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.
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.
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!
As of yesterday, the 15th, I'm what they call IFT complete. In other words I fulfilled all my FAA requirements, took the final oral exam and checkride and received my private pilot's license. The checkride wasn't bad at all, and as long as you're confident in your own ability the FAA examiner will be a little more relaxed and make the time enjoyable. He even had me do some extra flight maneuvers to see how I'd do, and things went well. Getting my private license is a good thing because I've checked another AF box on my way to get those silver wings. Now I can take up whoever I want without my instructor in the plane. But, now that I can't fly on the AF's ticket I probably won't do much of that between now and my SUPT class start date in January. Some of my friends and I have talked about renting a plane together to take a short trip, so that may give me a chance to go up again...it's all good either way! IFT was a lot of fun, and I had a blast flying around and taking a couple trips down the the Gulf. Having some hours before I started IFT helped out because that meant I could burn hours just having fun taking cross-countries, flying like a bush pilot about 75-100 ft above the Tom Bigbee River (shhhh...) and getting better at flying in general. Not all students get the chance to fly down down to the Gulf, but I guess my instructor felt I was capable to do so without hurting myself. 
Along with the flying stuff, I've also had a couple chances to make it down the Pensacola, FL to see my buddy Matt Chapman from OTS. He's in Navigator training at Pensacola NAS and has an awesome apartment about 10 minutes from the beach, so needless to say it's a little more interesting than here in Columbus, MS! The first time down there we hit the beach and also rented a couple jet skis to add a little extra fun...awesome! The second trip down my friend Rodney (from here at the base) and I drove over to Dentin Beach, FL to hang out for a day since it's a little nicer. The beaches down there are white sand and the water's really clean...just a great place to hang at the beach! We also stopped off at my old college roommate's house while in Dentin for dinner before heading back to Pensacola. Hopefully I'll get down there a couple more times before class starts to hit the beach.
Recently I've been fortunate to find some Christian people in the area to "fellowship" with. You don't really appreciate having friends and family around with similar goals and beliefs until you're in a place for awhile where that isn't the case. After 3 months here at Columbus I was ready to find that again, and thankfully God has allowed me to meet some pilots and individuals from a local church to help build me up and continue living outwardly what I believe to be true...ultimately that the Bible is truth, Jesus Christ is really who He said He is and eternity with Him and all that matters. Flying is going to be awesome and I can't wait to start, but in comparison it's just a drop in the bucket. I know He's in control, and that fact makes facing a very hard year ahead a little less intimidating! Well, I'm going to sign off for now...T-38's, here I come!
Not much has changed since I last posted on the site. I've slowed down quite a bit with the flying because I recently got word all but one class is full between now and my original start date. So, it's looking like I'm slated for 8 Jan. I have another month and a half before I have to be done with the private license, so I'll just take my time. Starting in January is fine because it's going to give me a lot of time to get familiar with the T-37. I'll just try to be as far ahead of the game as possible with the time comes to buckle down! Anyway, I was thinking the other morning when I was on a run how awesome it is that I'm here waiting to start pilot training. It totally pumps up a wanabee AF pilot to see the 37's, 38's and T-1's flying around all over the place...the pattern around here is SO crazy. It's full all the time! At least that's one way I'll be able to keep the motivation around while I wait it out on casual status...I'll just take a run out by the flight line. Speaking of running, I need to get off my lazy butt and go for one.
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.
