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
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