Today I finished giving local 5th grade students in Corpus Christi tours on base of one of the airplanes we have. Since it was my last day, I brought some of my extra UPT class patches from Vance to give to some kids I thought deserved them. Throughout the day I watched kids climb into the cockpit and listen to my little talk about what the attitude indicator does and what the altimeter tells you, most of them paying attention but not being overly enthusiastic. But then this one little girl came up with the biggest smile on her face, clearly overjoyed to be finally getting her two minutes inside the airplane. She asked many good questions, and was clearly thankful to be sitting here. It took me back to the enthusiasm I once had as a little kid who wanted nothing more than to be around airplanes his whole life. So at the end of the day I gave away my extra patches to some kids, but tore off the only class patch I ever flew with off my shoulder and gave it to this little girl. I will never forget the look on her face when I told her what that patch meant to me and that I was giving it to her. It was an 11 out of 10 on my scale of worthwhile tasks.... She was an inspiration to me to be excited for what lies ahead. I get to continue living out my childhood dream of flying airplanes in just 10 short days! And I now know at least one little girl who shares that dream with me....
Chris
P.S. I promise to finish my Vance blog about the end of T-6s...it was an exciting time! I've been busy with other things but I promise I'll get back to it!!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Instrument Phase
The past few weeks have been very busy…but it’s been a great experience….
After Final contact checkride, we began flying under instrument conditions in the airplane. To do so, the instructors put us in the rear cockpit and make us wear a flimsy “hood” over our heads so we can’t see outside and are forced to focus on our instrument displays for navigation and orientation. It takes some getting used to…a lot of guys early on said they got headaches from focusing so much on the instruments for an hour and a half at a time. Flying from the rear cockpit certainly feels a lot different than flying up front, but I’ve since gotten used to it.
The first week since my last update was spent preparing me for my cross-country flight in the T-6. On the Monday, I flew an “Out and Back” to Fayetteville, Arkansas. An “O&B” is where you land somewhere outside of Vance, stop to get gas and some lunch, then hop back in the jet for another flight home. It simulates what it’s like to fly a couple legs on a cross country, since you’re not only flying instrument approaches into a strange airport you’ve never been to, but also having to navigate along “Victor Routes” or “Jet Routes” which are like highways in the sky. It takes a lot of mental concentration to stay focused the entire time, constantly multi-tasking and prioritizing the tasks at hand. If you do it right, you should be able to fly the whole mission from the rear cockpit without ever looking outside. But usually the instructors are nice and give you a break to blink and look outside.
After landing at Fayetteville, we dropped off the gas card for the jet at the front desk of the terminal, then sauntered up to the “pilot’s lounge” where they already had freshly made BBQ burgers for us for $1.00. It’s so cheap since we’re paying about $500.00 in gas…it’s the least they could do for us, lol. Anyways, I sat down with my lunch when my IP tells me, “This is what you get to do every day in T-1s!” Ok, I’m sold! After the lunch, we found a couple lazy boy chairs in front of a TV and watched ESPN while my IP used a foot-massager he found…rough life, I know.
We hopped back in the jet and flew back to Vance uneventfully. The most stressful part of the whole ordeal was the mission planning prior to leaving Vance, but it was well worth it when we finally took off and were chewing up the radios with all the other Airline pilots sharing the friendly skies with us. It was a sign for me that this was gonna be a good week.
The rest of the week made me pay for all the fun I had on my Out and back….double turning sims all week…. Yeah, it’s kind of like playing a giant flight simulator video game, but usually I’ve never been graded or critiqued when I play games on my own free time. Suffice it to say, it’s still a tough environment to look forward to being in on a daily basis. I had 2 sims every day until Friday because I had to meet all the prerequisites for my cross country flights that weekend. On Thursday, the secretary in the sim building finally asked me if I was ever gonna fly an airplane again because she had seen me in the sims so much! I told her they were training me to fly the predator…haha….which is probably true, I just don’t know it yet ;-P.
Friday finally came around…the first of 3 days of my cross country trip. The plan was to go to Scott AFB in Illinois to meet up with one of my instructor’s friends. I originally wasn’t too excited to be going to Scott AFB, but tagged along anyways (not like I had a choice!). It turned out to be an amazing trip! Again, the most stressful part was trying to leave Vance…there’s a ton of paperwork and planning you have to do ahead of time. Because it was all so new to me, I again felt like I was drinking water from a fire hydrant…barely finding time to breath. But we got off the ground and headed to Fort Smith Arkansas for gas and food. We shot a couple of approaches into Fort Smith before landing, during one of which we were overflown by a C-130 about 1,000 feet above us!! It was quite the sight to see…wish I had a picture of it. We landed, started taxiing to parking when we saw two gentlemen on the flightline, one holding a sign and one holding a flag. My first thought was “These better not be protesters!!” Quite the opposite actually. They turned out to be guys who lived nearby and enjoy welcoming military aircrews to Arkansas, even those just passing through briefly like us. We took off our harness and G-suit, ended up eating at a bar in town, then came back to the airport to wait for it to get dark so I could get a night flight in. While we waited, we had the chance to talk to the gentlemen who very warmly welcomed us in to Arkansas. They gave myself and my IP each an American flag to take with us…I now have it on my desk in my dorm room…something I’ll always have for the rest of my life to mark my first leg of my first cross country in the T-6!
We left Fort Smith at night to go to Scott AFB. Somehow, the best landing I have ever had in the T-6 was my first landing at night….really weird!! We parked and put the airplane to bed, then met up with a good friend of mine’s parents who live and work at Scott. We took them to the Officer’s Club to chat for a while…I’m still amazed they were willing to visit with us even at 11pm at night! It definitely made the trip to Scott worthwhile.
The next morning my IP and I got incentive rides in a sailplane at a small airport near Bellville, IL. It was an absolute blast. We later flew over the St Louis arch in the T-6, then passed over the sailplane airport to say thanks for showing us a great time! The flyover of the arch was really special to me…the last time I was there was with my dad when we drove my Civic up to Colorado from Florida. Definitely some good memories.
We landed in Knoxville, TN for dinner, then continued on another night sortie into Pensacola, FL where I met up with a really good friend of mine from the Academy I haven’t seen since he graduated in ‘08. I stayed at his place until Sunday morning…we left Pensacola, flew along the Gulf Coast (couldn’t see the oil spill yet), flew over New Orleans and stopped in Lake Charles Louisiana for the best seafood I’ve had since living in Florida. We finally came home Sunday evening….man was I tired! It was a fun trip, but each leg was 1.7 hours long. I got 8 hours of sleep every night, but I was still exhausted by the end.
The following week, my instructors were very generous to me and didn’t schedule me for anything until Friday when I flew on my last out and back to Rick Husband International Airport, named after the commander of the Space Shuttle Columbia during STS-107. I thought it was a fitting location to fly to as my last navigational sortie in the T-6. I finally felt fairly comfortable flying into strange airfields and navigating in places I’ve never been to before.
This past week, I wasn’t scheduled for any flying the first couple days (Tuesday and Wednesday). Wednesday, I had a midterm feedback session with my Flight Commander and Assistant Flight commander. They said I’m exactly where I need to be, but cautioned me to not let my guard down. There is still plenty of flying left, and 2 more checkrides in my future. I later flew with my Assistant Flight Commander on Thursday, and had a great time. I think my two best flights in the T-6 have been with him. Don’t know why, but they’ve been a ton of fun. We just did a local instrument sortie where we flew to Woodring for 3 approaches, then hung out in the area to fly some basic instrument maneuvers before calling it a day and flying home. Friday was a similar sortie, but instead of flying to Woodring, my IP and I flew all the way down to Wiley Post in Oklahoma City and shot our approaches down there. It was a good thing to see how busy the radios can get in a very congested airspace such as Oklahoma City. Good experience.
Overall I’m pleased with my performance in the airplane during the instrument phase so far, but I feel my general knowledge has more work to do. I’m gonna continue studying this weekend, since I will most likely be having my instrument checkride this week. Even though I had a lot of fun during my navigation flights, I still am leaning towards tracking T-38s and trying to fly either fighters, bombers, or spec ops. But that’s a long way off, and as my flight commanders said, there is a lot of flying between now and track select. Anything could happen, and if I fail one of the two checkrides between now and then, that will pretty much erase any chance I have of flying the T-38. It’s been a dream of mine for a long time to go to Test Pilot School, and I know the best way to do that is to become a fighter pilot. But in today’s Air Force, that’s tough to do since there are so few fighter slots left. We’ll see what happens… Until next time…..
Chris
Jeremiah 29:11
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Freedom's cost
Wow, I'm really sorry it's been a couple weeks since I've updated last. This is the part of phase II when the 12 hour days really matter though. For the past several weeks ever since we soloed, we have been opted for Navigation and Instrument Academic classes/computer based training, emergency procedure as well as instrument simulator sorties, and Contact flights as well as instrument flights (following our Final Contact checkride). The pace is bearable, but you really have to focus on taking every day one event at a time. You might have an academic class or test in the morning for an hour (which, if you fail 3 tests in a row, you'll probably wash out), formal brief 5 minutes later followed by stand-up or shotgun questions, then you'll run to the sim building to brief up an instrument sim ride, fly it for 1hr + 15min, debrief for a half-hour, then run back to the flightline in time to eat a PB&J sandwhich for 10 minutes before you have to get ready to brief your contact flight in the afternoon. After briefing, flying, and debriefing the contact flight, you're usually pretty worn out; but it doesn't stop there. Academics are still in full force, so we usually have to accomplish a computer based course on our down time in that 12 hour period. By the time ths is done, it's time to clean up the flight room and prepare for formal release at the 11 hour 40 minute mark...just in time to leave the building by 12 hours into the duty day. Yeah, it's a rush, and you usually have a sense of numbness after it's all done, but there's still dinner to be made (or microwaved!) and studying to be done before you hit the sack and repeat the process the next day. That's what the last several weeks have been like for 11-05, so now I'll rewind and get into some of what has specifically been happening these last few weeks.
Two weeks ago, I had my eyes opened...I think a lot of us did. If you recall, there was a T-6 incident that resulted in a solo student ejecting about a month or so ago. It brought a lot of attention, and safety became the focus for all T-6 pilots. Well, on Monday we almost had another major incident. A guy in my class came in to land on 17L at Vance after a successful Area solo. He entered the pattern normally, configured the aircraft for landing, and started his final turn to the runway. Little did he know his nosewheel was cocked to the right 6 degrees off centerline. We have a hydraulic system on-board that is responsible for keeping it centered when the aircraft is off the ground, but his wasn't working properly for whatever reason. After landing on his mains, he let the nose wheel contact the ground and was about to apply his brakes when the aircraft jolted suddenly to the right. He applied full left rudder when the aircraft lost traction and began to just drift as if it were on ice. His right main gear went off the runway by about a foot before the nosewheel finally centered itself and the T-6 began tracking again. The investigation showed that it was simply a maintenance fault, and the pilot did a superb job of keeping the aircraft on the runway as best he could. We dodged a bullet.
Tuesday, another friend of mine was Area solo when he entered a 4G loop and began to grey out. He unloaded the aircraft to prevent GLOC, but unfortunately the aircraft was pointed straight up and losing airspeed rapidly. He subsequently lost control of the aircraft and entered a power-on inverted spin. Luckily, he just happened to know the correct procedures for recovery and applied the correct control inputs. This is something we never practice because it should never happen. Unfortunately on Tuesday, the stars aligned and he had to get out of an inverted spin. It was an emergency because the engine isn't designed to go through the strains of a spin at any power setting above idle. He came back and told the supervisor of flying what happened - my guess is they took the aircraft off the line to make sure it was ok...we dodged another bulet.
Thursday was my Final Contact checkride. This is the last ride of the first half of T-6 training...I had to prove that I was capable and proficient in all my aerobatic maneuvers as well as some of the other "stalls and falls" that we do. I went into the flight fairly confident I would pass and do reasonably well, provided the winds would cooperate! We took off from Vance and headed out to the Area to get all my aerobatics out of the way. If I remember correctly, I just had to do a split-S, Cuban 8, and Lazy 8...the rest of the maneuvers were stalls and slow flight. After finishing up all of that, my IP stayed quiet like a normal check IP does and we headed off to Dogface (our Aux field) to do 2 landings. All I had to do was get a Simulated Force Landing down on the ground and a No-Flap landing. It wasn't supposed to be too hard.....we have almost 7,000 feet of runway at Dogface! I was excited at this point because I knew it wouldn't take long...just 2 landings and you're done!
I entered the pattern but had to quickly break out because there was a traffic conflict between us and another aircraft already established. I was the lower priority, so I flew to another entry point when I heard the most disturbing radio call I could possibly imagine. I heard "[unintelligble] 41, Canopy Blown, request closed!".... This instructor was shouting as loud as he could over the radio because all you could hear in the background was 160 mph winds and a 1100 shp turbo prop engine. There was no canopy to protect the crew from the heat off the exhaust stacks pointing straight at them, no protection from the brutal winds, and no way of knowing if the aircraft would be able to keep flying. At this point I was pointed back at the runway and could see the aircraft off the departure end of the runway. I could feel my own heartbeat in my ear from having heard what I thought was my Assistant flight commander's callsign. Bison 41 was my assistant flight comm's callsign, and I had just flown with him the day prior. Now I thouht I was watching him trying to fly a crippled aircraft back to the runway...probably ready to eject any moment. I was just waiting to see the parachutes....there was no way they were gonna bring this thing back! I would later learn that the wind was so strong, it was pushing the student's head down below the glareshield...a not so ideal body position for ejection. Had they ejected, he probably wouldn't have made it. So the only option really was to try and land it. We watched the plane limp it's way back onto the runway and could see emergency vehicles being dispatched from the fire department moments later. The entire time I was praying for them. They emergency ground egressed, and were transported to a hospital to be treated for some cuts they received after the canopy had shattered. At the time though, I couldn't tell if they had gotten out of the aircraft when we flew over the runway. All I could see was the T-6 on the runway, canopy rail still attached to the jet, but missing the transparency. I was definitely worried I had just witnessed my assistant flight commander and some other student in my class get severely injured. I would later learn it wasn't the case....this was a different crew from a different squadron.
Now that the emergency terminated on the runway at Dogface, the field was closed and we were forced to head back to Vance to get those landings in. I remember talking to myself, thinking "Alright, just calm down bro. If you're in combat, and you witness a friend of yours get shot down, you're gonna have to still keep your head on straight and finish the mission. That's what you gotta do here. Put it behind you and focus on what's ahead." I couldn't stop thinking about what I had just witnessed, and also started thinking about my own canopy. We didn't know what happened or what caused their canopy to come off, but I started to worry if it was some sort of maintenance problem. What was keeping my canopy on still?! I was definitely rattled, but kept flying towards Vance knowing what was waiting for me. When dogface closes, everyone is forced to do patterns either at Woodring or Vance. When it gets really busy at Vance, it takes 3 or 4 times as long to get your required landings in because everone tends to get in everyone else's way. The first landing I attempted was my SFL. I climbed to 3000 feet over the runway, reported my position, and began my turn back to the runway with a simulated dead engine. I thought I had my position nailed, but the 20 knot winds down the runway were pushing me away from usuable concrete...not good when power is not avaiable to get you back. I ended up coming up short and had to go around. I tried it again, only once more to come up short with the same problem...winds. At this point, I was really worried if my check IP would even pass me if I couldn't land an SFL within the first two tries. I knew I probably only had one more chance to get it right, so I climbed up to my position, pulled the power, and this time pointed the nose straight at the runway. There was no way I was going to come up short again! I kept it tight, and found myself 500 feet above the runway less than a quarter mile away. I rolled in all the flaps I had and slipped the aircraft down. Because of the winds, my groundspeed was really slow. We were descending but not going forward very far....we call it "riding the elevator." But since I flew it so tight, I was able to put it down on the runway...relieved but still afraid I wouldn't pass. I flew my last pattern and gave it to the check IP for the full-stop. Long story short, he still gave me an excellent overall even though my pattern work wasn't great. Praise the Lord...another checkride done!
Because of the week we had, T-6s were on stand down on Friday; leadership gave us a break from flying to think about all that has happened. It was an eye-opening experience for me. I realized how dangerous it really is to fly...even in the Air Force with top-notch maintenance and a good aircraft. I thought about how this event had affected me; it showed me the real cost of freedom. Yes, we lose brave men in combat on a weekly basis. But what about in training? The cuts and scrapes that crew received from their shattered canopy is a physical representation of the risk in training...thankfully it WAS only cuts and scrapes from shrapnel. It's a risk most Americans will never learn about. They'll never learn about those 45 seconds that crew had to fly while enduring the high winds from the propwash and heat from the exhaust. That's a fraction of the cost of what it takes to keep us free. Is it worth it? It's worth it enough for me to keep flying. Should people be a little more aware of the risks and sacrifices people endure to keep them free? We do what we do so that nobody else will ever have to know what it's like to witness something like that. I'm not saying people need to appreciate the military any more than they already do. I'm saying people should appreciate the freedom's they have more than they already do. I know I will.
In my mind, the same goes for freedom from sin. So often do I take for granted the sacrifice Christ made on the cross. But God used this experience to make the cross a little more real to me. He sent his Son to die on the cross and pay for my sins because there's nothing I can do that could possibly pay for them. I'll never know what that was like. God doesn't want me to...but what He does want for me is to appreciate that freedom from sin and use that freedom to come closer to Him.
This last week was mostly sims and academics. I had my first instrument flight on Wednesday...had a TON of fun! Instrument flying is a lot of work, but very rewarding. It's head game, and I'm looking forward to my cross country flight next weekend! Until next time....
Chris
John 15:13
Chris
Two weeks ago, I had my eyes opened...I think a lot of us did. If you recall, there was a T-6 incident that resulted in a solo student ejecting about a month or so ago. It brought a lot of attention, and safety became the focus for all T-6 pilots. Well, on Monday we almost had another major incident. A guy in my class came in to land on 17L at Vance after a successful Area solo. He entered the pattern normally, configured the aircraft for landing, and started his final turn to the runway. Little did he know his nosewheel was cocked to the right 6 degrees off centerline. We have a hydraulic system on-board that is responsible for keeping it centered when the aircraft is off the ground, but his wasn't working properly for whatever reason. After landing on his mains, he let the nose wheel contact the ground and was about to apply his brakes when the aircraft jolted suddenly to the right. He applied full left rudder when the aircraft lost traction and began to just drift as if it were on ice. His right main gear went off the runway by about a foot before the nosewheel finally centered itself and the T-6 began tracking again. The investigation showed that it was simply a maintenance fault, and the pilot did a superb job of keeping the aircraft on the runway as best he could. We dodged a bullet.
Tuesday, another friend of mine was Area solo when he entered a 4G loop and began to grey out. He unloaded the aircraft to prevent GLOC, but unfortunately the aircraft was pointed straight up and losing airspeed rapidly. He subsequently lost control of the aircraft and entered a power-on inverted spin. Luckily, he just happened to know the correct procedures for recovery and applied the correct control inputs. This is something we never practice because it should never happen. Unfortunately on Tuesday, the stars aligned and he had to get out of an inverted spin. It was an emergency because the engine isn't designed to go through the strains of a spin at any power setting above idle. He came back and told the supervisor of flying what happened - my guess is they took the aircraft off the line to make sure it was ok...we dodged another bulet.
Thursday was my Final Contact checkride. This is the last ride of the first half of T-6 training...I had to prove that I was capable and proficient in all my aerobatic maneuvers as well as some of the other "stalls and falls" that we do. I went into the flight fairly confident I would pass and do reasonably well, provided the winds would cooperate! We took off from Vance and headed out to the Area to get all my aerobatics out of the way. If I remember correctly, I just had to do a split-S, Cuban 8, and Lazy 8...the rest of the maneuvers were stalls and slow flight. After finishing up all of that, my IP stayed quiet like a normal check IP does and we headed off to Dogface (our Aux field) to do 2 landings. All I had to do was get a Simulated Force Landing down on the ground and a No-Flap landing. It wasn't supposed to be too hard.....we have almost 7,000 feet of runway at Dogface! I was excited at this point because I knew it wouldn't take long...just 2 landings and you're done!
I entered the pattern but had to quickly break out because there was a traffic conflict between us and another aircraft already established. I was the lower priority, so I flew to another entry point when I heard the most disturbing radio call I could possibly imagine. I heard "[unintelligble] 41, Canopy Blown, request closed!".... This instructor was shouting as loud as he could over the radio because all you could hear in the background was 160 mph winds and a 1100 shp turbo prop engine. There was no canopy to protect the crew from the heat off the exhaust stacks pointing straight at them, no protection from the brutal winds, and no way of knowing if the aircraft would be able to keep flying. At this point I was pointed back at the runway and could see the aircraft off the departure end of the runway. I could feel my own heartbeat in my ear from having heard what I thought was my Assistant flight commander's callsign. Bison 41 was my assistant flight comm's callsign, and I had just flown with him the day prior. Now I thouht I was watching him trying to fly a crippled aircraft back to the runway...probably ready to eject any moment. I was just waiting to see the parachutes....there was no way they were gonna bring this thing back! I would later learn that the wind was so strong, it was pushing the student's head down below the glareshield...a not so ideal body position for ejection. Had they ejected, he probably wouldn't have made it. So the only option really was to try and land it. We watched the plane limp it's way back onto the runway and could see emergency vehicles being dispatched from the fire department moments later. The entire time I was praying for them. They emergency ground egressed, and were transported to a hospital to be treated for some cuts they received after the canopy had shattered. At the time though, I couldn't tell if they had gotten out of the aircraft when we flew over the runway. All I could see was the T-6 on the runway, canopy rail still attached to the jet, but missing the transparency. I was definitely worried I had just witnessed my assistant flight commander and some other student in my class get severely injured. I would later learn it wasn't the case....this was a different crew from a different squadron.
Now that the emergency terminated on the runway at Dogface, the field was closed and we were forced to head back to Vance to get those landings in. I remember talking to myself, thinking "Alright, just calm down bro. If you're in combat, and you witness a friend of yours get shot down, you're gonna have to still keep your head on straight and finish the mission. That's what you gotta do here. Put it behind you and focus on what's ahead." I couldn't stop thinking about what I had just witnessed, and also started thinking about my own canopy. We didn't know what happened or what caused their canopy to come off, but I started to worry if it was some sort of maintenance problem. What was keeping my canopy on still?! I was definitely rattled, but kept flying towards Vance knowing what was waiting for me. When dogface closes, everyone is forced to do patterns either at Woodring or Vance. When it gets really busy at Vance, it takes 3 or 4 times as long to get your required landings in because everone tends to get in everyone else's way. The first landing I attempted was my SFL. I climbed to 3000 feet over the runway, reported my position, and began my turn back to the runway with a simulated dead engine. I thought I had my position nailed, but the 20 knot winds down the runway were pushing me away from usuable concrete...not good when power is not avaiable to get you back. I ended up coming up short and had to go around. I tried it again, only once more to come up short with the same problem...winds. At this point, I was really worried if my check IP would even pass me if I couldn't land an SFL within the first two tries. I knew I probably only had one more chance to get it right, so I climbed up to my position, pulled the power, and this time pointed the nose straight at the runway. There was no way I was going to come up short again! I kept it tight, and found myself 500 feet above the runway less than a quarter mile away. I rolled in all the flaps I had and slipped the aircraft down. Because of the winds, my groundspeed was really slow. We were descending but not going forward very far....we call it "riding the elevator." But since I flew it so tight, I was able to put it down on the runway...relieved but still afraid I wouldn't pass. I flew my last pattern and gave it to the check IP for the full-stop. Long story short, he still gave me an excellent overall even though my pattern work wasn't great. Praise the Lord...another checkride done!
Because of the week we had, T-6s were on stand down on Friday; leadership gave us a break from flying to think about all that has happened. It was an eye-opening experience for me. I realized how dangerous it really is to fly...even in the Air Force with top-notch maintenance and a good aircraft. I thought about how this event had affected me; it showed me the real cost of freedom. Yes, we lose brave men in combat on a weekly basis. But what about in training? The cuts and scrapes that crew received from their shattered canopy is a physical representation of the risk in training...thankfully it WAS only cuts and scrapes from shrapnel. It's a risk most Americans will never learn about. They'll never learn about those 45 seconds that crew had to fly while enduring the high winds from the propwash and heat from the exhaust. That's a fraction of the cost of what it takes to keep us free. Is it worth it? It's worth it enough for me to keep flying. Should people be a little more aware of the risks and sacrifices people endure to keep them free? We do what we do so that nobody else will ever have to know what it's like to witness something like that. I'm not saying people need to appreciate the military any more than they already do. I'm saying people should appreciate the freedom's they have more than they already do. I know I will.
In my mind, the same goes for freedom from sin. So often do I take for granted the sacrifice Christ made on the cross. But God used this experience to make the cross a little more real to me. He sent his Son to die on the cross and pay for my sins because there's nothing I can do that could possibly pay for them. I'll never know what that was like. God doesn't want me to...but what He does want for me is to appreciate that freedom from sin and use that freedom to come closer to Him.
This last week was mostly sims and academics. I had my first instrument flight on Wednesday...had a TON of fun! Instrument flying is a lot of work, but very rewarding. It's head game, and I'm looking forward to my cross country flight next weekend! Until next time....
Chris
John 15:13
Chris
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Trying to stay on top of things
Picture of me after my initial pattern solo.
Initial solo takeoff on Vance Runway 17R
Taxiing out by myself for the first time!
Trying to stay focused after the dual portion of my initial solo
Strapping into the jet for the dual portion of my initial solo.
Sorry it's been a couple weeks since my last update! The past couple weeks have been pretty busy but also very productive.
Two weeks ago, I recovered from my weird stomach virus and started flying again, preparing for my first checkride in the T-6. The "Midphase Check" is designed to test our abilities to safely fly the aircraft in the pattern and prform certain maneuvers in the practice areas. It has a deceiving name because it's not really in the middle of the T-6 program...it's only the first of four checkrides we have to go through. Most of the flights leading up to the check kept me fairly confident in my abilities to pass the checkride, although my poor performance during my initial solo flight was still lingering in the back of my mind. For whatever reason, my initial solo had me rattled; it was just one of those days where my hands weren't talking to my brain, and vice versa. Again, it was a plenty safe flight, but not quite as nice as what I'm used to. That's what makes pilot training...pilot training. There are so many variables that can affect your performance...one little gust of wind can turn a great landing into a near catastrophe if you let it. However, like I said, most of my flights a couple weeks ago were rather assuring.
During the week, I watched other members of my flight go through the checkride - we had several who failed due to problems with their pubs. Pubs are written documents that govern how we fly...kind of the "rules of the road." Often there are updates that need to be written into the documents. If they are not updated, there's no written proof that shows you are abiding with the new publicaitons. It's a technicality that cannot be overlooked when preparing for a checkride.
To prevent this from happening to me, I sat down with some friends that had the updated pubs, and went page by page through all my documents and ensured they were up to speed. It's a tedious process, but necessary to make sure I didn't fail for something so simple as a pubs problem.
Monday afternoon at about 3pm was my scheduled takeoff time for my checkride. All flights in the morning were cancelled for weather, and we weren't exactly sure if we were gonna get clear skies in time. My check IP and I briefed like normal, but he sent me back to my flight room to wait for further word as to whether we were going to launch. The time when we were supposed to walk out to the jet (step time) came and passed, but T-6s were still in a no-go status. For about 10 minutes I thought I was given an extra day to study, but we soon found out there was a clearing line in the clouds forming. T-6s were given a "go" status and the schedulers gave us new takeoff times for all our checkrides (I was one of 5 checkrides in our flight that day). So I went from thinking I had another 24 hours to prepare for my first checkride to having to gathering all my in-flight pubs together and stepping to a new jet in about 10 minutes. Lesson learned: you always have to be prepared to go no matter what external factors exist. All you can control in pilot training is yourself, so make sure you're ready for whatever may come your way....
We took-off and had a pretty normal flight until I finished all my maneuvers in the area. My last maneuver was slow flight where we have our landing gear and flaps extended. I finished the maneuver, brought up the landing gear, but forgot to make a VERY important cockpit call-out that verifies the gear actually was raised. This type of mistake was the same mistake people would hook flights for in earlier missions. This type of mistake was what I knew I could hook for, and would probably be one of the only reasons I could reasonably hook a checkride for. The IP asked me for the gear confirmation, to which I quickly replied "Gear up, flaps up, lights out by 150 knots." It was a costly mistake that I was sure would hook me. I couldn't believe it. All this work and preparation, and I was probably going to hook the ride for a simple sentence I forgot to say. Checkride IPs are not allowed to say what mistakes you made until after the evaluation is complete, so I knew I wouldn't hear whether or not that made any difference in my grade until after I was on the ground. I did my best to put the mistake behind me, but it was a tall order.
The rest of the flight was relatively uneventful....I returned to Vance and landed, got a drink of water, then waited outside my IPs office for the ground evaluation. While sitting there on the couches, I couldn't help but think about that mistake I made. I knew I would fail, have to go onto a progress check (what we call an "88" ride)....not even sure if I could pass that! If I wash out of pilot training, there's very little incentive for the Air Force to keep me especially with the budget cuts we've been going through. All this was floating through my mind as I sat there on the couch for what seemed like an eternity. My IP finally called me into his office, I said a quick prayer, and then I went into the ground eval. In the ground eval, the IP asks general knowledge questions and gives you an Emergency situation which you have to talk your way through. Both parts of the eval went fairly well....I HAD to make up for my mistakes earlier.
Long story short, he NEVER MENTIONED the gear confirmation problem. He talked about the flight, made several comments about some areas I can clean up, but never mentioned what I thought I knew was going to hook me. When he said "Excellent overall!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was saved! I passed, and scored one of the two excellents in the flight. Wow....
It was a lesson in how much God really does have in His control...and how little I have in my control. If you ever find yourself in the middle of a checkride thinking you hooked it...keep flying and pushing forward! You never know the final grade until the end.
Tuesday I celebrated my checkride by flying in the morning with an IP who never flew with a student before! Itw as a blast...I think we both enjoyed it. He showed me some new aerobatics like the cuban-8, immelman, lazy 8, and a few others. In the afternoon, I had my first area solo where they let me take an airplane by myself out to an area to practice the aerobatics alone! It was an absolute blast! I did the same thing again Wednesday morning, but never flew again the rest of the week because of weather constraints. Friday was a welcome end to a long and stressful week.
I wish I could blog a little more, but I'm afraid I need to get back into the books before tomorrrow! We're learning all there is to know about instruments and navigation flying...we'll be picking up instrument flying after our "Final Contact" checkride which will likely be the end of this week. Thanks for the prayers....God Bless!
Chris
Psalm 1
Two weeks ago, I recovered from my weird stomach virus and started flying again, preparing for my first checkride in the T-6. The "Midphase Check" is designed to test our abilities to safely fly the aircraft in the pattern and prform certain maneuvers in the practice areas. It has a deceiving name because it's not really in the middle of the T-6 program...it's only the first of four checkrides we have to go through. Most of the flights leading up to the check kept me fairly confident in my abilities to pass the checkride, although my poor performance during my initial solo flight was still lingering in the back of my mind. For whatever reason, my initial solo had me rattled; it was just one of those days where my hands weren't talking to my brain, and vice versa. Again, it was a plenty safe flight, but not quite as nice as what I'm used to. That's what makes pilot training...pilot training. There are so many variables that can affect your performance...one little gust of wind can turn a great landing into a near catastrophe if you let it. However, like I said, most of my flights a couple weeks ago were rather assuring.
During the week, I watched other members of my flight go through the checkride - we had several who failed due to problems with their pubs. Pubs are written documents that govern how we fly...kind of the "rules of the road." Often there are updates that need to be written into the documents. If they are not updated, there's no written proof that shows you are abiding with the new publicaitons. It's a technicality that cannot be overlooked when preparing for a checkride.
To prevent this from happening to me, I sat down with some friends that had the updated pubs, and went page by page through all my documents and ensured they were up to speed. It's a tedious process, but necessary to make sure I didn't fail for something so simple as a pubs problem.
Monday afternoon at about 3pm was my scheduled takeoff time for my checkride. All flights in the morning were cancelled for weather, and we weren't exactly sure if we were gonna get clear skies in time. My check IP and I briefed like normal, but he sent me back to my flight room to wait for further word as to whether we were going to launch. The time when we were supposed to walk out to the jet (step time) came and passed, but T-6s were still in a no-go status. For about 10 minutes I thought I was given an extra day to study, but we soon found out there was a clearing line in the clouds forming. T-6s were given a "go" status and the schedulers gave us new takeoff times for all our checkrides (I was one of 5 checkrides in our flight that day). So I went from thinking I had another 24 hours to prepare for my first checkride to having to gathering all my in-flight pubs together and stepping to a new jet in about 10 minutes. Lesson learned: you always have to be prepared to go no matter what external factors exist. All you can control in pilot training is yourself, so make sure you're ready for whatever may come your way....
We took-off and had a pretty normal flight until I finished all my maneuvers in the area. My last maneuver was slow flight where we have our landing gear and flaps extended. I finished the maneuver, brought up the landing gear, but forgot to make a VERY important cockpit call-out that verifies the gear actually was raised. This type of mistake was the same mistake people would hook flights for in earlier missions. This type of mistake was what I knew I could hook for, and would probably be one of the only reasons I could reasonably hook a checkride for. The IP asked me for the gear confirmation, to which I quickly replied "Gear up, flaps up, lights out by 150 knots." It was a costly mistake that I was sure would hook me. I couldn't believe it. All this work and preparation, and I was probably going to hook the ride for a simple sentence I forgot to say. Checkride IPs are not allowed to say what mistakes you made until after the evaluation is complete, so I knew I wouldn't hear whether or not that made any difference in my grade until after I was on the ground. I did my best to put the mistake behind me, but it was a tall order.
The rest of the flight was relatively uneventful....I returned to Vance and landed, got a drink of water, then waited outside my IPs office for the ground evaluation. While sitting there on the couches, I couldn't help but think about that mistake I made. I knew I would fail, have to go onto a progress check (what we call an "88" ride)....not even sure if I could pass that! If I wash out of pilot training, there's very little incentive for the Air Force to keep me especially with the budget cuts we've been going through. All this was floating through my mind as I sat there on the couch for what seemed like an eternity. My IP finally called me into his office, I said a quick prayer, and then I went into the ground eval. In the ground eval, the IP asks general knowledge questions and gives you an Emergency situation which you have to talk your way through. Both parts of the eval went fairly well....I HAD to make up for my mistakes earlier.
Long story short, he NEVER MENTIONED the gear confirmation problem. He talked about the flight, made several comments about some areas I can clean up, but never mentioned what I thought I knew was going to hook me. When he said "Excellent overall!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was saved! I passed, and scored one of the two excellents in the flight. Wow....
It was a lesson in how much God really does have in His control...and how little I have in my control. If you ever find yourself in the middle of a checkride thinking you hooked it...keep flying and pushing forward! You never know the final grade until the end.
Tuesday I celebrated my checkride by flying in the morning with an IP who never flew with a student before! Itw as a blast...I think we both enjoyed it. He showed me some new aerobatics like the cuban-8, immelman, lazy 8, and a few others. In the afternoon, I had my first area solo where they let me take an airplane by myself out to an area to practice the aerobatics alone! It was an absolute blast! I did the same thing again Wednesday morning, but never flew again the rest of the week because of weather constraints. Friday was a welcome end to a long and stressful week.
I wish I could blog a little more, but I'm afraid I need to get back into the books before tomorrrow! We're learning all there is to know about instruments and navigation flying...we'll be picking up instrument flying after our "Final Contact" checkride which will likely be the end of this week. Thanks for the prayers....God Bless!
Chris
Psalm 1
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Solo, Stomach Virus week
This week is one I'm trying to put behind me and move on from! Weather forced my solo from Monday morning to Monday afternoon. After briefing with my IP, we suited up and stepped to the jet early. Everything felt pretty normal up until takeoff. After I got off the ground, my hands and my head just didn't feel like talking to each other. Nothing I did was unsafe, but sometimes I came close to doing some pretty stupid things. All of my landings with the exception of my last one were definitely "firm" which is pretty unusual for me. The whole time I was pretty frustrated with myself wondering why I couldn't fly this jet like I usually do. All my IPs, including this one in the past, have all marveled at my basic aircraft control. But Monday brought along the ugliest flying I've had to date. Nevertheless, after the dual-portion of the solo, my IP told me to sit tight while he unbuckled and sent me on my way solo! I have pics I'll try uploading a friend of mine took of me while I was on the ground. It was quite an experience to take a 4 million dollar airplane up in the air by yourself...gotta say I was a little bit nervous! But despite the jitters, one of my friends later told me he saw me land while he waited to take off and said I "greased it in"...(ie, smooth landing). If I did, I don't remember it, haha!
After landing, post-flighting, and getting thrown in the solo tank (which feels good after sweating for over an hour), I started feeling queezy and cramped up. Our flight soon got released and I went home and went straight to bed after trying to down some chicken noodle soup. About an hour later, I learned how painful it is to throw up chicken noodle soup! If you've never done it, I wouldn't recommend it, haha! I spent the rest of the night traveling to and from my bed and my toilet, "crapping puke and puking crap." The next day I went to sick call and saw a doctor who found it amusing I was "leaking at both ends." Gotta always find the humor in everything.... He gave me an IV for about an hour because my heart rate was slightly elevated from being dehydrated. The rest of Tuesday was much of the same...traveling to and from the bathroom and bed. Wednesday came and I felt slightly better, and by Thursday I was good enough to return to work. I got off of DNIF (Duty Not Including Flying) and was cleared to fly a couple sims. I'm quite a bit behind in the realm of Academics, but my flight commander and I worked out a schedule to get me caught up by the end of this week.
Even though it was a bit of a downer week, God has been really good to me and I've been able to use a little bit of the down time to spend more time with Him. At this point in pilot training, I really don't know what track I should go down (if I were to have a choice in the first place), but I'm confident in the fact God has His hand on my life and will steer me where I need to go. I don't know if it was the illness or something else, but I've been steadily realizing recently that there's more to life than flying in the Air Force (no kidding sherlock!). Don't get me wrong, I LOVE flying, LOVE my job, I love the flight I'm in, and love the fact I get to live out my childhood dreams. But even in doing so, God has been showing me that there's more to life outside of a career. And that is a big reason why I'm not sure what track I should go down right now. Granted, I have PLENTY of time to think about it because we won't actually track select until the end of July. But my decisions now will have an impact on the rest of my life and on my future family's lives as well (God-willing). Plenty of things to think about, but I can rest in the truth that God is in control and knows exactly what I need to do to fulfill His will, not mine.
God Bless!
Chris
Proverbs 16:9
After landing, post-flighting, and getting thrown in the solo tank (which feels good after sweating for over an hour), I started feeling queezy and cramped up. Our flight soon got released and I went home and went straight to bed after trying to down some chicken noodle soup. About an hour later, I learned how painful it is to throw up chicken noodle soup! If you've never done it, I wouldn't recommend it, haha! I spent the rest of the night traveling to and from my bed and my toilet, "crapping puke and puking crap." The next day I went to sick call and saw a doctor who found it amusing I was "leaking at both ends." Gotta always find the humor in everything.... He gave me an IV for about an hour because my heart rate was slightly elevated from being dehydrated. The rest of Tuesday was much of the same...traveling to and from the bathroom and bed. Wednesday came and I felt slightly better, and by Thursday I was good enough to return to work. I got off of DNIF (Duty Not Including Flying) and was cleared to fly a couple sims. I'm quite a bit behind in the realm of Academics, but my flight commander and I worked out a schedule to get me caught up by the end of this week.
Even though it was a bit of a downer week, God has been really good to me and I've been able to use a little bit of the down time to spend more time with Him. At this point in pilot training, I really don't know what track I should go down (if I were to have a choice in the first place), but I'm confident in the fact God has His hand on my life and will steer me where I need to go. I don't know if it was the illness or something else, but I've been steadily realizing recently that there's more to life than flying in the Air Force (no kidding sherlock!). Don't get me wrong, I LOVE flying, LOVE my job, I love the flight I'm in, and love the fact I get to live out my childhood dreams. But even in doing so, God has been showing me that there's more to life outside of a career. And that is a big reason why I'm not sure what track I should go down right now. Granted, I have PLENTY of time to think about it because we won't actually track select until the end of July. But my decisions now will have an impact on the rest of my life and on my future family's lives as well (God-willing). Plenty of things to think about, but I can rest in the truth that God is in control and knows exactly what I need to do to fulfill His will, not mine.
God Bless!
Chris
Proverbs 16:9
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Week 9-10
The past couple weeks have been a little crazy. I flew both on Monday and Tuesday of last week, Tuesday being my "pattern-only sortie". The pattern only sortie gave me a chance to fine turne my pattern procedures which I will need to have down cold before I take the airplane by myself during my "solo." Both flights went pretty well, and I felt like I have a pretty good handle on the landing characteristics of the T-6 after my pattern only. Unfortunately, little did I know that I wouldn't see the inside of the cockpit again until 8 days later. Wednesday and Thursday I wasn't scheduled for flying at all. I completed my last emergency procedures simulator ride on Wednesday morning, but wasn't scheduled for any events on Thursday. Friday, I was scheduled to fly in the early afternoon, but a T-6 pilot ejected and precluded anyone from flying. For more, you can go to www.vance.af.mil for more information.
Due to a combination of scheduling and weather, I didn't get back into the aircraft again until this past Thursday and Friday. Both flights went very well, especially considering how long it had been since I had last flown. But I can't slow down the level of studying I need to do. I have my solo flight on Monday morning, then my first checkride only about 4 rides afterwards. On top of this, we as a class have started instrument academics and simulators, so I could be double-turning from a flight to a class or a flight to a sim to another flight in one day. Monday morning, we have our first instruments test before I fly solo. This will probably be the busiest time in phase II since we have to balance academics, simulators, and flying all at once. It'll take some thinking ahead, but we should be able to manage.
I wish I could update more. We've been restricted on what we can say about last Friday's incident, and I've been pretty busy and stressed with all the events of pilot training in recent weeks. Every day has something new for us, so it's never a dull moment. I still absolutely love the flying, but it can be a little stressful to try to stay on top of everything we are responsible for. The good news is we are now officially finished with the 15 day program! One milestone down, plenty more to go! It's tough to convey what the day to day experience really is like on this blog. Maybe I'll spend a little more time next weekend explaining what the day to day ops typically look like now.
Next week will be spent taking my first instruments test on Monday followed by my solo flight later in the morning, then preparing for my first checkride known as "Mid-Phase" checkride. Very important and busy week; hopefully the weather will hold out!
Chris
Due to a combination of scheduling and weather, I didn't get back into the aircraft again until this past Thursday and Friday. Both flights went very well, especially considering how long it had been since I had last flown. But I can't slow down the level of studying I need to do. I have my solo flight on Monday morning, then my first checkride only about 4 rides afterwards. On top of this, we as a class have started instrument academics and simulators, so I could be double-turning from a flight to a class or a flight to a sim to another flight in one day. Monday morning, we have our first instruments test before I fly solo. This will probably be the busiest time in phase II since we have to balance academics, simulators, and flying all at once. It'll take some thinking ahead, but we should be able to manage.
I wish I could update more. We've been restricted on what we can say about last Friday's incident, and I've been pretty busy and stressed with all the events of pilot training in recent weeks. Every day has something new for us, so it's never a dull moment. I still absolutely love the flying, but it can be a little stressful to try to stay on top of everything we are responsible for. The good news is we are now officially finished with the 15 day program! One milestone down, plenty more to go! It's tough to convey what the day to day experience really is like on this blog. Maybe I'll spend a little more time next weekend explaining what the day to day ops typically look like now.
Next week will be spent taking my first instruments test on Monday followed by my solo flight later in the morning, then preparing for my first checkride known as "Mid-Phase" checkride. Very important and busy week; hopefully the weather will hold out!
Chris
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Week 9
Monday and Tuesday were both great weather days for flying. Clear skies, plenty of horizon, and not too many bad gusts of wind. The profiles I flew were both pretty similar to what I've been doing. Go out to the practice area, practice full stalls, traffic pattern stalls, emergency landing pattern stalls (ELP stalls), slow flight, and recoveries from unusual attitudes. Then we would go to another airport (either dogface or a civilian airport just next to Vance called Woodring) and practice different types of landings and visual approaches. I think it was Tuesday I got to see my first spin in the T-6. A spin is where you stall the airplane so it can't fly, but you induce a yawing motion so the aircraft will continue to flat-spin until you recover (remember Top Gun....spinning out to sea??) Anyways, the IP demoed the first one, then let me try the second. It's like you're in control of your own rollercoaster ride...and you don't even have to stand in line :-).
Wednesday was a little more exciting than what I had anticipated. I briefed the flight with my IP in the morning just as we had done in the earlier two flights, even though the weather wasn't that great. We suited up in our harnesses and Gsuits at life support, then humped it out to the jet for our pre-flight inspection. This time, the IP let me strap in while he did the exterior walk-around...again, because we wanted to beat the impending thunderstorm that was on its way. After getting everything hooked up in the cockpit, we closed the canopy and started it up, just like every other flight. While taxiing, we went through our last "brief" which we call R-NEWS (RAIM, NAVAIDS, EMERGENCIES, WEATHER, SID). The most important of those is the weather and emergencies checks. We look at the weather and determine what we would do in case of an in-flight emergency near the airport. We go into more detail with this brief an hour prior to the flight in the squadron, but we also discuss a little while in the aircraft. On this particular day, in case of an engine failure the clouds would have prevented us from climbing to our "high key" or the top part of our emergency landing pattern we fly when we don't have an engine. This usually isn't a problem, since there are other ways to intercept an ELP, so we kept going wtih the flight.
After takeoff, I brought up the gear and started a turn to crosswind to keep us in the pattern at Vance. When we got on downwind, my IP asked me if I heard a noise. I kept very quiet on the radio for about 5 seconds, when I could start to hear a metallic "ringing" noise, albeit very muffled. I told my IP I also heard it, when he asked me where it was. As I leaned forward to try to tell, it got louder, meaning it was in front of my position. I told him it was in front of me, and not a second later, he took control of the aircraft and pulled us into an abrupt turning climb to intercept the ELP below high key just as I briefed on the taxiway. We declared an emergency and got traffic priority for an immediate landing on Runway 35R, the closest piece of concrete to us. We climbed well over 1,000 feet above the normal traffic pattern altitude just in case we lost our engine in the process of trying to land. This type of procedure is something they harp on us and beat into our heads, and now I finally see why. From the moment we declared an emergency to the time we shut down the engine and had firefighters on our wing was probably less than two minutes. It only took about 90 seconds to climb, intercept our ELP, drop the gear and line up on runway centerline to put it down, then use our remaining energy to taxi clear of the runway. We shut the engine down as soon as we were clear of 35R and started going through normal post-flight procedures. My IP stressed to me how important it is to do all the normal checks even slower than normal during an emergency, because it's easy to overlook something easy and simple when you're all hyped up on adrenaline. As it turns out, our "emergency" might not have been anything more than a loose screw on my rudder pedals making a high pitch noise that sounded like an engine problem. But it's better to play it safe than lose the one and only engine you have on the aircraft.
So, I'm officially the first in our class to have an in-flight emergency in the T-6...lucky me ;-). Thank God it didn't turn out to be anything serious, but if it had been an actual engine problem, we were always in a great position to put the aircraft down with plenty of runway to spare. That's what training now will do to prepare us for the day when we have a real problem and we're the only ones in the plane to solve it. Hopefully that won't happen again any time soon :-).
Thanks for the prayers...got a big week ahead. I might be able to solo on Friday if I fly every day this week. If not, I will be soloing early next week. Take care!
Chris
Joshua 1:8-9
Wednesday was a little more exciting than what I had anticipated. I briefed the flight with my IP in the morning just as we had done in the earlier two flights, even though the weather wasn't that great. We suited up in our harnesses and Gsuits at life support, then humped it out to the jet for our pre-flight inspection. This time, the IP let me strap in while he did the exterior walk-around...again, because we wanted to beat the impending thunderstorm that was on its way. After getting everything hooked up in the cockpit, we closed the canopy and started it up, just like every other flight. While taxiing, we went through our last "brief" which we call R-NEWS (RAIM, NAVAIDS, EMERGENCIES, WEATHER, SID). The most important of those is the weather and emergencies checks. We look at the weather and determine what we would do in case of an in-flight emergency near the airport. We go into more detail with this brief an hour prior to the flight in the squadron, but we also discuss a little while in the aircraft. On this particular day, in case of an engine failure the clouds would have prevented us from climbing to our "high key" or the top part of our emergency landing pattern we fly when we don't have an engine. This usually isn't a problem, since there are other ways to intercept an ELP, so we kept going wtih the flight.
After takeoff, I brought up the gear and started a turn to crosswind to keep us in the pattern at Vance. When we got on downwind, my IP asked me if I heard a noise. I kept very quiet on the radio for about 5 seconds, when I could start to hear a metallic "ringing" noise, albeit very muffled. I told my IP I also heard it, when he asked me where it was. As I leaned forward to try to tell, it got louder, meaning it was in front of my position. I told him it was in front of me, and not a second later, he took control of the aircraft and pulled us into an abrupt turning climb to intercept the ELP below high key just as I briefed on the taxiway. We declared an emergency and got traffic priority for an immediate landing on Runway 35R, the closest piece of concrete to us. We climbed well over 1,000 feet above the normal traffic pattern altitude just in case we lost our engine in the process of trying to land. This type of procedure is something they harp on us and beat into our heads, and now I finally see why. From the moment we declared an emergency to the time we shut down the engine and had firefighters on our wing was probably less than two minutes. It only took about 90 seconds to climb, intercept our ELP, drop the gear and line up on runway centerline to put it down, then use our remaining energy to taxi clear of the runway. We shut the engine down as soon as we were clear of 35R and started going through normal post-flight procedures. My IP stressed to me how important it is to do all the normal checks even slower than normal during an emergency, because it's easy to overlook something easy and simple when you're all hyped up on adrenaline. As it turns out, our "emergency" might not have been anything more than a loose screw on my rudder pedals making a high pitch noise that sounded like an engine problem. But it's better to play it safe than lose the one and only engine you have on the aircraft.
So, I'm officially the first in our class to have an in-flight emergency in the T-6...lucky me ;-). Thank God it didn't turn out to be anything serious, but if it had been an actual engine problem, we were always in a great position to put the aircraft down with plenty of runway to spare. That's what training now will do to prepare us for the day when we have a real problem and we're the only ones in the plane to solve it. Hopefully that won't happen again any time soon :-).
Thanks for the prayers...got a big week ahead. I might be able to solo on Friday if I fly every day this week. If not, I will be soloing early next week. Take care!
Chris
Joshua 1:8-9
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Week 8
Going into Monday I was a bit concerned about my airsickness that I experienced last week. I knew if I didn't get over it quickly, I'd have to go on medication and maybe some other "training" (ie, spin you in a chair until you get sick on the ground.....not fun!). In the morning I had a simulator designed to let me practice flying a normal sortie on the ground. It went really well, and in the end the instructor let me practice my landings in the pattern (which we sometimes refer to it as a closed pattern if we stay close to the runway and make multiple landings very quickly). Another choice we have in the pattern is to fly around a large rectangle that takes about 2 or 3 minutes to circumnavigate before we can make our approach to landing.
I was a little uneasy about being scheduled in the afternoon to fly (usually a little more turbulent in the afternoon), but it turned out just fine. The weather was decent and I got to practice all my maneuvers, including all my stalls, slow flight, unusual attitude recoveries, and a G-X exercise (where we practice pulling G's). The G-X is where I got sick on Friday, but Monday went really well. I think it helped that I was flying more so than my IP. I felt a little queezy while flying in the traffic pattern at Vance and at our Auxillary Field called "Dogface", but that's pretty typical for someone's third flight. In the morning, my sim IP reminded me to try to have fun while flying....I remembered him saying that when i was flying in the afternoon in the traffic pattern. To make some of our turns, we are only 500 feet above the ground at 200knots and are pulling up to 3 Gs sometimes. When I was flying part of the pattern, I looked down and saw the road that leads the front security gate of the base. Going 200 knots at about a 90 degree angle (a little steeper than I should have been)...I realized how awesome this was!! I started to really enjoy the flying, and would intentionally try to yank the plane into the turns as fast as I could, just for the fun of it. Not sure my IP enjoyed the ride in the back, so....sorry....
Tuesday we were cancelled for weather, but we flew again on Wednesday. I got a chance to perfect my maneuvers I flew on Monday, and this time I got all of them at or above the required standard. Again, we had a blast, but the weather was a little tough to navigate through. There was a point where I had to fly into a cloud during the recovery back to Vance, and had to rely on my instruments to get me back home. I felt a little disoriented at one point, because I was entering a left turn and didn't realize it. I looked up, it was all white outside, looked down, and saw I was in a 30 degree bank to my left on my attitude indicator. I quickly recovered, but it was a good lesson learned on focusing on the important gauges when flying in a cloud.
Wednesday night I read John 8:48-59. In this passage, Jesus says he is not seeking his own glory, but glory for his father. Man, if Jesus didn't seek glory for himself, how much more should I not seek it for myself! It was a good and much needed reminder for me to not seek my own glory in pilot training, but to somehow glorify God through what I do and say. It's tough when it seems like the Air Force is all about boasting about how well you fly or how bad you fly. Hopefully this blog will continue to show not how well I am doing or just how bad I'm doing, but how much God is blessing me this year. There will be some great flights, but it's not because of my own power that I flew well. It's only because God has given me the grace to overcome some of the obstacles. There will also be some bad flights that I fail or "hook"...that doesn't mean God has forsaken me. It only means he's trying to teach me something I need to learn, and haven't learned yet. Going into training brought me a lot of anxiety about trying to endure some of the hardships it brings about. But Romans 8:35-39 reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. When I am in Him, there's nothing left for me to fear, even in pilot training. I'm not there yet, but God hasn't given up on me yet :-).
Thursday I was at least 2 or 3 flights ahead of everyone else because I kept getting scheduled when the weather was good to fly. They took me off the schedule for that day and gave me an Emergency Procedures simulator where we practice what to do if our engine fails, get a fire indication in flight, uncommanded power changes, etc. The sim went well overall; I was a lot calmer about entering the emergency than the last EP sim I had. Scott, I took your advice about "winding the clock"....that helped a lot...thanks buddy!!
Friday I flew a similar profile to what I had earlier in the week, and just had a blast. The weather was almost perfect, with the exception of high altitude clouds. I still have a ton to learn and be able to do, but I'm very happy with where we are at. I have a great flight of IPs, and awesome students in the flight with me. Hopefully we'll all be able to get through this together. Thanks for the prayers everyone...we'll see ya next week!
Chris
Romans 8:35-39
I was a little uneasy about being scheduled in the afternoon to fly (usually a little more turbulent in the afternoon), but it turned out just fine. The weather was decent and I got to practice all my maneuvers, including all my stalls, slow flight, unusual attitude recoveries, and a G-X exercise (where we practice pulling G's). The G-X is where I got sick on Friday, but Monday went really well. I think it helped that I was flying more so than my IP. I felt a little queezy while flying in the traffic pattern at Vance and at our Auxillary Field called "Dogface", but that's pretty typical for someone's third flight. In the morning, my sim IP reminded me to try to have fun while flying....I remembered him saying that when i was flying in the afternoon in the traffic pattern. To make some of our turns, we are only 500 feet above the ground at 200knots and are pulling up to 3 Gs sometimes. When I was flying part of the pattern, I looked down and saw the road that leads the front security gate of the base. Going 200 knots at about a 90 degree angle (a little steeper than I should have been)...I realized how awesome this was!! I started to really enjoy the flying, and would intentionally try to yank the plane into the turns as fast as I could, just for the fun of it. Not sure my IP enjoyed the ride in the back, so....sorry....
Tuesday we were cancelled for weather, but we flew again on Wednesday. I got a chance to perfect my maneuvers I flew on Monday, and this time I got all of them at or above the required standard. Again, we had a blast, but the weather was a little tough to navigate through. There was a point where I had to fly into a cloud during the recovery back to Vance, and had to rely on my instruments to get me back home. I felt a little disoriented at one point, because I was entering a left turn and didn't realize it. I looked up, it was all white outside, looked down, and saw I was in a 30 degree bank to my left on my attitude indicator. I quickly recovered, but it was a good lesson learned on focusing on the important gauges when flying in a cloud.
Wednesday night I read John 8:48-59. In this passage, Jesus says he is not seeking his own glory, but glory for his father. Man, if Jesus didn't seek glory for himself, how much more should I not seek it for myself! It was a good and much needed reminder for me to not seek my own glory in pilot training, but to somehow glorify God through what I do and say. It's tough when it seems like the Air Force is all about boasting about how well you fly or how bad you fly. Hopefully this blog will continue to show not how well I am doing or just how bad I'm doing, but how much God is blessing me this year. There will be some great flights, but it's not because of my own power that I flew well. It's only because God has given me the grace to overcome some of the obstacles. There will also be some bad flights that I fail or "hook"...that doesn't mean God has forsaken me. It only means he's trying to teach me something I need to learn, and haven't learned yet. Going into training brought me a lot of anxiety about trying to endure some of the hardships it brings about. But Romans 8:35-39 reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. When I am in Him, there's nothing left for me to fear, even in pilot training. I'm not there yet, but God hasn't given up on me yet :-).
Thursday I was at least 2 or 3 flights ahead of everyone else because I kept getting scheduled when the weather was good to fly. They took me off the schedule for that day and gave me an Emergency Procedures simulator where we practice what to do if our engine fails, get a fire indication in flight, uncommanded power changes, etc. The sim went well overall; I was a lot calmer about entering the emergency than the last EP sim I had. Scott, I took your advice about "winding the clock"....that helped a lot...thanks buddy!!
Friday I flew a similar profile to what I had earlier in the week, and just had a blast. The weather was almost perfect, with the exception of high altitude clouds. I still have a ton to learn and be able to do, but I'm very happy with where we are at. I have a great flight of IPs, and awesome students in the flight with me. Hopefully we'll all be able to get through this together. Thanks for the prayers everyone...we'll see ya next week!
Chris
Romans 8:35-39
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Week 7
Monday and Tuesday was spent finishing our weather classes and reviewed all the lessons we learned up to this week. Monday afternoon I had my last simulator ride before I hit the flightline on Thursday. It's purpose was to go over all the traffic pattern procedures and radio calls I would encounter on my dollar ride (first T-6 flight). The sim itself was in an OFT, the highest quality sim we have. It's a lot like flying in a planetarium theater, just on a smaller scale with a T-6 cockpit in the middle of it. The comical part of this sim was during the debrief when the IP said I should get a nose job so my oxygen mask would fit better! He was a very honest IP! He also proceeded to say I say "Yes Sir" and "Uh, huh" too often and it's annoying! Although this seems rather rude, I'm glad he was trying to help me. He gave me high marks for the sim, saying it was the best sortie of that kind he's seen from a student this far along in training. I think he was just making up for the previous two comments he made, haha.
The exciting part of the week came after we took our weather test on Wednesday. We ended the test, enjoyed a quick lunch, then went straight to the flightline for orientation. 14 of us went to the 8th Flying Training Squadron's C flight (myself included), and 15 of us went to D flight. In C flight, we learned about the squadron's policies for flying as well as some administrivia and how to build a formal brief. A formal brief is a presentation we have to give every morning. It includes local weather observations, forcasts, status of operations, and how the weather affects how we will fly the sorties. Sounds simple, but we only have 10 minutes every morning to build it, set up the room, and know what to say in front of all the IPs. All 14 of us have specific jobs related to building the brief and setting up the room. My job is to print off ops notes for the flight commander to brief to us, convert the zulu (UTC) times in the weather forcasts and observations to local time, and to build a slide that shows which direction to crab the aircraft to compensate for the winds at different altitudes at different points in the pattern. After doing this a couple times, I feel we've gotten the hang of it. Thursday's formal brief in the morning was a little rough, but they let us try again in the afternoon.
Thursday morning after the formal brief, we met with our instructors for dollar rides. I met with my IP and we talked for about an hour and a half, suited up in our G-suits and Parachute harnesses, then rode a bus to the jet. We did a quick walk-around the plane, then hopped up on the wing and strapped in. I went through all the preflight and start-up procedures just like I had done in the sims many times before. Everything worked well, although I was slower getting the thing started than I ultimately need to be. The IP flew the take-off because the field was under IFR conditions. We lined up on the runway, turned off the nosewheel steering, and pushed up the power. As soon as the engine spooled up, I was actually pushed back in the seat and we were off. Once we climbed past about 5,000 feet, we broke through the cloud layer and it was a bright sun that greeted us. Unfortunately, our auxilary field known as "Dogface" was closed due to the weather, so we were stuck doing basic aircraft control in the practice area above the clouds. He let me take the aircraft and do some steep turns. After about 30 minutes, I wasn't feeling so hot, so we came back to Vance on an instrument approach and landed after 1.1 hours. Thursday afternoon, we had a stand-up and shotgun questions. Stand-up is when the whole flight, students and IPs alike, sit in the flight room and listen to the flight commander describe an in-flight emergency situation. After the description of the situation, the flight commander will randomly select one of us to analyze the situation and handle the emergency as if we were flying. It's designed to put pressure on us to simulate the stress we will likely feel in the aircraft. "Shotgun" is another high pressure situation when every student is stood up and asked random general knowledge questions. Again, it's designed to make us think on our feet under pressure situations. If we can't answer general questions when we're at 1G and 0 knots, there's not a chance we can handle an emergency 2 miles above the ground at 200 knots while pulling 4 G's inverted. Flying is an inherently dangerous business, which is why they try to make pilot training such a stressful environment.
Friday, my airsickness got a lot worse. I was still just passively sick, meaning I didn't fill up any vomit bags. However, we almost had to cut the flight's profile short towards the end. The IP had control of the airplane and pulled about 4Gs. I've pulled 4 Gs in an airplane before and had no problems, even without a Gsuit. But for whatever reason, my airsickness really got to me and I almost Glocked. My vision went away and my whole body felt tingly. I still knew what was going on and could hear my IP talking, but I was probably only a few seconds from passing out. I couldn't tense any muscles in my lower body to help keep the blood in my head because I was too sick. Part of it is probably dehydration, part of it may be diet. Whatever the case, hopefully Monday will be a little better.
The exciting part of the week came after we took our weather test on Wednesday. We ended the test, enjoyed a quick lunch, then went straight to the flightline for orientation. 14 of us went to the 8th Flying Training Squadron's C flight (myself included), and 15 of us went to D flight. In C flight, we learned about the squadron's policies for flying as well as some administrivia and how to build a formal brief. A formal brief is a presentation we have to give every morning. It includes local weather observations, forcasts, status of operations, and how the weather affects how we will fly the sorties. Sounds simple, but we only have 10 minutes every morning to build it, set up the room, and know what to say in front of all the IPs. All 14 of us have specific jobs related to building the brief and setting up the room. My job is to print off ops notes for the flight commander to brief to us, convert the zulu (UTC) times in the weather forcasts and observations to local time, and to build a slide that shows which direction to crab the aircraft to compensate for the winds at different altitudes at different points in the pattern. After doing this a couple times, I feel we've gotten the hang of it. Thursday's formal brief in the morning was a little rough, but they let us try again in the afternoon.
Thursday morning after the formal brief, we met with our instructors for dollar rides. I met with my IP and we talked for about an hour and a half, suited up in our G-suits and Parachute harnesses, then rode a bus to the jet. We did a quick walk-around the plane, then hopped up on the wing and strapped in. I went through all the preflight and start-up procedures just like I had done in the sims many times before. Everything worked well, although I was slower getting the thing started than I ultimately need to be. The IP flew the take-off because the field was under IFR conditions. We lined up on the runway, turned off the nosewheel steering, and pushed up the power. As soon as the engine spooled up, I was actually pushed back in the seat and we were off. Once we climbed past about 5,000 feet, we broke through the cloud layer and it was a bright sun that greeted us. Unfortunately, our auxilary field known as "Dogface" was closed due to the weather, so we were stuck doing basic aircraft control in the practice area above the clouds. He let me take the aircraft and do some steep turns. After about 30 minutes, I wasn't feeling so hot, so we came back to Vance on an instrument approach and landed after 1.1 hours. Thursday afternoon, we had a stand-up and shotgun questions. Stand-up is when the whole flight, students and IPs alike, sit in the flight room and listen to the flight commander describe an in-flight emergency situation. After the description of the situation, the flight commander will randomly select one of us to analyze the situation and handle the emergency as if we were flying. It's designed to put pressure on us to simulate the stress we will likely feel in the aircraft. "Shotgun" is another high pressure situation when every student is stood up and asked random general knowledge questions. Again, it's designed to make us think on our feet under pressure situations. If we can't answer general questions when we're at 1G and 0 knots, there's not a chance we can handle an emergency 2 miles above the ground at 200 knots while pulling 4 G's inverted. Flying is an inherently dangerous business, which is why they try to make pilot training such a stressful environment.
Friday, my airsickness got a lot worse. I was still just passively sick, meaning I didn't fill up any vomit bags. However, we almost had to cut the flight's profile short towards the end. The IP had control of the airplane and pulled about 4Gs. I've pulled 4 Gs in an airplane before and had no problems, even without a Gsuit. But for whatever reason, my airsickness really got to me and I almost Glocked. My vision went away and my whole body felt tingly. I still knew what was going on and could hear my IP talking, but I was probably only a few seconds from passing out. I couldn't tense any muscles in my lower body to help keep the blood in my head because I was too sick. Part of it is probably dehydration, part of it may be diet. Whatever the case, hopefully Monday will be a little better.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Week 6
This last week was the last FULL week of Academics until we finally start flying. Monday began the 3 day string of simulator rides to demonstrate procedural competance. We flew departures, arrivals, recoveries, and a few straight-in landings to show the IP we could run in-flight checks, make radio calls, while still keeping up wtih the Aircraft. It really is a juggling act, and is very apparent how important it is to memorize certain things. The more you have memorized, the less you have to try to read while in the airplane and the more you can keep your eyes outside the aircraft. Monday afternoon was our Flying Fundamentals Exam. I wasn't sure how I would do going into the test, and about 30 minutes into it, I wasn't sure how I'd come out! I kept couting the questions I thought I might have missed, and I kept coming up with the max number of questions we were allowed to miss! To my great relief, I only missed two somehow, and I lived to fight another day.....
Tuesday and Wednesday was spent doing our Emergency Procedures simulator. I crawled in a UTD sim on Tuesday, and tried starting the aircraft, taxiing out to the imaginary runway I couldn't see (UTDs don't have video screens in front of the cockpit...only the guages work), taking off of 17L, departing to the area, and working in the area. During each of these phases, the IP would trip an emergency and expect me to apply the boldface to the problem. Overall I did pretty well and got an Excellent. However, we did the same exact type of profile on Wednesday in an IFT simulator (one WITH a video screen) and found myself fumbling around the cockpit all day long. I was moving entirely too fast because I thought I knew the procedures really well. The problem was, I DID know the procedures. I would flip switches too fast and wouldn't spend enough time ANALYZING the problem and trying to think through the steps. I was pretty iritated at myself for making dumb mistakes on Wednesday and couldn't wait until the next time we could get in a simulator and try to make up for it. BIG lesson learned: in an emergency, take a second to think about what the airplane is telling you BEFORE you apply the boldface procedures. For instance, during an engine failure on takeoff, you're supposed to wait to kill the engine until after you stop completely on the runway. I would get too far ahead of myself and shut down the engine while I was still rolling on the runway. Gotta Slow Down....
Thursday we spent the whole day in the classroom learning about weather. Our weather exam here is notorious for being the worst of them all...we don't test until this coming Wednesday, so there'll be plenty of time to study for it.
Friday we spent time continuing weather lessons, then took our Contact Exam. I got a 100% on this one thank God. The afternoon was spent on the flight line getting oriented to our new duties on top of flying. I don't have time to go into the details, but needless to say, it feels a bit overwhelming. Wish I could go into more detail with this blog right now...maybe I will be able to update it next weekend when I have more time. I have my dollar ride (first flight) this Thursday, so I'll do my best to give you some nice detail on how it goes. Plenty of studying to do...
-Chris
Psalm 18:2
Tuesday and Wednesday was spent doing our Emergency Procedures simulator. I crawled in a UTD sim on Tuesday, and tried starting the aircraft, taxiing out to the imaginary runway I couldn't see (UTDs don't have video screens in front of the cockpit...only the guages work), taking off of 17L, departing to the area, and working in the area. During each of these phases, the IP would trip an emergency and expect me to apply the boldface to the problem. Overall I did pretty well and got an Excellent. However, we did the same exact type of profile on Wednesday in an IFT simulator (one WITH a video screen) and found myself fumbling around the cockpit all day long. I was moving entirely too fast because I thought I knew the procedures really well. The problem was, I DID know the procedures. I would flip switches too fast and wouldn't spend enough time ANALYZING the problem and trying to think through the steps. I was pretty iritated at myself for making dumb mistakes on Wednesday and couldn't wait until the next time we could get in a simulator and try to make up for it. BIG lesson learned: in an emergency, take a second to think about what the airplane is telling you BEFORE you apply the boldface procedures. For instance, during an engine failure on takeoff, you're supposed to wait to kill the engine until after you stop completely on the runway. I would get too far ahead of myself and shut down the engine while I was still rolling on the runway. Gotta Slow Down....
Thursday we spent the whole day in the classroom learning about weather. Our weather exam here is notorious for being the worst of them all...we don't test until this coming Wednesday, so there'll be plenty of time to study for it.
Friday we spent time continuing weather lessons, then took our Contact Exam. I got a 100% on this one thank God. The afternoon was spent on the flight line getting oriented to our new duties on top of flying. I don't have time to go into the details, but needless to say, it feels a bit overwhelming. Wish I could go into more detail with this blog right now...maybe I will be able to update it next weekend when I have more time. I have my dollar ride (first flight) this Thursday, so I'll do my best to give you some nice detail on how it goes. Plenty of studying to do...
-Chris
Psalm 18:2
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Week 5
Monday morning we finished our block of Aeronautics with a couple review lessons, then tested in the afternoon. I got a 100% on this test - relieved I didn't over-think any of the questions (it's easy to overthink and read into some of these questions especially if you have some background in that particular subject).
Tuesday we had our first real simulator "sortie" in the T-6 UTDs. We went over the checklists for the interior pre-flight inspection items and also went through some of the inter-cockpit call-outs you have to memorize and state during key moments in the checklist. That way the IP in the back seat can understand what you're doing in the front seat without having to see you. Overall the sim went very well, and I feel like my callouts are about where they need to be. My checklist procedures are going well and are almost to the point where I only need to reference the checklist a few times. We took a couple CAI lessons in the afternoon, and repeated the whole process again on Wednesday with the same type of simulator ride and another set of CAI lessons.
Thursday was spent in the CAI lab and classroom going over a few emergency procedures and learning about the pre-flight inspection walk-around we're supposed to do before every flight. We went out to a T-6 on the flightline and an instructor pointed out all the important features on the plane we're supposed to inspect prior to strapping in. I think with a little practice this too will be fairly easy. I'd like to get back to the flightline sometime this week and practice going through the steps on my own and see how fast I can get it done. You don't want to be on the flightline too long during pre-flight inspection - it's important to minimize time outside the aircraft so you don't miss your takeoff time setting up all your instruments and systems once you get INSIDE the airplane. After Thursday, we had almost covered every possible emergency procedure we will face in the T-6....it was clear we will have a lot to study for our Stand-up EPs once we hit the flightline (more on those later...).
Friday we took a tour of the Fire Department on base where we found the biggest Lazy-Boy chairs on base....now I know what I want for my future house! The rest of the day was spent reviewing for our Flying Fundamentals exam on Monday afternoon and going over a few more in-flight emergencies in the CAI lab.
Last week didn't prove to be too busy, but I'm a little worried about the start of this week. We have 3 sims back to back Monday through Wednesday, and an Academic test both Monday and Friday. It won't compare anything to the schedule we'll have once we're on the flightline, so we need to do well this week if we expect to survive the next few months. I'll be flying in a slightly more advanced simulator this week, so I'm sure there'll be some fun invovled, but plenty of more studying to do tonight! Thanks for the prayers--we'll catcha next week...
Chris
Mark 9:45-49
Tuesday we had our first real simulator "sortie" in the T-6 UTDs. We went over the checklists for the interior pre-flight inspection items and also went through some of the inter-cockpit call-outs you have to memorize and state during key moments in the checklist. That way the IP in the back seat can understand what you're doing in the front seat without having to see you. Overall the sim went very well, and I feel like my callouts are about where they need to be. My checklist procedures are going well and are almost to the point where I only need to reference the checklist a few times. We took a couple CAI lessons in the afternoon, and repeated the whole process again on Wednesday with the same type of simulator ride and another set of CAI lessons.
Thursday was spent in the CAI lab and classroom going over a few emergency procedures and learning about the pre-flight inspection walk-around we're supposed to do before every flight. We went out to a T-6 on the flightline and an instructor pointed out all the important features on the plane we're supposed to inspect prior to strapping in. I think with a little practice this too will be fairly easy. I'd like to get back to the flightline sometime this week and practice going through the steps on my own and see how fast I can get it done. You don't want to be on the flightline too long during pre-flight inspection - it's important to minimize time outside the aircraft so you don't miss your takeoff time setting up all your instruments and systems once you get INSIDE the airplane. After Thursday, we had almost covered every possible emergency procedure we will face in the T-6....it was clear we will have a lot to study for our Stand-up EPs once we hit the flightline (more on those later...).
Friday we took a tour of the Fire Department on base where we found the biggest Lazy-Boy chairs on base....now I know what I want for my future house! The rest of the day was spent reviewing for our Flying Fundamentals exam on Monday afternoon and going over a few more in-flight emergencies in the CAI lab.
Last week didn't prove to be too busy, but I'm a little worried about the start of this week. We have 3 sims back to back Monday through Wednesday, and an Academic test both Monday and Friday. It won't compare anything to the schedule we'll have once we're on the flightline, so we need to do well this week if we expect to survive the next few months. I'll be flying in a slightly more advanced simulator this week, so I'm sure there'll be some fun invovled, but plenty of more studying to do tonight! Thanks for the prayers--we'll catcha next week...
Chris
Mark 9:45-49
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Week 4
Tuesday morning was spent in the CAI lab again finishing up the Systems II block. This was the final block of training for all the systems on board the T6. Tuesday afternoon was another cockpit familiarization sim where an instructor quized us and showed us some of the systems in the cockpit that we just learned about on the computers. Wednesday's big event was our Systems II exam. I passed it with a 100%, 85% is the minimum. I was relieved to now know what it takes to ace an exam, so hopefully I can use that knowledge of the amount of effort required to get 100% on the other tests. I spent 2 days of the 3 day weekend to study for it, which sounds about right. 2/3rds of my weekend should be spent studying, 1/3rd spent going to church, taking time off, etc. So now I know what it takes to ace a test...we'll see if I can do it again. I always shoot for a 100, just in case I fall short I will at least pass.
Thursday morning I got up early with a friend to go over some pre-flight procedures inside the cockpit as well as some of the phraseology we have to use when flying. In the T-6, the IP in the back seat can't see what the student in the front is doing, so we have to verbalize our actions in a very specific way using a script they give us to memorize. If you don't have the script memorized, your IP will probably throw his checklist at you and you'll get an earfull from him about it until you finally DO memorize it. At least...that's what I think they'll do.... Regardless, I'd prefer to have it down now while I still have time to study it. The rest of the day Thursday was spent in the CAI lab learning Aero, which supposedly is my specialty. I've forgotten a lot of what we learned at the Academy, but the stuff they're teaching us here is REALLY watered-down. The danger is that I'll become complacent in my reading and think I know it when I may not know THEIR definition of some of the concepts. Anyways, I will still try to study hard for Aero even though I majored in it - I've heard horror stories of Aero majors failing this test. We have it Monday afternoon - we'll see how it goes...
Friday morning, I got up early to get my g-suit and harness fit, then spent time in the CAI lab learning more Aero. Later in the morning, our class went to 10-05's graduation ceremony in the base auditorium. A year from now we'll be in their spots getting our wings pinned on.... I can believe it, but that's only because I know we have a lot to learn before we get there. It's only a year away...that's not long. Four years locked up at the Zoo was long...one year is nothing, haha!! The rest of the afternoon was spent in the classroom finishing up our block on Aero. We have a review tomorrow morning and then a test in the afternoon.
Overall I've really enjoyed Phase 1. For some reason I enjoy reading about the airplane and learning about all the systems and procedures. This is something I've wanted to do my whole life - it's been a dream of mine since I was in Kindergarden. It's a gift God has given me to allow me to be here, and I'm really thankful.
-Chris
James 1:2-4
Thursday morning I got up early with a friend to go over some pre-flight procedures inside the cockpit as well as some of the phraseology we have to use when flying. In the T-6, the IP in the back seat can't see what the student in the front is doing, so we have to verbalize our actions in a very specific way using a script they give us to memorize. If you don't have the script memorized, your IP will probably throw his checklist at you and you'll get an earfull from him about it until you finally DO memorize it. At least...that's what I think they'll do.... Regardless, I'd prefer to have it down now while I still have time to study it. The rest of the day Thursday was spent in the CAI lab learning Aero, which supposedly is my specialty. I've forgotten a lot of what we learned at the Academy, but the stuff they're teaching us here is REALLY watered-down. The danger is that I'll become complacent in my reading and think I know it when I may not know THEIR definition of some of the concepts. Anyways, I will still try to study hard for Aero even though I majored in it - I've heard horror stories of Aero majors failing this test. We have it Monday afternoon - we'll see how it goes...
Friday morning, I got up early to get my g-suit and harness fit, then spent time in the CAI lab learning more Aero. Later in the morning, our class went to 10-05's graduation ceremony in the base auditorium. A year from now we'll be in their spots getting our wings pinned on.... I can believe it, but that's only because I know we have a lot to learn before we get there. It's only a year away...that's not long. Four years locked up at the Zoo was long...one year is nothing, haha!! The rest of the afternoon was spent in the classroom finishing up our block on Aero. We have a review tomorrow morning and then a test in the afternoon.
Overall I've really enjoyed Phase 1. For some reason I enjoy reading about the airplane and learning about all the systems and procedures. This is something I've wanted to do my whole life - it's been a dream of mine since I was in Kindergarden. It's a gift God has given me to allow me to be here, and I'm really thankful.
-Chris
James 1:2-4
Monday, February 15, 2010
Week 3
Monday we spent time in the CAI lab learning about several of the on-board systems to include the different flight computers and instrument displays. We received a decent amount of snow last weekend which delayed our PT test from Monday afternoon to Tuesday afternoon. Although we weren't running in snow, the winds were around 20knots and it was only about 20 degrees outside. The new Air Force PT standards actually has a rule that says you can't test in weather that cold with that much wind, but those standards don't apply to us until this summer apparently. So, Tuesday afternoon's run in shorts and a t-shirt was pretty chilly.....!
Tuesday morning was spent in the CAI lab learning about the Navigation systems, Communication systems, and GPS systems on the plane. A lot of the slides we were reading attempted to explain how to use the radio stack to go through different functional menus. The instructions would read something like "Press the left function key, pull the inner knob and rotate clockwise 3 times, rotate the outer knob twice, clap 3 times and wink once and you have now arrived at the NAV2 page"..... Yeah, obviously that doesn't really work for my personal learning style! To help us, the instructors took us to the lowest level simulators known as UTDs and gave us an hour each to practice working with the radios and GPS units as well as a few other systems. The UTD is a cockpit mock-up without a visual screen, so you can't really see where you're flying. But all the buttons and switches work and light up as if it were the real thing, which is good enough for what we need it for right now.
Thursday we took our first systems test on the computers in the CAI lab. After finishing the 47 multiple choice questions, I stood up as instructed to do so to singnal an instructor that I was finished and ready to be graded. He hit the grade button and it came back that I missed a couple, but passed with a 95%. You only need an 85% to pass, but I was still mad that I missed a couple. My slight anger was further encouraged when my computer proceeded to eat my test score and claim I never even took the test! Luckily the instructor wrote the score down when he hit the grade button and we eventually got the problem fixed about an hour later. Hopefully this week's test will be a little less eventful....
Friday we learned about the Fuel and Electrical systems as well as the propulsion systems through about 4 or 5 hours of CAIs. After everyone left for the day, I stayed behind in the SIM building and got some alone time with a UTD simulator. Even though you can't see any visual cues of where the aircraft is, it's still useful to work with the instrument panel. I could see very easily how you can become task-saturated in a matter of seconds with all the information that's in front of you.
I'll have plenty of time this coming week to continue learning about more systems and some of the operating procedures. Oh, forgot to mention, our class passed 3 boldface/ops limits tests in a row, so we are now permanently in flight suits at least until after Academics! It may not sound like a big deal, but when you're told you no longer have to dress up in blues and instead get to wear a giant green sleeping bag to work everyday, it's kind of exciting, haha!!
Until next week.....
-Chris
Tuesday morning was spent in the CAI lab learning about the Navigation systems, Communication systems, and GPS systems on the plane. A lot of the slides we were reading attempted to explain how to use the radio stack to go through different functional menus. The instructions would read something like "Press the left function key, pull the inner knob and rotate clockwise 3 times, rotate the outer knob twice, clap 3 times and wink once and you have now arrived at the NAV2 page"..... Yeah, obviously that doesn't really work for my personal learning style! To help us, the instructors took us to the lowest level simulators known as UTDs and gave us an hour each to practice working with the radios and GPS units as well as a few other systems. The UTD is a cockpit mock-up without a visual screen, so you can't really see where you're flying. But all the buttons and switches work and light up as if it were the real thing, which is good enough for what we need it for right now.
Thursday we took our first systems test on the computers in the CAI lab. After finishing the 47 multiple choice questions, I stood up as instructed to do so to singnal an instructor that I was finished and ready to be graded. He hit the grade button and it came back that I missed a couple, but passed with a 95%. You only need an 85% to pass, but I was still mad that I missed a couple. My slight anger was further encouraged when my computer proceeded to eat my test score and claim I never even took the test! Luckily the instructor wrote the score down when he hit the grade button and we eventually got the problem fixed about an hour later. Hopefully this week's test will be a little less eventful....
Friday we learned about the Fuel and Electrical systems as well as the propulsion systems through about 4 or 5 hours of CAIs. After everyone left for the day, I stayed behind in the SIM building and got some alone time with a UTD simulator. Even though you can't see any visual cues of where the aircraft is, it's still useful to work with the instrument panel. I could see very easily how you can become task-saturated in a matter of seconds with all the information that's in front of you.
I'll have plenty of time this coming week to continue learning about more systems and some of the operating procedures. Oh, forgot to mention, our class passed 3 boldface/ops limits tests in a row, so we are now permanently in flight suits at least until after Academics! It may not sound like a big deal, but when you're told you no longer have to dress up in blues and instead get to wear a giant green sleeping bag to work everyday, it's kind of exciting, haha!!
Until next week.....
-Chris
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Week 2
Last weekend's 4 day snow escapade put everyone at Vance behind by two days. Thankfully for our class, we were only scheduled for Aerospace Physiology this week and last week, so the impact of the delays wasn't as harsh as it could have been had we been flying or in a more critical phase of UPT. We squeezed 2 extra days of classes into this week's schedule becase of what we missed last week; thankfully we didn't have to use Saturday as an extra day...otherwise I wouldn't be updating this!!
Monday and Tuesday were mostly spent in the Aerospace Physiology classroom. We are only authorized to learn 6 hours of testable material each day, but I think for the most part we were able to fly through the lessons fast enough that we met our time limit, and still got caught up after losing 2 days to snow. After spending the days learning about how the flight environment affects our body and mind, we would go to the Simulator building where the Computer Aided Instruction lab (CAI lab) is located for some online courses. CAIs are used in the Academic phase of pilot training in lieu of having to have instructors teach every single lesson in Phase I. That way the instructors can spend more of their time teaching simulators rather than having to teach us basic principles of flying that we can learn on our own. Most of the material so far has been fairly simple...mainly an intro to the systems on board the T-6. By the end of our 6 week Academic phase, we will have learned and been tested on every single system inside and outside the T-6. Last week we learned a little bit about the primary and emergency hydraulic systems and how they integrate with the flight control systems which allow us to maneuver the airplane on the ground and in the air.
A few guys in the class ahead of me gave me some ideas on how to study for these CAIs and Academics in general. Each night after I get home from work, I'll usually nuke some frozen food in the microwave I cooked over the weekend (which saves a ton of time from having to cook the food during the week and then wash dishes, etc.), then read the next day's CAI material out of the Dash 1 (the T-6's flight manual which has everything you ever wanted to know about the plane), and I'll read the printed out version of the slides they gave us during pubs issue. When I get to the lab the next evening, I'll read the slides on the computer, which was exactly what I read the night before. That will be the second exposure I have to the material. The third exposure I'll have to the material comes during the review sessions the instructor gives us the night before the tests. I'll probably study most of it after the review session, giving me 4 exposures to the material before I test on it. We'll see if it works, but everyone I've talked to seems to like the strategy.
Wednesday we spent time in the Altitude Chamber doing exactly what we did freshman year at the Academy. We pre-breathed 100% Oxygen for 30 minutes before they decompressed the chamber to simulate what the air feels like at 25,000 feet above sea level (MSL). Once at 25K MSL, we took ourselves off oxygen to find out what our own personal symptoms of hypoxia feel like. Each person may react to hypoxia slighty different from each other, but most of the symptoms are similar. I personally started feeling a little light-headed, blurred vision, and slowed motor skills before I decided enough was enough and it was time to get back on oxygen. The test was to see if you were smart enough to get back on oxygen while feeling those symptoms. If you're in a single-seat jet and start feeling those symptoms without acting on it, there's a good chance you'll lose consciousness and crash unless you get yourself on oxygen. It's easy to do as long as you don't wait too long before acting on it.
Wednesday afternoon, we practiced strap-in and egress procedures in T-6 seat trainers. We found out there's a lot that goes into strapping into an ejection seat. I have some pics and video below that were taken of me going through bailout procedures. There are two ways to egress the T-6. If you're on the ground, you can try to undo all your straps, buckles, comm chords, oxygen hoses, emergency oxygen hose, G-suit hose, and blow your canopy (and I do mean blow it up with the detonation material imbedded within the canopy glass) and jump out, or you can just pull your ejection handle. The seat is rated to where you can eject out of the plane even if you're not moving on the ground. I practiced both...definitely will be needing more practice trying to get out faster!! It took me probably about 2 minutes to go through all the procedures and undo all the harness fittings to get out of the plane while my instructor was "burning up" in the back. haha, yeah....
Thursday morning, we drove out to the flightline and learned how to shoot off pencil size flare guns and ground flares. Overall, it was a pretty good time, but the 20 degree weather at 0600 made it a little miserable. Thursday afternoon we took the fighter aircrew conditioning test, mandatory for all UPT students to take, but you only need to pass it if you want to track into T-38s. I was a little concerned going into it because the test focuses on both strength and endurance. I'm mostly an endurance athelete...not really a Hulk Hogan strength and conditioning guy. But I worked on the exercises a lot in the past several months, and the test proved easier than we thought it would be. The graders were especially generous to us, which probably was the biggest advantage we all shared. There are 5 strength exercises and 3 endurance exercises we had to perform. The strength exercises were on 5 cybex machines: arm curl, bench press, lat pull-downs, leg press, and leg curls. Each exercise was to be performed slowly (6 seconds per rep), and is at a particular percentage of body weight. The 3 endurance exercises were a minute of continuous push-ups, 1 min continuous crunches, and another leg press exercise at your own weight. I came close to getting a max score on the test, but I came up short on the leg press endurance test, which was by far the hardest event for all of us. For more info on the test and how to prepare for it, go to baseops.net and search for "FACT test". Work hard to prepare for it, but don't be too worried about it...it's not as hard as you might think.
Friday was a short day, just a few final aersopace phys classes. Next week will be the first full week of systems CAIs. Not sure if we have a test, but I wouldn't be surprised. This weekend will be spent studying more boldface/ops limits, checklists, and systems.
Ejection seat trainer
Gearing up for the ejection seat trainer...trying to figure out if I've missed anything during the suit-up process.
T-6 ground egress trainer
Oh...I hope I don't have to do this in real life......Saturday, January 30, 2010
2 Days of briefings...2 days of snow....
Tuesday was the official start of our pilot training. After two days of briefings from several commanders and other base and training officials, we were all looking forward to start Aerospace Physiology on Thursday and actually do something. However, as you will see in the pictures below, we had a little snow storm on Thursday and Friday that kept us in our dorms and out of the classroom. The total snowfall was about 10 inches in some areas of Oklahoma. My friend said he measaured 9 inches on some of the cars, and with the wind the way it was, we probably had at least 10 or 11 inches on base.
Just a quick note...after losing all three of my buttons on my Service Dress during the two days of briefings, my advice to anyone going to pilot training would be to have your Service Dress looked at by the tailor shop.....!! Several of us who got their Service Dress Coats from the Academy had the same problem. After each brief, we'd all huddle around a container of paper clips and try to rig up a quick fix to keep our jackets intact. Needless to say, the tailor shop will be getting a lot of business from us over the next several weeks!
This coming week's schedule only has Physiology on the board, so it shouldn't be too bad. It's supposed to be one of the easiest blocks of training in Academics. I've been doing a little studying beyond what is required because I know once we start studying systems and aero, time won't be as abundant as it is now!
Enjoy the pictures below...we'll see ya next week!!
-Chris
My car under 9 inhces of snow...I guess I have some shoveling in my future!!
All of our pubs...black binder on the left is our flying manual for the T-6...the rest are books on basic flying fundamentals, weather, systems, etc.
The stack of pubs I brought home...about 20 or so pounds of paper.
Just a quick note...after losing all three of my buttons on my Service Dress during the two days of briefings, my advice to anyone going to pilot training would be to have your Service Dress looked at by the tailor shop.....!! Several of us who got their Service Dress Coats from the Academy had the same problem. After each brief, we'd all huddle around a container of paper clips and try to rig up a quick fix to keep our jackets intact. Needless to say, the tailor shop will be getting a lot of business from us over the next several weeks!
This coming week's schedule only has Physiology on the board, so it shouldn't be too bad. It's supposed to be one of the easiest blocks of training in Academics. I've been doing a little studying beyond what is required because I know once we start studying systems and aero, time won't be as abundant as it is now!
Enjoy the pictures below...we'll see ya next week!!
-Chris
View of our Dorms
My car under 9 inhces of snow...I guess I have some shoveling in my future!!
All of our pubs...black binder on the left is our flying manual for the T-6...the rest are books on basic flying fundamentals, weather, systems, etc.
The stack of pubs I brought home...about 20 or so pounds of paper.
Monday, January 25, 2010
PUBS issue, tomorrow is day 1
After over 6 months of waiting, my journey finally begins tomorrow morning!! I'm both excited and terrified at the same time! A friend of mine shared a verse with me on Sunday that serves as a good reminder for me and even all of us. Isaiah 41:10: "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." This will be a tough year, maybe the toughest of my life. But I will hold to that promise that no matter what, God is with me and everything that happens to me will be according to his plan. I'm excited for UPT, because I know I will grow closer to Him. My biggest challenges in life have always proven to also be the most fruitful experiences and biggest learning opportunities too; I'm sure this will be no different.
During the last few days, we have been undergoing "Mental Performance Training." It is designed to help us better perform under pressure situations by allowing us to multi-task more efficiently. The theory is that if we can move some of our conscious efforts into our sub-conscious, we have a higher capacity to do more mentally. To make this happen, we have reverted back to a Kindergarden type of learning style by playing with bricks and arrows and learn about shape recognition, color recognition, classification, categorization, etc. They have a vast amount of different exercises for us to do on a daily basis, and for most of us including an instructor pilot who has sat in on it with us, the day usually ends with a massive headache. I don't have time to get into details on what the exercises themselves are, but it is a very unique method of training. We are the first class to go through this training, and depending on our performance in UPT, they may decide to include this training with other classes.
Today was publications issue (pubs for short). It was epic as expected...... We walked into a classroom with 29 chairs, in front of each was a 2.5 foot tall stack of paper which is to be our reading assignment for the next 6 months. Most of it will be read in the next 6 weeks during the Academic phase (phase I). This stack of pubs was about 20 or 30 pounds of pure paper, kind of like what you would expect from a 21 credit hour semester in college. It's definitely not anything we can't handle, but it will certainly keep us busy!! I have pictures I took of the pubs in my room...I'll do what I can to post those on my blog this weekend!
Tomorrow is day 1...my prayer is that whatever comes of this phase of my life, I would be content with its result and let God show me the path he wants me to walk. Even if it was not what I had anticipated, I pray that I will be able to align my will with His will and be joyful for the blessing of even being able to fly airplanes for a living. God's been very good to me to let me do this...it is certainly a dream come true; I couldn't be any more excited for it to start. Thanks again for all your support...let the journey begin!!
-Chris
During the last few days, we have been undergoing "Mental Performance Training." It is designed to help us better perform under pressure situations by allowing us to multi-task more efficiently. The theory is that if we can move some of our conscious efforts into our sub-conscious, we have a higher capacity to do more mentally. To make this happen, we have reverted back to a Kindergarden type of learning style by playing with bricks and arrows and learn about shape recognition, color recognition, classification, categorization, etc. They have a vast amount of different exercises for us to do on a daily basis, and for most of us including an instructor pilot who has sat in on it with us, the day usually ends with a massive headache. I don't have time to get into details on what the exercises themselves are, but it is a very unique method of training. We are the first class to go through this training, and depending on our performance in UPT, they may decide to include this training with other classes.
Today was publications issue (pubs for short). It was epic as expected...... We walked into a classroom with 29 chairs, in front of each was a 2.5 foot tall stack of paper which is to be our reading assignment for the next 6 months. Most of it will be read in the next 6 weeks during the Academic phase (phase I). This stack of pubs was about 20 or 30 pounds of pure paper, kind of like what you would expect from a 21 credit hour semester in college. It's definitely not anything we can't handle, but it will certainly keep us busy!! I have pictures I took of the pubs in my room...I'll do what I can to post those on my blog this weekend!
Tomorrow is day 1...my prayer is that whatever comes of this phase of my life, I would be content with its result and let God show me the path he wants me to walk. Even if it was not what I had anticipated, I pray that I will be able to align my will with His will and be joyful for the blessing of even being able to fly airplanes for a living. God's been very good to me to let me do this...it is certainly a dream come true; I couldn't be any more excited for it to start. Thanks again for all your support...let the journey begin!!
-Chris
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
10-12 Track Select
For those who are interested in recent Track Select trends, Vance had a Track Select night for class 10-12 tonight. Track select is when student pilots find out whether they will track to fighter/bomber (T-38), tanker/cargo (T-1), Helicopter (H-1), or Turbo Shaft (T-44). Tonight there were (out of a class of 28ish students) roughly 5 T-38s, 1 or 2 helicopters, about 3 T-44s, the rest being T-1s. T-38s are not unheard of anymore, so if you're interested in the fighter/bomber track, hope is still there. However, I will tell you that because there are so few fighters available, T-38s are now universably assignable, meaning you could still get a C-17 or KC-135, etc. out of T-38s. So it's not really the "fighter/bomber" track anymore-you can still track heavies or predators, etc. But at least you get the experience of flying the T-38, which could help if you apply for a Non-Standard Assignment like U-28s or AT-6s, or if you want to go to Test Pilot School. But anyways, that's the latest from the Air Force Track Selects.
My UPT class met together as a whole for the first time this morning. We just discussed class job options (I am assigned as the "class photographer") and also discussed having to go through the clinic on Thursday for our flight physicals and other check-ups. I think I should also be getting the H1N1 shot on Thursday, so I will be especially looking forward to that (insert sarcastic smile here). Today I purchased a close to life size print-out of the T-6 cockpit so I can "chairfly" my maneuvers in my apartment. Chair-flying is a mental practice students have to go through before each of their flights so they are prepared when they actually step into the real jet. Having a poster of the cockpit with all the switches and gauges in the right positions kind of helps the learning process. Monday we get all our pubs issued (all of our "textbooks" for how to fly in the Air Force and also specifically how to fly the T-6, etc.). I'll be sure to get pictures of the mountain of paperwork I get on Monday and pass that along to y'all!! And last but not least, I now have purchased my very own coffee pot, so when I have to wake up at 4 in the morning when I start flying, I will have a fresh cup of jo ready for me :-)...ahhh, gotta love the Air Force! I think you get promoted faster the more cups of coffee you drink a day....not sure, but I'll get back to you on that!....
Seeing all the students track select tonight made me think of my track select night which should be at the end of July. My hope is that I would have no regrets about my efforts when flying the T-6 and that I can just hand it over to God when it's over. He's in control of my life and in control of my future. My hope is that I will be able to accept whatever His will is and be content in all circumstances. I have a lot of hopes and dreams for the future, but I need to give those over to Him. That's what I will have to work on these next 6 months....
~Chris
My UPT class met together as a whole for the first time this morning. We just discussed class job options (I am assigned as the "class photographer") and also discussed having to go through the clinic on Thursday for our flight physicals and other check-ups. I think I should also be getting the H1N1 shot on Thursday, so I will be especially looking forward to that (insert sarcastic smile here). Today I purchased a close to life size print-out of the T-6 cockpit so I can "chairfly" my maneuvers in my apartment. Chair-flying is a mental practice students have to go through before each of their flights so they are prepared when they actually step into the real jet. Having a poster of the cockpit with all the switches and gauges in the right positions kind of helps the learning process. Monday we get all our pubs issued (all of our "textbooks" for how to fly in the Air Force and also specifically how to fly the T-6, etc.). I'll be sure to get pictures of the mountain of paperwork I get on Monday and pass that along to y'all!! And last but not least, I now have purchased my very own coffee pot, so when I have to wake up at 4 in the morning when I start flying, I will have a fresh cup of jo ready for me :-)...ahhh, gotta love the Air Force! I think you get promoted faster the more cups of coffee you drink a day....not sure, but I'll get back to you on that!....
Seeing all the students track select tonight made me think of my track select night which should be at the end of July. My hope is that I would have no regrets about my efforts when flying the T-6 and that I can just hand it over to God when it's over. He's in control of my life and in control of my future. My hope is that I will be able to accept whatever His will is and be content in all circumstances. I have a lot of hopes and dreams for the future, but I need to give those over to Him. That's what I will have to work on these next 6 months....
~Chris
Monday, January 11, 2010
My UPT journal
Welcome to my UPT journal! My hope for this journal is that family and friends can track one student's experience through UPT at Vance AFB in Oklahoma so as to get a better idea of what it's like as a pilot trainee. I'll do my best to update as often as I can, but usually these things take a back seat to studying, so we'll see how it goes!!!
Well, I'm only 2 weeks away from starting down that year long road everyone around me has been talking about for the last 6 months!! A good majority of my friends here at Vance either have started, finished, or will finish UPT very soon. I have to say I'm really excited to be starting on the 26th of this month. I was afraid I'd be burned out after only 4 weeks of Initial Flight Screening in Colorado, but that didn't turn out to be the case. Right now, I have a copy of the Boldface/Ops limits we have to memorize for the T-6. Those are the emergency procedures you have to have memorized and down cold. Other than studying those procedures, I'm just going to relax these last couple weeks until it starts and my "vacation" is over. Casual life was nice, but it'll feel good to do what I came here to do. I have some last minute issue items I have to pick up from Life Support (Helmet, oxygen mask), but otherwise I have all the other equipment I'll need. Gotta do an oil change and tire rotation on the car this week...probably won't have too much time to do that when I'm at UPT.
There are two different squadrons that fly T-6s here at Vance in the 71st Flying Training Wing. I will be in the 8th which really doesn't mean anything to you unless you anticipate on coming here as a student in the near future. I also have a list of all my classmates, but other than that, they've kept us in the dark as to what to expect in the next couple weeks. We've watched others in the class ahead of us; for now, that's our only guide. I'm sure I'll learn more in the days to come about what to expect. It's gonna be quite the journey!! I can always use a few prayers!!!
Well, I'm only 2 weeks away from starting down that year long road everyone around me has been talking about for the last 6 months!! A good majority of my friends here at Vance either have started, finished, or will finish UPT very soon. I have to say I'm really excited to be starting on the 26th of this month. I was afraid I'd be burned out after only 4 weeks of Initial Flight Screening in Colorado, but that didn't turn out to be the case. Right now, I have a copy of the Boldface/Ops limits we have to memorize for the T-6. Those are the emergency procedures you have to have memorized and down cold. Other than studying those procedures, I'm just going to relax these last couple weeks until it starts and my "vacation" is over. Casual life was nice, but it'll feel good to do what I came here to do. I have some last minute issue items I have to pick up from Life Support (Helmet, oxygen mask), but otherwise I have all the other equipment I'll need. Gotta do an oil change and tire rotation on the car this week...probably won't have too much time to do that when I'm at UPT.
There are two different squadrons that fly T-6s here at Vance in the 71st Flying Training Wing. I will be in the 8th which really doesn't mean anything to you unless you anticipate on coming here as a student in the near future. I also have a list of all my classmates, but other than that, they've kept us in the dark as to what to expect in the next couple weeks. We've watched others in the class ahead of us; for now, that's our only guide. I'm sure I'll learn more in the days to come about what to expect. It's gonna be quite the journey!! I can always use a few prayers!!!
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