Three More Weeks

The end is now in sight...only five more flights and three sims before I'm done here at IFF. Things are going and IFF has really allowed me to enjoy the new type of flying and challenge every flight brings. It gives a fighter pilot wannabe confidence to know he's doing a decent job. I finished up both the OBFM and DBFM phases this past Thursday with my second solo flight, which was the best flight I've had here at IFF so far...perfect timing! It's hard to explain exactly what goes on during an engagement without you seeing it, but bottom line the instructor in the other jet never "killed" me! We simulate taking both missile and gun shots at each other if we can maneuver our jet to point at the other guy, but I was able to do what I had been taught well enough to keep him from getting any shots on me. It felt pretty good, but I have five more flights left so I have to keep focused!

The next phase of training is surface attack (SA), or in other words we're learning the basics of dropping bombs. We do a variety of different passes on the range here close to the base to simulate bombing (it's all done electronically by the jet) a target they have set up. I think it's an old Army truck or something like that. We bomb at 10, 20, 30 and 45 degree angles in the conventional pattern. The steeper angles really feel like your racing at the ground pretty fast since we aim to drop our "bomb" at 420 knots at a predetermined altitude specific to each degree. For the 10 degree pass, we fly a rectangular pattern at 2100' before rolling in on the target. For the others it's, 4800', 7000' and 14000' respectively. Once we pickle the "bomb", we execute what they call a safe escape maneuver. This involves getting to 4g's within 2 seconds and pulling the nose of the jet to 30 degrees nose high before rolling to the crosswind leg of the rectangular pattern. When I drop bombs for real in the future, this escape maneuver will be done to keep my jet from flying through the fragmentation pattern of the bombs. Once a bomb explodes it sends a bunch of shrapnel into the air and that's a bad thing to have fly down the intake of your engine! I'm going to enjoy this phase a lot...it's closer to the ground and there's a lot going on! After surface attack I have two High Aspect BFM (HABFM) flights, and that will be it. In two months I'll be flying the F-16 and soon after I'll be dropping bombs for real! Oh yeah, I'm a 1st lieutenant now...can't believe I've been in the AF for two years already!

First Flying Block Complete

Friday was a good day when I finished the first block of five rides without much trouble. These rides are flown to make sure we learned what we should of in pilot training, and they also give us a chance to shake rust off our tactical formation. Mine flights all felt pretty solid. We also started with some "baby" BFM in preparation for the Offensive BFM (OBFM) block of four flights, which I start tomorrow. The instructors here are a lot more picky then at Columbus with the admin stuff like I talked about before. Starting the aircraft, moving all the right switches at the right time and being on the right radio frequency on time are things they'll nail you on if it's not right. Attention to detail is what you'll hear a lot if you come through IFF. They'll hammer you for not flying good tactical formation too because it should be second nature by now.

OBFM is just like it sounds...we'll be flying behind another T-38 (on offense) learning how to shoot missiles and fire our gun at him to kill him. The dude in front will be flying what they call defensive BFM (DBFM), although he's pretty much a steady platform for me to practice on. There are different set-ups and flying "drills" we go through to learn the basics of air-to-air engagement while in the OBFM and DBFM phases. After four OBFM rides, I'll move into DBFM and then from there into High Aspect BFM (HABFM). I'll talk to all of that later. BFM in general is an aggressive type of flying...a lot more so than pilot training. We've learned how to fly, now we're learning how to use our jets as a weapon. Yanking and banking all over the place, in afterburner on second and in idle the next. The stick full aft to full forward, full right then left...all while trying to keep the bad guy in sight, employ your weapons and keep situational awareness of what's going on around you. It's definitely a good workout both physically and mentally! But, that's why I love if...it's a challenge and a ton of fun! God knew where I should be and I'm grateful for it! OK, I'm going to finish studying and then catch a movie!

Flying Starts Next Week

Week #1 wasn't too bad here at IFF. The first couple days were filled mostly with inprocessing stuff and academics. The academics covered some new and old things we already knew, so the test later in the week was pretty easy. It's still the same jet as we've been flying, but knowing how use and operate the air-to-air and air-to-ground features of the avionics on the jet is what we needed to get up to speed on. We also had a couple sims this week. The simulators here are pretty awesome...unlike the ones at Columbus AFB which only have 180 degrees field of view, here they have 360 so you're completely enclosed in the sim. So far I haven't seen anything new, but that will be changing later this coming week or early the next. My first five rides involved basic 2 and 4 ship formation procedures...they want to make sure I can hack that first before sending me to the air-to-air phase of training. I'll be good to go there. The hardest part will be knowing the different flying procedures for the base, but I've been studying them with the bros so we'll be ready.

The T-38s here at Moody are painted a little different than the T-38s at all the other SUPT bases. I guess they want to look different and distinguish themselves from the others. They all have the bigger engines like I mentioned before, and they're all a little more beat up from the aggressive flying we do here. I haven't flown yet, but my bros tell me the jets are pretty bent from all the flying they've done in IFF over the past 20-30 years. I have a sandbag ride in a 4-ship tomorrow, which will help me understand the new procedures I was talking about and hopefully prepare me for my first ride Tuesday. I'll get back with everyone in a couple weeks.

Moody Air Force Base - MAFB

I finally pulled in down here in Valdosta, GA for my IFF class which starts Monday at Moody Air Force Base. It's GREAT to be here getting ready to start something new and different! Living in a new place is cool too. The base is very nice (they have a brand new awesome gym), and the town is much better than Columbus, MS. I played the base golf course today, and it's decent. Here at Moody they currently fly the T-6 Texan, the T-38C Talon, the HC-130 and the HH-60 helicopter. So, I'll be seeing a variety of aircraft in the pattern while flying the T-38C around here. Some of my buds who are already here in IFF were able to show me my new squadron and the flightline...I can't wait to get started! The flying is going to be much different than in SUPT and it'll be more of a "big-boy" program which I'm ready for.

My living quarters while I'm here at Moody aren't actually on the base...they're about a 15 minute drive away, but it's a pretty nice place. The base basically has a deal with some apartments in town to house us as we go through the program. It's good in a way too because we can be separate from work, hang with the bros in one place and chill at the pool after a hard days work!

The whole day Monday will probably be spent inprocessing and making sure all the paperwork is up to speed and they have all the records they need to. Day two starts academics and after about a week or so the flying will begin. The cool thing about IFF is they're training us to be good/smart wingmen. So, that means it's all formation flying and lead will be leading us everywhere we need to go...I just need to be in position and be smart with my flying and administrative stuff (knowing procedures, sounding sharp on the radio, etc.) From what I've heard, they don't expect you to be awesome at basic fighter maneuvers (BFM) right away. The main thing is not scaring flight lead by doing something unsafe with the jet when you're "fighting" or flying a rejoin, and just showing that you have the potential and situational awareness while flying to be a good fighter pilot in your follow on aircraft. I'll be able to give more input on exactly what's it's like in a few weeks, but for now that's what I've been told...let the fun begin!

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!