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.