F-16 Training Course Complete!

The day after my flight up to Hill AFB, UT I finished the F-16 Initial Qualification Course here at Luke. It was a great feeling to land after that sortie and know I had taken another big step forward in my Air Force Career! To celebrate everyone finishing up, we took a squadron trip up to Los Vegas, NV to visit Nellis AFB. Most F-16 classes take a trip up north to see the base because there's a lot of cool stuff going on. They have what is commonly referred to as "the petting zoo" which is a collection of foreign military equipment for guys like us to see first hand and learn about. We also were able to get a couple classified briefings on some of the future capabilities of the F-16 and on the Air Force's newest fighter jet, the F-22 Raptor. Lets just say that the Raptor will kick the tail of whoever it goes up against...hands down. I had never seen one up close, but we had a chance to walk around one and check it out.

From there we stopped by the Air Force Thunderbirds hanger to check out their operation. I had mentioned before that a flight commander of mine here at Luke is a new member of the team. We met up with him and had a tour of the place...as we walked out the back of the hanger to the flight line, the diamond formation was just landing and taxied back while we were out there. It was pretty cool to see...a few years ago I could only dream of flying a fighter jet as I watched the Thunderbirds perform and now I am! There were a ton of other aircraft parked out on the ramp as well since there was a Red Flag exercise going on like the one I explained a couple entries ago. Almost every jet you could imagine was flying in the skies over the base...even foreign jets. Of course, we also hit up the Vegas strip while we were there. It was a cool place to see at night with all that was going on. Good food and good times!

We start into the Night Systems and Targeting Pod academics on Monday already to start preparing for flights that start in March. I'm not looking forward to sitting in the classroom again since it was so nice to be done with that stuff for awhile. But, I guess I aught to be doing something to earn that paycheck! I'll get back with you all soon.

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