AIRCRAFT COMMANDER UPGRADE TRAINING

26 Jan - 17 Apr 2007

Week 1  |  Week 2  |  Week 3  |  Week 4  |  Week 5 |  Week 6 |  Week 7  | 

Week 8  |  Week 9 |  Week 10  |  Week 11 |  Week 12 

Week 1

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22 - 26 Jan 2007

     Departed Cincinnati on the 24th for Altus.  Met up with my cousin Tim in Missouri, he just happened to be along my route, and about half

way to Altus.  He's out there working to restore power to thousands of homes who lost power after the big ice storm that went through a week or so ago.

Made it to Altus Thursday afternoon, I'll be staying on base for the duration of the course.

     First class was Friday.  Not much has changed here at Altus, they still cram a month's worth of training into three and a half months.  They explain it

by saying that the Air Force has gone to great pains to provide the most distraction-free environment in order that we have every opportunity to learn

procedures and regulations.  For example, next week, our schedule is for 3 days of class.  Today's classes included a review of Flight Controls,

Hydraulic Systems, and Cell Formation flying.  It is good to have the opportunity to review these systems, just seems like an excessive amount

of time allotted for the amount of work to do.  Maybe they really want us to work on our golf game...

      Went to Charlie's Friday night with some of the guys in my class.

Week 2

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29 Jan - 2 Feb 2007

     Monday's classes consisted of an Air Refueling Seminar, a review of the Pneumatics, and a class on gust & wind-shear considerations.

Tuesday we had a class meeting with both classes together.  Our class of AC upgrades (about 12 people) joined with a class of initial Co-pilot

students (about 18 people) to get paired up.  We'll do simulator missions and flights with our partner from here on.  I paired up with a Guard

pilot from Nebraska.  We also had a review of the Electric system, the Engines and 3 hours of Aerodynamics. 

   Wednesday nothing was scheduled.  Thursday was a full day of mission planning (4 hour class of takeoff data) and a directives seminar. 

Nothing exciting.  Drove to Little Rock for the weekend to meet up with Mark and Kristin.  Then Kristina flew in Friday night from Indianapolis

for the weekend. Had a great time.

Week 3

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5 - 9 Feb 2007

      Sean and I had our first simulator mission Monday night, from 2000 to 2230.  It was a basic refresher mission, just normal ops and some emergency procedures.  Short debrief.  I think we have 9 simulator sorties while we're here, the last one being a 'check' sim with an Air force instructor.

   Tuesday we had a Leadership class, another Air Refueling seminar, and emergency procedures discussions until about 1500.  Mike Baker, a buddy of mine from OTS and UPT showed up this weekend, he's a C-17 pilot at Travis, out here for some tactical training.  Good times.  Thursday we had a sim from 1400-1730, my first left-seat sim mission here.  It was a normal sortie, with some EPs thrown in at random.  We alternate left and right seat simulator missions so the next sim will be a right seat for me. 

    Friday was CRM (crew resource management) for 8 hours.  Again, most of the academics are a re-hash of stuff we learned last time we came through here, so it can get a little redundant; still good to discuss some of the issues, and share experiences.

Week 4

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12 -16 Feb 2007

    Had the remainder of the CRM lesson on Monday, then spent the rest of the week studying for the EP test which I took on Friday after my sim.  Not much else going on in the meantime.  Saturday we had a simulator at 0600, our last normal procedures sim.  The final 6 sims will be over emergency procedures.    

    Flew home to Cincinnati after my sim.  (Wasn't going to stay in Altus for an entire week with nothing to do)  So I drove to Oklahoma City and since I had some time before my flight left, I met up with one of my buddies from Laughlin, Stu Letcher.  He lives with his wife and family in OK City and flies C-130s for the Oklahoma Air National Guard.  Or did until they just got hit in the last BRAC.  Now their unit is merging with a Tinker KC-135 unit.  So he'll be coming to Altus for re-qual training.  Anyway we met up for lunch and talked a little about what he might expect from the tanker.   It was great catching up with another buddy from pilot training, now that I know they're living in OK city, I'll probably be heading out that way more often.

Week 5

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19 - 23 Feb 2007

   Flew back Thursday evening, in time for the next sim mission Friday morning.  Then I had fri, sat, sun and Monday off.  When you only work 1 day over a span of 9 days, it begins to feel a little pointless.  The Air Force spends all that money to bring students out here for 3-5 months, but doesn't seem to know what to do with us once we get here!  The sim was pretty straightforward.  Had some engine start malfunctions, runaway trim during takeoff, oil pressure problems, pressurization issues, engine fires, and we ended the sim doing some 3-engine approaches to a go-around.  Really nothing new, just more practice.  Which is always good.  Studying for the General Knowledge test, which I think I'll take Monday.

Week 6

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26 Feb - 2 Mar 2007  

    Took the GK Test Monday.  Had an early sim scheduled for Tuesday, but ended up switching with another crew who had one at 2100.  Another late sim on Thursday at 2000, then another just a few hours later at 0600.  Consequently I didn't get much sleep, maybe 3 hours.  Unusual for Altus, that you'd have that little sleep between sorties, but since it was only the sim we figured it wasn't worth complaining about.  Weekend to study and go to the gym.

Week 7

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5 - 9 Mar 2007

     Monday morning sim at 1000, the final EP sim.  Tuesday we had our checkout sim with the Air Force instructor.  1630 showtime, and after a brief mission overview, and Ops limits/Boldface sheet (which we had just been studying thankfully) we got in the sim around 1700.  I was in the left seat for the first half of the sortie, then Sean and I switched at around the 2 hour point.  Everything went like clockwork, and we were done at 2000.  Debriefed until about 2030.  Wednesday Lewis, Eric (a couple of Mildenhall pilots) and myself went golfing since there wasnt anything on the schedule.  Thursday we have a full day of flightline orientation, meeting our assigned IP, and going here and there for briefings. Was planning on meeting up with Kristina in St Louis for the weekend, but she couldn't get off from work, so I found cheap airfare and flew home instead. 

Week 8

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12 - 16 Mar 2007

    0800 show Monday morning, to get our package for Tuesday's flight.  Sean and I spent the majority of the morning mission planning, then met up with our assigned IP as well as another IP at 1200 to go over some things.  Turned into an entire afternoon of briefing/chair-flying which was good.  Tuesday we met up around 0930 to find our mission had to be replanned due to a receiver change.  So after that, the whole crew met up (2 IPs, Sean and I, an instructor boom and a student boom) to brief the sortie.  Got to the jet around 1130 and after numerous glitches in the avionics, and calling maintenance, we were pretty much on time heading out to pick up our receiver.  Everything went well until I hit a bird on a touch and go and had to stop, let maintenance check us out, then takeoff to continue the mission.  It had struck the leading edge of the wing, and there was a big smear, but no damage.  It added about an hour to our day which turned out to be about 12 hours long.  Didn't get much of a debrief that day, so Sean and I went in on Wednesday to meet with our assigned IP and talk about the flight.  Nothing Thursday, so I went in and mission planned the two sorties for next week.  Friday Golf with Lewis and Gravy, then on to Lawton for entertainment.

Week 9

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19 - 23 Mar 2007

     Briefed Monday for a Tuesday morning show and go.  The flight was only schedule to be a 2.5 hr sortie, but was cut short when again we hit a bird.  This time we didn't know we had hit it, until we started smelling a terrible stench coming through the air conditioning system.  We made the next one a full stop and after doing the walk-around I found bird remains in the aft part of the engine.  We normally don't smell the bird when it hits an engine, because it usually goes through the outer, fan section.  I guess this one wanted a closer look at the core of the engine, where the bleed air (pressurization and air conditioning) comes from.  Needless to say there wasn't much left but a few feathers, maybe part of a leg.

     Wednesday we briefed up our first formation sortie for Thursday.  We flew formation with another tanker, to refuel a C-17.  The flight went well, and we luckily didn't hit any birds.  We did however cut the sortie short by about half an hour due to weather.  One more formation flight next week, followed by two night flights before we're ready for our to-check.

Week 10

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26 - 30 Mar 2007

    Scheduled to fly 3 times this week, in order to check next week.  Monday's flight was another formation flight.  We flew behind Gasser 34 out to our A/R track to refuel a C-17.  Pretty normal sortie, then we decided to go to Amarillo for transition work.  We flew to AMA first, then about a half hour later Gasser 34 showed up and we did a couple full stop landings followed by formation departures.  Turned out to be kinda cool, taking off behind another tanker, then going directly into the VFR pattern, very non-standard which made it cool.  Flew back to Altus for a debrief.

    Wednesday was the first installment of two scheduled night flights.  It is pretty much a waste of time to fly at night, and usually we end up getting hosed by the C-17s who do NVG operations at night and take priority over us.  Wednesday's flight turned into an abbreviated sortie for that reason, as well as weather that was rolling in to the area.  I think we logged a 1.9.  I ended up getting plenty of transition work (touch and goes) Sean was a little short-changed.  Debriefed Thursday.  I'm not sure what they think we gain from doing nighttime A/R, but we don't benefit from it in the least.  Maybe the Boom operators need to see it but we certainly don't need to waste 2 full sorties.

    Friday's weather was similar and we ended up getting hosed by the C-17s again.  Took off around sunset, did a couple of low approaches before heading out to the A/R track.  The A/R was uneventful (despite having 4 boom operators) and we headed back to Altus for a couple hours of transition...Unfortunately the C-17s were doing NVG ops again, and we had to go into holding for 45 minutes until they opened up a window.  Just when we thought we would get to do our transition (and get a  complete sortie) the IP decided to make the next one a full stop.  I think the booms and the IP had "get-home-itis" because of the poor weather forecast.  So instead of doing approaches in perfectly legal weather conditions we landed and were incomplete.  It was pretty disappointing because both Sean and I were planning to be finished by next weekend in time for Easter.  Oh well, what's one more holiday I'll be away from the family...

Week 11

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2 - 6 Apr 2007

     Briefed Monday for our make-up flight tuesday.  Tuesday's flight was uneventful, spent alot of time in the pattern to make up for the lost pattern work on the last two sorties.  We definitely need the practice with emergency scenarios and pattern work, and doing 2 formation sorties, and 2 night sorties is truly a waste of time and resources when our check-ride success hinges largely on how well we do those EPs in the pattern.  Other aircraft (C-5s, C-17s) practice their EPs in the simulator, not in the aircraft, but since we do, and they're such a big part of the check-ride it would make sense to get as much training in those areas as possible.

     0600 Wednesday we had to do a short simulator mission, because the sim instructors didn't properly annotate one of the items we are required to log.  It's a 'Jammed Stabilizer' approach, and even though we had already done it during academics, it wasn't properly graded so we had to do it again.  We briefed later that day for Thursday's Rec ride (aka to-check).  The flight went pretty well, and we were given our IP's blessing to go to our check ride on Monday. 

Week 12

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9 - 13 Apr 2007 - CHECKRIDE

     Monday morning we showed around 0900 to get a quick weather brief and step to the jet.  Sean was in the left seat first, while I did co-pilot duties until we were ready for takeoff, then the evaluator got back in the right seat.  Sean flew the departure then I got back in the right seat so the IP could evaluate our re-fueling rendezvous.  (The check-ride involves about a dozen or so seat changes)  Refueled a C-17 piloted by the squadron commander, up and down AR 400, uneventfully.  I got into the left seat for my portion, which involved the descent and first few approaches.  I did the ILS 3-engine 30-flap touch-n-go to an EFTOC, followed by a PAR approach to a 3-engine missed approach.  Sean got back in the seat and did the same, seat swap, TACAN-D circling approach (right seat) then a couple full-stop taxi-back landings.  Turned into a 5.6 hour sortie.  Wasn't the smoothest or prettiest sortie I've ever flown, but procedurally we were solid, and we didn't exceed any Q1 tolerances, so he told us to go ahead and check out of billeting (which was his way of telling us we passed). 

     Tuesday morning we met up around 0630 with the evaluator for our debriefing (due to our late finish last night).  Hour and a half later we were on our way through the out-processing maze, bouncing around between various offices on base (it's important that every agency gets to be involved in my out-processing...)  Left for home at 1000.  After I get back to the unit, I'll have approx 45 days of 'seasoning' training where the unit makes sure I'm properly trained to be an AC (not the Altus way).  I'll also have an overseas sortie, scheduled for Turkey sometime in June.

CO-PILOT INITIAL TRAINING

7 Feb - 13 May 2005

 Week 1  |  Week 2  |  Week 3  |  Week 4  |  Week 5 |  Week 6 |  Week 7  |  Week 8  |  Week 9  |  Week 10  | 

 Week 11  |  Week 12  |  Week 13  |  Week 14

Week 1

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7 - 11 Feb 2005

   Monday we inprocessed and got ALL of our pubs (50 pounds or so).  Our class consists of about 12 CIQ, 5 ACIQ and 4 PIQ students.  CIQs are like me, copilot initial qualification students, usually right out of pilot training.  ACIQs are usually captains or higher, and come from another aircraft system, or they're upgrading from KC-135 co-pilot to Aircraft Commander.  PIQs are students right out of UPT like me, but were randomly picked to go through a little more training here (about a month) to be both left and right-seat qualified in the tanker once they leave here.  Eventually all students will do this type of training.

   Spent the afternoon putting the pubs together (most of them).  Took about 5 hours just to assemble the pubs, that didn't include checking them for errors.  So I spent another 3 hours going through each one to make sure I had the proper changes annotated.  It'll take another 4-6 hours to go through all of the other pubs, but I'm going to put that off.  Tuesday through Friday we had a smattering of academic classes and computer based training classes (which we do on our own schedule).  Very laid back, very straightforward.  Similar to T-1 academics, but they don't force us to do anything, so we have to motivate ourselves. 

   Staying in the VOQ (one of the new buildings), which is only about 500 yards from the academic building.  It's a decent room, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room...adequate for what I need.  Some guys were put off base due to the limited availability of VOQ rooms.  Some are actually staying in a resort to the north, about a 20 minutes drive one way.  Glad I got to stay on base.

KC-135R Pacer Crag Cockpit

Week 2

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14 - 18 Feb 2005

   Academics and CBTs (computer lessons) as well as PTTs (part task trainers) all week.  PTTs are where they have a mockup of the cockpit (referred to by Zach Hall as a mockpit), and we go through some switchology to get a grasp of what buttons and switches to push and what they do.  It's somewhat interactive, and somewhat helpful.  Got caught up on travel vouchers, and pay paperwork for the move from Laughlin to Cincinnati.  We start learning mission planning on friday, where we begin to plan our first simulator mission.

   Got a review of PFPS, a software tool that allows us to plan complete missions either graphically (i.e. on a map) or by entering the point in a database and it automatically figures the distance and times.  It also figures fuel flows and climb/descent data.  Really powerful, and we'll be using it as the primary mission planning tool.  We used this software a little bit in pilot training, but not to the extent that we'll use it here.

22 - 25 Feb 2005

   Nothing exciting this week, just academics.  Start our simulator missions next week, so we're all studying the interior inspection checklists, and getting familiar with the different avionics systems.  Most of the stuff we learn on our own time, at our own pace, so it's a very easy environment.  I spend alot of time in the gym, and alot of time sleeping in.

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28 Feb - 4 Mar 2005

   Had my first simulator mission this week.  Spent a few hours prior just going over the flow of the preflight checklist, specifically the interior inspection checklist.  In the sim, it took us all of two hours just to finish that one checklist.  We need to get the time down to 45 minutes, so we'll be practicing it alot.  The sim was a blast, after the interior inspection, Jason and I took turns flying the jet, to include an approach and landing.  Handles like a big fat pig, but I love it.  TONS of power, it was tough to keep the speed down after takeoff.

    We were paired up with our permanent flying partner on Thursday, for co-pilots like me, we get paired with an Aircraft commander upgrade, mine is a captain from Spokane WA, Greg Huhman.  Seems really cool.  We have our first real sim next Tuesday, so I have the weekend to work on my checklists. 

   Three day weekend should give me plenty of time to study for Block A test, which I plan to take on Monday.

Week 5

7 - 11 Mar 2005

    Pretty easy week this week, alot of classes but they didn't take up much time.  Had my third simulator sortie with my AC; lasted about 3 hours, and we took off and flew some basic maneuvers just to get a feel for how the aircraft handles in different phases of flight.  Was a pretty cool sim, I got to do alot of Co-pilot duties so it was cool to see how the AC and Co work together. 

    Had a course on emergency procedures which lasted all day.  We studied some past accidents on the tanker, and we were given a scenario to evaluate and discuss in class.  So far there haven't been any significant accidents on the R-model tanker (knock on wood) since it was introduced in the 1980s.  There have been 3 accidents on the ground I think but nothing in the air. 

    Looks like a pretty low-key week for me, I have two simulator missions, and a couple tests, but otherwise I should have plenty of time to spend in the gym.

Week 6

     14 - 18 Mar 2005

    Pretty busy week.  2 simulator missions, a bunch of classes, and an academic test to study for.  The sims are getting more difficult, for us co-pilots.  The sorties are pretty simple, and shouldn't be hard at all, but when you're still getting used to the avionics, the checklists, and being a co-pilot the helmet fire is still strong.  They put alot of emphasis on checklist procedures for us copilots, flying the plane is secondary, especially in the sim.

   Some more of my UPT classmates arrived at Altus.  Now Brines, Warnaar, Gilliland, Euler, and Waldo are here.  Waldo is the only one out of those here for C-5 training, the rest are doing C-17s.  Seen most of them at the gym, I think we're getting together this weekend at the Officer's club for a beer.

   Outside of class, there isn't much to report.  Went to see The Ring 2 this weekend with Jason.  Boring.  On Saturday, Greg, his wife and I went to a wildlife refuge near Lawton.  Saw some Buffalo, Prairie Dogs, Elk...and did some hiking up in the mountains (mini-mountains).  Then we went to Ft Sill to check out the civil war museum, and some other random Army displays.  Interesting. 

   On the schedule for 3 sims this upcoming week.  Should be fun.

Week 7

21 - 25 Mar 2005

   Made some real progress this week on checklist procedures and overall situational awareness when flying (in the sim).  Had three sims, one was an emergency procedures sim, a normal procedures sim, and a sim with fuel systems malfunctions.  Pretty low-threat, so they were alot of fun, for the most part.

   Took my Block B Exam, which went well.  Also took the Emergency procedures exam which didnt go so well, but I still made it through.  Even after studying for two solid days I still managed to miss a bunch of questions.  Typical Air Force test question bank.  They love to test your photographic memory, rather than your systems/procedural knowledge. 

   Since airfare is way too high, I decided against flying home for Easter weekend.  Instead I drove to visit my friend Mark in Little Rock on Friday.  Went to a piano bar, and had a great time being geeks all weekend on the computer.  He left sunday for a Caribbean cruise, I left sunday for Altus AFB.  Hmm.

   Only on the schedule for 2 sims this week.  I just want to hurry up and finish so I can get outta here.

Week 8

  28 Mar - 1 Apr 2005

   Had sims 9 and 10 this week, and they both went pretty well.  Also finished all of my academics, after taking the end-of-course exam on Friday.  Pretty slow week though, aside from all the studying.  Will Poulson finally made it in to town.  Now we have most of the guys from T-1s here from Laughlin.  He had survival and resistance training before coming here, which is why he started so much later than I did.  My dates for Survival are June 16 - July 13th, give or take a few days. It'll be nice to go to Pensacola Florida in June for a week.

   My next sim mission is a CRM sim, (crew resource management) with a Boom operator sitting in while the Pilot and I do our thing.  Might learn something about communication.  Then Tuesday I have my acceptance sim, where an Air Force evaluator sits in on the mission and evaluates us to see if we're good to go over to the flightline.  Basically he's just making sure we aren't complete boneheads and wont kill anyone when we start flying the real jet.  Thursday is when we are supposed to report across the street.  We wont start flying though until the following week, but it will be nice to get over there finally.

   Also found out my flight commander from Laughlin is here for a refresher course in the KC-135.  His assignment at Laughlin ended about the time we graduated, so now he's getting out of active duty and going to fly tankers for the Oregon National Guard.  He's a totally different guy now that he isn't our FC.  Funny to see him let his hair down.

   Weather has been pretty fair lately, it's always windy here, but it has consistently been above 60 and even approached 80 on a few occasions.  Sun is almost always out also.  By the time I get home the weather there should be nice, right now back in Cincinnati it's crappy, has been all spring.

Week 9

     4 - 8 Apr 2005

   Had my acceptance sim on tuesday, went great.  Now I'm completely done with sims here at Altus.  The sortie consisted of normal operations, a few emergency scenarios, and some approaches.  Only took 2.5 hours and we were done.  The instructor was an Air Force guy from the flightline, and was super cool. 

   Talked to the scheduler to see what the flying schedule is going to be like, and it looks like I'll fly twice a week and should finish May 6th.  Which means only 4 more weeks and I'm going home for good!  Can't wait.

   Thursday we had our first day on the flightline, wasn't too exciting, but we did get to practice egressing from the aircraft.  They showed us all of the escape routes, we climbed down ropes out of the cockpit windows, went through the over-wing hatch and jumped off of the wing, then slid down the inflatable slide from the aft exit hatch.  After lunch we had a page count, which took nearly 3 hours.  Friday we had life support training in the morning, then most of the afternoon off.

   On the schedule to fly next wednesday with my assigned IP, Capt Lassere.  Supposed to refuel an RC-135 then fly to Offit AFB Nebraska for some touch and goes.  Interesting that we'll fly 500 miles away to practice landings, then fly back home.  Could make for a long day...

Week 10

      11 - 15 Apr 2005

   Spent all morning tuesday mission planning, then all afternoon briefing with our IP, Capt Lassere.  Then spent most of the evening chair-flying the sortie, and my touch and go procedures.  Wednesday, we showed around 0730, updated our weather and TOLD, re-briefed the main points and any changes to the misison, then stepped to the jet around 0830.  I finished my interior inspection on time, so we had time for a manual flap extension exercise (on the ground).  That took about 10 minutes, then we were good to go.  The mission was outstanding, except that it lasted 6+40.  We refueled an RC-135 then did transition work at Offut AFB.  The jet is pretty easy to fly around in the radar pattern, doing ILS approaches, but flying the closed pattern is a handful.  It has so much power, it feels like you're riding a horse you can't slow down.  Landed at Altus around 1700, debriefed for an hour or so then called it a day.

   Spent Thursday debriefing Wednesday's mission, once we were done with that, I started planning for Friday's mission.  Finished up around noon, then met up with the crew around 2:00 for the briefing.  Our crew this time was a baby boom, a boom instructor, Greg, myself and Capt Glover.  Briefing lasted an hour or so, and we wrapped things up around 1600. 

   Friday's sortie went well, but it was even longer that the last one.  7 hours.  We spent over 2 hours practicing refueling with a C-5 (awesome view), a couple hours enroute, and a couple hours pulling closed back at Altus.  I did one non-precision approach, and the rest of my time was spent doing multiple closed patterns.  You really work your butt off doing those, but it's a way to get alot of landings in less time.  And my landings are what need work.  Debriefed the sortie at the O-club with the IP, then called it a night.

   Took a trip to Ft Worth this weekend with Will, Waldo, and Bumper.  Went out on the town Saturday night, then went to the NASCAR race on Sunday.  We had to dress the part, so we went shopping prior to the trip.  Here are some photos.

Week 11

18 - 22 Apr 2005

    Planned and briefed Monday, for our first formation sortie on Tuesday.  Planning was somewhat of a cluster, due to two different people doing the same mission planning.  Both jets had the same profile, AR313 as a formation, then split up and fly to Tinker for transition work, before going back to Altus.  Flight went well, all things considered.  My landings are getting to be acceptable, by my standards.  Air Refueling is pretty easy, but it's easy to get sidetracked, and goof stuff up, which we did a couple times.  I flew the drop-in from the AR track to Tinker, or rather, I guided the shuttle through re-entry as we screamed down to final.  I didn't realize just how close we were to the final approach segment of the ILS until we were 30 miles out and still way too high.  It was quite a ride, the student boom might have had to change his shorts afterwards, I'm not sure.  But -- I turned it into a really nice approach, and landed out of it, so I didn't take any slack from the IP.  Debriefed most of the sortie after we landed at 1630.  Got home around 1900.  Today's sortie was only 6.4 hours long. 

   Not scheduled to fly again this week, so I'll be chair-flying with Greg, and getting ready for next week, where I'm scheduled to fly Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  I took the Instrument Refresher Course test on Wednesday, and aced it.  It's open book, but it still takes 3-5 hours because the questions are pretty thorough.  Being right out of pilot training definitely helped too, alot of the info was still pretty fresh in my mind.

   One more week down. 

Week 12

25 - 29 Apr 2005

   Flew my second formation ride on Monday.  Went really well, probably my best ride yet.  Things are coming together nicely.  Transition work at Amarillo was pretty crazy, with winds out of limits for touch and go's, but we did alot of approach work.  Came back to Altus and had more trouble with crosswinds and even tailwinds, but I only had to go around once in spite of all that.  Towards the end of the sortie a thunderstorm rolled into town, with lightning, so we had to full stop, and wait on the taxiway for 20 minutes for it to pass by.  13 hour days aren't fun, but we did get alot accomplished.  Went home and slept for 11 hours before getting up to mission plan for Wednesday's night sortie.  No more formation headache.

   Studying with Greg (my PUP) for next week's checkride between sorties.

   Wednesdays night flight was ok.  It was weird from the beginning, just because we were out of our routine, and our schedules were messed up.  I did the takeoff, a 30 Max Gyro takeoff which is the toughest one for a new copilot, because you dont have command bars to follow (we like things easy).  Departure went fine, we flew to AR312 again, refueled for awhile then went back to Altus for approach work.  On the trip back to Altus we encountered a pretty significant layer of windshear, which resulted in some pretty stiff crosswinds during the approaches.  My PAR wasnt so hot, my ILS was ok, my Circle was horrible (circling at night for the first time really sucks, you cant see anything) and my VFR patterns werent the best either.  But, I made some mistakes and learned alot so it was a very productive sortie. 

  Friday's sortie, by contrast, was a drastic improvement.  Greg got a cold and went DNIF, so it was just Capt Lassere and myself in the front seats all night.  Flew AR313 then to Altus for transition work.  Hands down my best sortie here so far.  Part of it had to do with there only being 4 people on the jet, which means no seat-swaps between Greg and I (always a pain) and I could just focus on doing the basics without 6 people talking all the time.  Was a real confidence booster.  I'm not sure what's going to happen to our schedule now that Greg is DNIF, I think they'll try to get him caught up so we can still check next Friday.  Going to OK city this weekend, and otherwise just taking it easy for my last weekend in Altus.

Week 13

    2 - 6 May 2005

   Spent Monday mission planning and briefing for Tuesday's sortie with Capt Stuart.  It's our To-check ride, which only means it's the last ride before we check, and we have to show proficiency in everything before they'll check us.  Greg and I did very well considering all of the things that went wrong from the very beginning.  Got to the jet later than anticipated, had problems with the power cart so we ended up starting an APU (clock is ticking).  GPS wouldn't come up for 10 minutes (usually takes a minute).  Lost my radar altimeter, which caused a TCAS fault (maintenance had to come out).  The flightplan wouldn't load for some reason, and in general it was a royal pain in the butt just getting to taxi.  Then ground tried to taxi us into a flight of 3 C-17s.  Once cleared for takeoff one of our PMC demand pointers failed when Greg pushed the power up.  More time wasted.  Finally got airborne, and were running about 20 minutes late to make our rendezvous with a C-17.  Flew at the speed of heat to the CP, and just barely made our Point-parallel rendezvous work, it was actually pretty sweet how we made it work.  From there on things went pretty smooth.  Went to Lubbock TX for transition and the weather was about 500' overcast with drizzle.  We flew instrument approaches for a couple hours (much more challenging in actual weather) then flew to Altus for some more work.  The jet didnt like us at all, the throttles were not acting normally for me, so my power control was horrible (I blame it on the PMCs).  Turned out to be a very productive flight, though because we saw what all can go wrong on a flight.  Debriefed for an hour or so then called it a day. 

   Wednesday Greg is getting caught up with me, because he was one day behind.  Meanwhile I'll be studying and making sure my pubs are in perfect shape for the evaluation Thursday, and checkride Friday.

   Checkride Complete!  I'm officially a fully qualified KC-135R copilot.  We planned and briefed on thursday for our flight on friday.  Our evaluator was Maj Long, who turned out to be a great guy, very big picture and who seemed more interested in teaching us than evaluating us, which is the way it should be I think.  The ground eval went pretty well, it was quick and painless.  Greg and I handled pretty much everything the EP asked us, and it was over in about 45 minutes. 

   Friday, showed up at 0655 for weather and rebrief.  Ground ops went off without a hitch.  Takeoff and departure were a piece of cake, the rendezvous and A/R went great, the descent into Lubbock was fine, we did a turn in holding before Greg shot the ILS.  Then we made our biggest boo boo.  Because we have to do a circling approach for our checkride, we picked the Localizer to 26 at Lubbock.  Problem is (and neither one of us caught it before we got in the jet) was that the final approach fix is identified by an NDB, which the tanker cant navigate to.  We only noticed it after Greg was already on the approach.  Turned out not to be a huge deal, but it could have been death.  So for my approach I changed the profile and flew my circle from the VOR.  My approach work wasn't perfect, but it was stable, pretty close to on speed and pretty close to centerline.  And no hard landings, which was a good feeling after struggling with that for the last two weeks.  Flew home landed around 1500, and did an engine running crew change.  I left immediately without even debriefing because I had a flight to catch in OK city at 7pm.  I flew home to Cincinnati for my good friend Sara's graduation.  She just got her Master's degree in Nursing after getting her butt kicked for the last year and a half.  Mark (her brother) flew in to town as well, so we all hung out all weekend, did Hofbrau Haus on saturday night - good food, good beer, and some good German music (whatever that is).  Flew back home sunday night, got into Altus around 10:00.  I'll post photos when I get them, since I left my camera there.

Week 14

9 - 13 May 2005

   Monday morning Greg and I out-processed, then we met up with out EP at noon for the debrief from Friday's checkride.  Of course we passed, and now I'm a qualified KC-135R copilot, and he's a brand new Aircraft Commander.  He's gonna hang around for a few days for his wife to finish up her course, but I'm bugging out on Tuesday.  Places to go, and people to see.  Plus, I've been in Altus long enough.  Met up with some of the guys Monday night for a beer before I leave.  It's gonna be awhile before I see them again.