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!!!