Week 41 & 42

Week 41

I have not written for a while, and it’s been pretty busy. Flying is going really good. We started our Air Drop portion of training and I like it a lot. It is pretty much just flying a low level, except you do it in formation with another plane. You also do a simulated drop where both planes climb 500’ and slow down to 150 knots at the same time. Once we drop our "cargo" we do the escape where we descend back down and accelerate to clear the area. This past week I flew every day and sometimes twice a day which brought me to now where I have my last checkride in pilot training on Monday. I am so excited to be almost finally finished. It is such a good feeling knowing I am so close. I just hope I don’t screw it up. Friday night we had our drop night. They hold it at the Officer's Club and our theme was the Price is Right. We all wore big yellow name tags and it was way crowded. They call you up one at a time in front of a big screen where they flash a slide of you and some info about you. Then we played a plinko game that was rigged for the chip to fall where your going to go. It was pretty cool and even cooler when I got my plane. My future lies in the KC-10 to Travis which was our number one choice. We are very excited to go to California and start the rest of our lives. It worked out pretty good and almost everyone got a plane that was in their top 5 choices. There were a few disappointed people, but I guess that is inevitable.

Week 40

Week 40

This was a pretty normal week of flying. I am enjoying these flights more and seem to be a little less stressed. We did not find out our drop this week because of the holiday, but I am told should be early next week. I really hope they have what we want. We took our last EPQ that counts for anything and our flights that go into our class standing stop next week. Something new we did start this week was the air refueling portion of our training. We train for both the tanker and the receiver parts. For the tanker I think it is a lot more mentally tasking, but for the receiver you really have to be on your game as far as flying is concerned. The tanker is responsible for the majority of the rendevous. He coordinates with air traffic control and the receiver to ensure timing and safety of the mission. The tanker also has to do in flight calculations to find out the closure speed of the two aircraft, offset, turn radius, and distance to begin the turn to roll out 1-3 miles in front of the receiver. How it works is like this, imagine a long straight line with the beginning called the initial point (IP) and a control point (CP) at the other end. The objective is to be refueling by the CP at an exact time. The tanker orbits the CP and waits for the receiver to call IP inbound. Once that happens the two fly right at each other. That is where the calculations come into play. You usually start your turn back around between 16-19 miles to roll out in front of the receiver headed towards the CP. Once both are going that way the receiver pretty much takes over from there and begins closing the distance until you are in a Pre-contact position with about 12 feet separation between the two aircraft. Then the tanker clears him for contact. The receiver closes the gap to about 3-5 feet and begins the simulated refueling. You have to stay in that position for a minute. It is pretty hard and even harder when the tanker has to turn. I do like the challenge of it though. Next week I am scheduled for my first formation air drop. That should be way cool.

Week 38 & 39

Week 38

This week was pretty good. Monday felt like a week by itself. I had my Navigation checkride which is suppost to be the hardest checkride I will ever have in the flying world. So, needless to say I was pretty worked up about it. You all know me as mr. anxiety, well it definitely showed for this. I think I used the restroom atleast four times before I even went down to brief. I am sure you all know that I tend to talk “a little fast” when I get nervous…you should have heard me during the initial brief, I sounded like the micro-machine guy. My check pilot was pretty cool though, he commented on my ability to talk fast and told me not to be so nervous. He did say that I set a record for finishing the entire brief (which normally takes an hour) and the general knowledge part (which normally takes 45 minutes) in only 20 minutes. The check ride itself went really well. I was happy with the way I flew and ended up only getting a one downgrade excellent. The downgrade was for my low level entry which was a bit rushed due to weather, if only I could control the weather. It really was not my fault, but if I argued that he would probably just say “fine, I will give the downgrade to you for something else.” I was very excited for that score. I am tied with 3 other people for the best score in the class. The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. I started formation flying which gets us ready for the airdrop and air refueling portions. We don’t fly near as close as we did in the T-6 and its not really as cool. But, I enjoy it more then shooting a bunch of approaches. I am looking forward to the other stuff. There is only one more class to graduate in front of us. I cant believe how close it is. I should even find out what is in my drop in about two weeks…how exciting.

Week 39

This week went by pretty fast. Started and almost finished formation, and now all that is really left is air drop and refueling. I only have 9 flights left of pilot training. I am so excited to be almost done. Formation flying in the T-1 is a lot different then T-6’s. You are not as close and it is more difficult because the T-1 does not move nearly as quickly as the T-6 does, so you almost have to know what the other guy is going to do and act before he does. The weather this week was ok for the most part. There was a few times that I had to dodge clouds (we are not allowed to go in them while in formation), but to me that makes it more fun. Another thing is that the T-1 wants to fly and does not slow down very easily. It is a very sleek airplane and even the speed brakes do not help much. It is pretty funny to watch some guys who just don’t have the feel try to rejoin on the wing. They carry a lot of airspeed and just go screaming past us. This Friday we should find out what aircraft and what locations will be available for our drop (we don’t find out exactly what we get until sept. 14). Tommorrow I have my very last SIM in UPT, hooray!

Week 36 & 37

Week 36

This was a pretty cool week of flying. I am enjoying the low levels we get to fly during this phase of training. We fly them to train for air drops we are going to make behind enemy lines. We fly a random ground track at a specific airspeed to arrive at our target on time to the second. We do this at altitudes below 500’ to avoid enemy radar detection. It is cool because of the vast amount of calculations you use to get there. You have to factor in pressure altitude, airspeed, winds and magnetic variation of the earth. By far the coolest is zooming along almost at ground level. This last low level I did was awesome! There was one point where a herd of deer were in our flight path, so we buzzed them and scared the pebbled crap out of em’. There is also a point on this particular low level referred to as Star Wars Canyon because it resembles the final run on the death star flying through the trench with Darth Vadar in close trail. It even has a canyon face at the end where you have to pull up out of the trench. Flying through the canyon at over 300MPH all I could think about was “almost there…almost……there..he’s too close..bwahhhhh!!” That is when I released our photon torpedoes and destroyed the death star. I also did another VFR leg this week (that is where we fly at 3000’ above the ground and navigate based only on ground references). The weather here in Texas lately has been overly active with thunderstorms and rain, which makes flying very interesting, but I love it! While navigating based on ground references I also had to navigate inbetween huge cells of thunderstorms and rain. From the air they look like huge grey columns where you cant see past. Our plane is equipped with weather radar and storms like that get huge returns. At times you can see the lightning jumping from one cloud to the next. Cumulonimbus clouds are built by continuous updrafts which means that these clouds produce severe winds toward their cores, which ultimately makes them elevators for airplanes. There has been a few times where we were forced to fly into some of these clouds and what a ride it is. It reminds me of the Tower of Terror the way it takes your stomach away. One time the cloud raised our altitude almost 500’.

Week 37

Its been awhile since I have written. Not a whole lot has been going on. I have my navigation checkride on Monday. I think I am ready. There is a lot of stress on me to do good on this ride. It almost seems that the rest of our lives will be determined by one checkride. If I do really good I will secure my spot in the top of the class and get what I want at drop night, if not then who knows what I will get. Larissa as always has no worries and always says I will do just fine, but my being mr. anxiety and with the million things that can go wrong on every flight am still nervous. Flying this past couple of weeks has being going good. I have been doing the usual flying all over texas and occasionally to the neighboring states. We went and visited the aliens at Roswell, NM a couple of times. The highlight of recent flying to me is still the low levels. I really enjoy flying with my hair on fire super low to the ground. We scared the crap out of a trucker on one of my routes the other day. Our turn point took us right over interstate 10 and it just so happened he was coming right at us. So my IP told me to have some fun and I dumped the nose at him and dove right at him. We were so close I could see the driver. Last Thursday we went on an out and back to Laredo. Pretty much the only thing there is a Walmart and a Fuddruckers. We had decided enroute that we would eat there and I told everyone about the challenge. They all thought it was funny how much food it was. When we got to the restaurant and I started to order they all issued me the challenge again. I felt like marty on back to future when they called me chicken, so I had to accept. Luckily, I was not the one flying back, and there is a bathroom on the airplane just incase. I was smart this time and did not get the chili fries, and it was still harder then I remember. I did get it all down and impressed everyone. They did not have shirts there but I do have a picture on the wall. I cant believe how close I am to being done. After my checkride I will only have 14 more flights left in pilot training. That equates to about 3 to 4 weeks of flying left. I am excited to be complete and get my wings. Looking back this has been one of the longest and shortest year of my life.

Week 34 & 35

Week 34

Flying this week was pretty normal, nothing too cool to report. I did fly down to Corpus Christi to shoot some approaches. The airfield is pretty much right on the harbor which means I got to fly over the ocean. That was pretty neat, especially because we were really low and got to see some big ships up close. We also saw the airplane called “the guppy” which NASA uses to transport shuttle parts in. Also, I did a couple VFR legs (navigating solely on charts) this week which were ok. Weather stopped us from doing the really cool ones, but there was some stuff to see.

Week 35

Its been a fun couple of flights recently. I went on my cross country in the T-1 to exciting Oklahoma City, Fort Worth, and Louisiana. The flying we did primarily at night, but on the first leg out we did a low level which was awesome. We flew through a canyon at less than 300’ and going over 300 knots. It was just like independence day, except that we did not have aliens shooting at us. We flew primarily at night which I love. It is so pretty to look at all the lights and see the stars when you are above all the city lights. It is so calm and peaceful. You don’t get near as much updrafts because there is far less heat dissipation at night. When we stopped in Oklahoma city we were greeted with a rousing square dance and everyone was singing the famed “Oklahoma” song. Of course I joined in and showed them how we do it back it “Oohtah.” We stayed in a 5 star hotel which gave us a huge discount because we were military. The showers were all tile and they had flat screen plasma T.V.’s in every room. Every room was also equipped with temperpedic mattresses, but I still like mine better. I felt just like a famous person without all the money. That night a huge storm rolled through and flooded parts of the city. It was cool to watch from 8 stories up and laugh at all the cowboys floating away. Luckily, it cleared up later and we made it back to the airport ok. We had to wait until dusk to takeoff and got to see some pretty cool stuff. There was a completely restored WWII T-6 and the pilot let us sit in it. He said it was the only one in existence that had all of its original equipment. It was neat to see what they used to train in and how far aviation has come. When we took off and the sun went down we flew around the line of thunderstorms that went through OKC. It was cool to see all the flashes at night.

Week 32 & 33

Week 32

I passed my checkride and did really well. I still think I could have done better, but I will take the score. Of course with my luck I got the crappy check ride pilot and honestly with how I did I think I should have gotten a much better score. It’s hard because everything is such a competition now where everyone is fighting for the plane and location of their choice. On Friday I went on my first out and back. This is where we fly to a location, do a bunch of instrument approaches, land and eat lunch, and then fly back to Laughlin. These are cool because I get the opportunity to eat lunch at a bunch of really cool places.

Week 33

Pretty much more of the same this week. Flying was pretty much standard except for Wednesday. A huge system of thunderstorms developed in Texas and of course the Air Force’s fly no matter what mentality meant that we were pretty much going to ignore the fact that they were headed towards Laughlin. We changed our plan 3 different times finally deciding on El Paso as our outbase. Also because of the weather we switched to only flying me that day, so I logged 3.2 hours by myself (which is a lot). When we stepped to the jet we were told that we had about 15 minutes until they went stop launch and were not going to let any airplanes leave. So, we did about the fastest ground ops in history and taxied in only 10 minutes. When we were holding short ready for takeoff they asked us to be a weather ship (basically fly into the storm and find out how bad and which direction it is moving). You know me, I was all for it. It was way cool seeing the thunderclouds from that close. They were so tall and dark. It rained like crazy and my partner got all kinds of pics. It was a good flight and the weather in El Paso was good. When we decided to go home we realized that the line of thunderstorms had blocked almost any route we could use to get home. We were actually on our way to diverting to Midland, Tx when air traffic control said there was a break near the border. So, we flew pretty much a mile from the border back to Laughlin. It was really neat seeing the fence along the border and the hundreds of Mexicans that were jumping, swimming, digging and running across to the other side (ha ha). On Friday we flew over Waco and say the remains of the infamous compound. Next week we have a VFR sortie which we planned to be more of a sight seeing tour. So, that should be fun.

Week 29, 30 & 31

Week 29

The only thing that is good about flying 6 hour missions is that the 12 hour days go by quick. The weeks just seem to be flying by, which is perfectly fine to me. Flying was pretty much standard this week. I did fly out to Roswell New Mexico again which was pretty cool. At first I thought I saw an alien spacecraft, but it turned out to be a couple of F-117’s that were in the pattern with us. It was neat seeing them, but the pilots said that those planes are pretty boring to fly because the computer pretty much does everything. I had another emergency procedures SIM this week as well. I actually enjoy those, they make you think about ways to solve problems you can encounter in the airplane and if you come up with the wrong solution it is pretty evident when you become a large, black, smoking hole in the ground. My flying partner and I were doing so well that the instructor decided to make things interesting for us. So, he gave us a #1 engine oil system malfunction which caused us to shut down the engine, followed shortly by an engine fire in the #2 engine. We were only going on the #2 engine so we had to let that one burn until we could restart the #1 engine and hope that it could get us back to Laughlin. When we got to final and were about to lower the landing gear, the IP gave us a hydraulic system failure which takes out our landing gear, brakes, flaps and nose wheel steering. So, we were about to land with only a half working engine, hydraulic failure and then to top it off he failed our only working generator so we lost all electrics. We surprised him that when were about to land it safely, so he put in a wind shear that forced us to crash. He told us that he would have done anything to get us to crash and we had gotten farther than any other crew he’d seen.

Week 30

Flying is going good. I am getting more confident with the aircraft each flight. Nothing super exciting happened flying wise, so there is not much to report. I am already looking forward to being done with pilot training and start being treated like an adult again, where I don’t have to fill out a form 29B (permission slip) to go out of town.

Week 31

Another pretty average week. There is not really a whole lot that happened. I am now academic complete for pilot training. That means no more classes and no more tests (except the weekly EPQ’s). We are all pretty excited to be finished with that. Friday I flew my “to check” which is the flight right before your checkride to make sure that you are ready. I passed, so I have my first checkride in T-1’s on Monday. It is not really to much different then the T-6 checkride’s, however it is a whole lot more general knowledge intensive. I think I am ready, I just need to practice drawing out the various systems in the T-1. We did fly over a front the other day which was pretty cool. It was the first time I have seen anything like that. The clouds were pretty thick and looked like a white blanket until we got to the front. The clouds then rose about 20,000’ and just dropped off like a cliff. After the front it was perfectly clear without any clouds at all. It was like the front was just dragging the clouds along with it.

Week 27 & 28

Week 27

Another exciting week. These T-1 flights are long and seem to get longer after every one I fly. After the preparation, briefings, actual flight, debriefing and EP the day is pretty much gone. This week I flew 4 times and had a SIM. The flights are going pretty good and I am getting used to the jet. It is amazing to me what this thing can do as far as its computers and junk. Its not as fun to fly as the T-6 because it is not exactly an aerobatic airplane, but it goes a lot faster and is a lot more comfortable to fly. The other day we had an IP that let us take a camera with us (Dave, the other student I fly with brought his video camera and took a bunch of videos of me flying, so I’ll get those out as soon as I can). As far as the flights I really don’t have any really cool stories except on one of my flights the flaps stuck at 10 degrees and would not retract so we had to burn off a bunch of gas in the MOA so we could safely land. Also, on Friday we went cloud chasing which was pretty fun. The cloud deck was about 5 feet below us and we just scooted across the surface. It really seemed like we were just barely above ground and was quite a rush. Another cool thing about the T-1 is that we go all over Texas for our sorties. Just this week I went to San Angelo, Corpus Christi (which is right by the ocean and that was cool), Midland, and Laredo. We also had a test and an EPQ this week, both went well. Oh, and my SIM instructor was Mr. Klopeck from the burbs. I swear he looks exactly like him. I will have to take a picture and show you.

Week 28

Things in T-1’s are going good. I just cant seem to get used to waking up at 4 in the morning. Hopefully soon we will start getting the later jets so I don’t have to come in so bloody early in the morning. Lately its just been tests, tests, and some more tests, and the occasional flight and SIM. I am doing pretty well in T-1’s, but still miss the excitement of aerobatic flying. When I finish I will have to rent an aerobatic airplane and take some of you up with me. Especially jimmy just so I can make him vomit in a bag while pulling 6 G’s, I know he’d love that. I did have one thing happen to me this week that was eye opening. The T-1 has weather radar and a anti-ice system which enables us to fly in almost any kind of weather. So, the other day we took off when lightning was forcasted and flew through some rather ominous looking clouds. The weather radar wasn’t reflecting anything bad until we all saw a huge flash of light and a loud bang which shook the plane. It took us a second to realize that we had just been struck by lightning. My IP hit the weather radar control panel which then immediately began reflecting some serious weather ahead of us. So, I requested an immediate descent and got us out of the weather. After that our avionics and flight systems were still running fine, so we finished the mission at a different location.

Week 25 & 26

Week 25

Yesterday was a pretty exciting and as I found out today, sad. Starting at about 6 a huge storm system moved into del rio and produced some incredible lightning and cloud formations. It was cool looking at until the TV started blaring the tornado warnings. The clouds started getting really low and really dark and even turned a reddish color. I thought it was just the news being cautious and then the loud speaker system here on base started going off. So, we all unplugged everything in the house and took refuge in the hallway. The lightning got really close and it started raining and hailing hard. The storm stayed around for a few hours and finally dissipated. I did not really know the full extent of what happened until I went into work today. Apparently there were a total of 3 tornadoes that touched down in del rio, the closest to us being that dollar general store right outside the front gate. When I went to get my hair cut this morning the lady who cut it said that a tornado went right by her house and she said it sounded like a freight train. The tornados did do some damage (tearing off roofs and sheds and trampolines which we got pictures of). However, I found out today that a guy in my squadron that I knew pretty well was killed when an 18 wheeler was blown in front of him as he was going home. The girls were pretty scared, and this is the first time that I have seen Kalee scared of any kind of weather. Usually she loves to watch it with me. I just heard on the news that there is another tornado watch issued for tonight, so that’s cool.

Week 26

It was actually a pretty busy week for me. For the first half it was pretty standard, had a bunch of classes and a couple of tests. Starting Thursday I “hit the flightline”, or started the flying portion even though I did not fly until Friday. Since we are the new class starting T-1’s we get the honor of the early jets, which translates into waking up at 4 in the morning. The only benefit to that is that it is still cool outside when you are flying and that you get off at 4 in the afternoon. I had my emergency procedure SIM on Wednesday were we actually handled emergencies that we might come across on the jet. It was a little disturbing to think that how I know handle these emergencies can literally mean life or death rather than save the aircraft or eject like in the T-6. I think that they should put ejection seats on all AF aircraft, but I don’t know how your passengers would feel if the aircrew ejected and they were left sitting there by themselves. The SIM went pretty good, and we did not die so that’s a good thing. On Friday morning I had my dollar ride which was overall pretty good. It is a beast to fly and is going to take some getting used to. I was accustomed to the T-6 which was very responsive and agile, unlike the T-1 which is engineered to handle like a giant airplane to give us a feel for it. The rides work different as well, there are two students and an instructor for every flight and the students take turns and swap seat positions at different stages during the flight. It is hard because you cant help your buddy, you just have to watch them make mistakes and have them watch you make mistakes from the jump seat (a seat behind the pilot and copilot). For the dollar ride we took off and flew to the MOA where we did some stalls, steep turns, slow flight, and unusual attitude recoveries. After, we flew to San Angelo for our pattern work (learning how to land the airplane, also, all the T-1’s do all their pattern work at airports other than Laughlin, so every flight I do I will be going to a different part of texas. It is amazing how much quicker travel is in airplanes). I am still trying to get used the crew concept where you have to handle the airplane as well as your crew. In the real world you have your crew to help you fly and handle the various tasks of large airplanes, but in the training environment the IP or “copilot” has to act dumb and needs to be told to do everything. My first flight really brought into perspective how much harder and how much more I need to know in order to be successful flying this airplane. After we landed we did the standard debriefing and then had our first stand-up in the class. Since I am partnered with the class leader we had the honor of being stood up first (even standup is done as a crew where one of you act as the pilot and the other the copilot). We did surprisingly well, but at the same time I was put a lot more at ease with the difference in atmosphere between the T-6 and T-1. Mission planning takes a lot longer and requires up to build and file a flight plan with every sortie and the sorties are way longer. Every flight is about 3 hours long and definitely feels like it.

Week 23 & 24

Week 23

This was my first week in Phase 3. Monday we started out in aerospace physiology relearning certain aspects about hypoxia and decompression sickness. Also, we were taught how to escape from a burning T-1. It was pretty neat being that this was my first opportunity to actually sit inside a T-1 cockpit and see how many more buttons there are versus the T-6. It was a little disheartening seeing the same stuff happening to the T-38’s which were just across the flight line. Throughout the week it became a common theme that the T-1 is exponentially more complicated then the T-6, but can do much more. The rest of the week was pretty much just orientation briefings and then a “hit the ground running” version of T-1 systems. We have our first test on these systems on Monday and again, they are much more complicated then the T-6. My days were for the most part pretty short and I got home usually before 3 which was great. I don’t expect it to be like that much longer. On Friday I had my first T-1 SIM (if you could call it that). It consisted of me and another student (along with an instructor), running through the checklist and learning where all the thousands of switches are and what exactly the do. Our next SIM should be much better as we are actually going to be in a SIM and not just a card board cut out of the cockpit like the first one. It is amazing to me the difference in attitudes among both the instructors as well as the students in the T-1’s. Everyone seems genuinely nice and concerned about your well being. The SIM instructors were friendly and offered a lot of helpful advice.

Week 24

It’s a little weird getting back into the fast paced swing of academics again and having to learn a completely new airplane. This week we had two tests, both on various systems such as the engines, avionics, fuel and oil system and a few others. We also had classes on “crew concepts”, which is something foreign to me. It is basically learning that you know have a crew on the airplane to help you fly the airplane. It is hard to transition from doing everything yourself to know having help. I did really well on my tests and am anxious to start flying (we should start flying in two weeks). Also this week I had a few SIMS, which are far more entailed then the T-6. The T-6 SIMS would last roughly 2 and a half hours, but the T-1 lasts well over 5. It takes a long time just to do the ground operations portion (checklists we run before takeoff, such as inspections and starting engines and junk). I will include pictures to show you again how much more complicate the T-1 is then the T-6. In T-1’s you are partnered with another student and you do all your SIM’ing together. I have a cool partner and we work well together. In the SIM we take turns being the pilot and the copilot. Our first SIM we both received a lot of praise from our instructor for how prepared and well we did. However, on Friday we got the worst SIM instructor in T-1’s. We had talked to a couple people in our class who also had him and told us that it did not matter how well prepared we were he would not let you do anything. They also said how much they hated SIM’ing with him. Wow, were they right. This guy was horrible. First off he is German and has a horrible accent and is very hard to understand. When we got in the SIM and started running the checklist he stopped us on every step before we even got the chance to try. He walked us through the whole thing (he even told us how we should hold the switch to flip it, like I don’t know how to flip a switch!). We were both so mad by the end of the SIM. We could not do anything for ourselves and when we tried he tried to be funny and said “Woah, slow down their young skywalker.” It would have been alright until the end during the debriefing when he told us we needed to study more and memorize the checklist. I wanted to scream at him and tell the moron that he never gave us the chance to show it. Nevertheless, the SIM was cool to fly. The T-1 flies a lot different then the T-6 and is a lot less forgiving. It also is a whole lot faster and everything happens quicker. Aside from the overwhelming amount of knowledge I have to learn and procedures I have to get dowIt’s a little weird getting back into the fast paced swing of academics again and having to learn a completely new airplane. This week we had two tests, both on various systems such as the engines, avionics, fuel and oil system and a few others. We also had classes on “crew concepts”, which is something foreign to me. It is basically learning that you know have a crew on the airplane to help you fly the airplane. It is hard to transition from doing everything yourself to know having help. I did really well on my tests and am anxious to start flying (we should start flying in two weeks). Also this week I had a few SIMS, which are far more entailed then the T-6. The T-6 SIMS would last roughly 2 and a half hours, but the T-1 lasts well over 5. It takes a long time just to do the ground operations portion (checklists we run before takeoff, such as inspections and starting engines and junk). I will include pictures to show you again how much more complicate the T-1 is then the T-6. In T-1’s you are partnered with another student and you do all your SIM’ing together. I have a cool partner and we work well together. In the SIM we take turns being the pilot and the copilot. Our first SIM we both received a lot of praise from our instructor for how prepared and well we did. However, on Friday we got the worst SIM instructor in T-1’s. We had talked to a couple people in our class who also had him and told us that it did not matter how well prepared we were he would not let you do anything. They also said how much they hated SIM’ing with him. Wow, were they right. This guy was horrible. First off he is German and has a horrible accent and is very hard to understand. When we got in the SIM and started running the checklist he stopped us on every step before we even got the chance to try. He walked us through the whole thing (he even told us how we should hold the switch to flip it, like I don’t know how to flip a switch!). We were both so mad by the end of the SIM. We could not do anything for ourselves and when we tried he tried to be funny and said “Woah, slow down their young skywalker.” It would have been alright until the end during the debriefing when he told us we needed to study more and memorize the checklist. I wanted to scream at him and tell the moron that he never gave us the chance to show it. Nevertheless, the SIM was cool to fly. The T-1 flies a lot different then the T-6 and is a lot less forgiving. It also is a whole lot faster and everything happens quicker. Aside from the overwhelming amount of knowledge I have to learn and procedures I have to get down, I am enjoying T-1’s.

Week 20,21 & 22

This is our class patch, it is appropriate becuase of the amount of people who were washed out of training.

Week 20

This was another big week for me in formation. I double turned every day and am pretty much done with T-6’s. All I have left is my two check tomorrow and my check ride on Tuesday and I am done (if I pass). This week I also had my formation solo. That was scary. It is one thing to fly an airplane all by yourself, but to worry about doing it 10 feet away from someone else all by yourself is another. I did good and was happy when it was over. The person I was doing form with failed another one of his daily rides, so I will not be flying form with him anymore. I am sure that will make mom happy, and Larissa especially since the fact that the reason he hooked the ride is because he almost clipped my wing off. A couple of times I flew this week it was pushing sunset and it is incredible. One particular day, there were isolated thunderstorms which makes really cool clouds when you get above them. That night when I was on the wing of another airplane the sun was just setting and topping those clouds. It was so pretty, almost indescribable. What made it even cooler was that all around (except for directly over Laughlin) lightning was going off with lots of rain. It is such a feeling of freedom being able to see these things and being able to do whatever you want when you are in the Military operations area.

Week 21

T-6 COMPLETE!!! This a pretty cool week for me. I had my two last daily rides in the T-6 on Monday and had my formation checkride on Tuesday. The checkride was pretty standard as far as they go, but after I finished the check ride portion the IP just told me to have fun. It was awesome, there were all kinds of clouds and they formed a canyon like surface which I played around in for about 10 minutes before we had to go back. It was a little weird thinking that this could be the last time I would be in the T-6 (unless I get FAIP’ed). It is a little bitter-sweet being done. On the one hand it is cool to finish, but on the other I realize that a harder part of my training is about to begin. As you know I put down T-38’s as my first choice with T-1’s in second. I will find out for sure what I will get this coming Friday. I will be happy with whatever the lord see’s fit to give me. The rest of the week I pretty much just turned into a janitor (making sure the flight room was in tip top shape for the next class starting soon).

Week 22

Another week has gone by and this one left quite a mark on me in many ways. As far was work goes it was pretty laid back. I was done with the T-6 portion of the program and was able to have most of the week off and spent the time with my family. As the week progressed it really started to hit me that this laziness would not last long and my life was about to get real stressfull all over again. So, of course on cue Thursday night I was hit with a nice stomach ache which Larissa’s nose was thankful for. Friday was the big day. We went into work at 9:00 and were given words of encouragement. Larissa joined me at 9:30 and the ceremony started at 10:30. It was cool seeing all the people in the auditorium coming to congratulate us. When it was my turn to find out what I got I was pretty surprised. I did not get T-38’s and I still do not know why. I finished 3rd in my class and had well over the scores to track that way. My class only got 3 T-38’s for 22 people, and the 2 people that were ahead of me did get them. The reason for the lack of T-38’s was that my class had 4 reserve/guard/foreign students who were already guaranteed T-38’s positions and took those spaces in the class leaving only a few for the active duty side. It makes no sense to me, but I just have to live with it. My only explanation is that it was just meant to be and that there is a higher purpose for me not to go that direction in my career. I just have to trust that God has a divine purpose for it. I was talking to Larissa and telling her that I don’t know if I was more disappointed in the fact that I did not get T-38’s or the fact that I did not get something that I was working so hard for. This is the first time I have not been able to accomplish a goal. I think I am ok with it. My overall goal was to become an Air Force pilot with my passion being flying in general. Being a fighter pilot was just another perk. Both sides have definite advantages. The T-38 guys get to fly cool looking fast airplanes, but have a huge volume of negative factors such as stress, long hours, severe discipline, the people are mean and cocky and a many other little things that annoy me. Another major one was the fact that I might get stuck with flying a bomber and being stationed somewhere horrible. The T-1’s obviously train to fly the big airplanes that have just as important of a mission but don’t get to do all the aerobatics and junk. That stuff was fun, but I am still trying to sort out if it was something that I wanted to do every single day for the rest of my career. Pulling G’s was ok at times but it got old pretty quick. With heavies, I get to go all over the world and no mission will be the same. I did feel a sense of relief when they announced I got T-1’s. I don’t know if I am trying to convince myself of that fact, but everyone knows how hard the decision was for me to make in the first place and now the decision was made for me. The night before I was studying hard for a test I had to take if I tracked T-38’s I did not sleep well that night because of how nervous I was. After we found out what we got and the track ceremony was over, the guys who tracked T-38’s were marched out in single file to their new flight room where they were drilled with questions, hazed, yelled at, given the test, received their new pubs which they had to have memorized by Monday, and finally at about 6 that night were released. Those of us who were “lucky” enough to track T-1’s were given a warm greeting, had our family’s encouraged to accompany us to the T-1 building where we watched a motivational video, heard from our new commander and new flight commander, did about 30 minutes of paper work and then told to have a fun relaxing weekend and get ready to start training on Monday. It was amazing to me the difference in atmospheres and stress levels. The T-1 instructors were actually nice where the T-38 instructors don’t even talk to you for the first few weeks. The T-1 IP’s played with my kids and welcomed me into the flight. One of my IP’s is actually in my ward, so I guess I have a good hook up with that. After they released us we went to Applebee’s to “celebrate” my mediocrity. That night we celebrated with the Hansen’s and their kids by getting pizza and playing games.

Larissa and I are both ok with the new direction our life is going to take us. I am now going to try for the C-17 Globemaster III with my first choice of bases being Travis in California. The heavy track is more family oriented and has perks of seeing cool places and making a killing on TDY money. I have enclosed pictures of other planes that I could possibly fly as well. Some are tankers (air refuelers), but most are transports. I do like the fact that all these are crew aircraft where you are not always by yourself and have someone else to talk to and help you through the busy parts of flying. That is why my first choice if I had gotten fighters was going to be the F-15E Strike Eagle which is a two seater.

Larissa and the kids are all doing fine. Lily and Kalee ran up to me after the ceremony and gave me hugs and told me congratulations. It was difficult to fight off the tears. My squadron commander came up to me after as well and shook my hand and told me that all they needed was one more T-38 and it would have been mine. He also told me how good I did and that it was not fair how things worked out. Again, I am putting my faith in divine intervention. It makes me feel better that I did not get 38’s.

Week 18 & 19

Week 18

This was a fun week. Grandma, Grandpa and Lindsay came and visited us. We all had a lot of fun. Monday and Tuesday I did not do much of anything because I had to wait to start formation until another student finished his check ride. Wednesday our visitors came. Kalee and Lily absolutely loved having their grandparents here and were sad when they had to go home. Thursday I had the opportunity to take mom, dad and Lindsay to go see the flightline and check out an airplane and see where I work. After, they got to tryout their skills at flying the T-6 Simulator. It was fun to see them trying what I have been doing here for a while. Trying being the key word. They got home movies of themselves flying, so if you want to see it you know where to look. I got a kick out of my dad landing in the field and then deciding to drive the airplane on the ground to San Antonio, and Lindsay and Mom attempting to keep the airplane on the runway during takeoff. Friday I had my first hack at Formation flying. It is extremely intense, scary, fun, challenging and a whole lot of other things combined. It is definantley a whole new experience and way of flying. It takes a lot of concentration to keep your airplane in the proper position off of someone else’s who is only 10 feet away. My formation flight today brought me closer to death then I ever have been (ha ha ha). The person I am flying formation with was really over aggressive on his rejoins and nearly ran into me a few times. It was pretty scary. Saturday we went and saw lake Amistad and the girls went to the mall (I don’t know why, there is only 3 stores there). Afterwords we all had pizza and watched a movie. On Sunday we blessed Clark at church and just spent time together as a family. It was a fun having everyone here, I just hate how quickly time goes by.

Week 19

Things are continuing to go good for us. This week I should pretty much finish up formation and hopefully check next Monday. I still have mixed feelings on who much I like formation. On good days it is pretty cool, but on bad days it can really be stressful. For instance, this week I only had my life flash before my eyes three times. One time imperticular I was leading our formation and gave my wingman the rejoin signal after we had separated (a few hundred feet) for an ops check. He started in normal and gradually increased his velocity vector straight at me. Needless to say I almost crapped myself as his airplane got real big real quick. It all happened so quick and even my IP screamed in the back "holy *&$#, that was way too close." Later, my wingman's IP confirmed that we were about 6 inches away from disaster, but that’s just another day in learning how to fly a few feet away from someone. The hardest part of formation for me is definitely the steep turns where our wings are vertical. It gives you a horrible sensation that you are going to fall into the plane next to you. You just have to trust that gravity is working the same on both of the airplanes and that you are falling at the same rate. Easy to do on the ground, but scary in the air. Another fun thing we do in formation is called extended trail pursuit. Basically this is where the lead airplane is about 500 to 1000 feet in front of you and you try and "shoot" him down by staying in a firing position behind him, all while he is doing all kinds of crazy maneuvers to get rid of you on his tail. Regardless of how I feel about formation, I learned on Thursday that I had to have my final decision on what airplane I wanted by Friday. So, after much deliberation, praying, and flipping coins, I decided that I am going to try and pursue the T-38 (fighter) track. There is no guarantee that I will get it, or even will enjoy it; I just hope I made the right choice. I am not totally sure that I feel 100% about this decision, but now it’s out of my hands and in the Lord's. I am nervous about going T-38's because of how much more strict and how much harder everything is over there. The T-1 track is cool too, but you don’t get to fly the fast pointy stuff. I will be happy with whatever I get and will try my best; I just hope its good enough. As you all know when I get nervous I tend to talk a little fast and that has hurt me a few times so far during pilot training, mainly during stand-up’s. With whatever happens, whether I wash out or get an F-22, I will know that I could have done nothing more and have tried my hardest.

Week 16 & 17

Me and the old T-6 Texan

Week 16

This week I finished my last SIM in the T-6 and just about finished instrument flying. All I have left is the check ride on Wednesday this week. I can not believe how close I am to finishing the first part of flight training. All that is left is formation. I have heard from a lot of people that this is where people really make up their minds on what they want to fly in the future. Formation can either be something you love or hate.

Week 17

What a big week. I finished instruments and did pretty well on my checkride (a lot better than I expected I would do). The weather was pretty good this week and I flew a couple of low-level (300 to 500 feet off the ground, simulated bomb runs). Those are way cool. You plan the entire mission in great detail. The plan is picking about 5 or 6 points on a low chart (map) and plotting headings, fuels, times and airspeeds. All of these factors come together to get you to your target within 10 seconds of the planned time. It does not sound that impressive, but when the mission is over an hour long, 10 seconds is pretty dang close. It is a lot of work doing all the math do come up with headings corrected for wind and magnetic variation, but it makes it all worth it when you fly what you have planned and you actually end up over the target when you thought you were going too. On my low levels I bombed a warehouse and a bridge. Both times I shacked the target. It must have been pretty cool for those people on the ground to see a T-6 fly overhead so low and do a victory roll after hitting the target. Next week I start formation, which is the last thing I will do in the T-6 before I begin my advanced training in whatever aircraft I decide is best for us, either the T-1, or the T-38. I am still undecided, but everyone tells me that your mind is made up after formation (either you love it or hate it). It is hard to believe how close I am to graduating T-6’s already.

Week 14 & 15

Week 14

This was a very big week for me. I started it knowing that they would push me through final contact rides so I could get to my check ride this week. So, I flew twice a day until Thursday when I was supposed to check. My flights before were going well and I felt pretty ready to check, although you never can tell. I hate how nervous I get waiting for these things. It seems like there is always something coming to make my stomach in knots (which always brings on an awesome case of diareah). Anyway, I found out on the morning of my checkride that my check IP changed. So, I got stuck with Captain Grey, aka Captain Hook (hook is slang for a failing grade, since a U looks like a hook). He is probably the hardest check IP here. So, my diareah increased that morning exponentially. Weird enough though, I did awesome. I had studied a bunch for the ground evaluation part (testing on just about everything) and I was surprised how well I knew the questions that he was asking me. Even the emergency procedure he gave me I knew well. It was just luck I guess. I got a 3E! This is the highest score in my class for final contact. I was pretty surprised, but it was a good surprise. Unfortunately, I did not have any time to celebrate, because I had a cross-country to plan. So, on Friday I took off for my first cross country. We flew into Fort Worth Friday, then to Oklahoma City on Saturday, and back to Laughlin Sunday. We did 2 flights a day and each flight came to about 3 hours. If you include the planning, briefing, and debriefing of all this each day lasted about 16 hours. I am exhausted right now and I even had to fly twice today. I just wish they would give us atleast one day off to rest, but nope, not here.

This is something a guy I went cross country with dad put together, I am in the middle.

Week 15

Time is just flying by, but I guess that is a good thing. This week was overall pretty average. Flew a bunch, SIM’ed a bunch, and took a couple of tests. I did do a couple of new things this week that was fun. First, in one of my SIM’s I finished the profile really early and the instructor I had was pretty cool. He loaded up San Antonio and just let me fly around and goof off. It was awesome weaving in-between the buildings and just being able to relax and have fun with the airplane. Another time I was in the MOA and there were a bunch of clouds. My IP let me again, goof off and we went “cloud dancing.” This is where you fly around the clouds and chop off their tops while doing aerobatics in-between. It was awesome, until I got sick and threw up all over the place, ha ha ha just kidding. I am full in to the instrument portion of flying and should be checking either the end of next week or the week after. Also, we are done with our weather classes and should be taking the test on Monday. This will complete the T-6 academic portion of flight school. However, this is also the hardest test and has a history of over a 50% fail rate. Good odds huh. In all of these flights I have to where a hood so I can not see anything outside. I have to navigate, shoot approaches, hold altitude, airspeed and headings, conduct departure and arrivals all using just my primary instruments. Instrument flying is tuff and it is hard to keep track of where you are and where you are going using just headings. Another tuff aspect of it is that you get really disoriented just looking at instruments and not really seeing what the plane is doing outside or where you are going. It is common for your body to think you are doing something different then the plane is doing (that is how JFK jr. died). I am still trying to figure out what is best for me and my family in the way of what I want to fly for my career.

Weeks 12 & 13

Week 12

I have not written for a while and ironically there is not that much to talk about. Christmas was awesome and was a well needed break from Texas for all of us. As you all know we decided last minute to drive back to Utah and surprise everyone. We left Friday the 22nd in the morning at about 4:15. It worked out great and the girls were excellent for the 19 hour drive, which we decided to do straight through. We arrived in Utah that night at about 10:30, Utah time. The look on my dad’s face was priceless as he opened the door and saw us standing there. The next day we surprised the Rudd’s at their family Christmas party, it was great hearing Diane scream and seeing Paul cry, big surprise there. We all had a great time in Utah and enjoyed spending it with our family. We also got the chance to catch up on some movies as well as catch up on some good restaurants. The drive back to Texas was quite a bit more interesting. It was fine until we hit Alberquerque (however you spell that) which was hammered by snow (it looked like Denver) and we could barely see through the fog. So we decided to stay overnight and hope things were better in the morning. We woke up and went to the continental breakfast and watched the news which said that the freeways we needed to take were closed. However, I had to get back because of work so we decided to leave quickly and hope for the best. The traffic was horrible but luckily right as we were about to turn onto the freeway it opened up, although it looked more like a snowway (ha ha ha). Once we got out of New Mexico the weather turned good again and the temperature grew much better.
At work it was a short week, but we still managed to take 3 tests, 3 SIM’s and 2 flights. Oh well, that’s my life. Everything went well so I am fine with it.

Week 13

This week started out pretty cool for me…literally. Monday we had off for the holiday and that night the big ice storm rolled into town. Of course Texas freaked out about it and to my advantage class was cancelled the next two days. Which was fine because we would not have flown in that kind of weather anyway. So, it turned out to be a two day week. However, I still managed to take two tests, four navigation SIMS, and work nearly 30 hours. Next week should bring a lot of stress as well. They just came out with a new boldface and opslimits that we have to memorize by Monday and I am hopefully going to have my final-contact check ride. Also, I am scheduled to go cross country during the weekend. We are planning on going to Fort Worth and check out the plant where they build the F-22 and F-35, so that should be cool.

Weeks 10 & 11

T-6B (Ground Attack Version)

Week 10

This was a pretty busy week. I took my advanced instruments test and did good on it. It was not as hard as everyone made it out to be, it might be because I was well prepared. I flew everyday and had a bunch of SIM’s as well. On Wednesday I flew twice so I could do my check ride on Thursday. I was ready for it, but that night a cold front came in and wrecked everything. When a front comes it changes the wind and in this case, the winds were gusting up to 50 knots all day. Not the best weather to fly in. So, pretty much no one flew that day so I get to check on Tuesday. The wind really played havoc with our Christmas lights as well. I spent most of yesterday trying to get the lights working again. Eventually I just broke down and had to buy a few new ones. I did not do anything really new in my flights this week. Just the basic aerobatics, stalls, spins, recoveries, and some other fun maneuvers. Next week I hear we get to do a couple night flights. That should be cool, I have never flown at night before. I heard that the class that just hit the flight line had a pretty funny story. One kid on his dollar ride got all kinds of airsick. While they were in the area and doing aileron rolls, the kid dropped his mask but could not get to his puke bag quick enough and vomited while the plane was upside down. So, vomit sprayed all over the cockpit, windshield, instruments, and himself. What a mess! I am just glad that I never got that sick. Oh, something else weird that happened to me was the instructor needed to do a spin to update his currency. His setup was normal and nothing interesting happened but right as the airplane stalled and began to enter the spin, a huge gust of wind flipped us inverted and we spun that way. It was crazy spinning upside down. When you spin inverted the recovery is a lot harder and you spin A LOT faster!

Week 11

I experienced a bunch of firsts this week. First off was I had the opportunity to fly an un-graded flight. This was due to the fact that I was suppost to have my check-ride last Thursday, but it never happened because of out of control winds. Friday was a maintenance down day, so there was no flying. So, they did not want to send me into my check ride without flying for four days. It was pretty cool just being able to fly without the stress of someone constantly analyzing every aspect of the flight. On Tuesday I had my checkride. I was pretty nervous. This first check ride, called the mid-phase, is the most failed one in pilot training. We started with a normal brief and the instructor told me the he would not say anything the entire ride, and if I messed up on a maneuver to just move on. Each check ride they give you a profile (list of maneuvers) that you have to complete and to pass (I got a middle of the run one). So, I took off and flew to our auxiliary field to do some precautionary emergency landings (landing with no power, simulated engine out) and do some no flap patterns and landings. These went just fine and I departed the field and headed to the MOA to do my aerobatics, stalls, spins, recoveries and a few other maneuvers. These I felt went pretty good and I was happy leaving the area. After that I headed back to Laughlin to complete a few more different kind of landings and my full stop. After my entry into the pattern and after my first touch and go I went around like normal, however, there was a someone from the new class behind me who turned crosswind in the wrong place and forced me to breakout out of the pattern (to avoid a mid-air collision). Breakouts are a favorite place for people to fail checkrides because of the million things that can go wrong in them. Luckily, I found the geographic spot that I needed to turn around to reenter the pattern right away and it went off without a hitch. After the flight you go through a ground-evaluation stage where they sit you down and you are tested. They ask you all kinds of different questions ranging from aircraft systems to weather. Also, you have to do an emergency procedure and if you don’t recite something word for word you fail. I did good and luckily he asked me to draw out the fuel system (one of the systems I know the best). So, I passed and did pretty good on my checkride. The next day I started night flying. Wow! It is a totally different feeling and atmosphere. It is scary at first but once I got used to it I really enjoyed it. It is beautiful to see all the lights from the cities and the first night we broke through a cloud layer and could see nothing on the ground and above us were a million stars, what a sight (its not easy to describe). The next day I flew twice. My first flight I went out SOLO and absolutely loved it. That is what flying is all about, no one to bug or critique you and now that I am much more comfortable with the jet could just enjoy the absoloute freedom that it brings. It was amazing to me to look out on my wing and see the USAF and realize it was me flying. That night we did the night low-level ride. This was interesting. We flew a pre-established, timed course at 1000’ AGL. Which would be no problem, except it is 20 times harder at night. I really enjoyed this one and was even able to see my house. Friday turned out to be rainy and cold and because of icing at higher altitudes all flights were cancelled. That was alright to me, I was ready for a little break.

Week 9

Week 9

SOLO!!!! Well, it finally happened, I took a 5 million dollar aircraft up all by myself. What an awesome experience it was. I flew my end of block (flight training is divided up into blocks) ride on Monday and did well. On Tuesday I flew the pre-solo (make sure I won’t kill myself or break something) flight in the morning and flew my solo ride in the afternoon. It was so cool signing out my own jet, getting my equipment on, and stepping to my own aircraft. It was a little weird doing everything myself. I was a little nervous taxiing to the runway and getting clearance to takeoff. Once I took off and did my first closed pattern and my first touch and go, I was not nervous anymore. I had the time of my life. It was great to just be able to fly the jet and not worry about someone critiquing every little thing I did. The pattern at Laughlin works out just right that I fly over our house every time I fly. I can not wait for the day that I can just fly by myself all the time, but that is a long way away. Once I landed for my full stop, I taxied back to my spot and got out. I saw Larissa and the girls waiting for me at the POGO pool. POGO is your call sign when you go on your initial SOLO, so I was POGO 33. You use this for all your radio calls and such, i.e. POGO 33, initial, request high key, ect. The POGO pool is an Air Force tradition that every new pilot on his first SOLO ride gets thrown into this pool. Your objective is to try and make it back to the flight room without getting caught, if you can do that then you escape getting dunked. The water in the pool is cold and nasty, and on the day of your SOLO they encourage you to bring an extra flight suit and a change of clothes. Luckily, I remembered, because I did not make it back to the flight room. It was great having the girls there to experience this with me and to able to see daddy flying around and waving to them. They brought me cookies and were so excited to see me. They even gave me a hug after I was thrown in. I have a great family. After you SOLO you are presented with the flight patch. So, SOLO’ing is kind of like a right of passage

On Wednesday I took our weekly test and did good. I also flew this day and had a SIM. I was introduced into a few new aerobatic maneuvers. I love doing aerobatics. They are so much fun. I did not realize how difficult they are however to do correctly. I got the hang of them now and are no problem. We did some more accelerated spins and this time the airplane reversed itself and turned inverted and started spinning that way. The recovery is more difficult for these but, I am still here so I did ok. We started doing Split-S’s on Wednesday as well. These are basically when you roll the airplane inverted and then pull as hard as you can. When you are pointed straight down your airspeed really increases and the G’s really take there toll. It is a little unnerving to be headed at the ground at over 400mph. Flying is very tiring. I am getting more used to it, but it still makes me exhausted. We have our advanced instruments test next week, I am a little worried about that one. I think I told you that it is the second most failed test here. I can see why, they expect us to learn about 400 pages worth of stuff and master it in a week. This is so fast paced and it is hard to keep up. Also next week I have my mid-phase check ride. This is a very big deal and is extremely hard. I hope I do well.