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THE DREAM IS ALIVE...I GOT T-38's!!!!!!!!!! BUT NO TIME FOR WEBSITES I GOT A TRACK PARTY TO GET TO!!
So I've been in the Red Bulls for a week now and trying to get into the groove of things. Last week was one of the best moments in my life when I found out that I was going to track to T-38s. Today we just got back from Holloman AFB in New Mexico where we had the fun of going through the centrifuge initial training. Basically, this training was probably the worst 2 minutes in all of pilot training. The centrifuge is basically a small compartment that spins around to simulate G-forces. We go from 4gs to 7.5gs, with the worst one being 6gs for 30 seconds. Now 30 seconds might not seem like a long time, but it is an eternity when you're trying to breathe while feeling like you weigh 990lbs. Fortunately, we were all able to get through it without any significant issues. Then we made the incredibly long and boring drive back to Del Rio to get started with everything tomorrow. On the way out we stopped at Cattleman's steakhouse, a great steakhouse where I got a 2lb porterhouse steak. The town of Alamogordo made me realize that even Del Rio has more to offer than some places.
DOLLAR RIDE IN THE T-38!! So finally after a long wait I got my first flight in the T-38 Talon. On top of things I was flying with the squadron commander who was a really good instructor. The plane is awesome to fly and it's amazing how fast everything happens in the jet. I had become pretty good at shooting and ILS in the T-6, but I was quickly made humble again when I did it in the 38. Out in the area we did our GX at 420kts vs 200kts in the T-6 and it took very small changes in the controls to make large changes in the flight path of the jet. It was definitely a very motivating flight that has me charged for the remaining 6 mos here at Laughlin
And definitely won't have time to update this site more than one or two times per week. Supposedly you don't make it through 38s without hooking a couple things and yesterday I got my first blow when I finally hooked a test. I always thought academics would be my weak point at UPT, but got through T-6s without any blemishes. No worries though, since I took the retake and got a 100%. Today I had my second contact ride, AKA my second ride in the front seat. I'm pretty sure that everytime I light that afterburner I'm going to have a smile on my face going down the runway. I actually feel like I'm starting to catch up with the jet, with my landings starting to come along. As far as the area work goes...awesome! There's nothing like doing a aileron roll to get the nose going down hill, so that you can accelerate to 500 knots in order to do loop in 10,000 feet.
Into the second block of contact rides and I guess things are coming along. Starting to get the hang of everything and it's nice to be able to takeoff on time since it doesn't take 40 minutes to do ground ops. The aerobatics in the area are going pretty good and that allows me to focus more on my patterns and landings which are not horrible like I started out, but are definitely not where I want them to be. I had become pretty good at greasing on sweet landings in the T-6, so it's kind of frustrating now when my landings resemble the kind that are made on carriers. I might be going on my solo next week, so I'm getting pretty excited about taking a jet up by myself.
Pretty uneventful week...we had a rash of bad weather this week so I only got to fly twice and nobody got to solo. We have a 4-day weekend with the holiday, so I'm heading to San Antonio and Austin to see what trouble I can get into. Been doing a lot better on EPQs and missed on question on our aerodynmics test, so things are pretty good. I had my first EP standup that counted the other day and did ok on that as well. When we get back next week the juniors will be starting to fly and we not getting very many jets per go, but hopefully we will be able to start our solos.
So there I was...in position and holding on runway 13C, and then I get cleared for takeoff, except this time only one canopy is getting lowered because I'm about to blast off on my initial solo in the Talon. Pushing up to afterburner in a jet all by myself is something that I have dreamed up for a long time, but at times thought would never happen. I had a blast in the area doing all of the aerobatics I've seen done at airshows, and best of all there was nobody in the back seat to say anything. It's a good day...solo...the Steelers playing tonight...but a pretty hard EPQ test tomorrow
So I caught a cold that has been going around the squadron and I was DNIF for two days. Now I'm not on the schedule for tomorrow and so if I fly Monday I will be coming off a 10-day break in training, which means I will probably pretty much suck. I guess if I doubled turned everyday next week I could get a pretty good rhythm going and check next week, but I have not understood scheduling since I got UPT so...who knows.
So it's been a while since my last update to the site, but things have been pretty hectic for lately. After getting back on flying status I still did not fly for the rest of the week. So then after a 10 day break in training I finally got to fly again. It definitely wasn't my best flight, but I managed to get through it. I the plan was to double turn me everyday into a checkride last Friday, but the weather had different plans. So my checkride got pushed to this past Tuesday. I was coming off of an awesome to check, so I was a little concerned since in the past I usually have crappy 2 check and a good checkride. So I was hopping things wouldn't be reverse. Well the flight went pretty good with the exception of some weird things that I had never had to deal with. After the flight was the dreaded ground evaluation, which I think I was so worried about I did more studying than ever and it turned out to not be as bad as I thought it would, and I walked away from my checkride with 5 downgrades...not too bad. The next day I had my first formation ride which was awesome and a bit difficult all at the same time. It will take some time to get used to the pitch sensitivity of the T-38, and 3 feet is really close.
Awesome to have a much needed 3-day weekend. Me and a buddy of mine celebrated the weekend with football and many drinks. We're getting close to the halfway point of the program, but we're still on formal release which is kind of frustrating since I can't study for crap in the flight room with all the noise. Our class did really good on checkrides and the junior class will be doing solos soon, so maybe we'll get a break. I'm on another break in training so hopefully I'll get to do a lot of studying.
Finallllyyy, 07-05 is off formal release. Getting our solo certificates and that announcement were the high points of our solo party this past Friday. After we finally got the keg tapped it was a pretty fun night. Although I would definitely advise against partnering with a DD in beer pong. We won, but it was a little tough for me to have to do all the penalty drinks. We are quickly progressing through tactical formation now and I'm supposed to have my tactical solo Wed. Close formation looks cool and all but it's not really practical in a hostile environment. In tactical formation we are spread out more so that we can better support each other. This is the type of stuff that will directly carry over to our MWS and it's lots of fun..
Getting ready to go on my formation solo tomorrow, then after that we get to start to tactical formation (the fun fighter pilot-like stuff). Might be going to see some good ol fashioned monster truck racing this weekend. Looking forward to heading out to Alabama in about a month to commission a friend of mine at his OTS graduation. We're have something like 30hrs of flight planning classes that come in 3hr chunks so those are a bit painful to get through sometime, but as always the flying is fun. Now if we can just get off formal release.
Ok, so I guess it has been awhile since I updated this site...lets just say I've been a little busy as of late. The weekend before Thanksgiving I got to go Maxwell AFB to commission a good buddy that I use to work with in Las Vegas. Tactical formation was a lot of fun, the tactical solos that we had were the most fun that I've ever had flying by myself. The formation checkride is the most important one in the T-38 program because lets face it, if you can't fly formation you're probably not going to have a lot of success in fighters and I did pretty good on my form check. I had my checkride right before the Thanksgiving break, which helped to make the weekend that much better as I went home to surprise my parents on Thanksgiving day. When we returned there was not much of a break and we had started instrument flying. This past weekend we went on our cross-country which was a blast. We went from TX to phoenix to fort-worth to new orleans and back. It involved a lot of work and planning and made for a really long week, but we also played hard along the way to. Next week we will be taking our instrument/navigation check, which will really mark the downhill part of UPT as the only thing left will be low levels and 4-ship formations.
Happy MLK Day...
So here I am sitting at home because Del Rio is basically shut down as a result of and ice/snow event (it's not quite a storm). Last week I had my first low level flight at the start of the week. It is pretty awesome to fly at 400kts 500ft off the ground. Later that week I flew my first 4-ship flight which was also ridiculous, flying that close to three other planes. Both events were definitely a lot of fun and things that make all the pain of UPT well worth it. Next week we will be filling out our dream sheets which is now starting to become a pretty big deal. For the first time I'm starting to waiver from the C-Model because the multi-role single-seat aspects of the Viper are looking very interesting. Our drop is on 2 Feb, so I guess I better hurry up and figure it out but it won't be easy.
So the much awaited drop night has come and gone and now it's time to get ready for the next step. It wasn't number one, but it was my third choice...I received the mighty B-1B Lancer AKA the BONE as my next assignment. I'll soon be heading to Abilene, TX to learn how to fly this beast of a plane. This plane is one of the busiest in Iraq right now and regularly deploys to Al Udeid, so I should be in for some fun times. Only 5 more flights left in UPT, with 3 of those being solo...then finally a pair of those wings!
So after being told I couldn't pass the hearing test our of ROTC, spending 3 1/2 years at Nellis on the support side, and spending 13 months in awesome Del Rio, TX I finally got my wings and I'm an Air Force pilot. My parents, sister, and two of my friends made it here for my graduation. I was really impressed with the presentation put on for the graduation ceremony and the banquet. It was a good feeling to walk across the stage and get those wings after working hard all this time. I don't head up to Abilene until the end of May to start training in the BONE. I go to land survival in about 2 weeks and then head to water survival a couple weeks after that. In between water survival and FTU I'm going to be going on a 7-day cruise to the caribbean as a "good job for finishing SUPT" gift to myself. Not sure how much longer I'll keep this little joural deal going...probably at least until I get finished with FTU...more to follow.
