Intro to Fighter Fundamentals...Almost Here

Most of you are probably wondering what I've been up to for the past two months or so. Well, lets just say I'm glad that I leave for IFF in a week and a half! Since survival training I've been flying as much as possible, going to the gym, playing golf and spending time with friends. I help out with some flight scheduling around the squadron to earn my pay as well! Most of my bros that I went through pilot training with are gone, so I'm ready to move on myself. Once I get to Moody AFB, I will be assigned to the 435th Flying Training Squadron, known as the Black Eagles. They too fly the T-38C, but with some bigger engines to give a little more thrust. The sooner I get through IFF the sooner I get to strap into an F-16!

IFF will consist of offensive and defensive Basic Fighter Maneuver (BFM) flights, surface attack flights (simulated bombing) and some others for a total of around 18. There are also SIMs. I've been told that if I keep from doing the following three things, I'll be fine at IFF:

1. Don't fly through Joker/Bingo fuel (sounds familiar from my formation checkride in 38s eh?)

2. Don't over g the jet.

3. Don't bust the training floor (usually set at 9,000' MSL)

Normally, those things aren't hard not to do, but when you're in and out of afterburner in an air-to-air sortie trying to "kill" the guy in front of you or keep from being "killed" yourself they can fall out of your cross-check. Of course, having thick skin when they're debriefing you on the things you screwed up and having a work hard/positive attitude will play a big part in my success there. Anyway, I'm not too worried about it. I'll give it my best effort and let God take care of the rest. That's all I have this time around...not much has been happening. I'll try to keep things updated while at IFF, assuming I have easy access to the internet while I'm there. Fly safe!

Combat Survival Training

I recently completed both land and water survival training before I head off to IFF in May. Land survival and resistance training up at Fairchild AFB in Spokane, WA went well, but by the end I was ready to get home. The first few days of training we had "death by PowerPoint," which is typical of most training courses. They discussed things like first aid care, surviving off the land and camouflage techniques to prepare us for our time in the woods. We were all issued a ruck sack and a bunch of other gear for the upcoming week of "camping, which weighted 50-60 lbs total once it was all packed. Saturday at 0500 we departed the base for a little more than an hour trip north into the mountains in northeastern WA. Towards the end of our trip snow began to appear on the ground and by the time we were at the official training site there was about 2-3 ft. The last 5-6 miles of the trip we had to jump into a personnel carrier type machine on tracks because of the snow. After we were dropped off, we grabbed our ruck sacks and began a short hike to what would be our camp for the next couple nights. Our element was comprised of 7 people...myself and another 2nd Lt being the only officers. He is also going to be flying F-16s down the road. The first couple days were spent learning how to use items we'd have after ejecting to make shelters, signal recovery helicopters and set up traps. We would also hike about 2 miles a day through the snow to different points in the area. We never caught anything, but the Air Force was nice enough to provide a couple rabbits for our eating pleasure. We killed and eat a couple rabbits the first night. Personally it didn't taste all that great to me, but I wouldn't complain if I were in the woods without food. We also hiked about 2-3 miles a day around the mountains...we didn't have snowshoes, so at times it was a pain since with every few steps you'd sink up to you thigh in snow.

Eventually the focus shifted from the surviving part to the evading part. We were taught basic navigation using a compass and map as well as movement, camouflaging and concealment techniques. This was the most fun in my opinion. The last day before getting "captured" was spent evading the "enemy" (our previous days instructors) and making it to a rendezvous point. I led a group of two other enlisted guys and thankfully we never got caught. I don't take all the credit, they did a good job too. We split up leading the evading portion between the three of us. The morning of the last day...yeah, we didn't have a chance to get away. They gave us a point on the map to get to, but as soon as we basically turned around to head into the woods...guys jumped out with fake guns and camo on their faces yelling as us to get down...we were caught.

This began the resistance phase, my least favorite part. There isn't much I can say about this phase because most of it's classified. Plus, I don't want to ruin the "fun" for those of you who will experience the training in the future. I will say I have a whole new respect for the American flag and all those who have been or will be a Prisoner of War (POW). We were taught how to resist interrogations and physical discomfort and return with honor to our countries...something very tough to do sometimes (the resisting part) under such high pressure and extreme torture as we learned from past POW cases. We were in the resistance lab for approximately 48 hrs.

A week after returning from land survival and resistance training, I was on my way to Pensacola, FL to the Navy base for water survival. This training was pretty fun. We kicked things off with PowerPoint stuff as usual, but day two we were into the water...it was a little chilly. The best part was the parasailing and helicopter hoist. After being pulled up to about 500 ft. under the canopy, we'd disconnect from tow boat, run our post ejection checklist and prepare for a water landing. After splashdown, we'd release our canopy and wait for the "rescue" boat. The Navy let us use one of their choppers from the base for the hoist demo. After signaling our position to direct the chopper to our location, we prepared to grab the hoist skimming along to surface of the water. Once the chopper was hovering above us, we'd strap in and give a thumbs up to let them know we were ready and away we went.

We also had a little entertainment on day three of training with the Blue Angles training directly overhead...sweet! It helped the day go by quicker watching them practice their maneuvers. Knowing they were in town, I had to drive down to the flightline and check things out. We were done with training Thursday afternoon, so I decided to chill with a buddy of mine from OTS for the rest of the weekend. I'm sure I'll make it back down before I'm out of here. That's it for now...check back in a few weeks.

Graduate Aviation Program (GAP)

After graduating from SUPT, I moved into the Graduate Aviation Program (GAP) here at Columbus AFB. It's a fancy term to describe the flight I'll be in from now until I head off to Intro to Fighter Fundamentals (IFF) at Moody AFB, GA in May. The GAP flight is called Training Flight. It's actually a pretty cool program, and the goal is to keep our flying skills from getting too rusty. We are still a part of the 50 FTS and have both dedicated and sandbag flights. The dedicated flights are actual flights the squadron dedicates to the guys in the GAP program to keep them current whereas sandbag flights are those we can jump into whenever there's an open cockpit available. So far I've had one dedicated and two nice tries at sandbag flights...they've both been cancelled due to weather. But, I'm on the board to fly a couple 4-ship and a couple 2-ship sandbag flights this coming week. We're also allowed to sandbag cross-country flights if we can find an open cockpit, so I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for one of those. Besides the flights, we have dedicated sims and the commander's approval to use the sim whenever we want to keep instruments skills sharp.

In addition to being part of the GAP, I have an additional duty to help out as an assistance flight scheduler in Hawk Flight...one of the four student training flights in the 50 FTS. I actually requested a scheduling job because I knew I'd have a better chance at getting flights whenever they were available, and it would keep me in the squadron. We have a big base wide Operations Readiness Inspection (ORI) coming up soon and a few dudes are getting tagged to help out with that...thankfully not me!

As I mentioned on the graduation page, we were all looking forward to the awesome opportunity (cough, cough) to head back to Holloman AFB, NM and revisit the torture chamber...only this time a little more pain was expected. For the Viper guys, the max g load we had to keep from passing out under was 9g's. Like my first fuge experience, it was painful but thankfully I didn't chew my shoulder like a couple guys did. I was the fourth person to go of the F-16 guys. The first guy made it fine, but the second dude wasn't so lucky. This was his second trip to Holloman to try and pass the F-16 profiles, but he passed out on profile #3 again. Of course this made my pregame jitters increase a bit...but, I knew I was in good enough shape to keep the blood in my head. =) There was also an F-15C dude that passed out on his first try, but then made it a few minutes later after he had some time to rest. The F-16 profiles were as follows:

Profile #1: 0.1g/second increase without the g-suit or straining to determine our resting g tolerance...5.0g for me.
Profile #2: 6.0g's for 30 seconds
Profile #3: 9.0g's for 15 seconds...ouch!!
Profile #4: check six at 7.0g's for 10 seconds
Profile #5: 90 seconds of varied g loads from 3.5g to 9g to simulate an air-to-air engagement...very tiring!

Next on my schedule are land and water survival training, which I leave for in a couple weeks. Survive Evade Resist Escape (S.E.R.E.) training is the technical term for it. This kind of training prepares us for the unfortunate day we hope never comes...having to eject over enemy territory. The survive and evade part is meant to keep one from getting captured, and the resist and escape part is for post capture if it happens. The water survival shows us the additional difficulties of surviving if ejecting takes place over water. I'll be finished with this training in late March. I'll update everyone as much as I'm allowed (because of classified stuff) on how the training went when I get back. Fly safe, and check six!

Next Assignment: Luke Air Force Base, Arizona!

Wow...what can I say! It feels awesome to have all the hard work over the past year pay off in getting my first choice out of pilot training. Honestly, it all the praise goes to God...He's blessed me too much!! I think this week has been the longest week I've ever been through. The nerves, excitement and being anxious about assignment night have all contributed to restless nights of sleep and a brain that just wouldn't shut off! Now I can finally tell people what I'll be doing next and where I'll be going after graduation. I was asked a ton over Christmas, "So, where are you going after this?" All I said was, "I'll get back to you on January 7th." F-16 training will be at Luke AFB in Phoenix, AZ, which should be a pretty cool place to live...better than Columbus, MS!! As of now I don't have my dates for Intro to Fighter Fundamentals (IFF) at Moody AFB, GA, but the guys that have graduated just ahead of us have said they've been waiting 4-5 months to get there. IFF is a course in teaching basic fighter maneuvers (BFM) in the T-38C with bigger engines. It's 2 months long, and has around 20 flights total. So, in the meantime I'll be going back to the centrifuge for the F-16 profile and complete some other training. I have survival training, both land and water, as well as resistance training...some fun, some not so fun. But hey, it's worth it!

From what I've heard from IP's that have flown the F-16, it's going to be an awesome time. Of course, flying any fighter for the most part is sweet, but to be flying my #1 choice out of pilot training is going to be awesome! For me it came down the mission, with location being second. The F-16 is a multi-role fighter, so it'll give me a chance to do different things. It has both air-to-air and air-to-ground capability, which is cool because I'm a person who tends to get bored doing the same thing over and over again. I can dogfight one day and drop bombs the next. Also, I wanted to be able to use all the training I've been getting in war if the country needs me. It's been awhile since we've gone air-to-air with any country...we may in the future, but at least I'll be able to blow stuff up in the Falcon (a.k.a Viper). As far as locations are concerned, there are both good and bad. But, I've decided even if I end up in one of the "bad" spots, I'll still be flying an awesome jet and I'll make the most of my surroundings!

Assignment night is very similar to track select at the end of T-37s. It takes place in the O-club on base here and is set up where each individual student gets call up in front one at a time to get their assignment...we probably had about 400-500 people there. After you're made fun of and joked on a bit, the screen behind you shows the next jet you'll be flying. I can't even explain the feeling inside when I saw the F-16! My classmates rushed the stage to congratulate me, and then it was on to the next person. What a great time, and a day I'll never forget!

Over the past few weeks we finished up with our 4-ship formation flying, which by far has been the most fun...just slightly above low level flying. Being up there in formation with three other jets around you is awesome. Our 4-ship flights in the T-38 were just to get us familiar with what we'd be doing a lot more of in our follow on jet, and as with most things dealing with flying I'm looking forward to it!All that's left for me is five flights and then graduation on the 21st. It's been an awesome year of flying and an awesome year of rewarding work...God is good!

Phase III Complete - Low Level Check...0E!

Don't go passin' out because I'm updating the site again so soon...I have to pass on some great news! I ended up flying my low level check this passed Tuesday after the crappy weather moved through the day before. It went great! Everything went as planned, and I had a good day flying. After the flight and ground evaluation were done with, I was very surprised to hear the check IP say, "Well, I have no downgrades for you. You flew and excellent ride!" I was totally pumped, and could hardly keep myself from yelling "SWEET!" in his office. Praise God I was able to finish up my checkrides with a bang...I'll take a zero downgrade excellent any day!

The day after I flew a formation flight down the LA and then had a night nav flight back here to the base. As we were planning our formation flight, the weather was supposed to be decent at our destination except for some cloud layers...no big deal. Well, that wasn't the case as we found out in the air. It was cloudy pretty much the whole way, but things didn't really start to get interesting until we got closer to the airport we intended to land at.. I was flying in fingertip on the wing when we started to get into some pretty dark, thick clouds with rain...and oh by the way, some pretty heavy turbulence. I had never seen that before. Lead's jet looked like a rag doll being tossed around so much, as were we. I told my IP, "Sir, I'm going to hang out a little behind lead to keep from hitting him." He also thought it was a good idea while lead coordinated for vectors south around the storm. After about 10-15 minutes of that we popped out of the side of the thunderstorm to see sun and a layer of clouds below us. "Man, I was getting a little anxious there for a second" is what came from the backseat. I too was wondering how this was going to play out, but as a student you have a sense of security with a dude in the backseat who has his wings. This whole time we had been keeping an eye on our gas and also and eye on the closest divert base, which at that time would have been New Orleans, NAS (Naval Air Station). Once clear of the weather and headed toward the airport, it was obvious we were going to have to split the formation and do separate approaches...we were going to have to go back into the weather to land on a wet runway. We're not allow to do a form approach and landing with a wet runway. To make a long story short, we split up and we ended up going in first. My IP says, "Make sure you're strapped in good and all your crap is secured before we go into the weather again." I got all my stuff together and shot the approach only to pop out of the clouds in the pouring rain...thank God for runway lights! =) No sooner had we taxied to the parking ramp did it start to rain even harder with lightning and thunder. We ended up sitting in the jets for about 20 minutes while it dumped, when finally we said screw it and made a dash to get inside. We were all soaked! It was easy to laugh at once on the ground, but in the air it could have gotten pretty hairy had the weather gotten much worse or the runway closed for some reason. It was a good learning experience and will make for a good story.

Unless something really cool happens between now and assignment night, I probably won't post anything...I just had to pass along the good news!

Video:

One Month Until Assignment Night!

Well, as with most things in pilot training, your plan for the day is never official until you're actually stepping out the door to the jet. The day of our solo x-country, the weather at Lake Charles, LA wasn't going to allow us to fly into there. So, one of our IP's mentioned we should try for Wright Patterson AFB (WPAFB), OH. I was down with that because I had worked there and had family in the area. A trip that takes me about 10 hours to drive only took about 55 minutes to fly in the T-38...and being able to do that solo was even better! We took of in a train of seven T-38's with IP's in their own jet leading the way and bringing up the rear. We spaced out our takeoffs by about 5 minutes or so. The flight itself was actually pretty uneventful, but fun. We flew up there at FL370 (37,000 ft) where it was cold enough to frost my canopy...I had never seen that before and it called for the use of the canopy defog. Once I started my decent into WPAFB, I started looking around to find places I knew. It was pretty cool to see the building I used to work in at the base, my old college Cedarville Univ. and even the 178th ANG Fighter Wing...it was cool seeing all the F-16s sitting on the ramp. After landing, I was able to meet up with some dudes I knew from the area, so it was a good time to catch up on the latest in their worlds. After a quite bite to eat, we blasted off for our flight home. As I was flying along both to and from WPAFB, and had to sit back and really think about what God was allowing me to do...I was flying a supersonic jet trainer solo to a base I had never been to. My training and God given ability had brought me to the point where I was able to do that, and do it well. Totally awesome!
I was able to fly a formation x-country to WPAFB the next week as well. The first trip was a last minute thing and I wasn't able to see any of my fam. So, this time I gave them a little more of a notice and it worked about to grab some dinner together before I had to leave. I was also able to show them the jet. We did a single ship night flight back to Columbus, so it allowed us to have a little fun during takeoff for the fam. As I was holding short of the runway I called tower and asked, "Tower, Poison 81 holding short 23R request unrestricted takeoff." Tower's response, "Poison 81 standby for coordination." So, I waited for a minute of so while they checked to make sure there wouldn't be any traffic conflicts in the air and came back with, "Poison 81, you're cleared unrestricted to 10,000 ft." Nice! I had never done an unrestricted takeoff before, but I wasn't that hard...plus, my fam got to see the whole thing. It was also just getting dark, so with the afterburner lit we shoot a little bit of a flame out the back. The fam liked that too. =) We took off, stayed low, kept in in afterburner until 400 knots and pulled it about 60 degrees nose high to 10,000' where we rolled inverted, pulled the nose to the horizon and then rolled back upright...good times!


The reason I have time to update the site today because my low level checkride got cancelled...the weather is crappy again. It's obvious the winter season has arrived here in Mississippi with all the rain we've been getting lately. Too bad it's not a little colder so it would all be snow. Low level flying is pretty awesome, especially when in formation. Low level form takes the principles we learned up high in the practice area and employs them at 500' and 360 knots. There's a lot more going on down low like looking for towers, finding your turn points and thinking about how you're going to turn the formation at each point. Too cool! I completed my six low level flights pretty quickly, but the weather has held us up some. I'm really looking forward to finishing this checkride because I'll be checkride complete!

The class before us, 05-03, had their assignment night this past Friday and if ours is anything like it I shouldn't have a problem getting an F-16. There were a total of 4 F-16s with one being ANG, one F-15E, a T-37 and T-38 FAIP as well as a B-1. After a lot of thought and talking to IPs, my first four on the dream sheet will be as follows: F-16, F-15E, F-15C, T-38 FAIP. The rest is up to God to give me when He thinks I should have. I'm off to the gym...

Low Level Phase...Almost Done

Navigation is now done with and we're on to a short but fun low level phase. My navigation/instrument checkride went ok, but as I've said with just about all my checkrides, I could have done better. Overall, I ended up with a 6 downgrade good on the ride. I was originally scheduled to fly to Barksdale AFB, LA but the weather over there last Monday was crap. So, I had a backup plan to fly to Eglin AFB, FL...a much nicer place and I had flown the exact profile I was going to on the checkride I had the Friday before. Everything was working out...almost. We briefed up the flight, and took off. I was in the backseat for the first leg under the hood and I had to fly to Montgomery, AL for an approach and then head down to Eglin AFB for the full stop to get gas. All was fine up until I talked to Eglin approach control. I planned to fly one of their published approaches which would allow me to fulfill a lot of the requirements I needed to for the checkride. Some of the things I needed were a fix-to-fix, one turn in holding and a high penetration. I could get all of those done I one approach at Eglin. Well, I called up approach and said something to the effect of, "Eglin approach, Poison 12 level 220, charlie request. Approach says back, "Poison 12, say request." My response, "Poison 12 request direct Tufer, one turn in holding, HI TACAN 19 full stop." It went downhill when they said back, "Poison 12, unable for saturation." Dude, that sucks is what I was thinking. That meant I was going to have to change my plan on the way home to make up the requirements I didn't get on the first flight. I guess to make a long story short, the non-standard stuff caused me to do somethings to buy a couple extra downgrades. Flexibility is the key to air power right?! =) So, this checkride I was average in the class. But, I'll take it a press on.

This past weekend we had another career day like we did back a few months ago. It's a good time to see all the different AF jets, and talk to the guys who fly the aircraft you are thinking you want to fly next. For me that's the F-16 and then the F-15C. Here are some pics from the weekend.


I had my first low level ride yesterday, a ton of fun! It's pretty sweet flying 360 knots at 500 ft above the ground. It's not too hard as long as you have good habit patterns. At each checkpoint along the way, you need to accomplish certain things. For example, an acronym I think I'm going to use to help out is COFEE...update my next Course/heading, look for Obstacles (i.e. big towers you don't want to hit =), check Fuel state, roll the EGI to the next point, and Emit (i.e. make a radio call at a point if needed). That along with executing the proper clock to map to ground principle will help me to hit the "target" on time every time. There are only six low level flights, with two of those being formation low levels...nice! I'll most likely have my low level checkride next week.

Besides that, I have a solo out and back tomorrow where we're planning to fly to Lake Charles, LA. We get to fly about 300-400 miles alone...how awesome is that?! All five of us in my class are going, and after we get some good food we'll head back in the afternoon. 4-ship formation will be coming up soon as well, but besides that I'm very close to being done...I have a little over 20 flights left in the program. Oh yeah, as of about one month ago, I'm UPT academics complete...100% on all four tests! Well, I need to get to the squadron. Check six!

Instrument / Navigation Phase

Lets start with the formation checkride. The day before my checkride, I was kind of nervous about the next day's weather because they were calling for possible thunderstorms...that is never a good thing because as I have mentioned before, being on your game during formation takes up enough brain-bytes without having to plan on flying around clouds. Well, thankfully the next day there weren't any clouds below about FL210 or 21,000 feet, which was the top of my assigned practice area for that day. So, good to go there. I was ahead of my other classmates, so it ended up that I flew my checkride against another IP in the other jet. Usually they pair classmates up to check against each other, but I was fortunate. Not that checking against another student is all the bad, but IPs are more predictable and stable I guess is a good way to put it. Anyway, I show up that Friday, brief the flight and blasted off about noon. The profile was such that I lead the formation takeoff and the first half of the ride, then gave the other IP the lead about half way through so he could give me the maneuvers I needed to fly while on the wing. Everything was going well and I was having a great ride. The very end of the profile had me flying fingertip (really close to the other jet), so I was fixated on staying in position as he maneuvered around.

Before I go on, I'll define a couple of terms for you that play into this. The first is Joker Fuel, which is a pre-briefed amount of fuel that when reached, you need to stop a certain part of the profile and move on with other things that need to be accomplished. The second is Bingo Fuel, which is a pre-briefed amount of fuel that when reached, you need to stop all maneuvering and head back and land with the appropriate amount of fuel reserves.

Alright, with that said back to the wingwork. At the time we had already call "joker" over the radios and next was bingo. Well, since I was so fixated on the other jet at the end in wingwork, I forgot about my fuel state and missed the fact I had flown through bingo fuel. Not the best thing in the world. We started flying back to the base at about 20-30 lbs under bingo. Knowing I had made that mistake, I still had to press forward and do well with the rest of the ride. The return to base along with the formation approach and landing was money...we even touched down about the same time. The ground evaluation went well too, and then it was time for the grades. He started off with, "That was one of the better formation checkrides I've seen from a student in awhile." I knew I had flown a good ride, but I also knew the bingo thing while somewhat small, was rather big in the overall picture...it's not good to push your fuel and then have something else go wrong. Well, at the end I ended up hooking the ride for fuel procedures...CRAP!!! Up until the fuel thing, I was sitting on a 2 downgrade excellent and one little mistake brought me to a 5 downgrade unsatisfactory. Even with the 5 downgrades, I ended up tying for the best formation checkride score. It's just frustrating knowing all I had to do was quickly cross-check my fuel state towards the end and make a radio call. But, things happen for a reason and I'm not in control so I had to press on. I reflew my checkride the next day, called out joker and bingo over the radios as necessary, and that was it. The debrief went something like, "Watch your fuel more next checkride." I only had a couple downgrades for that redo, but the grades don't count the second time around.

The next weekend was cross country time. I had mentioned I may fly up through Wright Patterson AFB, but I ended up changing plans due to the fact my family members in the area were going to be out of town. So, another student and I planned to head east over to Charleston, SC for the first night. We stopped at Robins AFB in GA to get gas on the way before our night flight into Charleston. After planning up the next leg of the trip, we jumped in the jets and cranked engines. Well, the other jet was having some problems and had to stay behind. Our flying into Charleston was pretty cool...it's sweet flying on a clear night. Saturday we did a VFR flight at 6,500 feet down the ocean coast into FL. That was awesome! We hit Cecil Field for gas, which is close to Jacksonville, FL and then did a night flight back west through the panhandle into Gulfport, MS where we met up with the guys in the other jet...they had gotten the problem fixed that morning at Robins AFB. Sunday was the last day, and we flew up through Barkesdale, AFB before back into here. We had great weather, and a lot of fun. On a cross country in the T-38, we have both navigation and instrument flights. Both involve the same kinds of things, just that instrument flights are in the backseat under the hood (the canopy is completely covered simulating back weather) and navigation flights are in the front seat without a hood and we have the heads up display (HUD) available to use.I will probably have my navigation/instrument ride here in about two weeks, so I'll be looking to do really well there...no more stupid mistakes! The checkride with involved an instrument ride to a designated outbase such as Tyndall AFB or Barkesdale AFB where we'll get gas and a bite to eat, followed by a navigation ride back to Columbus later in the day. Besides that, I have a few low level flights and and low level checkride. That'll all be done in about the next six weeks with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up soon. Our assignment night is January 7th followed by graduation a couple weeks later on the 21st. So, not much time before I get my wings! Obviously the formation checkride taught me some tough lessons, but of course I'm still lovin' the job...don't want to be doing anything else! I've been lazy with taking pics, so I'll try better next time. Check back in few weeks, and fly safe!

T-38 Formation Checkride Soon

Wow, it's been awhile! At this point, we're almost done with the formation phase and should be having our checkrides next week. The first few form rides in the 38 were very similar to form in the tweet as far as the maneuvers go, but soon we were into what they call tactical formation. The parameters are 4,000' to 6,000' feet horizontal spacing, +/- 2,000' vertical spacing (stack) and then line a breast. Anyway, the point is we're a lot farther apart while maneuvering. It's supposed to teach us the importance of clearing each other's six for bad guys while not having to worry about running into each other in close.

Along with the tactical formation stuff, we're also pressing forward with the sims. Right now, we're flying a mock cross-country to help us prepare for the real thing next weekend. They tell us where we're going, but we're responsible for planning the flights and studying up on the approaches we'll fly once at the destination. For example, in the first sim we took off from here, did a drop in over in Birmingham, AL and then ended up in Montgomery, AL. It gets us out of the environment we're in all the time around here and lets us experience something different. It's pretty rewarding to plan out a short trip like that, and then actually fly it successfully.

For my cross country next weekend, I'm going to go one of two places. I'll either be flying out to Colorado Springs, or making a trip up through Wright Patterson AFB again and the down the east coast. I've never been to CO, so I'm leaning that way. It'd be sweet to fly into the airport there at the base of the Rockies! The only problem is, we're leaving on a Friday this time and returning Sunday so there won't be as much time as we had in Tweets. It's about an 800-850 mile trip in the air, so it's very doable...I'll fill you in on the details of the trip later on.

A buddy of mine I knew back at Cedarville recently made his way down here for pilot training. He's in the reserves up at Wright Patterson AFB, and will be flying the C-5 once he's finished here. He also has a boat, so on the weekends we get some people together and hit the Tom Bigbee River that runs through the town for some skiing and tubing. Good times, even though the water isn't the cleanest...a little dirt in the system never hurt anybody! =) It's a nice way to get out and relax after a hard week!

After formation, we'll be into the instrument/navigation phase of training and it won't be long until that checkride. A lot of our instrument/navigation flights are accomplished on the cross country. Time is going fast and it won't be long before assignment night is here...hard to believe! Well, I'm off to a base function. Today is the end of the fiscal year, and we're having a little celebration. Have a good one!

Contact Checkride

These past couple weeks have gone pretty well for me in the 50th FTS...I came away from my contact check with a 3E (3 downgrade excellent), which I was pretty happy with even though I felt two of the three downgrades were retarded. =) The whole flight was normal. We started off by flying a heavy weight (full of gas) single engine touch-n-go, and it turned out great. Those are one of the harder landings since you're only using one engine and your approach speed is fairly fast...about 185 knots. It's pretty easy to make an ugly landing under those conditions. Anyway, after that it was out to the Military Operations Area (MOA) for my acro. All three of my downgrades came in the MOA...one for an improper g-strain (whatever), one for in flight planning area orientation (whatever), and one for my nose high recovery. I don't even remember, but I guess I wasn't g-straining when pulling up for my loop or something. We pull 4-5 g's in the beginning of the loop and I didn't have the proper breathing going on...a pretty lame downgrade in my opinion. The other was due to the fact I had to adjust the amount of fuel I wanted to start heading back to the base with...again, I realized my fuel state and made the necessary adjustments only to get a downgrade for that. The last one I deserved for buffoonery! =) We headed back to the pattern after that for some other landings, which all went fine. It's all good, I can't really complain having tied for the best score in the class.

With the contact phase behind us, we've been into formation flying pretty heavy along with instrument sims. Formation is too fun, and I'll be form soloing (either against 2 IPs or a student and IP in the other jet) sometime the middle of this coming week...nice! This past week, there's one formation flight that sticks out a lot due to the fact there were some great cumulus clouds to play around. Granted, the clouds make it harder to maneuver because we have to stay clear of them and we aren't always in the fingertip position like in the picture above. Sometimes we could be a mile apart in preparation to practice a turning rejoin, so you can't turn as lead and end up in the clouds...you'd lose sight and have to use other procedures to ensure deconfliction of your flight paths. We fly in fingertip through the weather a lot, but here in training that's only while going to the area and on the way back. Anyway, these clouds were huge and it was awesome while in fingertip to find holes here and there to go flying through. The clouds also give a close background making it easy to see how fast we're really going up there!

Besides the flying around in the area, doing a formation takeoff and landing is also pretty sweet. We're to the point now where we're allowed to do the takeoffs and landings...landing while flying on the wing is the hardest part. Trying to stay in the fingertip position, put your gear and flaps down and talk on the radios is pretty challenging! Especially if all of this is taking place in the clouds. My first attempt at landing on the wing was a success, and we touched down a pretty much the same time. My IP was fairly impressed...one of our objectives for that flight was to land in formation without the IP taking over and we did!

Well, I'll be in the formation phase for quite some time and won't have too much more info to pass along...I don't think. If there is, I'll let you guys know.

Flown Solo / Started Formation

We've had lots of nice weather and lots of sweet flying since the last post! So much so that we've all soloed, have had a couple formation rides and will be having our Contact checkride next week already. It's been great though! Flying the T-38 is so much fun...it's hard to explain unless you're actually the one doing it.

Once those first two instrument rides in the backseat were done, it was our turn to sit on the point of our new rocket instead of the IP! It helped a lot being in the front merely due to the fact I could see better...overall I felt the front seat help my situational awareness go up quite a bit. Just like in Tweets, the first block of rides are contact rides where we practice the same kind of acro (loop, cuban 8, immelman, split-s, barrel roll, lazy 8) and use ground references to stay in our areas . After the area work, we head back to the pattern for practice in preparation for our upcoming checkride. They told us the hardest part about flying the T-38 is landing it, but I didn't think it was too difficult. Thank God for good hands...He made me what I am. After my first flight with my new flight commander he said, "I rarely put well above average on a student's gradesheet, but I'm going to put it on yours." That gave me a lot of confidence right from the beginning.

Only after about a week of flying in the front seat we were ready to go solo. Not just a pattern solo, but solo to the practice area! I could hardly believe I was getting paid to go fly some acro in a small fighter jet by myself...a great feeling. There were times all five of us studs (students...of course) would walk together out to our individual jets for solo flights joking about how we should get a little formation solo practice in while we had the chance. The same went for the "pregame" jitters this time around too, but once I was strapped in the jet it was game time ladies and gentlemen! Your first solo in the T-38 you have to do some crazy stuff to push the limits, but what I did you will never know. We've had four solos already, and I have three more dual flights before the checkride. I'm feeling pretty confident about it. As always, I'm setting the goals high with shooting for a 0 to 2 downgrade excellent.

We also started formation this week, and like before it was sweet! The majority of our flights in the 38 are formation flights, so that's cool. We move beyond the basic form stuff we did in Tweets after a few rides and get into some more advanced maneuvers...like acro while in formation and tactical turns. Also, towards the end of the program we get introduced to 4-ship formation. I'll let you know how all that goes for sure...what a job!

Tweets On Steroids

I think that's a good way to put how the initial couple months of T-38's is going to be...Tweets on steroids. We have to learn a new plane again, but this time there's less time before flying starts. A typical day so far has been about 12 hours full of academics, sims and flights with 30 minutes of eating dinner and two to three hours of studying before bed...but it's awesome and wouldn't want to be doing anything else! I get a chance to exercise in the sometimes too. As you know, class and sims started right away getting us prepared for our first flights, and those took place this past Thursday and Friday. The sims are a really good representation of the actual plane (minus the movement), so it's been very helpful in getting us up to speed. There are three that have 180 degrees of view and three with just a flat screen in front of you.

After a week and half of academics and sims, we were off to Holloman AFB for the centrifuge. It wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be, but it was still pretty painful. The tumbling sensation along with the hi g's were the main factors making you feel weird. G's just means how much of an increase in body weight you feel. 7g's would be seven times your body weight, so for me that's about 1400 lbs. Dang! We did have a G-suit which increases g tolerance by about 1g. The purpose of the fuge is to make sure our bodies can handle the g forces of the next aircraft and give a chance to practice our g-strain (breathing techniques under high g loads). We had to do five profiles as follows:

Profile #1: a gradual increase to 4g's for 40 seconds (to warm up)
Profile #2: a slightly rapid increase to 5g's for 40 seconds
Profile #3: a rapid (about 1 second) increase to 6g's for 30 seconds
Profile #4: a rapid increase to 7.5 g's for 15 seconds
Profile #5: a rapid increase to 6g's while looking back over your right shoulder

The 6g's for 30 seconds was the hardest due to air hunger at about 20 seconds...you can't just relax and take a deep breath. Anyway, the whole thing took about 10 minutes per person, so we were out of there pretty quick with only five of us. We did have some time to relax after the fuge, so checked out some of the local dunes and were even able to fly a Stealth Fighter (F-117) sim and see a jet.



We got our new nametages the other day, which we're not going to wear until we solo...hopefully in a couple weeks. I'm in Falcon flight with the callsign of Pistol now instead of Skunk. My first couple rides were great...it's hard to explain a first ride in a supersonic jet! It's a total kick in the rear compared to the T-37. The training syllabus had us in the backseat for the first two rides, but we were still able to do the takeoff and even fly out the the practice area.

After some basic maneuvers, we had a little fun with loops and some other acrobatics. Just as an example, the entry parameters for a loop are 500 knots and at least 8,000-10,000 ft of usable airspace above you. It's a lot different since we're moving so fast. On our way back to the pattern, my IP took the jet so he could show me some of the ground references used and just so I could get a feel for how it all works. I didn't mind, it gave me a chance to take in the sites while flying in the pattern at 300 knots! My next ride I'm in the front seat and we'll start the contact phase of training. Speaking of all that I need to return to the books. I have a test and two flights tomorrow.

A Little Nicer Than The T-37

The T-38 is obviously a big upgrade over the T-37. It has what they call a glass cockpit along with other upgrades. Just check out the cockpit below...it's pretty obvious! =)

Thursday after track select was already filled with class and other things at my new squadron, the 50th Flying Training Squadron. The first 2 weeks will be academics and simulator training before we actually start flying in the 3rd week. The Talon has a lot more and complicated systems, but soon we'll have a good handle on it. Our new flight commander said that based on the weather, we could be soloing within 2 weeks after we start flying...TOO COOL! In a couple weeks we have to fly out to Holloman AFB in New Mexico to have our first experience in the centrifuge. I've heard it sucks pretty bad, but hey no pain no gain right?! =) Alright, I'd better get back to looking at some T-38 stuff.

Track Select...T-38s!

Well, my goal was reached this past Wednesday night at our track select ceremony...I got my T-38, God's good! The whole day was pretty cool being able to show our friends and family around the squadron and base. It started at 0800 with a mock run through of what takes place first thing in the flight room every day followed by a tour of the flight line and RSU. They scheduled sim rides in the afternoon for our friends/family, and then we had some down time before the club where track select took place.
The track select process goes something like this. First, they welcome the guests who came to the ceremony and then introduce the class. Then, they call each student up there one at a time to get their next jet. But, of course they have to make fun on you using stupid things you've done over the past 5 months before they let you go. They used a PowerPoint presentation with some interesting pics and facts to help. After the ridicule and making fun, you take a deep breath and then spin a wooden prop on a stand to see your next jet. As the prop spins they flash different planes [the T-1 (cargo/tanker), T-38 (fighter/bomber), T-44 (C-130) and UH-1 (helicopter)] on the screen. I was anxious all day, but pretty confident I had performed well enough to give myself a chance at fighters. When the prop finished spinning for me, the first picture below is what I saw up on the screen! AWESOME! I was one of 4 in our class of 23 (18 active duty) to get selected, and ended up #2 in the class overall. The #1 guy is going to fly KC-10's in the AFRES.


On to Phase III...

Phase II / Tweet Complete!

It's hard to believe, but I'm done flying the Tweet! I finished last Friday with my low level navigation flight, which was an awesome last ride. The whole flight was flown at about 500 ft and 210-220 knots. It simulates what may take place in a different jet in that we need to be able to find ground checkpoints and make sure we're on time to each so we reach the target on time. We obviously didn't have anything to bomb in the tweet, but our "target" at the end of the mission was a dam. Fun times!

Thursday I had my formation checkride and came away with a 3 downgrade excellent...I was happy with a 3E even though my downgrades were stupid mistakes. That's always how it seems to go. =) It was actually a bit out of the ordinary. I was scheduled to have my checkride on Wednesday of last week, but we were only able to get half of it done. I did all my lead work and had just given my wingman the lead when we heard over the radios, "Columbus AFB is now on weather recall." Basically, thunderstorms were moving into the area and we had to get home before they hit. My check IP took the jet and lead us home. Thursday I was able to finish up the rest of my checkride on the wing...we even had to dodge some weather then as well. It's so hot and humid around here, thunderstorms pop up fast. If I get the chance at the T-38, formation is going to be awesome!

A bunch of us went out last weekend to celebrate being done with the T-37 at a local restaurant. This pic goes out to my best friend from back home...John Deere!

Video:

Formation Solo!

I realize I lied last update saying it would be my last one, but my formation solo on Monday was too awesome to leave out! By far, it was the most fun and memorable flight I've had yet. When I sit back and think about the fact I was flying formation in my own jet against two IP's in the other jet makes it even more awesome. Everything went like any other formation ride. I was lead on the takeoff so I took us out to the practice area and gave my wingman some work on the wing doing different maneuvers. Soon, it was my turn to hand over the lead to my wingman so they could give me some practice...that's where most of the fun happens. When you're on the wing it's your primary responsibility to keep sight of lead and stay in position off his wing while he flys around. The IP's in the other jet thought I was doing well enough to give me crossunders at 90 degrees of bank (I realize that makes no sense to most, but it's not nomally something they give to students), which went pretty well. All of formation isn't in close to the other jet. We do an exercise called extented trail which kinda looks like a simulated dogfight...not anything close to a simulated F-15 or F-16 dogfight, but as a student in the T-37 it's pretty cool. The IP's gave me a lot of the extended trail and had fun trying to get me out of position on their six, but I hung in there pretty well. On our recovery back to the base, I had some more fun. I was in the fighting wing position (about 300-800 ft behind and slightly to either side of lead) on their right wing when the IP's racked their jet up to 90 degrees and pulled across my path of flight to see what I'd do to keep from hitting them! About the only thing I could do was a lag role (similar to a barrel role) up over top while maintaining visual on lead and then get back into position on the left. WOW...how awesome! So much of this stuff is hard to put into words, I just wish I could show some of you guys. I guess you'll have to trust me when I say this is the best job in the world! As it's looking right now, I'll have my formation check next wednesday and I'll be pretty much done. I have 5 flights left in the good, old and fun Tweet!

T-37 Academics & Simulator Complete

Tweets is going by fast...I only have 8 more rides until I'm Tweet complete! I flew a lot of instrument rides this week, and had my I-check today. Everything went really well and I came away with one downgrade. I didn't get any downgrades for flying, but I got downgraded on my emergency procedure during the ground evaluation of all things! CRAP! Oh well, I'm not complaining with what I got. I should have my formation checkride in the next couple weeks. Have I told you...formation is the coolest thing! I'm sure I have, but couldn't remember. =) We finished with academics a few weeks ago, but I've just forgotten to say anything about it. It's been nice not having to worry about that stuff...flying is where I can spend all my time now. I also had my last simulator thursday before my checkride today. We've been so busy flying and studying the past few months, that it's hard to believe we're almost done with Phase II!

Last weekend was cross-country weekend. It turned out to be a good time and a big learning experience. We fly so much around here in the Columbus AFB environment that we get really used to how things opperate. Going cross-country teaches you a lot of things about instrument flying and gets you used to how things are going to be outside of here. Due to weather, we ended up flying north. We hit Ft. Cambell, KY on the way up to Wright Patterson AFB, OH where we spent the night. Most of you know I worked a civilian job a Wright Patt before OTS, so it was good to see some buds and family around there. The next day we made our way over to St. Louis for a Cardinals/Marlins game. The third day changed from flying south down to the beach because of weather again. We ended up over in Arkansas, which wasn't too bad before heading back here on Sunday. It was a mentally tiring but great weekend. It totally helped bring together all the simulator and instrument rides we've had over the past months.


Packing our bags in the Tweet was a process. My IP stuffed his bag behind the seats and I put mine in the right nose comparment I'm doing in the picture above. Our shoes went wherever there was space in the front there and then with a little force the comparment was latched with my bad crammed in there. Fun times! All I packed was one flight suit, and couple changes of civilian clothes and the important stuff. =) As we were climbing in the jets, I said good-bye to the buds and then was pumped up by a couple F-16's from the 178th Fighter Wing in Springfield, OH doing touch-n-gos.

Well, that's it for this update. The next one will be my final update in Tweets probably...on to Phase III! T-38's baby!

Career Day

Well, we finally came to an agreement on our class patch and it should be in this next week sometime. It's tradition for the classes to get together and design a patch they'll wear the rest of their time in pilot training. Our first one didn't get passed, but it didn't bother me too much...I didn't care for the idea. I like the second idea much better, and if you're into sports like I am I'm sure you'll agree. A couple dudes in my class "stole" the idea from ESPN made a sweet design.

This next week is going to be a good one. We had a career day yesterday here on base from about 0900 in the the early afternoon which we had to be at. The operations group commander had a bunch of different planes flown in so we could talk with the pilots about their aircraft and what we can expect if we go that route. It was a good chance to get a close up of some sweet planes. I definitely know I want to fly fighters, and the order of my top three choices are F-16, F-15C, F-15E. At least for now...the order tends to change with time. Anyway, why this coming week is going to be so good is because first we have Monday off! The second reason is I'm going cross-country to the beach. We're taking off from here on Thursday and eventually ending up at Tyndall AFB in Panama City, FL. Friday we'll hit Hurlbert Field (Destin Beach) on the way to Pensacola, FL. Saturday we're headed to Keesler AFB around Biloxi, MS before flying back up here Sunday. It'll be nice to see some different airspace and relax at the beach some. I'll let you all know how that went sometime in the weeks to come.


Yeah, we do other things besides fly here in Mississippi. Some of our friends are from one of the local colleges in town, and they asked a group of us to a formal they were having. We hit up a nice restaurant in town before going to the dance, and then it was off to relax and get our grove on with friends.
Well, as it's looking right now I may be done with Tweets in about 3-4 weeks. It's gone fast! I have a few more instrument rides and then about 8 more formation rides before those checkrides. The cross-country takes care of most if not all of our navigation rides. It'll be nice to have some down time to get back in shape and prepare Lord willing for T-38's!! =) Take it easy.

T-37 Formation Flying, Very Cool

As you know, I had my Final Contact checkride at the beginning of the week. Thankfully it all went well, and I came away with a 3 downgrade excellent...3E. My three downgrades came from minor things in acro and a slight overshoot on one of my patterns. I still have a couple more chances for that 0E I'm shooting for! As with last checkride, I was able to read some critiques from past students on the check pilot I was going to fly with, and it did help. The emergency procedure he gave me in the debrief was just like I had read about, and the general knowledge questions were as well.

On Tuesday I had my formation "dollar" ride and saw what it was like for the first time...too cool! Formation I'm sure is going to be the best part of training! It was one of those demo/do kind of flights where my IP would show me what it should look like and then give me a try with the main objective being, don't hit the other jet! =) So, we took off in formation and got up through the clouds to where I could give things a shot. I was given two main tips from other pilots I know to help me out with form:

1. Wiggle your fingers and toes
2. Lower your shoulders

The more you can relax, the better you'll fly is basically what those two things remind you to do. My first try at trying to stay 3-5 ft from leads wingtip was a little shaky and I heard, "I have the jet" from my IP a few times, but soon I was getting a handle on being light with the stick and throttles. The 3-5 ft is in the horizontal plain, so we're a little aft and below lead as we're flying. I wish I could take some pics of that to give you all an idea of how cool it looks from the cockpit. Anyway, the IP I was flying with was a former F-16 pilot, so she had a lot of good tips from all her experience flying fighters. It won't be long until we're pressing up against my form checkride, so check back over the next couple weeks to see what's up...I need to go study some more before bed.