2 Down 3 to Go

Since my last post there has been lots of activity here at Sheppard AFB. On a sad note, one of our aircraft crashed killing the student and instructor on board. The investigation is on-going, but they have ensured the jets are safe to fly. The investigation resulted in our jets being grounded for about 3 weeks while they verified their safety. This, in turn, has pushed our graduation back about 5 weeks...now 15 September. Obviously, safety is paramount so the delay is understood...but still unwelcomed.

I've completed 2 check rides in T-38s. The first one was my contact check. As in Tweets, this check ride tests ability in flying the aircraft through various loops and rolls, and different landing configurations. Leading up to the check ride I was confident in my ability to fly the jet, but obviously was nervous. I spent countless hours studying all the material and chair flying (basically running through the flight on the ground). The check ride ended up being my best one, by far, in pilot training. I could have avoided a few minor mistakes, but overall was very happy with the results. Yesterday I completed my instrument check ride. This is the section that verifies we can fly the aircraft in bad weather, navigate to a place, and land. Much of our training is conducted "under the hood." For a majority of the sorties we are in the back seat and have a canvas sheet covering the entire inside canopy so that we can't see outside at all. All of the flying is done off of the jets instruments. Sitting in "the cave," as I called it, sucks...however, it's really cool to take off, fly somewhere, and get all the way down to the runway without ever seeing outside. Also included in the instrument phase was the cross country flight. My class chose Eglin AFB near Ft Walton Beach, FL as our destination. It's rough having to fly your own jet to a beach, stay for the weekend, and fly back home ;) The check ride itself is an "out-and-back" flight, meaning we take off from Sheppard, fly to another base to refuel, and return home. This results in the check ride basically being 2 separate flights...twice as long! I flew to Tinker AFB in Oklahoma. Instruments have never been my strong point, but I flew one of the best instrument flights I've ever done and passed. The 2 weeks leading up to the flight were probably the busiest in pilot training so far because of all the planning required...but now that's done!!!

The rest of pilot training is 90% formation flying...yea! It's tough flying, but is the most fun as well. We have a formation and advanced formation check ride before assignment night, and then a low-level check ride before graduation.

Assignments haven't been too good lately. When I arrived at Sheppard each class would get about 75% fighters, 20% bombers, and 5% instructor pilots. That has shifted to about 40% fighters, 40% special operations single-engine propellor aircraft, 10% bombers, and 10% instructor pilots. So I've really gotta perform well over my next couple check rides to put myself in a good position to get what I want. Currently I'm leaning towards the A-10.

Other than that, Gavin walks like a champ now and keeps Andrea and I on our toes. He's so fun to watch and be around. Andrea reads to him all the time and he is a huge book fan...pretty cool. They head to Colorado next week for a couple weeks to visit family, and then Andrea's sister is planning on coming down to stay with us for a month or so to keep Drea company...which is great especially when I'm so busy.

On to formation...