The fun(work) continues

Flew 3 more times this week and my partner and I were the first ones to finish up the first block of transition flights with 6 more to go before our first T-1 Checkride. The flying is going well, honestly so far the General Knowledge stuff seems to be the biggest hurdle. They want us to know everything about the plane and be able to spout of numbers and draw diagrams of the systems right away which is a big pain for someone that takes pride in doing the minimum to get by - really raising the bar for me!

So far I've been up to San Angelo, Abilene and Dyess AFB which is just across town and also Laredo down south of Laughlin. We haven't gone anywhere extremely far since you don't get quite as much time to work on patterns and stuff so it's all good. It's definitely fun to actually fly places to do this stuff as opposed to the T-6 where we were either at Laughlin or Wizard, the Laughlin auxiliary field used for T-6 pattern work; so that aspect is pretty cool. I think by the time T-1's is done with I'll have been to every 6000' towered runway in the state of texas. 

I went out to San Antonio with Megan and my buddy Blake and played some golf Sat morning at a really nice course near La Cantera. I've been trying to resurrect my golf game but I forgot there was never much of a game to begin with. Blake and I both played pretty badly but it was still a good time and we had a chance to see a couple movies that didn't make it to the Del Rio theater, one very bad one (Duplicity) and one very funny one (I Love You Man). We stayed at Randolph AFB to save a few bucks and it wasn't too bad of an option. I think the food in San Antonio always makes the trip worth it for me in the long run and it didn't fail to do so this trip. 

The next couple weeks will be more of the same until that first checkride and then we'll get into learning the more exciting part of flying a jet and getting to know the FMS and Autopilot systems and how to plan and execute the flying more easily. 

It looks like a few of my friends from home are going to make the trip out to San Antonio for Memorial Day Weekend so that should be a lot of fun in 8 or so weeks. And by that point I'll have less than 3 months left in this place! 

week 1 done

It was a busy week, like all military training programs phase III is very front-loaded and they expect us to learn everything about the jet, everything about how to fly the jet any other useful information in the first week and then be able to apply it for the rest of the course heh. Of course that's not possible so everyone does their best and prepares as much as they can. I ended up flying 3 times last week and the flying is feeling pretty good. We went to Abilene and then Dyess AFB on the 3rd flight which was pretty neat. Did a bunch of different patterns at different flap settings followed by a couple single engine patterns and landings. Besides that we had an EPQ/Boldface on Thursday and then a test on T-1 Aerodynamics on Friday (since we weren't quite busy enough). We'll have at least a couple more weeks of early shows which is a bummer but oh well, just have to get through it for now. 

Dollar ride

Had my dollar ride in the T-1 today and it went very nicely. We flew to the MOA and did a bunch of are work which was mostly pretty easy then to San Angelo, TX where we did a bunch of patterns and got in about 5 landings each. It was very cool to finally get in the plane and be at the controls of a JET. The plane can be be pretty sluggish and difficult to control mainly because it uses spoilers instead of ailerons to give it the "feel" of a larger aircraft. This makes the approaches a bit difficult but I think I'll get used to it.

Our IP was very cool, a reserve IP and yet again another airline pilot who got furloughed in 2001 after 9/11. He was out of work there for about 5 years before they invited him back for a year just to send him packing again. He said he saw an interview with Sully, the captain of the US Air flight that went in the Hudson and said no airline pilot in their right mind would recommend the job to their son. Ha oh well hopefully things get better in the next 5 years or I'll make some different plans. 

Anyway, I fly again tomorrow and this time I'll be the first one to fly which means doing all the ground ops stuff which is a pain but it should go OK. I should fly again Friday and by then I'll be ready to sleep for the entire weekend I think after a week of Pre-5AM wakeups AGH. 

Flightline is Coming

Well another week and a few more tests done. I have a pretty long(ish) day tomorrow with a test in the morning on instruments, which is kind of weird since we've already had 2 instrument tests during T-6's and there's no real new information but oh well. Then after that I have my first EP sim where we'll go over different emergency procedures and applying boldface procedures that we have to learn and how they're used. 

We went to San Antonio on Saturday morning and had a good time. Blake, a buddy of mine from AMS just got here last week and joined us for the trip and we did some shopping, hit up PF Chengs, saw Watchmen in IMAX then hit the riverwalk for dinner and hung out there the rest of the night. It was a good time and well worth the trip to get out of Del Rio again - if only for a night. 

In other news, 2 of my good friends interviewed in AC for the F-16 Pilot positions they were having boards for. Unfortunately Nick didn't get picked but Dan did along with another guy from the 177th and a guy "off the street". Dan's pretty stoked about it and has 2 years of training to look forward to before he gets to start shooting down bad guys. I'm really excited he got it but slightly bummed I didn't have the opportunity to try and apply there as it was my "home unit" for 6 years and would have been cool to stay in the hometown area and fly fast planes - but everything works out for the best and I'm excited about the C-5 mission and I think the lifestyle will suit me better... so no regrets. I think Nicks a bit bummed but I think he'll feel the same way eventually when he gets picked up somewhere else and has some pretty cool flying to look forward to. I'm still so thankful to be in the Air Nat'l Guard and avoiding the possibility of flying UAV's and some other not-so-cool mission aircraft. 

Academics and stuff

A couple weeks into the T-1 academics period and things are going pretty well. I've had 2 systems tests and some classes on crew resource management. The tests went fine, missed one on the 2nd test because I clicked the wrong one somehow... I've had 3 sims and their pretty cool. The T-1 sim guys are even more chill than the T-6 guys (and they were pretty laid back) so that's nice and feel like I've learned a lot so far. The sims are like 4-5 hours long all together which isn't too cool. We do them with partners (we fly with the same partner for the entire T-1 period I think). I got partnered up with Will, a dude who was in aces and went to the academy. He's a cool guy and I'm happy with the pairing. During the sims they have one of us sit as copilot and the other as pilot even though in the plane we only fly as copilot maybe 5 flights. Then we take a break after a 1.3 and we switch spots. This being the case, the sims aren't graded per se since the 2nd pilot would have the advantage - not that it matters for me, the scoring that is but it's fine and it makes the sims pretty low threat and you can just concentrate of learning as much as possible. 

I should have 1 or 2 tests this week and probably 2 more sims. I think I'm going to try and get back to San Antonio this weekend for another sanity check and see Watchmen at the IMAX there. We hit the flightline on the 12th I believe so that's when we start the 5AM shows and 10-12 hour days which kinda blows but oh well. Been here now almost 8 months and 5 to go - Time keeps moving !