| PHASE I |
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| 31 Jan So we're finally in it...the official training day 1 of pilot training. After being issued thousands of pages of pubs, which will take about 40 yrs to read we started our training in aerospace physiology. This will probably be the least stressful part of training were we will learn about how the body is affected by the flying environment. We also are going to get to parasailing later in the week along with a ride in THE CHAMBER. The altitude chamber is basically a small room with strong pumps attached to it that can simulate going up in altitude. Then you get to watch people act goofy as they become deprived of oxygen. Later in the week we will get an intro on the CAI (computer aided instruction), something we'll be seeing a lot of in the coming weeks. |
| 1 Feb More physiology today...we got a little taste of what it's going to like to go in the altitude chamber and I got to remember how much I didn't like pressure breathing. Basically when you get up to a certain altitude the system has to force O2 into your lungs with high pressure. So you have to actually think about breathing, because you have to do it in reverse; letting the pressure fill your lungs and then forcefully exhaling...lots of fun. A friend of mine showed me a little about the preflight and starting checklist so I can start practicing that. In other news...I watched the last two Steelers games at the enlisted club with a bunch of other steelers fans. We took a picture at the end of the AFC Championship, and it turns out that it ended up on the website of a local news station in Pittsburgh...kinda cool. |
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| 2 Feb Well crap...I got up this morning feeling like crap. Turns out I've caught some stomach virus that has been going around. So no chamber ride for me tomorrow as I'll be on quarters. I'll have to make up the ride later, in the meantime I guess I'll be able to get a lot of reading done tomorrow. |
| 7 Feb This week we learned that stomach flu sucks and the Steelers rule. Today we did our first parasail ride before having to stop because of lack of wind. The rope let us get up pretty high and was a lot fun and I can't wait for the longer rope tomorrow. We also had our first "real" classroom academics section today. Nothing special, just an intro, but it made us feel like we're really getting into pilot training now. Tomorrow they're going to let us get up and personal with a T-6 which will be fun except for the 0645 show time. |
| 9 Feb So today we wrapped up Aerospace phis with out last parasail ride, which was awesome (look at the pics section) and a survival test. Off to a good start on test with a 96 (after making a stupid mistake), but after this they're going to get a lot harder. Spent most of the latter part of the day in the Computer Aided Instruction (CAI) Lab and now getting ready for bed after a long day. Tomorrow morning we're going to the graduation of class 06-05 which is basically the class that we are replacing. On one hand it's gonna suck to see a class leaving when we're just starting, but on the other hand it's kind of a cool passing the torch moment and if they can do it we can do it. |
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| 14 Feb So today we had THE FIRST TEST; now of course I tried my best and all, but historically ever since I have been in school, I have never been that great of a test taker...especially a first test taker. Now to end the suspense, I passed and all, but not exactly with flying colors. Oh well now I know exactly how I need to study and I think I'll be able to do pretty well on the rest. Today we get to a page count of all our pubs.....yeah. A congrats to my folks for 30yrs of wedding bliss today. |
| 17 Feb Another fun couple days of studying...the best part is the warm weather together with the 1940s climate control means my room is about 75 degrees when its 65 outside...looks like I'll be buying a fan this weekend. We are still learning about the systems of the T-6, but I actually like this part since we're looking at the engine and such. We have our test on it Tues morn (right after the 3-day weekend). A rather expensive gauge has broken on my motorcycle, so I'll prolly end up staying here and getting that fixed instead of going to San Antonio and spending more money. |
| 19 Feb Yeah...a three-day weekend here in Del Rio. We got our first boldface test back today; I did fine, but as a class we still have some work to do. We have to get three test in a row perfect in order to get out of blues and start wearing flight suits. So for anybody that knows they're coming to UPT...LEARN THAT BOLDFACE! it will only help you once you get here by allowing you to concentrate on other stuff. In other news I finally got my superbowl replica coin and program in the mail the other day. My shirt and superbowl terrible towel are still on backorder, and if everything goes as scheduled I'll have a Willie Parker autographed football next week completing my little dormroom steelers shrine. |
| 22 Feb Another test bite the dust...did better on this one, only missed two, but really want to get that down to missing none...oh well. We've started on aerodynamics now and this is one time where coming to UPT from active duty might be a disadvantage. I took physics my sophomore year in college so now I'm over 6yrs removed from that (woah don't I feel old). Some of theses equations seem familiar, but then some looked a little greek. It's all starting to make sense though so an intense study session will have me ready for it. We have our first official boldface exam tomorrow that goes toward getting out of blues so I really hope everybody passes. Well time to take a little break and watch NCSU whup up on UNC....GO WOLFPACK!! |
| 25 Feb Another week down...I was really sweating the aerodynamics test, but was able to pull it off. Next week is mostly sims as we get ready to hit the flightline. We should have our boldface done and be in flight suits for good by next week. I went to the drop for 06-06 which was kind of interesting to see, can't wait until I get a chance to be at one of those. We're going to get together for a little fun with a poker night (which I haven't played in about a year) |
| 28 Feb So apparently the comments section of my guestbook will only take a limited amount of text, so I have a couple of entries were I really wish I knew what the rest of the sentence was...oh well. So we've been doing simulator training all this week and are counting down the days until our dollar ride. So far we've been doing basic sims focusing on checklist and how to start the planes and such. Tomorrow I have a basic mission profile sim, meaning I'll be in one of the more advanced sims that employs a projector display in front so that I can tell where I'm going and learn how to get to the area,etc...should be fun. |
| 4 March Another weekend in Del Rio starts. I will say that the weeks here seem to go by pretty fast with all the material being crammed into our brains. Our class seems to be having issues with memorizing the boldface so we've put the ante up a little by instituting a fine for any errors on the test payable to our flight fund. If my trend continues on test I should get a 100 on the next one after missing one on our test Thursday. It doesn't seem that my Vegas luck has followed me, for after being unable to make the chamber flight the first time because of the stomach flu, I couldn't go on my makeup flight this week because I was getting over a cold I got from one of my classmates. So this Thursday I get to drive to San Antonio to take the chamber flight there. Then I'll be all set to hit the flightline on Friday for our dollar ride...CAN'T WAIT! |
| 8 March So the good news is that my prediction came true about the test and I was able to pull out a 100 on the contact test. The even better news is that THEY FINALLY TURNED THE AIR CONDITION ON IN OUR DORMS!!! After not sleeping under the sheets for the last two weeks because of the ridiculous heat, I was happy to set the thermostat low enough to try and freeze water on my counter. In other good news it turns out that I won't have to go to San Antonio for another chamber flight since they are accepting the one that I did at Nellis. Today we figured out how we're going to present our weather briefing, which I'm sure will be wrong, for the first day on the flightline. We also started handing out jobs in the flight...looks like I'm going to be the executive officer, meaning I'm "second in command". That probably won't end up meaning too much, but I'm ready and willing to take whatever is thrown at me. In less something really exciting happens tomorrow, this will be the last entry into the Phase I section as we finally get to start Phase II Friday, then things really get fun. |