got "shot down" every time we had to cross open flat terrain.
The strip in Vegas was cool, but got old quick, I perfered the hike on Mt. Charleston which was probably the most intense hike I've ever done, 9 miles one way with about 4,000 ft gain on the way up, then there was the 9 miles back down.
Again, when on TDY you get a per diem on top of regular pay how freakin awesome is the AF, u should join...

C Springs finally

Caleb Osborne recently gave me some free publicity so it is forcing me to update this. I'm going to make this strictly AF stuff, kind of my experiences in the AF - and reasons people should join the AF.
So to finish the Colorado TDY (temporary trip that we take), another really cool day was going to another DZ (drop zone). We spent the entire day there even though it was a night drop. We passed the time shooting skeet, stalking antelope, grilling steaks, garlic buscuits, potatoes/onions/peppers, corn on the cob, pineapple, and cookies (all on the grill). Ya it was a pretty rough day. After the sun went down, we got out the gear (radios, NVGs (night vision goggles, wind reader) and called in the C-130s for a drop. My job was to spin glow sticks (that could only be seen on NVGs) on a rope making a visible marker for them to drop on after my boss called in the cords. While out there we also got to go to a Rockies game, hike some of Pikes Peak, the Manitou incline (that thing is INSANE look it up, it gains 2000ft over 1 mile), Garden of the Gods, and 7 falls. On these trips u get paid an extra per diem on top of ur regular pay - see u should join the AF.

Colorado Springs week 1 ops

I've been working for the 314 OSS (operations support squadron), but 3 weeks ago I was "pimped out" as my CC (commander) put it to the 29 WPS (weapons squadron). It is an advanced course for C-130 pilots that teaches them to fly the aircraft to its limits, pushing it to the edge and holding it there, so everyone here is highspeed, and somehow I'm thrown in the mix just hangin out, graspin on to every piece of info I can. I have learned a ton though, they all go out of their way to explain stuff (when time permits)
One of the coolest things so far out here at C Springs has been riding in the bubble. In the cockpit there is a hatch that opens up, or can be completely removed/replaced with a bubble that sticks up head n shoulders above the top of the aircraft. Its purpose is to allow the crew to look behind the aircraft and at the engines, but I used it for a sweet action view of the low-level flight. I could see the individual bars on cattle guards and the ears on the cattle pin back as we buzzed overhead.
Another sweet action time was going out to the landing zones with the Combat Controllers. They are beasts of the AF, trained in meteorology, air traffic control, small group tactics, airborne/HALO qualified, they work out 24/7, and covering 20 kilometers in 24 hours with 100 lbs packs is an average day in the office for them. I walked out in the hanger one day to the beginning of Black Hawk Down, where these huge monsters have their gear spread out preparing for a simulated jump where they will use overland routes to observe then take an airfield at night, setting up there OP (observation points) where they can call in the C-130s to land. Its ridiculous, I thought this stuff was made up in movies! Anyway I DROVE to the LZ (landing zone) and got to watch them turn a dirt strip into a usable airport where they called in winds and graded landings, as the Herks simulated an extremely fast off load of troops. We were literally 30 yards off the strip, getting sand-blasted by their prop-wash. We also saw some antelope, prairie dogs, and the biggest coyotes I've ever seen, all in all, an A+ day.

I'm in Colorado Springs with my squadron. While they do some training I get to tag along and soak up as much knowledge as I can. I have the day off today, so I'm gonna rent a car and do some driving/hiking around the mountains. Its really pretty here but rediculously dry, no green grass, and the few trees that are here, are short n pathetic lookin. Hopefully over the next few days I'll be able to catch up on what the AF has been doin for me to date, specificly the past week.

How does this work?

I'm new to this whole blogging thing, but I want to start keeping up with some of the cool stuff I'm doing in the AF. Hopefully I'll get the hang of it.