Flying Blind

Since completing my check ride a few weeks ago I have been flying almost all instrument flights. To practice our instrument flying and approaches we fly out to our normal training areas and are required to put a "hood" on. The "hood" is sort of like a visor that attaches to the helmet via an elastic strap...very modern technology! Of course, we only do this type of training with an instructor on board so they do all the clearing outside the aircraft. After doing maneuvers in the area we proceed to Lawton, OK and practice flying approaches with the visor on. It requires 100% attention and is very technical flying. Despite it being difficult because I'm new at it, it is pretty neat to fly an approach and have the instructor remove the "hood" at the last minute to reveal the fact that you are 1 mile out and lined up right down the runway. I finished the largest portion of my instrument flying this week. The next step is the cross-country flight, which will be next weekend. We are planning a flight to Pensacola, FL with a weather backup of Denver. It will be nice to fly somewhere that isn't here.

In addition to working on instrument flying right now I am flying "Advanced Contact," which is advanced aerobatic maneuvers...basically rolls, loops, and combinations of the two. I had one demo of the maneuvers about a week and a half ago and then was surprised to get 2 solo flights last week to practice the maneuvers. At first it was a little intimidating to attempt them alone, but by my second solo I felt very confident that I could recover from even the most poorly flown maneuver. I really can't believe that I get paid to go out and loop and roll through the air!

Not only are we flying instruments and contact right now...we are learning how to fly low-level missions in academics. We will test on this material Tuesday. One of the toughest parts of this program is figuring out how to allocate your time.

Andrea and Gavin are in Colorado until mid-November so it has been pretty lonely at home...especially for Scout. Andrea thought I might get more studying done while they were gone, but that isn't turning out to be the case ;) It will be nice wto have them back in a few weeks!

One Check Ride Down!!!

I wanted to wait for this next post until I finally finished my check ride...which was today. It was originally supposed to be last week, but I had a couple not-so-good flights that set me back a few days. It seems that I was able to find a new way to hook (fail) rides each time. I've decided that it's ok to fail as long as I don't do it for the same reason more than once...unfortunately there are several ways to fail a flight ;) It never feels good to fail, of course, but it was a good reality check for me and helped me to refocus.

So...as I said, the check was today. The whole thing started off with a bit of a surprise when I was switched to fly with a Lt Col (#2 man in the squadron) instead of the regular check pilot I was scheduled with. This made me a little nervous. Turns out the switch worked to my benefit...he was awesome. The check ride consisted of a flight, general knowledge (like a verbal quiz), and a tabletop emergency procedure. During the flight I messed a few things up, but had an overall good flight. My weakest point were my patterns to land...not the actual landings, just the setup for the landings. I have a tendency to do well on the hard stuff and mess up the easy stuff...go figure. The general knowledge portion went really well...better than I expected actually. The final portion was the emergency procedure. It was a little rough around the edges, but a he felt I knew my stuff well enough to let me pass. Up to this point I still hadn't been told whether or not I passed...so I was really nervous. It had been about an hour since I finished my flight and I knew I had messed some things up so I was convinced I had failed. As we came to the end of the brief he told me the news...I passed!!! It certainly wasn't pretty, but I'll take it.

There are only 5 total check rides in T-37s and this is considered by many to be the toughest. I can't tell you how relieved I am to have it over with. Now my focus switches to instrument flying. We've gone through all the academics for instrument flying and now I have to convert that to actual application. I'm excited to move on though...

I won't post again until next Friday...hopefully nothing too exciting happens the rest of this week...I just couldn't handle it ;)

Closing in on Check Ride #1

Last week was a good one...not only because it was short (we had Friday off because it was the end of the fiscal year), but because I got to fly my first area solo mission. It was a little surreal that I was allowed to go out to the jet alone and fly away from the base (out to one of our training areas). The flight was on Monday, so I was a little nervous going off to fly after the weekend...there's always a little rust left over after the weekend. It's amazing how all the practice actually kicks in while out on your own. Once I got in the jet everything just clicked. I took off and made my way into the area where I flew around doing loops and rolls. Honestly, it got a little boring because there aren't too many things we are allowed to do while on our own. Most of the things we've done up to this point are considered "dual only" maneuvers, which means we have to be with an instructor...luckily loops and rolls don't fall under this category. Once I got to my return-to-base fuel I headed for home. When there are birds around the runway the flying status becomes either "Birds Moderate or Severe." Based on this status we can only do 3 or 1 landing, respectively. The status at the time was moderate so I was limited to 3 landings. You remember that "rust" I mentioned earlier...well it showed itself on the first landing. I landed a little hard, which shook my nerves a little...so I decided I'd make the next one my last. It was much better...

I flew 2 more missions during the week...the second of which went really well. If I flew that exact way during my check ride I'd be pretty happy. As the title of this blog implies, these last few rides are leading up to my check ride. During our time in T-37s we have 5 check rides...they are the most stressful and most important events in training. They basically run you through everything you've learned in the entire block of flying...which is everything up to this point. There are 3 parts: the flight, a ground eval (questions about all the stuff we are supposed to know, and a simulated emergency procedure. I am on track to do my check ride on Thursday so will be studying a lot!

Additionally, we have our "Advance Instrument" test on Monday. It is arguably the toughest academic test we have. Getting next week over with is going to be great!!!

On the home front...Gavin is so close to reaching several milestones at once: crawling...moving to a sitting position by himself...getting a tooth...what will happen first?!?! And...Andrea is awesome, as usual ;)