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 15  |  Week 16  |  Week 17  |  Week 18  |  Week 19  |  Week 20

Week 1

Monday - President's Day 

Studied all day today and yesterday.  Went to HQ to go over patterns and radio calls.  They set up a miniature pattern in their back yard, and used chalk on their patio so we could walk through the entire pattern process.  It got pretty funny.  Don't need to show until 1030 tomorrow morning, but that probably means we'll be staying late in the day.  Not much else going on.

Tuesday 17 Feb 2004 - Day 27

  1030 showtime this morning in the classroom (upstairs).  Had a pretty light day, started out with a few briefings from our new squadron commander and DO (we just became part of the 85th flying training squadron).  Both really cool guys, but we hope we don't see too much of them, because it usually means we've screwed something up.  Afterwards we migrated to the flight room to go over more P missions.  Some people had simulator rides today, which means they'll be flying tomorrow.  Everyone is pretty excited about finally getting to fly.  My first sim isn't until Thursday night, which means I won't fly until Friday morning.  Spent the rest of the day reading and learning how to do the hundreds of things we have to know how to do, just in the flight room (things like our grade books, briefing procedures...).  Did a boldface quiz and had someone mess it up...still.  I suppose we're learning though.  Released at 1800, which was cool because some people were still in the sims and they could have made us stay late.  Went to Chili's in Del Rio to celebrate Kristin's birthday, and for food cause we were hungry.  0930 Show tomorrow, so I'll do my readings in the morning.

Wednesday 18 Feb 2004 - Day 28

   Today we had 'Brief To Fly' at 0930, which means we just basically show up at the flight room at 0930.  Normally we'll have Formal Brief in the morning at a certain time, which is just that, a formal morning briefing where we sit at attention and go over the pertinent items.  But since there were so many flights in the morning we just showed up and got individual briefings.  Since I wasn't flying, of course, I just showed up and started studying, and listened to other people's briefings.  I think 6 people had their dollar rides today, and only one guy got sick, so far.  Everyone said they felt like getting their sic sac out but managed to hold down the spew long enough to get on the ground and somewhat stable.  The rest of the day was spent hanging out in the flight room, studying and learning administrative stuff.  I didn't get out of the flight room until 2100, but we don't have to show up until 1130 tomorrow, so It's cool.  Tomorrow starts the 30 Day Program.  It's kinda hard to explain the 30 Day program, but it's when we become responsible for knowing stuff, and grades start to count.  So for tomorrow we have to know two boldface procedures and all Notes, Warnings and Cautions associated with those boldface.  So basically we have to read and memorize everything in the Dash 1 about those two, and we'll be asked to regurgitate the Notes, Warnings and Cautions.  It's a pretty light assignment, but we're just gearing up for later when the Notes Warnings and Cautions cover several pages of text.  I'm not going to read until tomorrow, though, since I dont have to be in until 11 and my brain has gone home for the day.

Thursday 19 Feb 2004 - Day 29

  Fire hose on full, mouth wide open.  Today started pretty well, we had formal brief this morning with stand up, which included reciting the boldface and Notes, Warnings and Cautions (NWC) we memorized last night (or didn't memorize as the case may be).  I did fine, it took me a while to recite one of the notes, but I nailed it so I was happy.  The SSEM is the instructor (IP) who dishes out all the stand up questions during formal brief, Lt  Ihrig.  He's pretty laid-back which is to our benefit, because he doesn't jump all over us if we don't get the NWC exactly verbatim, as long as we get the meaning.  So we took turns standing up, and if someone messed up they had to stay standing up until the next person in line got it right.   That went on for maybe 20 minutes.  After morning brief we had a day pretty much like yesterday, more people got their dollar ride, some people got their second ride, and the rest of us pretty much kept our noses in the books.  I had to report for my simulator ride at 1800, and the IP turned out to be our Systems class instructor.  We had about a half-hour briefing, then went in the sim.  It was awesome; even though I messed up about everything I could, he said I did pretty good, and that's all I needed to hear.  I landed the plane twice, once not so good.  I had a very difficult time concentrating on anything, my mind just didn't know where to focus, so it didn't.  If I tried to do a checklist, the aircraft would get all funky on me, and if I tried to maintain control, I wouldn't get the check done.  So I just slowed way down (mentally) and did one item at a time, while keeping my head up, and that seemed to work ok.  If I had to sum it up, it felt like I needed another set of hands and another set of eyes to do everything that needed to be done.  But all in due time I guess.  Once finished with the sim, we debriefed, he told me how I messed up - but in a good way, and I went back to the flight room.  The wives made everyone dinner last night, but some of us didn't get back in time to eat it, so Drew's wife made a HUGE lasagna and brought it in the flight room.  Bonus.  Our assignment for tomorrow (0900 showtime) includes memorizing 14 Notes, Warnings and Cautions, along with the boldface.  In addition to all of that we have to continue our readings in 3-3 and 11-217, and the Dash 1.  So yeah, fire hose on full...

Friday 20 Feb 2004 - Day 30

   Dollar Ride today, and it was pretty intense as expected.  Started the day getting my chute fitted, and helmet/mask cleaned and tested.  My IP for the flight was Lt Col Fenimore, a full-time reserve instructor who was super cool.  We briefed at 1000 for a planned 1054 flight, and we went over what I could expect on the flight, where we were going and so on.  We were to do an overhead pattern here at Laughlin, then go to Wizard (the other airport we use for training) and do another pattern.  We would then go to the areas and practice turns and stuff (the areas are big chunks of sky with defined borders where we can do about anything we want), then come back home for one more closed pattern and landing.  Well, we ended up sitting in the jet an extra half hour due to an unplanned quiet period (couldn't start any jets), but it wasn't too hot out, so we didn't bake.  The startup went great, it was an awesome feeling when the engines spooled up for the first time, quite exhilarating.  He let me taxi and takeoff, and make radio calls on the ground, which I did OK.  Then he took the jet after airborne and flew the departure.  I made it to Wizard before the effects of yanking and banking caught up with my stomach, and I felt really crappy for about 5 minutes, so he let me have the plane for awhile, and it helped immensely.  We didn't have time to do a landing at Wizard due to the swarm of aircraft there, so we went out to Area 6 Low (7,000-12,000) and he let me do a 3 G pull, which was about a 70 degree bank.  It felt weird, but it wasn't bad at all.  I think the highest we went was 11,000 but the visibility was so poor you couldn't tell.  On the way back from the area we flew over the 'Lonesome Dove' movie set, which is a visual checkpoint on the return to Laughlin.  When I was flying the recovery, I was really enjoying myself, I think it'll just take some time to get used to the strange environment.  Things were happening very fast, I don't remember much of the procedural stuff, but I did get to see the visual references pretty well.  He set up the landing at Honcho (Laughlin) and let me finish it, which was cool.  We taxied back, shut down, got un-strapped, I almost forgot the pubs and my parachute spacer, but had a good crew chief who caught them for me, then went inside.  The rest of the day was uneventful, especially in comparison to the flight.  My head is still reeling though, too much stuff to take in in one day.  Party at the Officer's club then sleepy time.

Weekend

Week 2

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Monday  23 Feb 2004 - Day 31

     Supposed to fly at 0724 today, so I showed up at the flight room around 0605.  Turns out the weather was below minimums due to low clouds and drizzle, so no-one flew until after noon.  Which meant I didn't get to fly today.  So I sat in the flight room for 12 hours, going over Notes Warnings and Cautions, studying 3-3 and 11-201, and various other little things.  Wasn't bad at all though, I got some good studying done.  I went ahead and briefed with the IP I was supposed to fly with, which was a good source of information, and helped me understand the process of flying the departure to Wizard.  Went to the Links trainer to try to learn a flow for after takeoff and engine shutdown.  We had Standup at the end of the day, and I only got called on a few times, which was cool because some of the NWCs were long paragraphs of text, and I didn't remember them very well from Friday.  Our class still hasn't gotten a 100% on the boldface quizzes, which is ridiculous, and they won't tell us who is screwing it up, so we just keep doing them over and over every day.  We have to get three consecutive 100% scores on the boldface in order to wear the 85 FTS Patch on our right arm.  Most of us are getting the tests right every time, but it only takes one person to make one mistake for the whole test to be a failure for the class.  Got in trouble for coming in before scheduled brief time of 0620, because it caused me to have to leave the standup a few minutes early at the end of the day (in order to stay within the 12 hour max).  No biggie, I didn't know that was the rule for showing up in the morning, and I would much rather be early than late.  I'm scheduled for two simulators tomorrow, back to back, but no flying.  I'm sure I'll get plenty of flying in soon.

Tuesday  24 Feb 2004 - Day 32

   0615 show this morning in the flightroom.  I had to quickly get all my stuff together to prepare for the simulator which was scheduled for 0720 (supposed to brief 45 minutes prior).  Had a really good sim ride today, with Mr. Johnson, our Aviation Fundamentals instructor.  Spent about an hour in the sim doing straight-in approaches, which didn't look very good at all, until I started getting the hang of it.  Also did some constant speed climbs and turns, and various other basic maneuvers (I love that word, basic maneuver, it sounds so easy).  Debriefed after the sim and had to run back across the street to the flight room in order to prepare for a flight with Capt Reiman.  Weather was still crappy, a storm rolled in and parked around the area, but we went ahead and briefed anyway.  The briefing probably sounded like I was getting a butt chewing because he kept telling me I was supposed to already know this or that, and he comes across as a pretty harsh IP to some,  but to me it was good because it didn't count for a grade, and it let me know what kind of things I'll need to study to prepare for future flights.  After that we sat around again, and studied.  We had standup again today, we did about as well (or as poorly) as yesterday; I got lucky again with mine, I managed to remember three in a row and spit them out at attention.   We ended up doing three Boldface quizzes today, and the class still managed to fail every one of them.  We got a stern talking to by the IPs and Flight Commander, not yelled at, we were just told that we had dropped the ball, and it was the worst performance they've ever seen.  So we had a little pow-wow after class to re-motivate those of us who may be lacking in that area (something we should have done 2 weeks ago in my opinion).  Hopefully tomorrow we will finally get the first 100% Boldface pass...I'm not holding my breath.  Released around 1800; we have to memorize 19 Notes Warnings and Cautions (NWCs) by tomorrow morning, which is impossible so we divided them up and memorized a few per person, in the hopes that we can get by without having to recite them all.  Have to show tomorrow morning at 0615 to brief to fly, so I'm late for bed.

Wednesday  25 Feb 2004 - Day 33

   Pretty long day today, but it was productive.  Had a sim from 0900 to 1215 (only an hour and a half in the sim, the rest was briefing).  Had to go from the sim building back to the flight room and get ready for my second period jet, scheduled takeoff of 1342.  Hurried and ate a sandwich for lunch, then got my stuff ready to brief the IP.  Turns out he was still debriefing Will, who had just flown with him, so as soon as they were done, I sat down to brief.  The IP didn't have any time to eat lunch so he wasn't in the best of moods to start off with, and it was the same IP that I had yesterday, so double whammy.  The brief went well actually, I had done my homework, at least as far as the brief was concerned, so he really didn't have anything bad to yell at me about.  We were late to step, so he took off, I ran to the chute shop to get my chute, then remembered I had to go to the supervisors desk to get the jet first.  Did that, got geared up, and we made it to the jet only a couple minutes late.  My ground ops were pretty good, all the way through engine start and before taxi.  After that I couldn't remember my checklists, so I had to go through them line by line, which took way too long.  Took off with strong headwinds, and as soon as we were above pattern altitude we were in the clouds.  I flew an instrument departure, which was easier for me than flying the visual departure we normally fly, and made it to the aux field for a straight-in landing.  Did another touch and go from the closed pattern, and then flew out towards the areas.  I was having a blast at this point, I was still messing everything up, but my brain was actually keeping up with the jet, for the most part.  Flew through the clouds again to area 6 low, where I did my first G awareness exercise, or GX, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  He showed me one at 4 Gs, then I demonstrated one at 4.5 Gs, fairly well.  I think my short height and pencil thin legs make my G tolerance a bit higher...just a guess, wont really know until I pull 5 or 6.  After that, he showed me power on and power off stalls (really quite tame - similar to the planes I had flown before) then we did turning stalls.  At this point, we had been yanking and banking long enough for my stomach, so when he asked if I wanted to do some more I politely declined.  We then went back to Honcho (Laughlin) via the Rio arrival, through the clouds the whole way, until we got to about 2600'.  My vestibular system was at war with my brain at this point, and my stomach was collateral damage.  Handed the plane back to him so I could take care of my business, then watched him fly back to Honcho and do an overhead pattern.  Overall, it was a great flight, even though I got sick, I had a great time, and learned alot; it helped re-motivate me to know that I can get better, with tons of practice.  I went to the flight doc to see about airsickness and he gave me a brochure and said, "Good luck."  Released at 1750, and a few of us were able to make it in time to the 1800 mass (Ash Wednesday).  0545 showtime tomorrow, and I'm giving the formal briefing at 0550.  Plenty of time to prepare...

Thursday  26 Feb 2004 - Day 34

  Way too early...  Formal brief went quite well, everyone was scurrying around to get all the slides done for the briefing, but we were only a few minutes late.  We had standup right afterwards, and we kicked butt on the NWCs, everyone remembered them verbatim.  Of course when he started asking questions about AETC policies and general knowledge we weren't too hot.  Win some, lose some.  Went to the Links trainer in the morning with Bob, went over taxi and before-takeoff checklists.  When I got back to the flight room I found out they had switched my fly times with Will, so I had a few minutes to get ready to fly.  I ate a bagel real quick, and briefed the flight with Capt Reiman again.  Today's flight was a similar profile to yesterday's, but I did much better, and most importantly I didn't get sick.  I started to feel queasy at the very end, but didn't have to use a doggy bag.  I'm still not very good at flying the tweet, but I can hold a course and altitude fairly well, so he gave me an Excellent overall grade on the flight (made me happy).  In the afternoon we did another boldface test, and all passed it, which made two in a row.  Unfortunately we took it again about an hour later and people messed it up...don't know how, but they did.  Someone put an S after THROTTLE, during a two engine failure boldface.  Not good.  Not only did we lose our chance to wear patches by tomorrow, but we disappointed the flight cc, who has been more than fair to us up through today.  Hopefully we can quickly redeem ourselves with a good score on the EPQ (Emergency Procedure Quiz) tomorrow.  It's the first written test for us in Phase II, and it covers about everything we're responsible for up to this point, which is a fair bit.  And we have 0600 formal brief tomorrow morning with standup which means more studying NWCs tonight, in addition to chair flying the mission we're doing tomorrow which I may or may not have time for, because of my laundry situation.  Gotta run.

Friday  27 Feb 2004 - Day 35

   Got in to class 0600 today; didn't have formal brief or brief to fly, since I wasn't scheduled until 1340 this afternoon.  So I started studying for the EPQ, which was scheduled for later in the day.  Went to the Links again and chair flew a little bit.  Then around 0900, they switched my flying spot with Will's because he was having some pain in his ear, which meant I now had a morning spot, and had to get ready to brief in a few.  I hadn't spent too much time preparing for the flight, as in reading what maneuvers we were going to do, because I wanted to study for the test and memorize NWCs, so I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked to be for Capt Reiman, who I flew with again.  I'm getting much better at the briefing, signing out the jet, getting all my stuff ready to fly in as little time as possible, but the IP is still waiting for me when I'm done.  Same with the ground ops, like exterior inspection through starting up the engines, and taxiing to the runway, after that though I need alot of work.  The flight went pretty well, I didn't get sick today, I am starting to feel like it won't be a problem for me, although at times I still feel a bit queasy in the pattern.  Standard flight profile today; went to Wizard, then flew to area 8 low (my radio calls are getting much better) where we practiced stalls, slow flight, and he showed me a stability demonstration, or Stab Demo.  It's where you bring the nose up near vertical, about 70 degrees, then as it slows down, you let it fall forward to about 70 degrees nose low.  It feels alot like the top of a rollercoaster, and the scenery is incredible.  My GX was fine today also, pulled about 4 no problem, we have to do one every flight when we're going to pull Gs like today.  It actually helps our body adapt to the higher G environment.  After the area work, we went back to Honcho via the Rio arrival, I'm starting to pick up the landmarks alot better, instead of relying only on instruments.  He gave me another excellent today, but said I was borderline Good because of my poor altitude management and radio calls.  I didn't know the calls to make for no-flap and single-engine patterns, so I screwed them up pretty bad, oh well.  Afterwards, we had a Boldface quiz which everyone passed, and then for our EPQ.  The EPQ should have been a review quiz on the material we are responsible for up through now.  But AETC knows how to ask the obscure questions when you least expect them.  I ended up missing 3 out of 20, which was one point away from failing, and 7 out of 13 in our class did fail it.  The questions weren't tricky, they were right out of the reading, but there's just so much of it to cover, that unless you read over it all 3 or 4 times you wouldn't remember the minor details.  So the guys that missed it will have to take another one monday, shouldn't be a problem for them.  After that we had some more short briefings and were released at 1800, but we stayed around to have a little flight pow-wow, to joke about our screw-ups this week.  It's amazing how much different our flight is from our sister flight, who really has it rough in their flight room.  Their briefings are hazing rituals, plain and simple: push-ups, cursing, yelling, etc...the IPs in their flight have a different philosophy on educating than ours do, and I'm just fortunate that I didn't go into Elvis flight, because it's going to be a long 4 months for those guys.  Not that we don't have pressure, it's just that they treat us like we're adults until we screw up, then they let us know.  Anyway, there have been some rumblings about someone wanting to get out of here already, hope they aren't true.  Went to the O-club for another Drop night (class 04-06 pre-graduation party) then called it a night.

Weekend

Monday  1 Mar 2004 - Day 36

     Pretty light day today, 0600 showtime for a makeup EPQ for those who missed it.  Everyone passed it the second time.  Didn't accomplish a whole lot in the way of flying today, no simulators and no flights for me.  So I sat in the flight room and studied, and of course paid a visit to the Links trainer.  We had a class at the Aerospace building again, which was cool because it got us out of Anderson Hall for awhile.  After the class we were allowed to go to the gym (1500) while the people who failed the FACT test were retaking it.  Then we had to go back to the flight room and do some Boldface, since someone messed it up again.  The Flight Commander wasn't too pleased with that, so now we have to write out 5 per day, all week before we can get our patches.  5 Boldfaces is alot of writing.  Released 1800, study for Standup.

Tuesday  2 Mar 2004 - Day 37

   Another weather day today, low clouds and poor visibility have grounded the wing.  So I had a simulator instead.  It was an EP simulator where they do emergency situations one after another, we call it Dial-A-Death.  I only bought the farm once which wasn't too bad considering how many engine fires and failures I had in that hour and a half.  We also were showed how to do a Stand Up EP, which is where they give you an emergency situation in the classroom, and then pick one of us to try to get the plane back on the ground safely.  It's a long drawn-out process of knowing what to say, how to say it and what to do.  It can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 45 minutes to go through the entire thing, depending on what the scenario is, and if you mess up anything they'll tell you to 'sit down'.  If you get it right they'll say 'have a seat'.   Afterwards we did our required 5 boldface and turned them in.  We've been here for over 3 months now, and written the boldface dozens of times, but some people still manage to screw it up.  Which is what happened today.  Bad juju.  One guy once again managed to write IDOL instead of IDLE, how I don't know, but he did it.  Then as he went to pick up the paper, another guy started laughing really loud about the fact that he screwed it up.  That put the IPs over the top.  They closed the doors and we spent the next 3 hours getting yelled at, deservingly, and writing boldface.  We wrote boldface for an hour straight, then we each had to stand at attention and recite the entire page verbatim from memory.  Not fun.  So we stayed until 1830, then John and I went straight to Julio's for dinner just to get away from the base for a bit, and vent our frustrations.  Came back and studied until midnight.  We had to study for the second EPQ, and the Stand-Up EP, as well as write out 5 boldface pages for tomorrow.  This has probably been the worst day here so far, and it had absolutely nothing to do with my performance, which makes it that much worse.  But, the good news is I did get to watch South Park during a study break. 

Wednesday  3 Mar 2004 - Day 38

   Really needed my alarm clock today, didn't sleep well, and felt like crap when I finally got up.  0635 showtime for a Formal Briefing, which went well.  We didn't have standup first thing in the morning due to scheduling conflicts, so instead we took the EPQ, a great way to start your morning.  The weather was still pretty crappy, so no-one flew in the morning, and I wasn't scheduled to fly until the afternoon, so we all stayed around the flightroom and studied.  The wives brought in lunch for everyone today, which was great, tacos and tortillas.  Got our results from the EPQ, no-one scored less than a 90%, a marked improvement from the last time.  Had my flight at 1448, with Capt Henriksen, the only female IP in our flight.  I thought it would be a crappy flight because I hadn't flown in 5 days, and my preconceived notions of her instructing made me think she'd be a difficult IP to fly with, but I was way off.  She's a great instructor, and my flying was probably the best it's been.  I still can't fly the tweet worth a damn, but I can see noticeable improvements every time I go up.  Like today I was completely in control of the radio, and didn't screw up any calls, and I started noticing more aircraft in the pattern, which means my situational awareness is improving.  I also got to fly inverted for the first time, when the IP demonstrated nose high recoveries.  It was pretty tame, but it was still really cool to be upside-down in a jet at 10000 feet.  So what started out as a really crappy day, turned into a pretty good day by the time we were released.  Had to do 5 more boldface after my flight (our daily requirement), hopefully no-one screwed them up and we can start to show the IPs we aren't total rejects.  Released 1835, ate dinner at the bowling alley with Dave and John, did laundry, studied EPs, then called it an early night. 

Thursday 4 Mar 2004 - Day 39

   Had a decent day today, started with a very short briefing in the morning, and a tour of the maintenance facility where they repair and inspect the J69 engine.  It was cool seeing the engine torn down into its individual components.  Afterwards, I had my first instrument simulator which was great.  My instructor for the flight is a reserve IP assigned to the 96th here at Laughlin, which means he gets to wear the green flight suit on weekends when he flies, and his blue (civilian instructor) flight suit during the week when he does simulators.  The sim was great, it is so much easier to maintain altitudes and airspeeds when focusing solely on instruments.  After the sim, we sat around and studied until 1530, when we had our introduction to instruments class upstairs.  Went from there to the CAI lab for some lessons on VOR radial intercepts and basic RMI and CI interpolations.  Finished with the CAI around 1730, and made it home before 1800 for the first time this week.  Studied Standup EP with John, and did some chair flying in front of my T-37 cockpit poster to prepare for tomorrow's jet.  Hopefully tomorrow will be the last day we have to do 5 boldface per day, but I'm not holding my breath. 

Friday  5 Mar 2004 - Day 40

   0630 show this morning, had formal brief and a Standup EP which went surprisingly well.  I didn't get stood up today, which means I'm probably right around the corner.  They had taken my flight off of the scheduling board, so now I wasn't scheduled for anything today.  Well, 0745 rolls around and Lt Col Fenimore showed up and wanted to fly, so they told me to get ready to brief the 0848 jet.  Which meant I had 3 minutes to prepare for the briefing, since we brief to fly exactly 1 hour prior to scheduled takeoff.  So I quickly scribbled out a couple of mission profile cards, and grabbed all of my stuff and gave a pretty decent brief all things considered.  It was a beautiful morning for doing just about anything, blue skies, mid 60s, few clouds, light winds etc... I had a great flight, we did some more inverted recoveries which I thought were awesome, then some stalls, then we went back and did some pattern work at Honcho.  I am getting noticeably better at everything on my flights, with the exception of the break, and perch.  The break is where you fly down the runway at 1000' AGL and when you get to the middle of the runway, you break right (or left) 180 degrees, extend the speed-brake, lower gear, then at the perch you chop the throttles, drop the flaps and break another 180 degrees on a downward spiral toward the runway, for a touch and go or full stop.  I can't seem to get my hands to do what my brain wants them to do, the IP always ends up telling me "Flaps", "Power", etc...  I guess it'll come.  After the flight, we stayed in the flightroom and studied, I also did another CAI session in the computer lab, learning VOR course intercepts with the RMI and CI which was fun.  Released at 1800, came home from work and took a power nap before heading over to HQ for a party.  Most of the class showed up, and many people from other classes showed up also.  You know it's a good party when the cops show up and ID everyone.  I guess the band got a little loud for the neighbors.  Going to try to go to the lake this weekend, looks to be perfect weather again.   

Weekend

Some pictures from the lake this weekend:

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Monday 8 Mar 2004 - Day 41

     0720 Class upstairs this morning, a review of the RMI and CI course intercepts which we've been learning the past few days.  Pretty straightforward stuff so far, tomorrow we'll have another review on the stuff, and more CAI before we have the exam.  After the class, we had formal brief at 0920, with a Standup EP that John was lucky enough to get picked for.  He did pretty well, didn't get sat down but was told to have a seat, and they let Matt try it from the beginning.  The EPs are getting progressively harder each day, but there are a finite amount of them, which means we will eventually go through them all and wont be learning the stuff so much as reviewing.  After the brief I had a flight at 1235 with the Colonel again.  Really like flying with him, he makes it very entertaining, and today's flight was certainly no exception.  We had to declare an emergency for precautionary measures, one of the engines was vibrating noticeably after one of the takeoffs, so he took over, and made an uneventful single-engine recovery.  Then I got to see what happens when you declare an emergency as far as maintenance, safety, and fire department are concerned.  It was a good lesson for me, to see that there's no reason to shy away from declaring an emergency, if something doesn't feel right.  Before all of that mess happened, we were able to make it to the high area for spin prevention/recovery demonstrations.  They were quite tame as well, the Tweet spins at about the same rate as the Cub I learned to fly in 2 years ago, only you are at a faster speed, and higher G loading when you recover.  Pretty good flight overall, I still got pretty queasy once he started flying in the pattern, but hopefully I'll get over that soon.  Afterwards, we studied in the flight room, found out that we have brand new checklists and Dash 1 for the tweet...hard to understand, that after 40 years, they are still putting out new publications for the aircraft.  So that means that we have to learn a new engine start procedure, and change-out all of our pubs from the old to the new, and write in all the little memory aides that have been handed down from class to class over the last several years.  Gotta get to bed early, 0605 showtime tomorrow, and I have an instrument sim to study for.

Tuesday 9 Mar 2004 - Day 42

   Really tired this morning.  Could hardly stay awake during the VOR/DME class we had today, even though the stuff was fairly interesting.  We went over DME Arcing, and fix to fix flying, but it was way too early to remember most of it.  After class we went to the flight room for brief to fly, so no Stand-Up EP.  Made my day.  I had an instrument sim this morning with Dennis Way, another retired AF Pilot, and it was the best sim I've had since I've been here.  We did an aileron roll, and a wing-over (on instruments) as well as the vertical-S maneuver, which helps you get a feel for pitch and power settings.  Then he let me do a PAR approach and an ILS approach into Honcho, and I smoked them both.  He showed me the computer printout analyses for both approaches and they were beautiful.  Wish I could have one of these sims every day.  Afterwards I stayed in the flight room studying all day, hoping I'd get a chance to fly, but didn't.  Scheduled to fly tomorrow with Col Fenimore again, which is cool.  Stayed up late changing the new pubs out, and studying for the EPQ #3 which should be tomorrow.  Good news is we don't have to show until 0800 tomorrow morning, and we go straight to the CAI lab for 2 hours of computer learning.  Overall, the pace hasn't slowed any since we made it to the flightline.  There's still tons of stuff to keep us busy all hours of the day, and it's difficult to know which stuff needs the most attention, since we're responsible for it all.  So most of us are putting emphasis on the daily flights, and EPQs, since those are the things that can really hurt our overall grade.  Finished 5 Boldfaces again today, supposedly it's the last day we have to do 5 a day, but I'll believe it when I see it.   

Wednesday 10 Mar 2004 - Day 43

    Good day today, starting with a late showtime of 0800 in the CAI lab.  Then we had 2 hours to do 2 computer lessons, which was great for me.  I flew through them and had some spare time before formal brief at 1000.  I got stood up for the EP and made it part of the way through before getting sat down (not a good thing).  I forgot to reference a checklist while on downwind, and he told me to sit down, so the next guy came up and screwed up just about as badly as I did, but the IP was a bit easier on him because of my mistakes.  So when that was over, I had a few minutes to brief to fly with Col Fenimore again.  The flight went very well today, I still have a tendency to climb when I make my break turn, and I need a little prodding when I'm doing area work (like stalls, slow flight, etc...) but I'm definitely progressing.  He didn't talk much throughout the flight, which is a good thing, until we were about to come home, and they closed down our runway due to an emergency.  So we loitered around in one of the areas, then came back anyway to fly around the pattern and hope the runway opened before we got too low on gas.  Flew over the runway and saw an aircraft on it, with a bunch of fire trucks around it, so they handed us off to tower, and we landed on the outside runway (which is normally used by the T-38s).  I forgot to mention, we are operating under a 2 runway condition right now, because they are replacing the center runway.  This means we have a new set of rules to work with concerning patterns.  After the flight, we studied, as per usual, and did some more boldface - yes, 5 of them.  Studied for the EPQ which should be tomorrow, and more EP stuff with John. 

Thursday 11 Mar 2004 - Day 44

     Pretty light day today, starting with class at 0650, where we went over holding patterns.  After 2 hours of that, we went to the flightroom for formal brief and Standup.  I didn't draw too much attention today, they picked on other people instead.  Will got stood up and sat right back down twice, because he forgot to say, "I have the aircraft" at the very beginning.  Later we had EPQ #3, and I got an 85, but only due to luck.  I had to guess on 4 or 5 questions, and I missed 3 of those.  I've been studying alot of stuff, but it's hard to remember verbatim everything out of the Dash 1.  The EPQ's have questions right out of the text of the Dash 1, but they'll change one word of it, and ask if it's true or false.  Luckily I guessed right on some of them, or I would've failed it.  2 people got less than 85%, so they'll have to retake it tomorrow, not a huge deal.  The rest of the day was quiet due to weather, low overcast and drizzle.  So we studied and wrote out more boldface.  Released at 1800.  Nothing else exciting happened, so it's going to be a short entry today.  

Friday 12 Mar 2004 - Day 45

     Another weather day today, low clouds and thunderstorms kept us off the flight line.  We spent most of the day hanging out in the flight room, as usual, studying for the Instrument exam which will be on Monday.  The test wouldn't be so bad if there weren't so many procedural questions on it.  Ended up staying until 1800, which was pointless because no-one was flying, but nevertheless...

Weekend

   Some folks from the class got together on Saturday to paint the Pogo pool for our upcoming solo's.  Pogo is the callsign we use when we do our initial solo in the Tweet, i.e. "Pogo 23" as opposed to "Tweet 23".  After you solo, classmates grab you and throw you into the pool, flightsuit and all.  If the weather works in our favor, we'll have at least 2 solos this week, I probably wont get mine until next week due to scheduling.  Anyway, here are some pictures of the pool by the flightline.

Week 5

Monday 15 Mar 2004 - Day 46

   0630 show today for formal brief.  Wasn't too bad because I had a nice weekend off.  Didn't get stood up today, which was nice, but I didn't get to fly either.  I sat around the flightroom all day and studied for the Intermediate Instruments exam which we had this afternoon.  Managed to ace this one also, but only because I had studied the right material all weekend.  Most of the people in our flight did really well, I think 5 of us got 100s, so we all seem to know how to study properly, at least for the academic exams.  After the exam, we rallied in the flightroom and divied up our class patches which finally came in.  Apparently we've set some kind of record for being the fastest in getting patches approved, purchased and delivered, but it doesn't really matter yet because we cant wear them until everyone in our flight solos (hopefully by the end of next week).  Released at 1700, and don't have to report until 0730 tomorrow which is sweet. 

Tuesday 16 Mar 2004 - Day 47

   Later showtime today, which would have been great, had I been able to get a good night's sleep.  Late night thunderstorms prevented that from happening, though.  Was scheduled to fly at 0848, with Capt Henriksen, so we briefed it up, and made it to the jet.  We started up, and taxied out to the runway, and as we were about to takeoff, they stopped all launches due to low clouds.  So we taxied back.  Instead of just sitting around, I went to the Links to work on my flow, and when I got back in the flightroom around 1045 I found that I had been put back on the schedule for an 1154 flight with Capt Segal.  So I rushed through the briefing, made it out to the plane, and had one of my best flights to date.  We did all sorts of stuff today, I got to try spins for the first time (last time was a demonstration).  He didn't have to say much throughout the entire ride which is typically a good thing, because if he's not saying anything you must not be screwing up too bad.  Then I had to go to a sexual harassment briefing/survey at 1430, then studied the rest of the afternoon.  John finished his last 2400 block ride today, so he is opted to solo tomorrow.  Should get some good pictures pretty soon, when we start throwing people in the pool.  Had Chinese buffet for dinner, mmmm.

Wednesday 17 Mar 2004 - Day 48

   0640 show this morning, had formal brief and stand-up.  They didn't have much time before we were supposed to fly, so we rushed through the stand up EP.  Then the weather messed with us again, and we didn't fly first or second period jets.  Lately we've been having great weather, just low clouds right over our base, which prevents us from flying.  When we get to do instrument flights we'll be able to fly in that stuff, but for now we need clear skies below 2600 feet.  So we sat around and did EPs all morning, informally with Capt Joplin.  Then around 1400, the skies cleared up enough for us to get a pattern, and John was on deck to solo, so he briefed it up and took off.  We all sat outside on the flightline with a radio and watched and listened for him during his patterns.  When he came back we grabbed him and threw him into the pogo pool.  Good times.  Then the IPs gave him his Killer Bees patch and the class patch, so now he has both of those and the rest of us only have the one wing patch on our sleeve.  Seems petty I'm sure, but when you have no patches everyone knows you're new to the flightline...needless to say we're all eager to solo.  After that excitement we were released early (1700) went to the track, then studied for the instrument sim tomorrow, as well as the next EPQ.  Then the new season of South Park was on at 9:00 so, end of study. 

Thursday 18 Mar 2004 - Day 49

    0645 show today, but went directly to the sim so I missed the formal brief and standup EP (lucky me), which means I'll probably get it tomorrow.  The sim went ok, I wasn't happy with my own performance, so I wasn't put off when he gave me a 'Good' overall.  My brain just wasn't working 100% at the time, and we were doing some fix to fix navigation, holding and DME arcing.  So after that I got back to the flight-room and immediately had to take EPQ #4, which I got a 90%, then as soon as I was done with that I was already late for my brief to fly, because they put me on the schedule while I was at the sim, and I wasn't aware.  So I briefed it up with Capt Henriksen, we stepped to the plane, got in and were going to start engines when they recalled us due to weather again.  So two days in a row that's happened.  Got back inside, and had to get ready for academics at 1455, we started advanced instruments today (advanced instruments in the tweet???).  Basically its the next step up from intermediate instruments, where we learn approaches.  Today's subject was the HI-VOR type approaches.  New to me.  After that we were released, then went to the track again for a good mile jog.  Another early show tomorrow...

Friday 19 Mar 2004 - Day 50

   Finally...we have our 85th Patches!  Ok so it's not that big of a deal, but it's something.  Today was another weather day, and looks like its going to be like this for several more days, so we should get plenty of time to study academics and chair fly.  We had academics today, went over procedure turn, procedure track, and HILO (holding in lieu of) approaches.  I've found that my previous instrument experience (while limited) has definitely helped me get a grasp on the military way of doing approaches, and I have to say I like the military's way much better.  We'll see how much I like it when I try it in the jet, though.  Other than that we sat around and studied all day, going over EPs and other miscellaneous subjects.  Trying to stay motivated when you have nothing to do is a challenge to some people, most of us just get together in small groups and quiz each-other, so we keep our minds fresh.  Considering going into Mexico tomorrow for a party at the Corona Club with most of the class.  We had a good time when we were there back in January, but I haven't made up my mind yet.  Overall, not a very productive week as far as flying goes, but we did get alot of studying done and the biggest event was by far Lt Decker's solo on Wednesday.  Hopefully we'll have many more next week.

Weekend

Week 6

     Monday  22 Mar 2004 - Day 51

   0850 Advanced Instruments class this morning with Mr. Broyles.  Went over VOR approaches and other types of approach charts.  Right after class we had to go to the flight room for formal brief and standup.  I got stood up in the middle of a high fuel flow emergency situation, and didn't get sat down, so I was happy.  After that I had to get ready to brief to fly with Col Fenimore again.  There was enough clear air to make a pattern and we could go to the areas since it was only partly cloudy.  So we took off, went straight to 6 low, got to fly through clouds again on the departure (always cool).  Once we got into 6 low, which is right on the Mexico border, we did our profile: Gx, stalls, recoveries etc... and only used up a few hundred pounds of gas, so he said "let's have a little fun."  Found some nice billowy clouds and did all kinds of crazy stuff around then, up beside them and through little gaps in them.  For all intents and purposes it was aerobatics, because we were fast and inverted alot of the time.  He showed me one, then let me play with them for awhile...it was great.  I also got to try a textbook clearing maneuver, a.k.a., an aileron roll.  Got back into the pattern and did one go-around and a couple landings.  I was pretty rusty from not flying in almost a week, but I still managed to get the plane on the ground.  The weather is definitely getting hotter, even though it was only in the 70s outside, it got into the upper 80s in the plane once we got back into the pattern.  Wouldn't be a big deal if we had a normal AC system.  Before we were released at 2030 the flight commander had to chastise us for sitting around the table and joking when we could have been studying.  Of course he's right, but at 8:00 at night after a long day, your brain has a difficult time staying focused on the material.  All part of the game I guess...

Tuesday 23 Mar 2004 - Day 52

   0850 class this morning again in the classroom, more advanced instruments (approaches).  Had formal brief and stand-up at 1115 afterwards, didn't get stood up, but apparently the SSEM (the IP who gives the stand-ups and shotgun questions) thinks we're too prepared for the daily EP and shotgun questions, so he's going to mix them up from now on.  So now we don't know which EP to study for or which shotgun questions to study, which means we'll be studying them all.  After that we studied all day.  Only three students got to fly due to poor weather, and I wasn't one of them.  So we stayed around until 1900 then were released early.  Supposed to fly with Col Fenimore again tomorrow, but we'll wait and see what the weather does.  Not much else to report for today.

Wednesday 24 Mar 2004 - Day 53

   Another 0850 class today, just like yesterday.  I really like the hours, three days in a row getting up at a normal hour for work is nice.  Tomorrow is the same time as well.  Didn't have standup today, or formal brief, because the whole wing was down for a safety day.  One of the T-38s had an accident on the runway, and they gave us the day off from flying, to just stand down and relax a bit.  Very nice.  So we studied the rest of the afternoon, then Lt Ihrig let us go home at 1700 while the flight commander was out.  Sweet.  Went to the track, studied for the next EPQ, watched South Park.  Nice easy day for a change.  I could get used to it.

Thursday 25 Mar 2004 - Day 54

   Ditto from yesterday, with the exception of I1304, the fourth instrument simulator, which I had at 1430.  Started out bad, when I showed up 5 minutes late, due to a scheduling problem with the computer.  After I explained my way out of that, I had a decent ride.  Flew an instrument departure to area 4, then did a fix-to-fix into a holding pattern, then another fix-to-fix back to get me lined up for a PAR into Laughlin.  I felt better than last time, but I'm still really struggling with keeping things straight in my head while flying: doing the MAILMAN check, NORMS check, and CAT check are all pretty easy on the ground when you're talking about it, but I went brain dead when I tried to do them in the sim while being vectored and trying to maintain basic control of heading and altitude.  Luckily they grade very easy on these sims.  After that, not much else happened of substance.  Went to the Thai restaurant for dinner, studied for EPQ #5 which will be tomorrow.

Friday 26 Mar 2004 - Day 55

   No class today, which was nice, and we had a 0830 showtime for brief to fly.  Supposed to fly at 0952, but low clouds kept us on the ground for the morning.  So we studied for a bit, then had EPQ #5 which we all passed this time.  After the test we got some lunch across the street at Silver Wings, a small cafeteria in the ops building.  Soon as I got back from eating greasy cheese pizza, I found out I was supposed to be briefing with Capt Reiman for a 1245 flight.  Hate it when that happens.  So I briefed it quickly, then stepped.  Made my takeoff time (for the first time since I've been here).  Usually I'm a few to several minutes late taking off, which isn't a big deal, as long as you make your block time window.  Anyway it was a pattern only sortie, which means we went to Wizard, did 4 patterns there to include a straight-in, then came right back to Honcho and did 7 or 8 more here.  The visibility was very bad due to haze, and the fact that everything's green here now complicated things.  Add to that the fact that I've flown three times in the past 2 weeks and you get a less than satisfactory performance.  I wasn't happy with my flying, but I guess they take those tings into account when they grade us, because I didn't do that badly.  After the flight, we got to throw Stu into the pogo pool.  He makes only the second guy to solo in our class.  Lt Budde was going to solo, but his aircraft had a fuel imbalance and poor radios, so they scratched it until next week.  Hopefully weather will allow us to get some consistency next week, and we can knock out some sorties.  Went to drop night at the O Club then made it out to Denim & Diamond's for a little R&R.  It's a weird bar that goes from country music, to rap, to tejano, then to rock.  Going to relax saturday then get together with a bunch of people sunday to study for the big exam in advanced instruments.

Weekend

Week 7

Monday 29 Mar 2004 - Day 56

     1015 advanced instruments exam this morning.  Got up early to cram last minute, but I really didn't need to, the test was pretty straight-forward.  Everyone passed, and more than half of us got 100s.  After the exam we had formal brief and stand-up.  Went to the links with John and Drew to chair fly my mission, which was scheduled for 1721.  Got back from there and they had taken me off the board and put Jeff in my place.  Then half an hour later they put me back up on the board.  Then half an hour after that they took me off and put Jeff back on...I ended up not flying after it was all said and done, but I had taken Jeff's plane on Friday, so I didn't feel too upset.  Sat around and studied, then we got to throw Budde into the pool, as well as his IP, Capt Henriksen.  It was her first student solo in B Flight, so we chucked her in as well.  Not much after that, released around 2000.  Weather looks nice for the next few days, we should get a few more solos in this week.  I'll post pictures when I get the chance.  I'm still 5 rides away from solo, so unless they double-turn me this week, I wont get mine until next week.

Tuesday 30 Mar 2004 - Day 57

   1000 show this morning for formal brief, no stand-up.  Actually we had stand-up but not until the afternoon.  Weather was great today, got alot of flying in.  I flew at 1735 with Capt Reiman again, a normal contact profile - go to wizard, do a couple patterns; then go to the area, do stalls, slow flight, and recoveries; then come back to honcho and do some more pattern work.  The pattern work went much better than last time, but I screwed up my TP stalls and flew right through the top of my area, which is something that would have made me bust a checkride.  Overall though, a good flight.  The wives brought in food for everyone again, really cool of them to do that.  And tomorrow there's a burger burn in the squadron, so I don't have to pack a lunch.  Released at 2015, for a 0930 showtime tomorrow.

Wednesday 31 Mar 2004 - Day 58

   Flew with Lt Col Fenimore this afternoon, did spins, recoveries, stalls, slow flight, and a bunch of pattern work.  My flying was much better than last time, I did better in almost everything, which was cool.  Once we got back into the pattern at honcho, my stomach all of a sudden decided not to cooperate.  I guess the fact that he was flying, the warmer weather and turbulence was the culprit, but I didn't see that coming at all.  Otherwise it was a great flight.  I'm going to the Life Skills center tomorrow to learn some techniques on relaxation and stuff like that to prevent getting airsick...whatever it takes to keep me from having to go to the barany chair -- don't want to do that.  Aside from the flight, we had formal brief with stand-up: Kristin did a great job handling a landing gear malfunction, then Matt took over and did just as well getting the plane on the ground.  Later in the day we learned why we do these stand-ups...Travis had the exact same gear malfunction during his actual flight that we did in stand-up this morning.  He said it went almost exactly as we studied it this morning too.  Very cool.  Got to help with the burger burn today also, I manned the grill for about an hour before my flight.  Here are some random pictures from earlier this year.  They were taken in Austin a couple months ago, Allison was kind enough to email them to me today so I thought I'd share them with you.

Thursday 1 April 2004 - Day 59

0850 class this morning in navigation.  It was just an introduction with our instructor Mr. Johnson, who we had a while back.  Then we went and struggled through a CAI course that was horribly put together.  After a couple hours in front of the computer we went to the flight room and hung out.  They gave us EPQ #6 with no warning, so 3 people hooked it, the rest of us were very lucky.  The three guys who hooked the test were supposed to fly today too, but policy dictates that if you fail a test you can't fly until you retake and pass the exam.  Don't know how I passed the thing but luckily I did, and was able to fly with Capt Henriksen at 1430.  Awesome flight, today everything really came together and I only messed up on one thing: going through an altitude departing out of Wizard.  I was supposed to climb to 4500, but went up past it a bit before correcting.  My pattern work was great, and she said she thought I was ready to solo.  After the flight I grabbed my camera and went out to the flight line to get some shots of Will on his solo ride.  Went to Will and Allison's house after we were released at 1945 for a couple drinks and burgers.  Should be a busy day tomorrow I have a sim and a flight, so do most everyone else.  We'll see if the weather holds up...

Friday 2 April 2004 - Day 60

   CAI this morning, pretty dry stuff.  Navigation planning.  It's really hard to learn an entire subject through only computer screens, and no instructor interaction.  I don't like it.  We do have some instructor input on monday, so that should help to clear alot of stuff up, but I would rather learn from an instructor first, then review on computer...  Didn't fly today either, but had my second EP sim which went well.  It's the sim profile we call "dial-a-death", and you spend a solid hour +15 doing back to back emergency situations.  I really enjoyed the sim, I seemed to handle the EPs quite well in a controlled environment, hope I don't have to test the knowledge.  The sims in general are pretty low-threat, except for the briefing, which is the most stressful part for me.  You go into them knowing they are going to pick your brain for obscure T-37 data, and ask random questions about stuff you haven't studied in weeks or more.  And on all the grade-sheets, there's a place where they score your General Knowledge, so you don't want to miss anything and get downgraded.  They always say that we don't graduate pilot training, our gradebooks do.  Gradebooks are a daily concern, we have to keep them in perfect condition, everything in perfect order and all appropriate blanks filled in, yada, yada...  It does seem like they care more about the gradebook than the student sitting in front of the desk sometimes.  Anyway, after we were released at 2000 on a friday night...we went to Diamond Lil's then to Denim and Diamonds for some dancing, pool, and some fooseball.  And beer.  John and Kristin played in a dart tournament on a whim, John ended up winning and pocketed about 35 bucks.  I guess the Academy taught him something after all...   Kristen didn't fare as well, but I think she just had a bad partner.  Alot of fun though.  Drew's wife gave birth at 1210 pm this afternoon to a boy.  A.J. Baird weighed in at 6 lbs 15 ounces (I think).  Sounds like everything's going really well for them too, I think we'll stop in and pay him a visit on saturday.

Weekend

Week 8

  Monday 5 April 2004 - Day 61

   0630 showtime this morning in Classroom B.  The time change didn't make getting up any easier, either.  Short class, followed by CAI until around 0830.  Scheduled to fly at 0951, so I briefed with Capt Henriksen even though the weather didn't look so good.  Went to the jet and since there was enough of a ceiling we got to fly.  Kind of.  Took off, went right into the clouds, and didn't pop out until 9000.  Got to the area and did about 10 minutes worth of area work when they called 'Stop Launch' at Honcho, which meant we had to go home due to poor weather.  So we flew back all the way in the weather and I got to see what an ILS (instrument approach) looks like in a real jet, in actual IMC conditions.  Pretty darn cool.  Flight lasted all of 0.9 hours.  After the flight I had an instrument sim; brief time of 1300.  Turned out to be a great sim, we did 2 VOR approaches, an ILS and a PAR approach.  After the sim, we studied for a bit, then were released at 1800.  Weather looks marginal tomorrow as well, but I'm hoping I can squeeze my last 2400 block flight in so I can solo Wednesday. 

Tuesday 6 April 2004 - Day 62

   Another earlier showtime this morning, 0630 class with Johnson.  Formal Brief and stand-up EP afterwards, and I got stood up for the entire thing.  Situation was stuck thrust attenuators, I did fine (i.e. didn't get sat down) although I didn't do a boldface that I probably should have.  Anyway with that over with, I briefed with Capt Henriksen and we flew.  Did a pattern delay, which means we took off and flew a few patterns here before leaving, then went to the area.  Weather was perfect, except that we were on runway 31 instead of 13, which we almost always use.  So I was a little rusty on my patterns but she said I'm still good enough to solo tomorrow.  We had four people solo today, McNulty and Brandt from Bees, and Adam and Rob from Elvis.  Should have a couple more tomorrow including me.  After the flight, we hung around and studied, released at 1800.  Looking forward to tomorrow, hope the weather stays nice.

Wednesday 7 April 2004 - Day 63

   Finally got to solo.  Supposed to fly with Henriksen at 1030, but got pushed back on the schedule to 1330 for some reason.  So in the morning we just studied and went out to throw Jeff in the pool.  I think that makes 7 in our flight that have solo'd, maybe 10 in the whole class.  Everyone else is coming up soon.  Perfect weather for a solo today, unfortunately everyone else wanted to fly too, so the pattern was saturated when I went up with Capt Henriksen.  On the solo ride, you're supposed to fly 3 overhead patterns with your IP, then land and let her out.  The pattern was so busy though, that we had to go around the box 6 times instead of being able to break and land.  (The box is the outside pattern)  Anyway we landed, she got out and we had to refuel because we had burned so much gas going around.  When I took off solo, most of the planes had landed so the pattern was pretty quiet, and I was able to do 4 landings and 1 closed pull-up.  My pattern was so much better without the IP sitting there, my turns were sharper, the break, the perch etc...  The 10 knot tailwind made landings pretty sporty, and on my full stop I had to use the length of the runway to slow down, which I'd never had to do before.  Landed, got unstrapped, John and Will met me at the plane and took some photos, then I went for a dip in the pool.  Felt great.  It was about 85 degrees and sunny outside today, add about 10 degrees in the cockpit, so I was ready to get thrown in.  Had academics right afterwards; took a tour of Base Ops with the class, and then went over to Will's with Kristin and John for some steaks. 

Thursday 8 April 2004 - Day 64

   0730 commander's call in Anderson Hall this morning, to kick off the Safety Down day.  They stopped all flying today for safety reasons, not at our base necessarily, but for all AETC, so noone was flying.  After that briefing we had 2 more briefings on safety and suicide prevention, then went back to the flight room to take EPQ #7.  Everyone passed this time, most people did really well, I think we've finally figured out how to study for those.  After the test, we sat around and listened in on John's ground eval, which is something you have to do before your check ride.  He's scheduled to check tomorrow, and he's the first one in our flight by a long shot, so we're all interested in how he does.  After we were released at 1800 a group of us went to the New Super China Buffet for dinner.  Supposed to double-turn for the first time tomorrow, which is when you fly twice in the same day, but the weather looks questionable so again, we'll see. 

Friday 9 April 2004 - Day 65

   0730 showtime for formal brief this morning, stand-up with Capt Ludwick.  We always like being stood up with him because he's so laid back, and helps walk you through it.  After the briefing, I had a few minutes to get ready for my brief to fly with Capt Reiman.  We took off at 1000, went to the area and did my first Acro profile.  He showed me a loop, aileron roll, and split-S, which is basically a half-loop.  Then I got to try them...awesome.  The loop was my favorite out of the three.  After my mid-phase checkride (possibly next week) I'll start doing the entire acrobatics profile which consists of 9 maneuvers.  After that flight, I had the 2nd period off to eat and relax a bit, before my 3rd period solo flight, called a Speedo.  Anytime you're solo (except for your initial solo or Pogo) your callsign is Speedo ##.  I took off at 1620 right behind Will, who was Speedo 60, I was Speedo 61, Stu was also flying the same time, he was Speedo 63 and there was another student in our flight flying Speedo 62.  4 solo students in the pattern at one time -- we had a blast.  After we landed we made fun of eachother's flying.  Released at 1930 after designating Brian Miller as this week's recipient of the Double-Zero award.  It's an award you don't want, because in order to get it you have to be nominated by a classmate, and get to be humiliated in front of the class...but all in good fun. 

Weekend

Week 9

Easter Weekend

   Weekend's are great.  Friday, Will's family was in town so a bunch of us from the class went over and hung out there.  Saturday's are turning into movie night here, John, Dave and Kristin came over to watch Matrix Revolutions, which wasn't too bad.  Sunday was Easter, after mass we went to Erik's house for a lite brunch, then to the picnic shelter for our Easter feast.  The wives once again came through big time.  There were probably 20 from the class, plus family members there, so we had a really nice turkey dinner, almost like home.  Did a little chair flying in the evening before bed which turned out to be very worthwhile, made me feel alot better.  Overall a really good weekend.

Monday 12 April 2004 - Day 66

   0815 Brief to fly this morning, I had the first jet also.  Flew with Lt Col Brown, who is the Wing DO?  Not sure exactly, but our callsign was XL04, which means he's a big man in the totem pole.  Had a great flight, alot of fun to fly with.  We did a ton of acro, and a little bit of pattern work.  After we debriefed I was going to get lunch, then I found out I was supposed to be briefing in 2 minutes.  So I got my stuff together and briefed with Maj Burrow.  We got to our jet, and in checking the documents found that we couldn't take it.  So we went to the jet we were supposed to have originally, did the walk around, got strapped in, and the thing wouldn't start.  So we got out, and stepped to a spare, which worked.  Third time's the charm.  The flight was good, we did spins for the first time in a long time.  My pattern work was solid and I only goofed a few things up.  Got done with that flight and I was exhausted.  I think I'm coming down with whatever has been going around the flight room.  Studied a bit in the evening, then went to bed early.

Tuesday 13 April 2004 - Day 67

   0655 showtime this morning, but I went straight to the flight doc to go on DNIF due to my cold.  He gave me some drugs to clear my head up and said I could still do sims and academics, I just couldn't fly.  So they had to change the schedule a bit.  I did the final EP sim, "dial-a-disaster" which was pretty fun.  Also educational.  Got to watch a couple Pogos today, most of the people in our flight have gone solo now, except for 2.  I think 5 of our speedos got shot down today also.  That means you get told by the RSU to make your next landing a full stop because you probably messed something up.  I guess Lt. Esquivel had a tough time finding the pond at VFR entry and it just so happened that the Squadron commander was flying at the time, witnessed several steep turns and thought Justin was out of control so he told him to land.  Pretty funny.  Then we had class in the afternoon for a couple hours.  Navigation review.  The exam is on Thursday, and noone is ready for it.  After we were released from class, we went to Will's for another study group.  We are all worried about this exam, and some of us are almost ready to have our check ride, which is even worse.  On top of that, we have an EPQ to study for, and we have to get our pubs in order.  On top of that we have to be prepared for tomorrow's shotgun questions and stand-up EP.  And since the weather has been good, they are trying like crazy to get people caught up, so for example, Kristin got to double-turn two days in a row, and is scheduled to fly twice again tomorrow.  And throw simulators in the mix for added flavor.  After this week is over and we get past our check ride things will settle back to a normal pace, but right now it's pretty stressful.  Got to bed early.  Some pictures of Kristin's Pogo:

Wednesday