Flying Away

The last few weeks have shown me several places besides Sheppard AFB. Part of our instrument training is to fly 2 out and back missions and a cross country. This allows us to practice instrument approaches and procedures at airfields we are unfamiliar with. First, I flew an out and back mission...exactly what it sounds like...to Abilene, TX. Once there we ate lunch at a local BBQ place that was pretty good. Last weekend I had my cross country flight to Denver. I grew up in Denver most of my life so it was really neat to fly into a place that I knew. We spent the weekend there and I got to visit with Andrea and Gavin since they were already in Colo Springs visiting family. As we prepared to depart from Denver the #1 engine on our aircraft wouldn't start...so we had to stay another night and fly back commercial the next morning. This was a good and bad thing. Good because I got to do another out and back, but bad because I had to plan for that other out and back. This week I flew my last two out and backs to Dallas and Lubbock. They are fun missions but the planning literally takes longer than the flight.

Additionally, this week I finished my last T-37 simulator (link). I can't tell you how exciting it is to be done with the links. Simulator is a loose term...really it is just a working T-37 cockpit where you fly instrument procedures on the ground. It is as bad as it sounds. There were a total of about 15 of these links...LINK COMPLETE!!!

Next week I will have 3 flights before my check ride. I cannot wait to get this thing knocked out! The instrument check is the most heavily weighted of the check rides and is most important because it is the material that will be used throughout my flying career...regardless of what I fly. Fortunately we have a 3-day weekend this week...so I need to rip the plastic off of my study material and get going.

After this check ride there are 3 left...low-level navigation, advanced contact (aerobatics), and formation...all the good stuff!!!

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 ;)

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.