Flyin' Solo

Monday must have gone well...because I'm here to write about it ;) As planned I got to take the jet solo on Monday. The way the solo works is that you start the mission with an instructor and demonstrate that you can actually land the jet that day by landing 3 times. After successfully completing that you taxi back and let the instructor get out of the jet. From here the jet is all yours! Taking the runway solo was a very exciting and nervous moment. I'd done it dozens of times already, but being alone made it much different...I was accountable for everything that happened. Flying is so much more peaceful without an instructor talking at you all the time. It seemed like there was so much more time to get everything accomplished. I flew for about 45 minutes before coming in to land for the final time. The whole thing was awesome!

More about the solo tradition now. After landing each person is supposed to try to make it back into the classroom without being caught and thrown into the solo tank...and 3 foot deep pool that has some not-so-clean water in it. If you make it back into the room everyone in the class owes you drinks. With a little assistance I was able to make it back into the building unnoticed. However, there was a door guard posted at the room. Unfortunately, for him, I weigh about 50 pounds more than he does...so I ran him over! There is still debate about whether or not this counts for the drinks...but it was a valiant effort regardless. Andrea and Gavin came out to see me get thrown in the tank, and I don't like to disappoint so I took the plunge.

The rest of the week wasn't nearly as exciting, but I completed the entire next block of flying. In this block two new maneuvers were added to the agenda...a loop and roll. They are fun!!! My flying is coming along pretty well and when I think how much I've learned in the last month or so I can't believe it. I'm still working on memorizing all the stuff that we need to know, but it is getting better. It's tough because I think a large portion of the people in my class are book smart-type geniuses so they memorize amazing amounts of material...I just try to pick out the important stuff ;)

We also started Advance Instrument academics this week. I felt seriously overwhelmed sitting in those classroom sessions because this is stuff I, and most of us in class, have little or no experience in. I studied the material a lot this weekend though and feel a bit better about it. Our test will be on Wednesday...fun, fun.

I fly my first all solo mission tomorrow...yea!

Solo Prep

I really need to stop doing this every 2 weeks...it is so tough to remember what I did on Friday. The weeks seem to drag on but fly by at the same time.

The last couple weeks we covered a ton of material, both academic and flying. On the academic side of the house we had our first block of instrument flying instruction. The first day the instructor told us how difficult the block was and that if we didn't study regularly we would certainly fail the test. Only 2 people in our class have any instrument flying experience so it was pretty intimidating to start something we hardly knew about. All of our classroom sessions were at the end of the day. It is tough learning something new after a full day of flying and other learning. Our test was this past Friday. Apparently the instructor did a good job of scaring everyone because we all passed! We start "Advanced Instruments" tomorrow with a 3 hour lesson to cap off a 12 hour day...Happy Monday :/

I did hit a few bumps in the road the week before last. Before we can solo there are 3 emergency procedure simulators that we have to pass. The way these work is that we sit in the simulator and will be flying along and the instructor will input an emergency into the computer and we have to react accordingly. On my second one I was working too quickly which made me mess up a few important details. I retook it the next day and passed just fine. The next day I failed the third one too. This time for taking action a little too slowly. The following day I found the happy medium and did really well. It was frustrating to fail at these things, but since I got to do a few extra I figure I'm even better at it now.

Flying is getting more fun all the time. I had 2 instrument flights in as many weeks and did well on them. Also, I completed another block that involved all the maneuvers we have learned so far. The most exciting (and crazy) thing that I got to do was spin. The T-37 aircraft is the only Air Force jet allowed to perform this maneuver because it was designed specifically to be able to do it. Essentially you fly the aircraft, nose high, until it stalls and then force it to spin. The aircraft is literally falling straight out of the air and spinning at this point. Part of our training is to learn how to recover from this position. All I kept thinking is, "I can't believe we are doing this on purpose..." It turned out to be a lot of fun. On Thursday and Friday last week I did two entire missions that were just practice landings. Overall I think I did close to 30 landings in the two days. These missions were the last two required missions before solo. So with that said, I am scheduled to solo early tomorrow morning! I'll fill you in on the solo traditions next week.

On the homefront, Gavin turned 6 months old yesterday (15 Sept)...what an old man. He should be crawling any day now...amazing!

Hope you all are doing well!

Cheers

The Basics

The last 2 weeks have flown by...so fast that I forgot to blog last week! Week before last I continued by first instructional block of flying. It was 4 flights total and basically required pretty low ratings to even pass in the end. The main point of the block is to teach basic aircraft control and other essential things like clearing (making sure the area is clear), planning, and knowledge. Before you can move on to the next flying block it is required that you meet the minimums for the previous. I finished the first block and started the second which is actually almost identical to the first except you have to get higher ratings in the final flight of the block. Again, the block was 4 flights. My 3rd flight of the second block was on Monday last week and it didn't go very well. I guess there was a little too much rust left over from the weekend ;) It was a little bit of a reality check though because there were a couple areas that I had to raise in order to successfully complete the 4th flight of the block. That night I studied and did some chair flying to prep for the flight the next day.

Before I go on, you may be asking yourself what chair flying is. Well, it is exactly what it sounds like. In order to help develop muscle memory and form the flight mentally you fly the whole mission while sitting in front of a poster of the cockpit in a chair. Sounds pretty silly, but it actually helps a lot. Some of the IPs have actually said that you will not graduate if you don't chair fly often. The good thing is that you can do it anywhere.

Anyhow, I flew the 4th flight on Tuesday and did really well. Following that flight I was expecting to move straight into the next block which again is improving basics and landings. However, the schedulers decided it was time for me to start learning basic instrument flying. Wed and Thur I had and instrument flight and simulator. They were very basic, but a little intimidating because we haven't even started our instrument academics yet. Both flights turned out well and were actually more fun that I expected. The toughest part is doing the simulators at the end of a 12 hour day. The "flight" is just sitting in the sim staring at instruments for an hour while the instructor says, "turn left, turn right, climb, descend..." but the sessions are very helpful when it comes to the actual flying because you do the exact same thing as in the jet...just fly by instruments.

In addition to the flying we completed another academic block. This one covered basic aerodynamics. I felt like I knew the info well, but when the test came I was nervous. All of our tests are multiple choice on a computer and when you are done your score comes back immediately. Well, I'll tell ya, I was hesitant to hit the "Score Me" button! I ended up passing just fine, but it reminded me how important it is to study.

Our commander surprised everyone by making Friday a day off, so with the holiday on Monday we had a (very welcomed) 4 day weekend. Tuesday I will resume with the regular block of instruction, so am very excited about that. If things go as planned I will fly my first solo next week! I can't believe it.