Instructor Pilot of the Quarter / Year

Over this past year, God has continued His blessings in my work. For the 3rd quarter of 2010 I received the 77 FS 'Instructor Pilot of the Quarter' Award and for 2010 I received the 77 FS 'Instructor Pilot of the Year' Award. All the guys I work with are driven and smart, so it's humbling to say the least. I am continuously learning more about the jet and the systems on board, seeking to get better at what I do. At the same time, I am seeking to keep a good balance in my life between work, the family and spiritual things. Sadly, work many times seems to take the front seat as there is so much to do with so little time to do them.
Looking ahead to this next year, there is one big opportunity that Lana and I are praying about, and that is the USAF Fighter Weapons School. This is a six month instructor training program at Nellis AFB, NV that I have applied for. It will be very tough six months of intense training in the F-16 if I get selected. Graduates of Weapons School are known as the squadron "patch" because in order wear the patch shown above (always worn on the left shoulder of a flight suit), a pilot must prove himself worthy enough to wear it through well honed briefing and flying skills. As I mentioned before, keeping a balance is a goal of mine, so Lana and I have been praying a lot about it and sought to put Weapons School is God's hands. We are content with whatever direction He takes us.

Well, I have a rare day off work for snow here in SC, so it's time to play with Liam!

Virtual Flag

Virtual Flag takes place four times a year and is modeled after Red Flag. The main difference, as you might have guessed, is that it's virtual. I was the project officer (PROJO) for Shaw's participation in Virtual Flag this past week, and was responsible for the planning and coordination with the Distributed Mission Operations Center (DMOC) at Kirtland AFB, NM. The DMOC is the central hub for these virtual wars, linking simulators from all across the world.

As the simulators from the different locations represent the "blue" air forces (good guys), the DMOC has simulators of their own to represent the "red" air forces (bad guys) as seen above. Red forces can also be flown from a computer with a joystick. Simulation does not always represent the real environment well, but it does a good job and is getting better...it's also much cheaper. Each day of Virtual Flag involved mass briefs and debriefs using video teleconference (VTC), linking all participants into one big meeting. After the briefing, we'd all "fly" our missions in a virtual world and then debrief the results. It was my first experience in something like this, and one I'm sure I'll see more of in the future as technology gets better and better.

77 Fighter Squadron Spouse Taxi Day

Two weeks ago, the squadron put on a spouse appreciation day to give them insight into a typical day in a fighter squadron. The day started with the mass brief where topics like the weather, flying airspace, flight mission, takeoff and land times are all reviewed before going into the individual flight briefs. The individual flight briefs cover more specific details of the day's flight. After the mass brief, they were given a squadron tour before suiting up in a flight suit and getting their helmets in preparation for their taxi ride in the F-16.

Lana had been wanting to get an F-16 flight since we were married during our time at Aviano, so I'm glad she had this opportunity to at least get a taxi ride. I was not allowed to give taxi her, but I did help her get all strapped into the cockpit and put her helmet on. I also gave her a quick demonstration on how to key the mic and talk on the radio, since she would be making most of them. A few minutes after engine start, Lana keyed the mic and said, "Gambler ops, Poker 01 taxi one, words?" The response, "Poker 01, negative words, press, double down!" They then taxied to the end of the runway and were given clearance for high speed taxi. A high speed taxi is when the pilot selects afterburner and accelerates quickly to 77 knots before pulling the throttle to idle while the jet rolls to the end of the runway.

I'm glad Lana had the chance to taxi in the F-16 and see a little more of what my days are like. Sadly, it's not always flying, but I'm very blessed to have the job I do. Thanks Lana for all your support!

Thanksgiving 2010

Lana, Liam and I spent this past Thanksgiving in the Blue Ridge Mountains northwest of Greenville, SC. Previously on our short trips, we had driven east to coast towns like Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head, Charleston and Savannah so we decided the opposite direction would be nice for a change.

On Thanksgiving day, we made our way to Highlands, North Carolina for a couple nights. It was a nice small town in the mountains; a good location to relax as a family. We enjoyed a really good meal at one of the nearby restaurants early that afternoon and a nice walk through town. The next morning I went for a run (a little harder to breath at 4,000'), and then enjoyed another walk through town. Lana did a little 'black' Friday shopping while Liam and I followed. Later that evening we made our way to a really nice restaurant for dinner, which was owned by a German.

The following day we drove to Asheville, NC to visit the Biltmore Estate and Grove Park Inn. The Biltmore is a very impressive place, and for awhile Lana and I felt as though we were in Europe somewhere. Grove Park Inn is a also nice, and we enjoyed our lunch there.

Soon, Liam's first Christmas will be here and we're looking forward to getting together with my family in Michigan to celebrate Christ's coming to Earth!

Jordan - Eager Tiger 2010

A few days after returning from Europe, I was on a plane back across the Atlantic enroute to Jordan for another squadron temporary duty assignment (TDY). Each year Jordan holds an international exercise called Eager Tiger, and this year the Jordanians, USA (F-16s and F-18s), UAE and Pakistan participated. Our main goal was that of diplomacy, with goals from our leaders that are way above our pay grades.

In all the TDY lasted about 3.5 weeks in which time we flew some large formation exercises (LFEs) and close air support (CAS). We were flying out of a base about 1.5 hours east of Amman in the middle of the desert, so there wasn't much to do during the week except fly, eat, work out, and sleep. It was actually like being back in Iraq, with minimal infrastructure and amenities. A few different times my flight had the chance to fly down low and fast over the southern part of Jordan...near Wadi Rum, which looks like another planet when flying over.

On the weekends, we were able to get away from the base and visit places like Amman, Petra, Jerash, the Dead Sea and Jesus' baptism site. The baptism site and Petra were the most impressive. So much Biblical history took place in many of the places we visited and Petra was just amazing...felt like Indiana Jones ought to ride around the corner. Lana and I had swam in the Dead Sea during our time in Israel (click here for that blog), but I have to say the Jordanian side was much nicer...some of my fellow pilots and I spent an enjoyable night at the Marriott one of the weekends and actually got kicked out of the Dead Sea for swimming at night...guess they didn't want us to float across to Israel.

I was one of the pilots to fly a jet back to the USA. Our route of flight took us over Egypt, then the Med on our way to Moron Air Base, Spain. When we were about half way between the Italian island of Sardinia (where Lana and I spent our honeymoon) and the Spanish island of Mallorca, my wingman had a minor engine malfunction which required us to land at the nearest airport...that was Palma de Mallorca. I had landed here once before, but just to get gas on an F-16 cross-country during my time at Aviano. This time it was for five days, and the time was spent exploring as much as we could see. One of the towns we visited was Portocolom, a town Lana worked in for four months back 2002. When the jet was fixed, we flew on to Moron Air Base on mainland Spain and had another five days to wait until we could get a tanker aircraft to take us back across the Atlantic to SC. So, we made the most of it and did some exploring around the local area. In all, it was a very nice change to Jordan, but I was ready to get home and see Lana and Liam. After a nice hour flight and 10 air refuelings later, we were back home together as a family once again.

More Pictures:
Jordan & Spain