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.