midphase complete (finally)

So I got through the checkride-redo and while it wasn't a super clean ride, I got through it. He switched things up on me - it was another 31 Day (of course) and on our way to the auxiliary field he decides we should head to the MOA first which I hadn't done since my 3rd flight. 

But anyway I got through the ride, and while I know my next checkride is only a couple weeks away I'm trying to find some confidence in this win of sorts and hopefully get the next one on the first try. It's gonna be busy now as I have some catching up to do as far as our next academic test (navigation) and getting back into the instrument stuff as I've been narrowly focused on this checkride the last week and a half. 

Step 1 part 2

So the checkride didn't go too hot. 

It's a bit hard to explain but basically we have to learn all these ground references for the runway and this entire time (except 1 flight) we've flown the same runway. And of course right before my checkride the winds shift and I have to fly the other runway flying ground references that I'v studied but never completely seen. Needless to say I was off my game and besides screwing some of the pattern work up I was worried about it a lot and it definitely made the flight frustrating.

They ended up giving me an extra ride today to prepare for the redo and it went smooth. Hopefully the winds stay the same and I can go in on Monday and bang out a good flight. It's definitely nerve-racking knowing your always 2-3 bad flights from being out of the program but you can't think about that part of it and just go out and do your best. 

We actually lost our first guy due to inability to keep up with the flying. Kind of a shame - hopefully he'll be the last but it's unlikely.

I'll be relaxing this weekend and preparing for the flight on Monday, and as long as everything goes well I can look forward to about 2 weeks before the next big checkride ha not a lot of recovery time. But after that there's only 2 more for the last 3.5 months or so of flying T-6's.

I'll make sure to update this thing Mon or Tues and let everyone know how it went. 

Step 1

So passed my "pre-check" today.

It was a really good flight and I flew with our assistant flight commander who is a really good dude. Tomorrow is this wingman day thing, we do some group PT stuff and then there's a picnic in the afternoon, kinda strange but gets us the day off which is fine by me.

This means I'll be doing my checkride on Thursday. I'm still worried based on how the last few rides went but today made me feel like there's a chance I could actually do things well enough to pass. My area work (stalls, aerobatics, etc.) was basically awesome and the pattern stuff (landings, breakouts, etc) were safe and decent enough. 

I'll be spending tomorrow looking over some of the general knowledge type stuff I need to know for the checkride. It's an extremely aggravating process - and according to my Dad I'll be dealing with them the rest of the time I decide to fly military/commercial. EXCELLENT.

Tough

Well this is a big week coming up, could be the deciding factor if I'm gonna make it through this craziness. Had a couple rough flights last week and I'm for my To-Check tomorrow which is the flight before a check ride where your IP confirms you're "prepared" for your check ride and then I would potentially be doing my Mid-Phase Checkride on Tuesday, this is the most commonly hooked check ride and puts you essentially 2 rides from being out of the program if you do fail it.

I'm trying my best to stay positive and motivated but it's tough. I definitely don't enjoy the pressure cooker and the sooner I get this first one over with, win lose or draw, the better.

Megan left this morning and is back in New Jersey so that's a bummer, but it was nice having her out here again to keep me relatively sane :)  

Thanks everyone for keeping an eye on things and I'll let you know how the week goes. If I can just do everything right ON THE SAME FLIGHT - I may be able to pass this thing lol. (not to mention answer all the ground eval questions well enough). 

Solo pics

Wow it's "only" been a week and it seems like so much as happened. Very quickly... I soloed that Wednesday then didn't fly Thurs, Fri. Boring weekend then stomach was bothering me Mon,Tues and didn't fly. So I flew Wed and after a week out of the plane is was a rough flight. Didn't get up Thurs, Fri leaving me back to a 6 day break between flights (awesome...). 

On the bright side, Megan got down here Friday night and Saturday was my Bday! Happy Birthday to me. We had a very nice weekend (3 day'er thanks to Columbus Day, it's nice to finally get it off somewhere - Through middle/high school we never got it off because the jewish holidays maxed us out I suppose!) Anyway we did some shopping, watched the Eagles with a bunch of displaced Eagles fans in San Antonio and saw that Eagle Eye movie. Megan had a job interview today and then we got back to Del Rio this afternoon.

It's never fun finishing a week with a bad ride but oh well, just gotta do my best to get back on my game. One cool thing is this block we start doing the "baby aero" including loops, aileron rolls, and split-s. I don't get a big kick out of this stuff but it's cool and gives you more confidence in your your flying and not freaking out if you ended up upside-down or something crazy like that!

This should be a link to the solo pics: 

PICTURES

SOLO

Got to Solo today! It was a lot of fun to finally get up there by myself. It's a pattern only sortie and only a half hour so we don't really get to do a whole lot. My buddy took a bunch of pictures so hopefully I can get a hold of those soon and I'll post them on the blog here. I will report more soon!