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.