Week #1 Complete

Man does it feel great to have started!! I've been here for so long looking forward to this point and it's finally here. The two days of week one we're bad at all. Thursday started at 6:30 and involved checking and signing paperwork followed by some briefings by our Flight Commander, Capt McHough, and the Ops Group Commander Col Holmes. Those two briefings were basically to welcome us to pilot training and explain what kind of things we're going to be experiencing in our year here. After lunch, we started right into the academics with the Aviation Weather section. This stuff is really basic, so as long as a person reads the material and studies some the test shouldn't be hard.

As some of you know, at Columbus AFB you can't wear your flight suits until the whole class passes two Boldface Emergency Procedures tests 100%. Well, class 05-04 is still in their blues on Monday...we've had one to two people per test screw up something little which has kept us out of the flight suits. It's an attention to detail thing and some are still working on that. But, we'll be in them early next week I can feel it! So far, I've had 100% on the four tests we've had. The test is pretty simple and merely consists of filling out a sheet of the Boldface you've memorized. Every letter has to be in caps and spelled right with no dashes missing either. As an example:

Single Engine Go Around:
THROTTLE - MILITARY
SPEED BRAKE - IN
FLAPS - 50%
GEAR - UP
FLAPS - UP 100 KNOTS MINIMUM

To help with training in Phase I, we have both regular instructors in a classroom setting and what they call Computer Aided Instruction Training (CAI Training). This takes place in a big computer lab on a program written specifically for pilot training. So, some class sessions are done completely on the computer. It's actually kind of nice because it builds a little flexibility into your schedule...you just have to have the lesson done before the next scheduled class and the allotted time for the computer lab is usually more than you need. Our weather test is next Tuesday, the 13th.

Friday morning involved some more classroom instruction on weather, and then in the afternoon we were fitted for our flight helmets. That was a good time, and we all looked a little funny in the process. They put on a cap to insulate our head, and then placed a hot plastic mold over it to form to our heads. Then on top of the was placed a plastic cap on which was hung a 20 lb weight for about a minute until the mold hardened. We're getting our flight helmets this early because we need them for next week when we're doing Physiology...that's the cool stuff where we get to experience the altitude chamber and parasailing behind a truck to give us an idea about how to land if we have to eject from an airplane. I'll have more on that next week or weekend sometime. For now, it's on to week two!

Picked Up The Uniforms

Today we picked up our flight suits and other flight gear! The whole process didn't take too long, but I'm glad I was at the front of the pack that arrived a little before 0900 when they started handing stuff out. The important thing was that we tried on our flight suits and boots to make sure everything fit just right because once we left it would basically take an act of Congress to exchange them...don't ask me why. We picked up three flight suits, two flight jackets (winter and summer weight) and a bunch of other smaller things I don't feel like trying to remember. =) Overall I guess everything costs about $1000, and we get it all for free! That's a huge deal because I don't have a grand to drop on more uniforms. Anyway, from there we bought five sets of 2nd Lt rank and headed to the sewing shop to have the rank and velcro for our patches and nametage sewn on. Later in the afternoon I picked up my stuff from the shop and got started on making everything look presentable. The flight suits were VERY wrinkled and had strings hanging off of them all over. So, I threw them in the washer and then proceeded to clip for the next 1.5 hours...fun times.

Dude, the day is almost here!! I've been here in the great state of Mississippi (cough...cough) waiting to start pilot training for the past six months and it's finally here. I was thinking the other day on the flight back from home how awesome it is that I have the chance to fly for the best military in the world, and that ROCKS!! I'm ready for the hardest, funnest and most rewarding year of my life to begin!! I thank God for that opportunity!!

Class 05-04 is Next...Finally!

Well, I'll start by updating you on my trip out west to Seattle...it was great! I had a great week out there relaxing with family and just enjoying a much better place than Columbus, MS. The trip out was a little different than I had planned though. I got up around 0500 to make it on time to the airport, checked in, boarded the plane and the a few minutes later was disappointed to here, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Captain speaking. We're having some difficulty with one of the airspeed indicators, so we're going to power down and then power up to see if that takes care of the problem." Well, that didn't do a whole lot and we had to deboard and wait for the next flight. I was originally going to connect in Dallas, TX but ended up going to Atlanta, GA instead. Anyway, to make a long story short I arrived in Seattle about 7 hours later than originally scheduled to.

My uncle's place is in Gig Harbor, which is south of Seattle. It's very nice and in an awesome location on one of the many bays out there close to the Tacoma Straights Bridge. The day after arriving I ran in the morning and then headed to McChord AFB to grab some things for the big Thanksgiving meal with my Uncle. If God takes me the T-1 track, I'm going to try for a C-17 to McChord...the base is pretty cool and in a great location. Later that night a cousin of mine flying takers at Fairchild AFB in Spokane, WA arrived. I hadn't seen him in a long time so it was good to catch up some. The next day, we were able to try out a Boeing 767-400 simulator, which was too real. I was even able to pull off some landings...they weren't the smoothest in the world, but hey give me a break. Of course Thanksgiving day was great too and I ate entirely way too much!! When it comes to food I have a hard time cutting myself off.

One of the coolest things about the west are mountains. When the weather's nice you can see Mt. Ranier from the house, and luckly there were a few nice days while I was out there. It totally makes a person wonder why they live in the midwest...other than family and things like that! I was also able to check out the yacht of one of my Uncle's friends.

The weekend before I headed out west, I made a trip with some friends down to New Orleans to check out the sites. We hit up some good restaurants, checked out the local aquarium, took a walk through The French Quarter and GOT TO SIT IN AN A-10!! If you couldn't tell, the best part of the trip was the A-10. Since we're military, we decided to stay at one of the Navy bases in the area down there. Well, this one in particular also shared the base with an F-15C ANG unit and an A-10 AFR unit. One of my friends knew a pilot who had gone through Columbus awhile back, so she called him up. He was able to hook us up and take us out on the flight line to look around. The A-10 Warthog is one bad plane! It's not the most pretty lookin' thing, but it would tear anything/anyone up on the ground it came into contact with. I wouldn't complain if I got one of these out of pilot training at all. Here are a few pics I took.


Well, Class 05-04 starts in approximately 3 weeks from now and I can't wait! A lot of our classmates have been arriving over the past couple weeks or so and it's been cool to meet some of them. I think we're going to try and grab some dinner together tonight. I'm as ready as I've ever been to get this pilot training thing started...I'll do the best I'm capable of and leave God the rest. Check back for pilot training info soon.

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.

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!