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