Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Studying and Relaxing

After my last post, I decided I'd take some more pics for the website. My days are pretty much the same as far as working out and studying the gouge goes. For those that don't know what I mean by gouge, it's the information I've been able to get my hands on ahead of time to help me prepare for class. There's a lot on the net, and a friend of mine burned me a CD with a bunch of stuff on it. Anyway, I was able to take a picture of the CFT's where I work on my checklist procedures. I also bought a poster for my room of the cockpit so I can chair fly (practice maneuvers and whatever else) during training.


Well, since I can't talk anyone into giving me an incentive ride around here I figured I'd try to get as close as I could to the action. Yes, it is legal for me to be here...there's a road that passes under final approach for the middle runway. I sat here for awhile taking in the nice scenery and imagining myself doing the same in the not too distant future! Sweet eh?!

The building where I've spent a lot of my time since I've been here is the 14th Operations Support Squadron building. It's where all the new pilot trainees inprocess, sign in every day and have weekly meetings. It's also where Phase I of training takes place, so I'll be spending much more of my time here very soon. The building I work in is right next to this one to the left.

I guess that's about it...the rest of the week is the normal routine. But, this weekend some of my friends and I are taking a trip down to New Orleans to check it out...should be a good time. I'll write more after Thanksgiving sometime, so check back then.

Thursday, November 13, 2003

Casual Status...The Wait Continues

I've had a lot of people ask me lately what I do now that I'm done with IFT...and well, that's not too much. Kind of sad, but true...thank you taxpayers! I've been assigned to the 14OGV office, which is a group of 4 majors who work standard evaluation stuff for each aircraft. So, there's a T-37, T-1 and T-38 chief who know a lot about their aircraft and can work problems that may come up with each plane. There's also one guy who's the head chief in the office and kind of works with the other three on different issues. They're all instructor pilots (IP's), so they're also flying quite a bit. Most of the time I'm in the office I'm studying T-37 info that I've been able to pick up here on base and off the net. I know the boldface emergency procedures and operating limits of the T-37 and have been reading the Dash-1 (the manual for the plane). Pretty much I'm trying to do the most beneficial things I can before class starts. There are also Cockpit Familiarization Trainers (CFT's) that we can use to work through the checklists. The CFT's are a mock cockpit with all the switches and instruments so you can practice things before getting in the actual aircraft. At this point I have a lot of the stuff memorized, so I hope that will put me a little ahead of the game when the time comes.

Other than the studying I hit the gym or run on a regular basis. They're coming out with new fitness standards for the AF, so we have mandatory conditioning three times a week...that's cool since I was already doing that. I guess some of the higher ups thought there were too many fat people in the AF, and I would have to agree. Just because we're not on the ground much during war doesn't mean we should be out of shape and fat! I'm also in an intramural soccer league with games once a week...that's a good time and helps keep me in shape too.

Not much is going to happen between now and when class starts. I'm flying to Seattle, WA for a week during Thanksgiving and then I'll fly home for Christmas for a couple weeks...figured I'd enjoy the last little bit of my free time while I had the chance!