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.