UPT complete

As of 9 Nov 07, I am a rated Air Force Officer, meaning...I'm a pilot!

It was a GREAT, but hectic weekend, and it was definitely great to have the whole family out here, plus a few extras! Mom, Dad, Erin, Ryan, Grandma Rusty, Anna, and Erin's boyfriend Luke were able to make it out for the festivities, and we all had a blast!

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Ryan showing his true colors...

Eating at Cracker Barrel two mornings in a row!

Once everyone got into Wichita Falls and got situated in their rooms, we were able to enjoy the Friday as "Red Carpet Day". This is where all the families of the graduating class get to come into the squadron to see what we do on a normal day. We started off with some OJ and donuts in our flight room and a meet and greet with the IPs. Then the students help a standard morning briefing of the weather, flying status, NOTAM information, alternate runways, threat of the day, word of the day, and the bird status. This was followed by an Emergency Procedure "Stand Up" where an IP gives one of the students an emergency situation and the student has to "fly" his way through the procedures by talking about each detail he would do in the jet. LT Gray did a good job, right up until his wife took over and fixed his mistake...They put on a good show! (even if it was staged...) Afterwards, our flight commander Capt Armstrong talked for a bit to the families and introduced the IPs, as well as giving each of the students' significant other a certificate of appreciation for putting up with the stresses from pilot training. Anna was pleasantly surprised to hear her name called :) Next, we were supposed to head out to the flight line to watch the jets fly, but flying had been postponed due to very low visibility and fog. We still went out to the jet ramp to look at the T-38 and T-37 that were on static displays.

"Red Carpet Day" where I got to show the family what a normal day is like for us...

Anna and I by the T-38

After we had our fill of those, we decided to head on over to the simulator building to give everyone a chance to fly in our T-38 flight trainers. I was able to get everyone into the cockpit to fly around for a bit, doing whatever they wanted to, and Dad was even able to land once (although a pretty rough landing...expected from those Navy guys). After about an hour at the simulators, we headed over to the maintenance hanger to take a look up close at the F-15C, A-10, and of course, F-16!

We got to tour the maintenance hangers like this one, with my future F-16!

Grandma Rusty enjoyed seeing my new toy, and even got up into the cockpit for a bit!

Even Luke got up in my new office, the VIPER!

After everyone got their turn sitting in the F-16 cockpit, we headed back to the flight room for a minute, and then returned to our rooms to relax and get ready for graduation. Also, somewhere in between the flight line and the maintenance hanger tours we ate BBQ with all the families in the flight room.

Just a couple other pictures from the day:

Ryan being his normal self...

The rest of the night was filled with the graduation ceremony, which lasted about 2 hours. We started out with the class video that Mike had put together throughout the year, and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. It was filled with pictures and video and music from our class through the entire year of UPT. After the video, one of our commanders, LtCol Less, talked for a bit about the pilot training process, and then got into the dozen or so awards. As it turned out, my flight, Mob flight, took home every single award! Way to go! Jeff and Dell (two of my good friends) each earned multiple awards, including one that I earned as well, the Distinguished Graduate award. Out of the 25 student pilots, the top 10%, or top 3, earned this award. Matt Lowe also took home an award, the Top Formation Pilot award, nice job!

Finishing in the top 10% of my class earned a "Distinguished Graduate" award!

After the awards were given out, it was finally time to call us up to pin on our wings! We had held a couple practices prior, so we didn't look like complete idiots throughout the ceremony. As my name was called, Dad followed me up on stage, as he was my self-chosen "rated military officer" I wanted to pin on my wings.

Dad pinning on my first set of Air Force wings! Thanks Pops!

Once the entire class pinned on their wings one by one, it was photo-op time with the families. We had about 45 minutes for all this before the Wing-Breaking Ceremony over at the O-Club. Here are a few of those pictures:

Mom posing as she pins on my wings with Dad.

Anna takes amazing photos doesnt she...(She really IS that beautiful in person!)

Some good lookin' siblings...

Thanks for visiting Grandma!!

Typical Jason/Ryan picture...

A happy Mom and Dad photo with their newest military pilot...

Once all the photos had been taken, we all headed over to the O-Club for the reception and the rated officers went into a separate room for a bit for the wing breaking ceremony. Basically, the tradition is for a newly rated pilot to "break" his first set of wings for good luck and to separate the two halves. One half stays with the pilot, and the other is given to a close friend or relative (in my case, Dad), and never be brought back together while the pilot is alive. After death, the two halves are reunited with the pilot. We heard some good stories from the commanders and our guest speaker, and then broke our wings. Some people had more trouble than others, and Ilaria, the female Italian pilot, actually had to shove one end into the door jam and hang off the other end to break them, as no one else is allowed to help you break your wings. Once that was done, we all went out to enjoy our last night as ENJJPT Class 08-01 and our first night as Air Force Pilots!

.

Class 08-01

Mob Flight pilots at the reception after the wing breaking ceremony...

The three Riddle friends all heading off to Luke AFB to fly the Viper!

I think Dad had a few too many..."LUMPIA!!!" haha those Navy guys....sheesh

My last chance to hang out with the Mob Flight Italians...they left for Italy the next day!

Well, that sums up my Graduation weekend, full of family, friends, fun, and of course, WINGS! Now starts 3 months of "down" time where I will complete various training around the country including:

.

12-14 Nov 07 - Centrifuge training at Holloman AFB (again, only this time, 9Gz!!! Was rough!)

.

11-13 Dec 07 - Water Survival training at NAS Pensacola, FL (gonna be cold in that water)

.

22 Jan - 8 Feb 08 - Survival, Evasion, and Resistance training at Fairchild AFB, WA (COLD!)

.

22 Feb - 25 Apr 08 - Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals (IFF)

.

After these are complete, I will move out to Luke AFB, AZ to start F-16 training on 20 Jun 08!!! I can't wait!

.

In the mean time, I will fly every so often to update landing currency or sandbag in some IFF flights to get a feel for what I'm going to be doing. I can also get simulator flights to keep on top of instrument flying and Emergency Procedures, and will also sit up at the Duty Desk to help out. I also get to take some Leave for Thanksgiving up in Seattle, and Christmas in Seattle and hopefully over to NC to meet Anna's family!

.

Until next time, have a great night!

The final 5 days of UPT

To cut to the chase, I will be flying the F-16 Fighting Falcon, or as everyone calls it, the VIPER!!!

Here I am, just 5 days from graduating from USAF Undergraduate Pilot Training. I have a total of 2 formation low level flights left, and maybe a checkride. I say maybe, because the rumor around the squadron is that we will not be flying the Low Level checkride due to bird hazards and a large number of the fleet's windscreens having cracks along the rivets that were just discovered recently. Either way, I am totally happy with finishing up with no worries of a checkride!

.

Last I wrote, I had 2 checkrides left: Advanced Formation and the Low Level.

Well, advanced formation was a blast and ended up passing the checkride with 5 downgrades! Not too shabby at all. I flew 90% of the flights with one of my good Italian friends, Michele Pedalino, and we meshed really well by the end. Although, the two of us did go through a very, very rough week...we both busted (failed) two flights in a row just before the checkride and had to do it a third time, which we both passed but definitely got shaken up for that checkride. Considering that the advanced formation checkride is the single most important flight in UPT and counts the most for your mass score (assignment night ranking), we were kind of worried. It's not even that we were doing bad things, just a couple little things we don't normally do wrong were happening, and they were things that we could possibly fail a checkride for, depending on how anal our IP would want to be. Like I said before though, we pushed through it and passed with an average flight. Worst part about that whole deal was we knew we could have done much better, but we were glad to get it over with.

.

Once that was done, on came the low level flights, 4-ship formation flights, and solo out-and-back flight. This was definitely the BEST last few weeks we could have asked for in pilot training. Not only is flying formation next two 3 other jets the coolest stuff I've ever done, we got to fly in the number 2, 3, and 4 positions! No-threat (of failing) flights are always the best kind of flights, especially were your IP flies for a little bit showing off and letting you look around at the other jets. Just as cool is flying 500 feet off the ground at 450 mph! The low level flights are amazing, and a little scary at times with the birds and towers and other jets flying around, but it is totally worth every second! The worst part about the low level phase is we only get 8 flights before going to the checkride (which we probably won't have). That is not much time at all to get up to speed with all the things involved in the planning and flying. On top of that, trying to fly that fast and that low while looking at a self-made low level chart that is about 3 feet by 3 feet big makes for some interesting experiences!
.

The solo out-and-back flight, which we have tried to complete for about two months now, finally got done. We got a break from the weather and winds and whatever else was holding us up and launched 6 solo students and 2 solo IP's as chase ships out to Amarillo for lunch! Flying around solo is damn cool. It's even cooler when you get to actually go somewhere and fly into a strange field and feel like you are an actual pilot! .....Man, these last 5 days are going to go so slow!
.
Let's see, what else happened in October...I just about double turned flights every day to get caught up after breaking so many jets...so that was pretty exhausting. We celebrated Ryan's 21st birthday (in spirit)... OH, we had class 08-01's Assignment Night!
.

Assignment Night is the night all the assignable (non-Air National Guard) U.S. student pilots find out what they will be flying for the next 10 years or more! Finally it was our turn! Our theme of the night was 80's rock and we all dressed in mullets, big-hair-band t-shirts, and chose our favorite theme song to individually walk out to. We also got a hold of 25 beat up acoustic guitars, in which would a picture of a certain jet (our assignment) would be taped and we would actually smash the guitar open to find out! It was definitely a TON of fun, and I ended up getting my #1 choice, the F-16 Viper! I am PUMPED! As it turns out, two of my good friends, both of which I lived with at ERAU (Mike and Greg) both got the Viper as well! The three of us just can't seem to get away from each other. Actually, the 08-01 drop was pretty dang impressive:
.

F-16: 5 + 2 Air National Guard

F-15C: 2

F-15E: 2

A-10: 1

T-38: 1

T-37/T-6: 1

B-52: 1
.

Most everybody was pleased, with a few exceptions...but that's life. Needs of the Air Force is the game. It was a great time and Dave Sustello even made it down from Vance to celebrate with all of us, which was great! The entire ceremony lasted about an hour from start to finish, and of course I busted my face up again in the process. I'm pretty sure it happened when I jumped off the stage and busted my guitar, ending up with it breaking where the neck meets the body and bouncing up into my face. I'm just glad I wore my sunglasses just in case...although I think a new set of sunglasses will be on my Christmas list this year! It may have happened right after that though, when an I-flighter decided to tackle me (tradition for a dog-pile to occur) when I wasn't looking, ending up with us in the middle of the broken guitar pieces. HAHA, it was all such a blur, and I won't deny there being some beverages involved either...but it was a great time and I am totally happy with getting the VIPER!!!!!!!!!!!!!
.

This week coming up is a big week as well. Wednesday we will get our RIPs (orders) for IFF, survival training, water survival training, centrifuge training, and our RTU (F-16 training). At least I will be able to plan out the next few months for the most part. Also, all the families will be getting in town for Red Carpet Day (kind of like show and tell) and graduation on Friday! The worst part about this week is it is the last week we get to spend with all the great Italians in our class. They move back to Italy the day after we graduate! Fortunately the internet makes it very easy to keep in touch, and I know I will definitely do that with many of them!
.

Well, it's 4am on Sunday, actually 3am with the new time change, and I guess I need to get to bed. One last piece of great news from the non-flying department: I started dating a great girl, Anna Avera, and actually it is a pretty funny story of how it started. To sum it up, we went to middle school together and 9th grade, but then both moved away and didn't hear from each other for 10 years, and a few months ago I ran across her page on facebook (online college networking) and sent a message to see how things had been going. We ended up exchanging phone numbers in mid-August and ended up talking for 2 hours a day (woa) for about a month...then she came to town and visited and we hit it off! She lives in Nashville, TN now and actually got to make it for assignment night which was great and will also be here for graduation! I'm pretty surprised how great things are going between us, and will keep you informed on how it goes! haha
.

Hopefully everyone had a great Halloween and ate lots of candy, I know I sure did!

Until next time....

2 Checkrides Remain and SENIOR CLASS!

Labor Day I spent with all the old college friends. We rented a house at Lake Texoma and spent the weekend catching up and on a pontoon boat floating around the water and jumping off the big rocks. We even found the party island! One night we all wore the same shirt (Dave made shirts for the first annual get together) and went out. When people asked what they were about, our answers ranged from a flying club from CO, to a choir group from LA, to a group of people who's parents all died in a plane crash in 1946....making us all at least 61 years old...and they believed us. HAHA it was a great weekend and a well deserved break with great people. I can't wait till our 2008 trip!

Next, we got our "Hero Shots" back...and here's what we got:

Not too bad, my close up with a smile is dumb looking, so you get the serious one.

For the past few weeks, I've gotten through the rest of the instrument phase, flew my instrument checkride to Dyess AFB and passed with a 2 downgrade flight. I was really excited, with the exception that both downgrades were due to stuff that I should not have done, and it had nothing to do with my flying which is pretty cool. One was because I planned my flight plan with an unrealistic fuel calculation, correct by the book, but not real-life. The other was because the crew chief missed signing off the pre-flight tire pressure check after he did it, and I missed that he didnt sign it off. So overall, a great flight, great approaches and the IP flew the jet back to base at .99 Mach since I was complete.

After getting that done, and being the second to last person to fly my checkride for instruments in the class, they pushed me pretty hard through formation to catch me up. Let me tell ya, double turning formation flights 4 or 5 times a week really is awesome! It keeps your proficiency way up and is friggin fun too! I ended up getting paired up with a couple different people throughout the two weeks, and finally paired with Jeff Searcy aka P.I.D.L.E. for the last 5 flights and into our checkride. They like keeping you with the same person for at least a few flights at the end so you are used to how the other person flies on your wing and as lead. It all worked out, and we both were having great flights all the way through the end.

We just flew our Basic Formation Checkride today, and both passed with really good scores! Woo hoo! Jeff ended up with 2 downgrades and I had 3. We both have a really good flight and did well on our ground evaluations, and were happy with how it turned out. We started to get worried because the weather moved in this week and we had to adjust the profile for fuel and clouds and thunderstorms throughout the entire flight, but the IP's were happy with our decisions while each of us was lead, and ended up being a good day to fly.

I also flew my final contact solo last Friday. It's sad, no more taking the jet out totally alone to play around in the area. It's amazing how much improvement is happening throughout the program. In the beginning, I could barely get through all the aerobatic maneuvers before running out of gas, and now it's like I have way too much gas! Being able to stay ahead of the jet is a huge part of it, and the more we fly, the better we are at mastering this. Needless to say, I was able to do all of the maneuvers and then some. I made a couple bombing runs on the town below me, and pulled 6Gz at 500kts for an entire 360 degree turn! Talk about hurt! haha, I can't wait to do it again!

Now we are on to Advanced Formation...and fluid maneuvering which teaches us about flying parameters for BFM (Basic Fighter Maneuvering) which will come later. It's a lot of Gz and fun flying in formation, and I can't wait to start! Sometime coming up soon, I will get to fly my "Bobo" flight which is our solo Out-and-Back. I'll be flying alone out to some other base about 400 miles away, stopping for fuel and lunch, and flying back solo. Sounds like fun to me!

Outside of flying, everything else is going really well. I'm finally getting back into working out and playing sports since we are starting to have a little more time off, or time to ourselves, not necessarily "off". This Friday is graduation for class 07-08 as well. Four guys I graduated are in this class, and 3 will be going to fly Vipers (F-16) and one got the BUFF (B-52). Congrats to them and that means only one thing....WE ARE SENIOR CLASS!!! Holy cow. 6 weeks until we graduate from now! Oct 26th is when we all find out which jets we will all be flying....keep your fingers crossed!

Hope all is well and everyone is doing great and had a great summer. Until next time......

A huge Bison we saw while visiting the Wichita Mountains this past weekend.

Abnormal is my middle name

Just a snapshot of our cross country to Eglin AFB, FL two weekends ago.

Well the past few weeks have definately been insteresting. I'm going to have to make this a short post so here it goes...

I left off with us getting ready to fly cross country to Eglin AFB, FL (Pensacola area) two weekends ago. Well we ended up flying down there, stopping at Barksdale AFB, LA for gas on the way. It was all pretty smooth for me; getting some good out-base training and flying a number of instrument approaches. I'll tell you what; flying into FL on a Friday afternoon in the summer at sunset is pretty damn amazing. My IP kept me under the "hood" (canopy cover in the back cockpit so I can't see outside) during most of the way in, but I was sneaking peeks of the sunset every few seconds! HA! We fly a couple of approaches, and actually end up hitting a bird on short final of our last approach in to land, but we don't know it until we actually land and taxi to parking, where the crew chief lets us know. Sure enough, there was a bird, or parts of a bird, smashed into the nose-gear strut! We really creamed him good; he must have been a small bird. Either way, it basically guarantees us three full days in FL to relax, seeing as we cannot fly that jet back on Sunday until they inspect the birdstrike. Here are a couple of pictures of the little birdie we hit:

As you can see, we creamed that little guy. Never the less, we had to buy commercial airline tickets back to Sheppard on Sunday. We definitely enjoy the rest of the weekend, and ended up having 22 students and IP's from my class down there. We rented two pontoon boats and a small ski boat to tow a kneeboard and skis, while the pontoon boats tossed anchor on a popular sandbar in the inter-coastal. It was great being back at the beach and in the salt water, even if it was just for one day.

We all went out both Friday and Saturday nights to eat dinner, and on Friday night everyone let loose and had a great time. Saturday night was a little more relaxed, since most of them had to wake up early to fly back to Sheppard. Me, my IP, and one other crew got to go out again on Saturday night since we were all flying back commercially. They had some sort of generator problem on their way into Eglin, so we ended up leaving two jets in FL. The flight back was non-eventful, leaving FL around 4pm and getting into Dallas around 10, then renting a car and driving back to Sheppard AFB.


The next week I only got to fly twice...Two contact flights, the first of which I busted. It was my first bust in the T-38 (bust is basically where you get graded Unsatisfactory on one or more of the items). I was having a rough time getting my sight picture back on my landings, which all ended in high flares and shifting aim points. The fight the next day was much better, getting about 8 landings in for practice and to re-cage my landing picture. I guess taking two weeks off of actually landing the jet (we cannot land from the back cockpit on our instrument sorties) really took its toll...not that I have an excuse.

I didn't get to fly other than those two flights due to scheduling conflicts and priority in the flight and other stuff. The one solo I did get to step out to the jet ended up being a ground abort for not having a clearance in the system with ATC, then problems talking with the Duty Desk to get it put into the system, then an emergency shut down the only runway I could have taken off of, and on top of all that, we were in the "Danger" heat zone which means I only can spend 45 minutes outside before I either have to be airborne or abort. Overall, I guess I was not meant to fly solo last week.

This only begins my quest for a normal flight. This week starts out with an Instrument Out-and-Back turned double solo since my IP was sick, and one of the solos gets switched to another flightmate, so I fly yesterday afternoon for my first solo of the week. On initial takeoff, climbing out on departure, everything is going normally until I am about 1,800 feet off the ground going about 300 knots....and BAM! A big hawk zooms right across my canopy and smacks my vertical tail! HOLY COW! That thing was six inches from smashing right through my canopy into my face! So there I was, solo, just had a birdstrike that I actually felt in the flight controls when it hit! I ended up getting back around and entering the high pattern with the RSU, letting everyone and their mother know what happened and what I planned on doing, and asking for a chase ship to come check it out. I have to wait about five minutes for the chase ship to get into the pattern, and he rejoins on me and confirms I have a 10 inch hole in the middle of the leading edge of my vertical tail! That bird really did a number on me! I determine since I don't think I have any problems controlling the aircraft that I'll just fly a straight-in to the biggest runway, taxi into the EOR (end of runway) and shutdown. Once I get on the ground, I am able to get out and actually see the hole, and no kidding it looked like I hit a dang bowling ball on my vertical tail! It was huge, and the metal was all peeling back and there was a bit of bird blood on both sides of the tail...pretty nasty. Once I get all my stuff from the jet, I have to go to maintenance and write it up, then proceed to the Safety Office to write it up some more, and fill out about 5 different papers for the records. The funniest thing is that as soon as I walked into the squadron, everyone had already known about it...word travels fast.

So that was Monday...just the beginning. Tuesday's flights weren't as eventful, but still... I flew a local instrument flight with an IP down to Lubbock in the morning, and everything was going well until my PAR (Precision Radar Approach). After shooting the approach, we perform a low approach and go to raise the gear, and the dang gear doors are stuck open! The gear we determined were up since the three green lights were off, but the red light in the gear handle was still on meaning the doors were open. Sheesh! We end up entering the high pattern AGAIN and request a chase ship AGAIN, and sure enough, they tell us all three gear doors are stuck down. We determine the best thing to do is put the gear back down and land if we have normal gear down indications. When we put the gear down, all three come down and the gear doors close the way they are supposed to. HAHA, well we just fly a normal straight-in to the biggest runway and taxi back to the chocks and have to write this jet up as well. It wasn't a big problem, but just goes along with the rest of my flights for the last two weeks.

And the third incident of the week: Solo again on Tuesday afternoon after the flight with the gear doors stuck open, and I step to the jet, get all strapped in, and get ready to start the engines. I have ground AC power at this time, which allows me to be faster on the ground ops since I don't have to wait after I get the engines started for the GPS to align, etc. Well this is only good for the 99.9% of the engine starts that don't 'hiccup' your AC power. I guess it was my lucky day, because as soon as I start the first engine, the generator that is supposed to take over the AC load from the ground unit 'hiccups' my power and restarts everything....SUPER! haaha, like I said, this isn't exactly abnormal, but it's a pain in the butt, and doesn't happen that often. Good thing is, I still have AC power from either the generator or the ground unit, which means I get to at least start the other engine (we need AC power to monitor the engine indications). I start the second engine, everything is good, right up until it reaches IDLE speed, at which time my Fuel Flow indicator jumps ups and shows 3000 Lbs/Hour!!!! In case that doesn't sound like much, we need between 400-600 Lbs/Hr in IDLE on the ground to be within limits. So I'm only about 10 times over the normal limits for fuel flow....wow! I catch it, check everything else about the engine (RPM, Temp, Oil Pressure, etc) and according to that stuff, everything is normal. I don't see the crew chief yelling at me about dumping fuel overboard or having a fire or anything, so i determine I am NOT actually pumping 3000 Lbs/Hr into my left engine and it must be an indicator malfunction. Either way, I cannot fly this jet and have to shut down and go to maintenance to write up my third jet of the week.

Basically I have a black cloud following me around, and I'm not sure where I got it, but it really needs to leave! I have training to get done here! So those are my stories for the week, hopefully the rest of the week goes normally and I am actually able to fly some. I am supposed to go solo again tomorrow, and I'm pretty sure if something goes wrong on that flight, no IP will ever want to fly with me. I am already getting a reputation in the squadron from these past couple of weeks... HAHA

Flying, Weather, Solos, my own In Flight Emergency, Contact Checkride, Instruments, Cross Country

Seeing as it's been about five weeks since I last wrote, it's about time I got all caught up. I've decided to write now, at 2130 (930 pm) on a Tuesday night because I'm pretty good at procrastinating the planning I should be doing for the rest of this week. When I get home from a 12 hour day from the "office" however, I really just want to sit back and relax for a bit, which usually ends up kicking me in the butt later seeing as I always have to stay up late and finish planning for my next flights and sims. The sad thing is, I know exactly what I should be doing, but decide to do other stuff anyway. Haha, I think it's pretty funny when I actually choose to wash my dirty dishes or do my laundry instead of sit down and study. In the end though, I am able to get my stuff done, just with alot less sleep and alot more stress. You'd think I'd learn.....ANYWAY, on to the new stuff:

After that initial flight in the T-38C, my flight really hit a road block with the weather. We actually had to fly way further into the instrument phase (instrument flying, approaches at other airports, under the cover in the rear cockpit rather than looking outside in the front cockpit) than the IP's wanted to, going as far as getting a waiver signed by the wing commander to let us continue without the pre-requisites that were required from the contact (basic visual flying, aerobatics, and landings) phase. We'd get one contact flight per week basically, for about three weeks in a row. Finally the weather started clearing up and we were able to get back on track, which put us only about 10 days behind the schedule.

Once the weather cleared up and we were able to double turn (fly twice a day) each day, we really started cooking with gas! We flew our ways into our initial solos about two weeks ago, which is the absolute most amazing thing I have ever done! Getting in the Tweet solo was one thing, but going 500 knots in afterburner doing aerobatics and pulling 6Gz is a totally different game! I solo'd the T-38C on July 17, 2007 for the first time! Mike was able to get out of his flight's Stand Up EP in order to do "Class Historian" duties, aka bringing his camera out and getting proof me and a couple other dudes went solo! Here are a few of the pictures he got while we got ready to fly:

Me walking out to my jet, tail #378

Checking the fuel and O2 quantities

Preflight inspection of the aircraft, checking the left main landing gear

Starting the #2 engine

All ready to taxi out to the runway...off I go!

Along with these really great pictures, I was able to record my HUD tape (video of our flight from what is shown on the Head's Up Display (HUD)) and save it to a digital file to keep. I'd like to post it, but it is "Classified" property and if I got caught posting it on the web I'd get in some trouble with the Air Force... So I guess I'll keep it for my personal "training" purposed only...

Going solo in this jet is awesome. It can't be said any better than that. Flying out to the area and doing all kinds of aerobatics by yourself without an IP pestering you in the back seat is the greatest feeling in the world! When I went out there for the first solo, and each solo after that, I got to fly Cloverleafs, Loops, Immelmanns, Lazy 8s, Chandelle's, Split S's, Cuban 8s, Barrel Rolls, and Aileron Rolls. Coming back to the pattern I get to fly as many overhead patterns and landings as I can till I am getting low on fuel, getting about 5-8 landings every sortie. It's a great time and I can't wait to do it again. We get 5 solos in the contact phase before our checkride, and another 4 solos after that.

Over the next 4 solos I had three normal ones, and then my second to last solo before my checkride I had quite an interesting day. It was Monday (of course, on a Monday this would happen) of last week and I was scheduled to go solo twice (the BEST Monday ever!). On my first attempt to fly, I actually get a broken jet (sort of), where after I started the engines, my number 2 generator drops offline. I have to do all sorts of crazy things to get it back, at the instruction of the maintenance crew chief, like bump up the power, reset it, hold your tongue out, close one eye.... But eventually it resets and is good to go. As soon as that is fixed, I get a PFL (pilot fault list) warning in the MFD (center screen where all the information is displayed) saying my MDP (onboard computer) had an internal failure while it booted up. I have to go into the checklist for this one, and basically, like any other computer problem in the world, it tells me to turn it off, then turn it back on. This works like a champ and clears the problem, but now I have to wait even longer for the computer to align itself during the boot sequence. These two problems set me back about 25 minutes of when I was supposed to take off, and I'm really cutting my sortie short. Eventually I get taxied out to the runway and now I have to sit and wait for clearance to take off because it took me so long to get out there. After waiting for 10 minutes with the engines running, already burning down almost 600-800 pounds of fuel, I decide I'm not going to be able to make it back in time for when I'm supposed to be back in the chocks. Great, I get to abort my solo flight before ever taking off. I have to taxi back to the chocks and try again later that day. I wasn't very happy to say the least.

Well I guess somebody really didnt want me to fly last Monday. I wait around for a bit until my next takeoff time, and actually go to try and fly solo again. As I approach the jet I've been assigned, I start setting myself up in the cockpit and getting things ready when the crew chief comes over and tells me I cannot take that jet, it's broken. Come on! Needless to say, they assign me a new jet and I get through all my ground ops and get both engines started with no problems. I even get clearance to take off when I get out to the runway! Maybe I AM going to fly! Well, here's where the real fun starts. As I takeoff, I notice a little loss of thrust out of my left engine, but seeing as I was about to rotate to lift off, I decide to take off. My first clue to something wasn't right is it took me about 5000 feet to takeoff, instead of the normal 3000 feet. Interesting. Anyway, I lift off, slowly but surely, and clean up the aircraft (gear and flaps up). Once I reach 220 knots, I retard the throttles back to Minimum Afterburner like usual, and then pull the left one back to Mil Power and then the right one back to Mil Power (Mil Power is 100% without Afterburner). This is when I notice, ok, I have a problem with my left engine. My first indication is that my EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature) on my left engine is about 300 degrees Celsius lower than normal for this power setting. Then I notice my Nozzle is still open at 35% open, where it should be between 0-20% for the power setting. I definately have a loss of thrust in the left engine, but I continue the climb and perform a scan of my cockpit to make sure everything else is normal. After determining that this is my only problem, with my left nozzle stuck open resulting in a low EGT and loss of thrust, I try to work the throttle back and forth to see if it helps. No dice, the nozzle stays open and the EGT stays low. Ok, so there I was, solo, already having to abort one flight that morning and now having an In Flight Emergency on my other flight. Like I said, somebody did not want me to fly that day.

Well, I end up getting in contact with the appropriate air traffic controller as I normally do, and declare an emergency to request immediate return to land from a straight in on the biggest runway. What's great about this program is we practice this exact type of emergency (engine problem on takeoff) every time we fly with an IP, so I'm pretty comfortable in knowing what to do. I perform a couple of emergency checklists, talk to the SOF (supervisor of flying) and tell him what I am planning on doing. He asks a couple of questions about what is going on, and after hearing my explanation, he confirms I have a good plan. Eventually I get back into the pattern as normal, and burn down a little gas since I was so heavyweight and since my engine wasn't overheating, just low EGT. After about 6-8 minutes in the pattern I breakout and re-enter from the entry point for a precautionary single engine straight in to the longest runway. Everything goes as normal (as normal as an IFE is...) and I even got an "EXTD" (Excellent Touchdown) on my landing. I taxi clear of the runway at the taxiway, sit there for a second making sure everything was ok with the jet at the time, then I shut down on the taxiway as the fire crew are approaching, I pop the canopy, unhook my parachute and climb out, performing an "emergency ground egress". The fire crew and maintenance personnel that met me out there take a look at the jet, pin the gear, and tow it back to maintenance, and I get a ride back with the Flight Safety people.

Cool! I just had my first solo emergency, took care of it, and actually did everything (mostly) that even an IP would do! I had to fill out some paperwork about the "Unusual Occurance" and write up the jet with maintenance, but other than that everything was pretty easy. As I debriefed my flight with some of the Commanders and IPs, I learned a couple of things that I could have done better, but overall, they were all happy with my actions and said I handled it great. A couple of things I could have done was actually land immediately instead of burning down gas (I blame the runway controller, as it was his idea to burn down gas after hearing my deal, but in the end, I am the aircraft commander so it was up to me.), I should have taxied all the way to the end of the runway instead of turning off early (I wanted to get out haha), and I should have waited for the stairs to get out of the aircraft instead of jumping out (I guess an IP had a minor emergency a few months ago and decided to jump out when he really didnt need to, and ended up breaking his arm on the way down.). Other than those three things, I did pretty much exactly what I was supposed to. I definately learned more from that 0.5 hour flight than I would have from a normal 1.2 hour flight out to the area and in the pattern!

Well, after that happened, I had a normal solo on Tuesday, finally, and finished up my contact flying that Wednesday. That led me right into my Contact Checkride on last Thursday. I passed! It was an absolute PERFECT flight, my best yet, right up until I got back to the pattern for my landings. The checkride is exactly the same as a normal Dual flight, you do a simulated EP pattern on takeoff (these are how we know what to do in emergencies like mine), go to the area and do some aerobatics and practice stalls, and then come back for more landings. Well, for some reason that Thursday, I decide to change everything I normally do in my landings and really mess them up. I was flaring high, reducing the power early, getting slow on final, all sorts of bad stuff. I thought for sure I was going to bust. The IP had me fly a couple extra at the end, and then finally put it down for a full stop. I was pretty upset with myself, and really thought I was going to bust my first checkride. I guess my IP was having a good day though, seeing as he passed me with 7 downgrades. I got 6 of those for my landings. Otherwise, he said, it was close if not right at an "Outstanding" checkride. Crap. Oh well, a pass is a pass. He rails me pretty hard about what I did wrong, and even goes and talks to the IP I flew my last two flights with to ask if that had been what I always did. My IP tells him that's not how any of my previous landings were, and I think that really helped his decision not to bust me. Anyway, I passed, thankfully. On to Instruments!

And here is where I finish up my post. We jumped head first back into instruments after the Contact Checkride was complete. I have double turned a flight and a sim every day this week, and will again tomorrow. This is rough considering we have to plan a different plan for each. We also are planning our first "Out and Back" for this Thursday, and our Cross Country to Eglin AFB, FL on Friday for the weekend. Talk about massive planning! My flights and sims are going really well, for some reason I am "above average" in the instrument flying and I enjoy the change from contact. It's not as exciting but I must say, this is more of the real world stuff we will be doing day to day. The planning isnt that fun at all, but it's got to be done and we are really looking forward to getting out to FL this weekend and spending some time on the beach!

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying your summer! It's nice and hot here everyday, reaching the high 90s consistantly each day. I guess I've spent enough time writing in here and should really get back to studying and preparing my flights for tomorrow, ugh. Hope you enjoy the rest of your week! Until next time....

Flying the T-38 Talon!!!

Well it's been about three weeks since I last updated, so let's review what's been going on...

We have finished the first two of three academic courses for the T-38, both Systems and Applied Aerodynamics. The aircraft systems are much more involved than the T-37, and I'll still be learning about them for the rest of the time I'm here since there is so much. Applied Aerodynamics was pretty basic, and some of us (the Aerospace Engineers) had to "dumb" ourselves down so we wouldn't overthink some of the information. No kidding, one of the powerpoint slides we were shown said "Lift = Good, Drag = Bad", and we all got a good laugh out of that.

Both academic tests went well, I missed one question out of 40 on the Systems test and didn't miss any on the Applied Aerodynamics test, so I was pretty happy. We also started and have since gone through alot of Flight P-Missions, which is just where the IP briefs us on different subjects. Some are about local flying procedures, some about instrument techniques, and some about random other stuff. It's all good information, but it comes in huge amounts so it's pretty hard to retain alot of it.

We've had about a dozen or so Sim flights, ranging from just local area manuevers, to patterns, to instrument flights. They really help out, giving us a feel for what it'll be like when we are flying, and I'm trying to get used to what is normal during the flight. Having this many simulator flights is really supposed to prepare us for when we hit the flight line...which brings me to my next point...

My new office:

The biggest news I have is that last Friday, we started flying!!! About half the flight got their "Dollar Flight" on Friday, and the other half got weathered from a pretty good T-Storm that came through in the afternoon. Unfortunately, I was part of the afternoon group and didnt get to fly until Monday. Which brings me to my next point, I FLEW THE T-38!!! haha, after a month or so off from flying, I finally got back in the cockpit, and a much bigger, cooler, faster one at that! It was about 95 degrees out, but I didn't care (my IP cared, because the ground ops were painfully slow, which made for a very hot, very sweat-soaked IP and student). No kidding, I've never been so sweaty getting ready for a flight. By the time I got through all the ground ops, my sortie information paper that is on my kneeboard was worn through and I couldnt ready anything on it anymore! haha, my gloves were soaked, there were beads of sweat running down my visor, and with that G-suit on, (its pretty tight), it just makes it even hotter!

Needless to say, my dollar ride was a hot one, but it was a flight none the less! Just climbing up the ladder to the cockpit, where you arent sitting side by side with another person is just cool. The thing actually feels and looks like a fighter cockpit! (you think I'm excited now, just wait till I get to the takeoff part!) We sit about 10 feet up, which is about 9.5 feet higher than we sat in the Tweet, (literally, haha!), and everything looks and feels so much cooler!

We go through all the checks and make our way to the runway. The flight is alot of demo/do, so the IP gives and takes control throughout the entire flight. He lets me taxi it to the runway, 15C, and we prepare for a static takeoff. Once we are cleared, we enter the runway, do a few final checks, shut the canopies, and lineup. Since it's a static takeoff, we run the engines up to Mil power while holding the brakes to make sure they are working properly, then release brakes and go to FULL AFTERBURNER! HOLY SMOKES. It was really a kick in the seat when I lit the A/B, and I've never felt such power! The Talon's engines only produce about 2900 lbs of thrust per engine in A/B, but thats three times the thrust that I've been used to in the Tweet! We accelerate insanely fast down the runway, hitting 100 kts in about 1000 ft, and then hitting our takeoff speed in about 2500 ft. We are off the ground in close to 3000 ft of ground roll, and I'm airborn!

The sortie went fairly well, with alot of the IP flying, and then letting me try things, and we got to see the G-Ex (G Awareness Exercise), an aileron roll, a loop, immelmann, cuban 8, traffic pattern stalls, and slow flight, all out in the area. It was pretty cool doing 500 kts and pulling 5Gz in those three "over-the-top" manuevers. We returned to base with enough gas to pull closed (overhead patterns) a few times, and I got lucky on my second try and was actually able to pull off a landing! The first one I got told to go-around, and the IP had to fly the last one because we were getting low on gas and had to land. Overall, I was extremely pumped about flying the Talon, and even though it is a complete "helmet fire" right now, I'm keeping my head up and trying to keep on top of this very very steep learning curve!

My Dollar Ride IP and I in the Flight room after the flight.
Over the past few days, I've been able to fly once or twice after the dollar ride, and actually have some other news. My third flight has taken me three days to complete! haha, this isn't good considering I am already behind the timeline for the program, but it hasn't been my fault thankfully! I was supposed to double-turn (fly twice) on Tuesday (yesterday), and my first flight went well, but my second flight (third total) wasn't able to even get off the ground! We completed everything up to lining up on the runway, and when we put our canopies down, my IP wasn't able to get a good pressure seal on his. We do what's called a "bump check" where once we close and lock the canopy, we hit it with our fists to make sure it gets a good seal and will be able to pressurize correctly, and when we did his check it was moving. None the less, we were forced to abort down the runway not fly for the second flight of the day due to it being in the "Thermal Index Zone - Danger" (it's just really hot).

So we try again today to finish my third flight, and this time make it off the ground, do a practice emergency straight in, and then head out to the area. We get all the area work done, and we had designed this sortie to be focusing on the patterns once we got back from the area, so we save quite a bit of gas and cut the area stuff short. The last thing we did in the area was traffic pattern stalls and slow flight, which is done fully configured with gear and full flaps. Once we are done, we go to raise the gear and flaps and our right main gear shows that it is still down and locked, but the handle is up and the other two gear are up and locked!!! sheeeesh! Basically to make a long story short, we stay below gear speed, orbit around our area and get into our emergency checklist. The IP has taken control of the aircraft and I am in reading the "Gear Failure to Retract" pages, which basically tells us to try putting the gear down and if all three come down and indicate safe, then fly back to base and land. So we do this, and get all three green safe indications, and start coordinating for our RTB (return to base). We declare an emergency with Ft. Worth Center and request a chase ship to look over our jet to make sure everything is OK at this time. We fly back, doing all the normal checks and talking to the SOF and appropriate controllers, and plan a normal straight in to Tinder (the longest Sheppard AFB runway) for a full stop. Everything from this point goes fine, and we land normally and nothing is wrong with the gear at this point, but they still have the fire trucks and wing safety out waiting for us on the runway. We taxi back to the chocks and shutdown and have to go through a bunch of maintenance paperwork for the problem (and our landing light didn't illuminate, but that's a small point).

All in all, it's been a pretty exciting week, definately back to the fire hose of information and 12 hour days. I'm sure I'll be getting the next stand-up emergency procedure, and if I guess right, it will be a gear retraction failure during slow flight while in the area! Haha, so that's what's been going on over here, it's hot, humid, and stormy, but we are finally back flying and the flying is good! Hope all of you are having a great June and keeping cool from the summer heat! Until next time...

T-38 week 1 done

First of all, I'd like to take a moment to thank all those who have given so much for this country and the American people. Dad sent an email today that talked about the importance of today, with one passage that really caught my eye:

"Today we honor the many lives that have been lost in the battles that have been fought that peace and freedom might previal."

Thank you to all who have served, are serving, and will serve for this same purpose.



Well, tomorrow begins week two of T-38 training. Last week went pretty smooth, with tons of academics and trying to learn the entire T-38's systems in a matter of a week. We started with all the electrical and avionics systems, and with all the new hardware in the C model (glass cockpit), it was quite different than the old steam gages in the Tweet. It's pretty rediculous how many different electrical systems are in the jet, some AC, some DC, some both, and which components are part of which systems.

Next was the fuel system, along with the hydraulic, flight control, pneumatic, and other miscellaneous systems. It's pretty rough considering the Tweet was a child's toy compared to this thing and the Talon's flight manual is twice as large as the Tweet's.

Our systems test is on Wednesday, with tomorrow (Tuesday) being all aerospace physiology training. We've also gotten into our new flight rooms on the T-38 side, and H Flight (my flight) went to M Flight, and D Flight (Mike and Greg's) went to I Flight. It was pretty cool, because M Flight is called Mob Flight, and with 5 Italians, the IP's thought it was pretty fitting. The flight room is about three times as large as our old one, thank the Lord, and we even have our own large central table to actually study and do work at. I'll have to post pictures soon, but I still need to replace the LCD screen on my digital camera that was broken in the flight back from the Centrifuge.

That reminds me, don't put anything expensive or breakable in your checked baggage on flights. I'm not quite sure why I did, but Murphy's Law wanted to teach me a lesson and cracked the screen on my camera. I took it all apart, being the engineer that I am, and am able to take the screen out and replace with a working one I will get from the same type camera that I bought off Ebay. I love Ebay.

Anyhow, after spending a few days in Dallas with Dave relaxing and hanging out with Nicole, who we actually spent our freshman year spring break with at a lakehouse in Orlando years ago along with a bunch of other friends, I am back at base and really need to study. It seems I am more likely to write a post on here than study, and it's getting bad. I really need to control my procrastination! Haha, well I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and I'll be sure to write again soon after I pass my systems test on Wednesday! Have a great week!

Centrifuge Training

Our Centrifuge profile:

4 G (640 pounds) for 45 seconds (0.1 G per second)
5 G (800 pounds) for 30 seconds (1 G per second)
6 G (960 pounds) for 30 seconds (6 G per second)
7.5 G (1200 pounds) for 15 seconds (6 G per second)
6 G (960 pounds) for 10 seconds "check 6" (6 G per second)


Wow. The centrifuge really did a beating on all of us this past Friday! The Air Force flew all of us over to Holloman AFB, New Mexico for the training, right in the middle of nowhere! If you aren't sure what the centrifuge training is, it's where you sit in a cockpit style chair inside a capsule that spins around a room. As the pod spins, it rotates to where you are "sitting" on the wall sideways instead of upright. The faster they make it spin, the more G load you experience. The above numbers are of the profile we all had to fly, with what the specific G load converts to for my body weight, along with the duration and the onset rate. As you can see, it's pretty intense!

Here is the inside of the capsule, with many many previous class stickers.

Here is the room that is spins around, and as it spins faster, the blue box where we sit rotates 90 degrees so you are "sitting" on the wall as it spins.

Overall I, along with the rest of the class who passed, scored average. Basically that means you are able to perform the Anti-G Straining Maneuver (AGSM) properly and stay conscious throughout each profile. The AGSM is where you take a 70-80% breathe, close your glottis (throat muscle) to block the air, squeeze your lower body muscles like your legs and abs, and perform an air exchange every 3 seconds briefly. It keeps the blood up in your head and not down in your legs, resulting in an increased G-tolerance. We got to wear our G-suit during the training which helps a bit, but only provides about 1.5G of resistance. If you don't know what I'm talking about, think about a rollercoaster going through a loop, except it doesnt stop and just keeps accelerating. The force that you would feel pushing you into the seat is what we are training to protect ourselves from because you can G-LOC yourself (G induced loss of consciousness) pretty fast in these aircraft.

This is me getting strapped in and the Airman about the close the door. She is showing me what I am supposed to look at during the profiles.

Surprisingly, the worst one for me was the very first profile, the gradual 4G pull with no AGSM. It is to figure out what your resting G tolerance is, give or take. I started to grey out towards the end, and I really thought I was in trouble. They see that alot in people with low blood pressure (runners especially, not that I've run much recently) and people who are dehydrated. I blame running, cause I was clear and copius for two days during this trip!

The next pull was 5G with a faster onset rate of 1G per second. This is where we got to "play" with our straining techniques and breathing, as well as see the effects of what one thing does over another, like squeezing your abs, and then your legs, and then neither or both, etc. It was pretty cool to see what works the best, and the lower body squeeze was definately the most important part for me.

The most difficult profile of them all was the third one, the rapid onset 6G for 30 seconds. Holy cow, I've never felt anything like this. It wasn't so much that it was a large number of Gs, it was the fact that we had to hold it for that long. They are constantly reminding you to breath, squeeze your butt, squeeze your legs, breath, etc. It doesnt sound that hard now, but when you are actually doing it, you really can forget to breath or squeeze. Gladly, I didn't experience any greying out during this one.

The 7.5G for 15 seconds was a bittersweet mix. I didn't mind it actually, because even though it was more intense, it was for half the time as the previous. Although, I did lose about 25% of my periphial vision, but some extra squeezing of the buttocks got that right back. In my debrief, they actually told me that is what they are looking for more than never losing any sight at all, because they want to see that we recognize and react to the loss, not that we just dont lose any sight at all.

The "check 6" was not too bad either. They have you slowly (and I mean slowly) turn your head to the right until you can see a red LED "8" about 130 degrees behind you, and then put you through the rapid 6G onset for 10 seconds. They also make you breath without the reminders, which like I said, sounds easy now, but you'd be surprised! The reason I say turn your head slowly is because (and I tested this earlier in the ride) if you turn fast, your equilibrium is all messed up and you really REALLY feel like you are tumbling all over the place! It is quite the ride!

Once you complete your profiles, you get out and are just wiped. You get to just sit on the couch and catch your breath and regain some strength, but it only gets worse. Everyone got "G-sles" which are little red dots where the capillaries near your skin surface have burst, and it looks like mini measles from the Gs. It also makes you feel like you just worked out every muscle in your body, mainly the butt and legs. Everyone was walking funny the rest of the trip to say the least.

It was nice to get the experience, although we wont be pulling 6 G turns for 30 seconds anytime soon in our jets, but we will have to go back to the centrifuge once we find out what aircraft we will fly in order to complete that specific profile, and some of them get up to 9Gs for 30 seconds. Wow.

The rest of the time there we went out to eat at Chilis and then went back and experienced Holloman's O-Club. It wasnt the greatest, but we ended up leaving and going to the bowling alley, which was a blast. I'm not going to lie, there were breverages being served and some pretty good bets going for the gutter balls, and at the end of the night the bumpers were definately up. Mike took the pictures while we were at the centrifuge, so all I have at the moment to share are of bowling.



Look at that form!

I wasn't too happy about missing that last pin, but at least it wasn't a gutter ball. If you threw a gutterball, you owed a dollar to the pot for more.......soda. haha!

TWEET COMPLETE!

Well, despite today's best efforts to doom me completing my last checkride, I succeeded! I am now officially Tweet Complete! (ok, so I'm not counting that we have to finish weather academics...but still)

It starts with me sleeping through my alarm, or shutting it off somehow, and waking up 30 minutes late. This isn't so bad, except I give myself 45 minutes from alarm to when I have to walk out the door. I was a tad rushed this morning, to say the least.

We were on the schedule to have one of our last weather classes from 0800-1000 this morning, but they decide we aren't close enough to needing to be done, and not only do they not have a classroom for us, there are no available instructors. In the mean time, class 08-02 (the class finishing in about 6 weeks) is in the middle of their weather class with an instructor and a classroom. We were not happy. We ended up sitting around till 0900 when they got out and got our 2 hour class crammed into an hour. This was fine with me because Mike and I were supposed to be at check section to brief at 1130. If the class went the whole 2 hours, it would have given us about 5 minutes to gather all our checkride stuff and get there. In the end, I guess it worked out, it was just a pain in the butt.

Ok, so, with the academics class done for the day, Mike and I can concentrate on getting ready for the checkride, but oh wait, the network goes down. Not only this, but the weather decides to take a dump on us and we go Stop Launch. So not only can we not get the weather, notams, ops notes, etc for the brief, we dont even have an instrument status that we need to be able to take off. God really didnt want us checking today. We finally get the weather and notams and head to check section at 1130, and our IP's tell us, "Well, we aren't going to brief with no status, so we'll let you know." Greaaaaaaat. We head back to the room and wait. About 45 minutes later we finally get a break in the weather and are able to fly. We get our flight times switched around with a couple people and head to our brief. All is fine, a little rushed, but nothing out of the ordinary. We step to the jet and find out the areas arent going to be very good. Jeeez... What else can go wrong. Oh yea, and we have to take off on an instrument departure, kind of non-standard, and arrive on our Simutaneous Instrument Approach, pretty non-standard. Not to mention I haven't flown formation, let alone any flight, under these conditions in a long time. Guess I get to see how much I remember.

We step to the jet, get all strapped in, and taxi out with our clearance. Not too bad. We get lined up, and with a couple small communication gliches between Mike and I, we are ready to go. Take off and departure are actually pretty smooth, minus the turbulence. The clearance we requested was for the Sheppard 1 Areas, but I get told all of them are full, so I (as Lead) have to coordinate for other clearances. We end up getting an area in the Sheppard 2 Areas, which are just in a different part of Oklahoma, and there are only 2 usable areas out of 5. Super. As I look out in front of the flight, I take a guess at which will be able to use, and this is where we finally get our first break. I choose area 13, and end up lucking out, seeing as this is the only area that we actually get some, and I mean SOME, ground references. Needless to say, up to this point was a pain.

Next, we get into the area and start our work. I am leading out so I give Mike some wingwork, echelon turns, a pitch out and rejoin, a break out, and some close trail. At this point, Mike's IP saying "Wild 2 is good" (we are Wild Flight), meaning he is done with the current maneuver (an echelon turn), but my IP says he thinks he is ready for the position change. I didn't think that was right, but I asked my IP again and he says the same thing. This means I do not get to give Mike any extended trail maneuvers, which is the most fun stuff of formation. Oh well. We do the position change and he starts leading me on my work. Wingwork, echelon turns, break out, pitch out, rejoin, close trail, and extended trail. Awesome, I've had better flights, but not bad for a weekend off and in and out of the weather, with turbulence. We start heading to the back of the area, and I am expecting to do some checks to prepare to come home, when Mike sends me fighting wing. This wasn't briefed, and we weren't supposed to need to do this position, but I go. Little did I know, Mike was up in his jet trying to re-orient himself within the area and figure out where we were. Since I was flying on his wing, I hadn't paid much attention to the area, seeing as this is his responsibility. Later I find out in the debrief that he flew our formation about a half a mile out of the back of the area. Not good. I'll get to more of that in a minute.

He finally figures out where he is and leads us home, through the weather and through an instrument approach. We are able to land in sequence and taxi back to the chocks, get out, and head into the flight room. We have about 20 minutes until we have to report back to check section so the IP's can fill in the gradesheet, and the entire time, Mike is looking pretty pissed off. All he says to me is "I don't know" when I ask him how his flight went. We report to check section and go through our respective debriefs, mine going pretty well. I get my EP (emergency procedure) done, and get through some GK (general knowledge) pretty fast because I knew everything he asked right away. I end up passing my final Tweet checkride with only 6 downgrades! This is pretty good, considering there are about 3 times as many gradeable items than a normal checkride. I head back to the flight room.

Once Mike gets done with his, he gets back and is pretty pissed. I guess when he went out of the area, his IP busted him for the flight. He now has to go through an IPC, which is like a makeup checkride, except if you bust that, you are in big doo-doo. We talk for a bit about the flight and he just tells me he got really spacially disoriented after the extended trail and just couldnt figure out where we were. This was very unusual for Mike, and definately the first time it's happened when I've flown with him. Of course it HAD to happen on the final Tweet checkride. Dang. He's scheduled to fly the IPC tomorrow, and hopefully he passes.

Well, that sums up my final checkride in the Tweet, and hopefully my final flight ever in that jet! Although, if it turns out I FAIP (First Assignment Instructor Pilot), I'd either go to the T-6 Texan II, or the T-38. The rest of the day I spend hanging out in the flight room, and my Flight Commander tells me not to leave until he gets back. So I go to the bookstore and pick up my T-38 publications, checklist, in flight guide, and cockpit poster and put them in my car. I go and visit with Greg and Mike over in D Flight, and hang out with the Italians in the flight room for a bit. Once the Flight Commander, Captain Molari, gets back from his flight, he has a couple guys grab me and tells everyone there is a new tradition in H Flight! The first person or people (formation) to complete from the flight gets thrown in the same tank of water that we got thrown in during our solos! Oh man, and the whole point was that we wouldn't know about it and be able to bring a dry set of clothes or anything! HAHA, since there wasnt anywhere to run, I give in and take all the stuff out of my pockets and get led out to the tank. YES! The tank was empty! WOOHOO! haha, all that was left was an inch of water on the bottom, and about an inch of mold on top of that. Thank goodness! But Captain Molari doesn't stop there. He has a couple guys go get some trash cans (empty) and fill them up with water. He calls me to attention outside and proceeds to order the guys to one at a time throw a bucket of water at me. HAHA, I guess that's the new H Flight tradition!

Well, that sums up my day...the good and the bad. I am now one weather academic test from being Tweet Complete, but in all fairness, I'm done. No more "Flying Dog Whistle" for me!!! I'm gonna miss that jet...........maybe.

T-Minus one checkride till Tweet Complete!

Today I flew my last instructional sortie in the T-37 Tweet (hopefully). Mike Twisselman and I are paired again to check together on Monday, and as all goes to plan, we will be Tweet Complete after we pass!

This is definately good news, considering today was our first Thermal Index Caution Zone day. It only got up to 95 F, but in the jet it felt like an oven! I can't even imagine what flying in 115 F feels like.

Not only was today my last instructional sortie, I flew it with Colonel Asmus, an IP from Randolph AFB who commutes to Sheppard to fly for a week a month, and as we went through the sortie, I found out he was at NAS Lemoore in 1988-89, back when our family was there. He flew A-10s there, as well as spent some time on the USS Lincoln with a crossover tour with the NAVY. Small world. He was an awesome guy to fly with, and a really nice guy on top of that! I really enjoyed myself and actually flew my best formation flight yet. Things are definately looking good for the checkride.

Tonight is assignment night for the class we replaced in Tweets, and who we will replace in T-38s. Good luck to them all and hopefully they all get what they want! As for now, I get to relax for a bit before going to the OClub, and tomorrow Mike, Jose and I are finally going to the shooting range for the first time since we got here. It'll be a nice release before I start studying for the check. I hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll try to post some pictures soon!

Even Better!

Just when I thought it couldnt get any better, I go and fly a flight like I did today!

I was scheduled to fly once today, and not even with a take off time until 1836 (6:36 pm). The sunset was supposed to be at 8:17, so if all went to plan, I would be touching down exactly one minute before "night". The day up until my flight was ok, with some time to study and even go back to my apartment to eat a nice lunch. I got back to the flight room at about 2:30 and just sat around and read up on some formation info in the mean time.

At 5:36 pm we were supposed to start briefing (me, my IP Captain Johnson, and the two guys I was flying against, Mike Twizzelman and his IP Captain Cox), but neither of our IP's were back from their previous flights. The scheduling really makes for some sporty briefings, cutting out alot of time from the turn times being so short. Anyhow, once our IP's show up we start briefing and since this is like the third formation flight we have flown all together it's pretty standard. We go over the important stuff and step to the jet about 10 minutes late.

Once we get out to the jet, we get everything up and running and taxi out to the EOR (End of Runway). This is where we check each other over and request clearance to take off. Since I am leading the formation on the take off, I request clearance and they give us a standby for weather. This is not good, considering we are just sitting there burning gas and wasting time. The weather was getting pretty crappy, with some pretty good thunderstorms building around the airport and in the areas we are going to. It had started raining on us, so we put the canopies down and waiting until they cleared us to take off.

Once we got that, we did an interval take off where lead goes and wing waits 10 seconds and then goes. This results in us having to rejoin on departure, and when there is weather, makes it pretty interesting. But, we rejoin and head out to one of the areas. Once we get established in the area, we start our profile.

From the time we take off, we spend the entire flight flying through and then around the thunderstorms. The wing work is kind of challenging, trying to keep out of the clouds and to plan what to do next to stay out of them. We complete that stuff, doing lazy eights, echelon turns, pitch outs, rejoins, and close trail. Once we get done with that, we start the fighting wing and extended trail stuff. Up until this point, I thought I had seen the best formation stuff, but wow, extended trail is friggin amazing! It's where you fly 500-1000 ft out and anywhere in a 30-45 degree cone around your lead. While you are keeping your position and maneuvering around this cone, the lead aircraft is doing barrel rolls, cloverleafs, loops, and like today, chasing the clouds. We had such an amazing time flying today!! I'm not sure if any of the next 5 flights I have remaining can top it. The area we flew around had a broken cloud deck all around the area, which made for some kick-ass cloud chasing flight. In the words of my IP, "If you are not having a blast flying in this, you should not be in this program" and he is totally right.

Once we got all the area work done, we start to head home and I am flying wing now. We have to fly through some weather, and just like on the way out, the lead's jet is barely visible! In and out, I see him, I dont.... It was nuts. Right about the time we are breaking out of the weather, the sun is just on the horizon right behind lead's jet as I look at him. It made this really cool orange haze with the silhouette of his jet black and the orange haze all around from the sun reflecting off the clouds we were flying through. I wish I could have had a camera up there today, or been able to find a picture to show what I'm talking about, cause I've never seen anything like it.

Definately, by far, the coolest day of flying I have ever had.

It kind of looked like this, except with a Tweet instead of a T-38, more clouds all around us, alot less visibility, the sun a little bit lower on the horizon about to set, and the other jet about three times as close as this one. Like I said, it was awesome.

Almost Tweet Complete

The T-37 Tweet
(My current office, not for long though)

Well, this week could be my last week of flying the T-37 Tweet. I have six formation flights and a formation checkride to complete and it's a good thing too, since the Tweet's air conditioning unit is nonexistant and the weather is creeping into the 90's (during the coming months it will get up to the 110+ range). We are scheduled to have Tweet graduation on May 14th. The 17th-19th will be spent at Holloman AFB, NM getting our centrifuge training out of the way. This is where we go and get high-G tolerance training done. They basically put you in this little pod that simulates the inside of the cockpit and accelerate it so fast it simulates up to 9 G's. This is like feeling 9 of your body weights on you, which would be about 1500 pounds! It's pretty intense to say the least.

Anyway, once we complete that, we will start academic training for the T-38 Talon. About three weeks later we hit the flightline! Woohoo! I can't wait!

The T-38 Talon

(My new office, in a few weeks)