Finished The Flight Lead Upgrade

Towards the end of February I finished the flight lead upgrade (FLUG) and am now officially a 4-ship flight lead. This means I'm responsible for leading around the other three jets in my formation of 4 F-16s in case you didn't read my earlier post. The three or so months it took to finish were definitely a learning experience and it's nice to be in the lead now. It's completely different to be the one standing in front and briefing your flight members what you want them to do when the past couple years were spent listening and being told what to do. There were many long days and stressful evenings preparing and studying for the next days flight, as Lana can attest to. A few times she even sat across the kitchen table from me pretending to be a flight member as I practiced my flight brief...she was a great help and encouragement to me; I love you Lana!! Overall, the upgrade went well and thankfully I didn't "bust" or fail any flights...although I came close once.

As mentioned before the FLUG consisted of 10 flights in different areas of the F-16's mission. We start off air-to-air with BFM or dogfighting flights consisting of offensive, defensive and high aspect. From there we moved into air combat maneuvering (ACM) maneuvering together with a wingman to "kill" the adversary...in BFM you maneuver as a single jet verses another. Tactial intercepts (TI) are next where we start beyond visual range (BVR), analyze the formation and range with adversaries are from us, shoot them BVR if they're hostiles or maneuver our two F-16s to a position to visually identify (VID) the "bad" guys and "kill" them without being detected...this flight is typically a 2 vs 4 blue to red. It builds to 4 vs 4 which incorporates everything learned in the previous flights, plus more specifics regarding defensive counter air (DCA) operations. In the air-to-ground area we have a close air support (CAS) flight, which is what our flights in the desert consisted of. Then, our last two flights of the FLUG are opposed surface attack. Essentially we simulate we're part of a strike package (those tasked to enter "bad guy" land and destroy targets on the ground), but along the way there is an air and surface to air threat (surface to air missiles and artillery). So, we combine the air-to-air with the air-to-ground aspects together and execute one mission. All of these flights are very similar to the building blocks I went through in F-16 training.

For those of use who are experienced at the completion of the FLUG (more than 500 F-16 hours) we're put into the supervisor of flying (SOF) upgrade. The SOF is a pilot who sits in the tower and is a direct line between the Operations Group Commander and what's going on with daily flying. We're responsible for setting the weather status, assisting those airborne if they have an inflight emergency and a number of other things. We have two dedicated radios which pilots use to talk with the SOF if they need assistance.

In the squadron I'm now the 510FS Chief of Training, another area of increased responsibility. After the desert I worked in the scheduling shop for about one year, before I was given my new job. I'm responsible for tracking flying and currencies, as well as working with the scheduling shop to make sure those in upgrades are scheduled for the appropriate events. Those in higher positions on base use the numbers we track to gauge how well the squadron and wing are doing in regards to flying, so it's an important job. The picture below is of our squadron scheduling board...it's a huge puzzle every week to figure out every pilot's duties for the week.

Lana and I plan to do some snowboarding soon in Switzerland to take advantage of the good snow while it's around...yet another blessing of being located where we are here in Europe! I'll update everyone on how it was soon.

Snowboarding in Nassfeld, Austria

A couple weeks after returning from Zaragoza, Lana and I along with some friends of ours from the squadron, went to Nassfeld, Austria for the weekend to snowboard. The trip was only about 2 hours, but the snowboarding and weather were great. The only thing that would have made the trip a little better was some fresh powder. We ended up staying in a nice pensione called Gusthof Winkler in the town Tropolauch on the north side of the mountains. After getting settled in to the rooms, we had dinner downstairs and enjoyed some games and hot tea into the late hours. The pensiones owner's father actually fought in WWII and was told us some stories of fighting the Russians not too far east of where we were sitting...Lana translated everything for us since he was speaking in German. It's cool to hear stories from those who were around during those times, just like Lana's grandpa and grandma talk about the Americans bringing candy and chocolate for the kids. Lana's grandpa was one year away from going off to Hitler "Camp" as they called it to train for war. Anyway, we didn't stay up too late since we wanted to hit the slopes early the next morning.

After a day of snowboarding, we headed back to Sacile ready to start another week. We are planning to hit up Nassfeld again soon before the snow season passes. Sadly, this will probably be the last winter we have a chance to snowboard in the Alps before moving. But, we're enjoying everyday we're here and are very blessed!

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Nassfeld, Austria

Zaragoza, Spain

Early in January, our squadron went TDY to Zaragoza Air Base, Spain for two weeks for training with Spanish F-18s and to use Bardenas Range...their bombing range. Zaragoza was a USAFE base back in the day during the Cold War, but we have since moved out and now only Spanish military use it. I was the assistant project manager for this trip with a major in our squadron responsible to plan and coordinate all the necessary things we would need to go and maximize our training there. This included hotel rooms (for pilots and all the maintenance personnel), jet fuel, fire trucks and how many practice bombs we would need etc. There is a lot more to just flying the jets to Spain. All this coordination goes through USAFE headquarters up in Germany and they task respective units to provide the necessary equipment needed. Some of our supplies were trucked in from Aviano and the rest flown in by a few C-130s.

The flying in Zaragoza was pretty good. We were able to fly low levels a lot and get some good time at the bombing range. I had a low level/bombing range FLUG ride while there where I lead a 4-ship low level to Bardenas Range. I also had my air combat maneuvering (ACM) FLUG ride while there. ACM is where we maneuver as a 2-ship to quickly "kill" those trying to "kill" us. It was great because I was able to flying it against the Spanish F-18's. Of course, we cleaned house as expected! We were able to out turn and maneuver the 18's pretty easily and get shots off before they were able to.

In addition to the flying, there were some great sites to see in Zaragoza as it's a pretty large city. One of the main attractions is the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar. It was about the same size as the cathedral I saw in Seville, Spain on the cross-country trip but this one was much taller...very impressive. Lana was able to join me for a few days on the trip and we also saw the Aljaferia Muslim Palace in the city. Spain was controlled by Muslims in the past, and there are still historic buildings reflecting this. The architecture was cool and very different from things I've seen in Europe so far.

The trip to Zaragoza was beneficial for me in a few ways. First, it was eye opening to see how much coordination and preparation goes into making a TDY like this work. There are a lot of moving parts and a lot of people needed to make it successful. Second, I was able to get through a couple FLUG rides flying in Spanish airspace and against a different fighter than I'm used to. Third, I was given a new callsign "Nuke" instead of "Durka"...I had enough money to buy a new name is basically how it went even though it's against fighter pilot tradition...didn't care much for "Durka". It has the same meaning but in stead of "doesn't understand ROEs kills all" it now stands for "no understanding kills everything." Then Fourth, I was able to spend a few weeks in a different country and different culture than my own. I had been to southern Spain passing through on the cross-countriy, but the north is different and I had more time to enjoy the Tapas (the food Spain is known for) and culture. Our next TDY will be back to Turkey like the first one I went on with the Buzzards back in 2006, but this time it's to a different location I'm unable to talk about at this point.

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Zaragoza, Spain

Wrapping up 2007

While Lana and I were on our honeymoon, my squadron was in Bulgaria for a training exercise...while there, our squadron commander and operations officer announced who would be next going into what we call the flight lead upgrade (FLUG). It consists of 10 graded flights were we have to brief, lead and debrief the flight. There are also academics involved before each different phase of the upgrade. It's going to take a lot of study and preparation so I'm ready to brief well, lead well in the air and then pull the lessons learned from what went well/wrong during the flight. We start off with 1v1 BFM (close in dogfighting) and then work our way up to a 4v4 and 4v2 at the end. At the completion of the 10 rides, we're a 4-ship flight lead able to lead around the 3 other jets in our formation. I'll be in the lead and making decisions, but along with that comes much added responsibility because lead is responsible for safety of all those in his flight whether in training or in war.

It's great to finally get my change at going through the FLUG. While we were in the desert for 5 months we were not able to do any upgrades, so naturally I was starting a little later than usual...but, later is better than never! My first FLUG ride was in late November and I was able to finish the BFM phase before Christmas break. The time off was great, but I spent a lot of my time getting briefing guides ready for my next flights when I returned.

This Christmas, Lana and I flew to Denver, Colorado for a few days to enjoy the mountains and snowboarding. Since she's still new in her flight attendant job with Lufthansa, she had to work over Christmas. So, I jumped on the flight she was working to Denver so we could be together on our first Christmas. Flying business class for about $100 round trip isn't anything to complain about...it's great being able to fly for cheap! We spent our days at the 16th Street Mall and snowboarding at Breckenridge. Christmas day brought snow as well, so it was a nice way to spend our first Christmas being married.

After Denver, we flew back and spent the rest of Christmas in Germany snowboarding a couple days south of Munich in the Alps. We found a nice pensione (basically someone's home were they rent rooms out to guests) in the mountains for that and then spent New Years in Munich at a restaurant owned by a friend of Lana's. Germans are crazy when it comes to fireworks...I've never seen so many fireworks being shot off at one time! It's a good thing they build their homes out of mostly concrete or else all of Munich would have gone up in flames!

Well, that wraps up 2007 already...it's crazy we're already into 2008! God continues to be good to us and we're looking forward to another year in Italy. Sometime towards the end of 2008, early 2009 we'll probably be moving so we'll keep everyone up to date with the latest.

The Wedding & Honeymoon

Lana and I got married on October 6, 2007 here in Sacile, Italy. It's great being married to such an awesome woman and we're both enjoying married life! I had family members from both the USA and Canada and Lana had family from Germany, England and Scotland as well. It was definitely an international wedding with Lana's dad wearing a Scottish kilt, her mom and aunt wearing German dirndls and an uncle of hers wearing German lederhosen. My family flew over a week early from the US to enjoy Italy and do some site seeing before the big day as well.

We didn't exactly have nice weather on our wedding day...we woke up to thunderstorms and driving rain. But in Italian tradition they say, "Sposa bagnata, sposa fortunata" which translated means "A bride who is rained on is a lucky bride." Thankfully during the wedding service the rain stopped. As Lana and I were walking around town after the wedding for pictures, all the Italians kept saying, "Que bella" with smiles on their faces meaning "How beautiful!" I agreed 100%!

After the wedding and reception, Lana and I spent the night at a nice hotel close by at the base of the mountains before jumping in the car the next morning for our honeymoon on the Island of Sardinia. The island is off the west coast of Italy, so we drove down through Florence and did some sightseeing on the way. The first night we spent in San Gimignano, which is a great city from the Medieval times. The next afternoon made our way through Siena before catching a night ferry from Piombino to Sardinia where we spent a week enjoying the sun and beaches. We started our time in the north at Castelsardo, moved west on to Alghero and then finally over to the east coast at San Lucia and Cala Gonone. I highly recommend Sardinia...especially the northeast coast! The water is so blue and clear...it's really amazing to see. We rented a small boat for a couple of days in order to take advantage of some of the great beaches you can only get to by boat. A lot of the east coast has cliffs, so the beaches are otherwise unreachable. On our way home we stopped in to Pisa to see the leaning tower as well. It was a great week and a great way to start our married life together! Here's to many more years together with Lana!

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Wedding; Honeymoon