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

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