back to the abc's

Well the track business is all done with and it turned out very well - We have a great t-1 class from the looks of things and there weren't any BIG surprises on track day except that a couple of my buds are off to corpus christie to enjoy the "easy" program with the Navy there flying T-44's. Pretty cool except that you kinda limit yourself to flying airplanes with propellers on them for the remainder of your career.

I had a great time showing my dad around Laughlin and the beautiful city of Del Rio while he was here and I think he actually enjoyed it a little bit. The biggest hit was probably the simulator - I got to take him in for a Red Carpet sim where you can take family in and let them take the controls and he was able to take the T-6 down for an ILS, do some aerobatics, some formation (with a loose meaning of the word :)  and then take it around San Antonio and fly around the skyscrapers at 200'. We hit up 2 of the uh 4? decent places to eat and 1 of them was still a letdown, saw a 5-minute crazy duststorm with winds probably hitting 50mph and all in all it was a lot of fun.  Megan was shooting some pictures and I'll try and get them up on here soon.

We had our track party Friday night and it turned out great, we had a lot of other people show up at the Ramada Lounge where it was held and everyone had a great time from the looks of things.

Now it's back to academics. Everyone else gets a few weeks to savor completing T-6's but not for us T-1 guys. We get thrown right into the new jet and it's back to learning systems and checklists and taking tests every couple days for the next month or so. We'll start having sims later this week in addition to the academic stuff so that's cool. Right now though there's a lot of free time and I've been able to do some golfing and hit the gym so that's good for the body and mind. 

T-6 Complete!

I had my formation Checkride on Monday and while it wasn't the best flight and the EP was a little ugly I passed and that's all that matters. 

We have our track tomorrow, which is when I'll find out who will stay with me in T-1's and who will be off to the 3 other possible directions. It should be a lot of fun .

My dad got in an hour ago and we're about to go get some dinner if megan ever finishes getting ready :)

Tres Mas

I've flown every day this week and the last 3 with the same IP and things have been coming together pretty well. I fly twice tomorrow to set me up for a checkride on Monday for my last flight in the T-6 (fingers crossed).

Tomorrow I'm supposed to fly with a new IP both flights. He just came over to our flight and seems pretty cool to fly with. He's an older lt col who flew all kinds of fighters and such and decided he wanted to finish his career teaching, as he began it. I think tomorrow should go well and I'll be all set up for the check on Monday with the weekend to go over everything and hopefully my hands don't get too "cold".

My dads planning on coming out on Tuesday which will be cool and there's some events on Wednesday as our class tracks. This is when all the active duty guys will find out what direction they'll be heading - (T-1's for the heavy route, T-38's for the fighter/bomber track, T-44 in Corpus Christi for the C-130 and some other oddball turboprop planes, or H-1's to fly helicopters). So even though I know where I'm heading, it will be exciting to see who goes where with additional interest in that probably 4 or 5 of the guys in our class of 23 will end up leaving Laughlin, so it's a bit bittersweet maybe for that fact. 

Still 7 more...

Last week was kind of a bummer. It was overcast and foggy Monday and Tuesday and I ended up not flying either day mostly because of the weather and bad luck. I flew on Wednesday and had a good flight but then started feeling sick and I was too congested Thurs, Fri to fly so I'm still at 7 more flights in the T-6. 

I'm feeling a bit better today and while I'm not 100% I can clear my ears and that should be enough to be able to fly. I expect I'll fly at least one every day this week and should have my checkride monday or tuesday of next week if things work out. 

As I wasn't feeling too great, this weekend was all about relaxing. I went and saw that movie Taken which was really good and watched a lot of TV and movies. The Superbowl tonight should be entertaining. 

This week is a night flying week which means we don't have early wake-ups (6AM showtimes the last few weeks). Hopefully it will be a busy and productive week and I'll be just about through with the T-6. See ya