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.