Weeks 10 & 11

T-6B (Ground Attack Version)

Week 10

This was a pretty busy week. I took my advanced instruments test and did good on it. It was not as hard as everyone made it out to be, it might be because I was well prepared. I flew everyday and had a bunch of SIM’s as well. On Wednesday I flew twice so I could do my check ride on Thursday. I was ready for it, but that night a cold front came in and wrecked everything. When a front comes it changes the wind and in this case, the winds were gusting up to 50 knots all day. Not the best weather to fly in. So, pretty much no one flew that day so I get to check on Tuesday. The wind really played havoc with our Christmas lights as well. I spent most of yesterday trying to get the lights working again. Eventually I just broke down and had to buy a few new ones. I did not do anything really new in my flights this week. Just the basic aerobatics, stalls, spins, recoveries, and some other fun maneuvers. Next week I hear we get to do a couple night flights. That should be cool, I have never flown at night before. I heard that the class that just hit the flight line had a pretty funny story. One kid on his dollar ride got all kinds of airsick. While they were in the area and doing aileron rolls, the kid dropped his mask but could not get to his puke bag quick enough and vomited while the plane was upside down. So, vomit sprayed all over the cockpit, windshield, instruments, and himself. What a mess! I am just glad that I never got that sick. Oh, something else weird that happened to me was the instructor needed to do a spin to update his currency. His setup was normal and nothing interesting happened but right as the airplane stalled and began to enter the spin, a huge gust of wind flipped us inverted and we spun that way. It was crazy spinning upside down. When you spin inverted the recovery is a lot harder and you spin A LOT faster!

Week 11

I experienced a bunch of firsts this week. First off was I had the opportunity to fly an un-graded flight. This was due to the fact that I was suppost to have my check-ride last Thursday, but it never happened because of out of control winds. Friday was a maintenance down day, so there was no flying. So, they did not want to send me into my check ride without flying for four days. It was pretty cool just being able to fly without the stress of someone constantly analyzing every aspect of the flight. On Tuesday I had my checkride. I was pretty nervous. This first check ride, called the mid-phase, is the most failed one in pilot training. We started with a normal brief and the instructor told me the he would not say anything the entire ride, and if I messed up on a maneuver to just move on. Each check ride they give you a profile (list of maneuvers) that you have to complete and to pass (I got a middle of the run one). So, I took off and flew to our auxiliary field to do some precautionary emergency landings (landing with no power, simulated engine out) and do some no flap patterns and landings. These went just fine and I departed the field and headed to the MOA to do my aerobatics, stalls, spins, recoveries and a few other maneuvers. These I felt went pretty good and I was happy leaving the area. After that I headed back to Laughlin to complete a few more different kind of landings and my full stop. After my entry into the pattern and after my first touch and go I went around like normal, however, there was a someone from the new class behind me who turned crosswind in the wrong place and forced me to breakout out of the pattern (to avoid a mid-air collision). Breakouts are a favorite place for people to fail checkrides because of the million things that can go wrong in them. Luckily, I found the geographic spot that I needed to turn around to reenter the pattern right away and it went off without a hitch. After the flight you go through a ground-evaluation stage where they sit you down and you are tested. They ask you all kinds of different questions ranging from aircraft systems to weather. Also, you have to do an emergency procedure and if you don’t recite something word for word you fail. I did good and luckily he asked me to draw out the fuel system (one of the systems I know the best). So, I passed and did pretty good on my checkride. The next day I started night flying. Wow! It is a totally different feeling and atmosphere. It is scary at first but once I got used to it I really enjoyed it. It is beautiful to see all the lights from the cities and the first night we broke through a cloud layer and could see nothing on the ground and above us were a million stars, what a sight (its not easy to describe). The next day I flew twice. My first flight I went out SOLO and absolutely loved it. That is what flying is all about, no one to bug or critique you and now that I am much more comfortable with the jet could just enjoy the absoloute freedom that it brings. It was amazing to me to look out on my wing and see the USAF and realize it was me flying. That night we did the night low-level ride. This was interesting. We flew a pre-established, timed course at 1000’ AGL. Which would be no problem, except it is 20 times harder at night. I really enjoyed this one and was even able to see my house. Friday turned out to be rainy and cold and because of icing at higher altitudes all flights were cancelled. That was alright to me, I was ready for a little break.