Low Level Phase...Almost Done

Navigation is now done with and we're on to a short but fun low level phase. My navigation/instrument checkride went ok, but as I've said with just about all my checkrides, I could have done better. Overall, I ended up with a 6 downgrade good on the ride. I was originally scheduled to fly to Barksdale AFB, LA but the weather over there last Monday was crap. So, I had a backup plan to fly to Eglin AFB, FL...a much nicer place and I had flown the exact profile I was going to on the checkride I had the Friday before. Everything was working out...almost. We briefed up the flight, and took off. I was in the backseat for the first leg under the hood and I had to fly to Montgomery, AL for an approach and then head down to Eglin AFB for the full stop to get gas. All was fine up until I talked to Eglin approach control. I planned to fly one of their published approaches which would allow me to fulfill a lot of the requirements I needed to for the checkride. Some of the things I needed were a fix-to-fix, one turn in holding and a high penetration. I could get all of those done I one approach at Eglin. Well, I called up approach and said something to the effect of, "Eglin approach, Poison 12 level 220, charlie request. Approach says back, "Poison 12, say request." My response, "Poison 12 request direct Tufer, one turn in holding, HI TACAN 19 full stop." It went downhill when they said back, "Poison 12, unable for saturation." Dude, that sucks is what I was thinking. That meant I was going to have to change my plan on the way home to make up the requirements I didn't get on the first flight. I guess to make a long story short, the non-standard stuff caused me to do somethings to buy a couple extra downgrades. Flexibility is the key to air power right?! =) So, this checkride I was average in the class. But, I'll take it a press on.

This past weekend we had another career day like we did back a few months ago. It's a good time to see all the different AF jets, and talk to the guys who fly the aircraft you are thinking you want to fly next. For me that's the F-16 and then the F-15C. Here are some pics from the weekend.


I had my first low level ride yesterday, a ton of fun! It's pretty sweet flying 360 knots at 500 ft above the ground. It's not too hard as long as you have good habit patterns. At each checkpoint along the way, you need to accomplish certain things. For example, an acronym I think I'm going to use to help out is COFEE...update my next Course/heading, look for Obstacles (i.e. big towers you don't want to hit =), check Fuel state, roll the EGI to the next point, and Emit (i.e. make a radio call at a point if needed). That along with executing the proper clock to map to ground principle will help me to hit the "target" on time every time. There are only six low level flights, with two of those being formation low levels...nice! I'll most likely have my low level checkride next week.

Besides that, I have a solo out and back tomorrow where we're planning to fly to Lake Charles, LA. We get to fly about 300-400 miles alone...how awesome is that?! All five of us in my class are going, and after we get some good food we'll head back in the afternoon. 4-ship formation will be coming up soon as well, but besides that I'm very close to being done...I have a little over 20 flights left in the program. Oh yeah, as of about one month ago, I'm UPT academics complete...100% on all four tests! Well, I need to get to the squadron. Check six!

Instrument / Navigation Phase

Lets start with the formation checkride. The day before my checkride, I was kind of nervous about the next day's weather because they were calling for possible thunderstorms...that is never a good thing because as I have mentioned before, being on your game during formation takes up enough brain-bytes without having to plan on flying around clouds. Well, thankfully the next day there weren't any clouds below about FL210 or 21,000 feet, which was the top of my assigned practice area for that day. So, good to go there. I was ahead of my other classmates, so it ended up that I flew my checkride against another IP in the other jet. Usually they pair classmates up to check against each other, but I was fortunate. Not that checking against another student is all the bad, but IPs are more predictable and stable I guess is a good way to put it. Anyway, I show up that Friday, brief the flight and blasted off about noon. The profile was such that I lead the formation takeoff and the first half of the ride, then gave the other IP the lead about half way through so he could give me the maneuvers I needed to fly while on the wing. Everything was going well and I was having a great ride. The very end of the profile had me flying fingertip (really close to the other jet), so I was fixated on staying in position as he maneuvered around.

Before I go on, I'll define a couple of terms for you that play into this. The first is Joker Fuel, which is a pre-briefed amount of fuel that when reached, you need to stop a certain part of the profile and move on with other things that need to be accomplished. The second is Bingo Fuel, which is a pre-briefed amount of fuel that when reached, you need to stop all maneuvering and head back and land with the appropriate amount of fuel reserves.

Alright, with that said back to the wingwork. At the time we had already call "joker" over the radios and next was bingo. Well, since I was so fixated on the other jet at the end in wingwork, I forgot about my fuel state and missed the fact I had flown through bingo fuel. Not the best thing in the world. We started flying back to the base at about 20-30 lbs under bingo. Knowing I had made that mistake, I still had to press forward and do well with the rest of the ride. The return to base along with the formation approach and landing was money...we even touched down about the same time. The ground evaluation went well too, and then it was time for the grades. He started off with, "That was one of the better formation checkrides I've seen from a student in awhile." I knew I had flown a good ride, but I also knew the bingo thing while somewhat small, was rather big in the overall picture...it's not good to push your fuel and then have something else go wrong. Well, at the end I ended up hooking the ride for fuel procedures...CRAP!!! Up until the fuel thing, I was sitting on a 2 downgrade excellent and one little mistake brought me to a 5 downgrade unsatisfactory. Even with the 5 downgrades, I ended up tying for the best formation checkride score. It's just frustrating knowing all I had to do was quickly cross-check my fuel state towards the end and make a radio call. But, things happen for a reason and I'm not in control so I had to press on. I reflew my checkride the next day, called out joker and bingo over the radios as necessary, and that was it. The debrief went something like, "Watch your fuel more next checkride." I only had a couple downgrades for that redo, but the grades don't count the second time around.

The next weekend was cross country time. I had mentioned I may fly up through Wright Patterson AFB, but I ended up changing plans due to the fact my family members in the area were going to be out of town. So, another student and I planned to head east over to Charleston, SC for the first night. We stopped at Robins AFB in GA to get gas on the way before our night flight into Charleston. After planning up the next leg of the trip, we jumped in the jets and cranked engines. Well, the other jet was having some problems and had to stay behind. Our flying into Charleston was pretty cool...it's sweet flying on a clear night. Saturday we did a VFR flight at 6,500 feet down the ocean coast into FL. That was awesome! We hit Cecil Field for gas, which is close to Jacksonville, FL and then did a night flight back west through the panhandle into Gulfport, MS where we met up with the guys in the other jet...they had gotten the problem fixed that morning at Robins AFB. Sunday was the last day, and we flew up through Barkesdale, AFB before back into here. We had great weather, and a lot of fun. On a cross country in the T-38, we have both navigation and instrument flights. Both involve the same kinds of things, just that instrument flights are in the backseat under the hood (the canopy is completely covered simulating back weather) and navigation flights are in the front seat without a hood and we have the heads up display (HUD) available to use.I will probably have my navigation/instrument ride here in about two weeks, so I'll be looking to do really well there...no more stupid mistakes! The checkride with involved an instrument ride to a designated outbase such as Tyndall AFB or Barkesdale AFB where we'll get gas and a bite to eat, followed by a navigation ride back to Columbus later in the day. Besides that, I have a few low level flights and and low level checkride. That'll all be done in about the next six weeks with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up soon. Our assignment night is January 7th followed by graduation a couple weeks later on the 21st. So, not much time before I get my wings! Obviously the formation checkride taught me some tough lessons, but of course I'm still lovin' the job...don't want to be doing anything else! I've been lazy with taking pics, so I'll try better next time. Check back in few weeks, and fly safe!

T-38 Formation Checkride Soon

Wow, it's been awhile! At this point, we're almost done with the formation phase and should be having our checkrides next week. The first few form rides in the 38 were very similar to form in the tweet as far as the maneuvers go, but soon we were into what they call tactical formation. The parameters are 4,000' to 6,000' feet horizontal spacing, +/- 2,000' vertical spacing (stack) and then line a breast. Anyway, the point is we're a lot farther apart while maneuvering. It's supposed to teach us the importance of clearing each other's six for bad guys while not having to worry about running into each other in close.

Along with the tactical formation stuff, we're also pressing forward with the sims. Right now, we're flying a mock cross-country to help us prepare for the real thing next weekend. They tell us where we're going, but we're responsible for planning the flights and studying up on the approaches we'll fly once at the destination. For example, in the first sim we took off from here, did a drop in over in Birmingham, AL and then ended up in Montgomery, AL. It gets us out of the environment we're in all the time around here and lets us experience something different. It's pretty rewarding to plan out a short trip like that, and then actually fly it successfully.

For my cross country next weekend, I'm going to go one of two places. I'll either be flying out to Colorado Springs, or making a trip up through Wright Patterson AFB again and the down the east coast. I've never been to CO, so I'm leaning that way. It'd be sweet to fly into the airport there at the base of the Rockies! The only problem is, we're leaving on a Friday this time and returning Sunday so there won't be as much time as we had in Tweets. It's about an 800-850 mile trip in the air, so it's very doable...I'll fill you in on the details of the trip later on.

A buddy of mine I knew back at Cedarville recently made his way down here for pilot training. He's in the reserves up at Wright Patterson AFB, and will be flying the C-5 once he's finished here. He also has a boat, so on the weekends we get some people together and hit the Tom Bigbee River that runs through the town for some skiing and tubing. Good times, even though the water isn't the cleanest...a little dirt in the system never hurt anybody! =) It's a nice way to get out and relax after a hard week!

After formation, we'll be into the instrument/navigation phase of training and it won't be long until that checkride. A lot of our instrument/navigation flights are accomplished on the cross country. Time is going fast and it won't be long before assignment night is here...hard to believe! Well, I'm off to a base function. Today is the end of the fiscal year, and we're having a little celebration. Have a good one!

Contact Checkride

These past couple weeks have gone pretty well for me in the 50th FTS...I came away from my contact check with a 3E (3 downgrade excellent), which I was pretty happy with even though I felt two of the three downgrades were retarded. =) The whole flight was normal. We started off by flying a heavy weight (full of gas) single engine touch-n-go, and it turned out great. Those are one of the harder landings since you're only using one engine and your approach speed is fairly fast...about 185 knots. It's pretty easy to make an ugly landing under those conditions. Anyway, after that it was out to the Military Operations Area (MOA) for my acro. All three of my downgrades came in the MOA...one for an improper g-strain (whatever), one for in flight planning area orientation (whatever), and one for my nose high recovery. I don't even remember, but I guess I wasn't g-straining when pulling up for my loop or something. We pull 4-5 g's in the beginning of the loop and I didn't have the proper breathing going on...a pretty lame downgrade in my opinion. The other was due to the fact I had to adjust the amount of fuel I wanted to start heading back to the base with...again, I realized my fuel state and made the necessary adjustments only to get a downgrade for that. The last one I deserved for buffoonery! =) We headed back to the pattern after that for some other landings, which all went fine. It's all good, I can't really complain having tied for the best score in the class.

With the contact phase behind us, we've been into formation flying pretty heavy along with instrument sims. Formation is too fun, and I'll be form soloing (either against 2 IPs or a student and IP in the other jet) sometime the middle of this coming week...nice! This past week, there's one formation flight that sticks out a lot due to the fact there were some great cumulus clouds to play around. Granted, the clouds make it harder to maneuver because we have to stay clear of them and we aren't always in the fingertip position like in the picture above. Sometimes we could be a mile apart in preparation to practice a turning rejoin, so you can't turn as lead and end up in the clouds...you'd lose sight and have to use other procedures to ensure deconfliction of your flight paths. We fly in fingertip through the weather a lot, but here in training that's only while going to the area and on the way back. Anyway, these clouds were huge and it was awesome while in fingertip to find holes here and there to go flying through. The clouds also give a close background making it easy to see how fast we're really going up there!

Besides the flying around in the area, doing a formation takeoff and landing is also pretty sweet. We're to the point now where we're allowed to do the takeoffs and landings...landing while flying on the wing is the hardest part. Trying to stay in the fingertip position, put your gear and flaps down and talk on the radios is pretty challenging! Especially if all of this is taking place in the clouds. My first attempt at landing on the wing was a success, and we touched down a pretty much the same time. My IP was fairly impressed...one of our objectives for that flight was to land in formation without the IP taking over and we did!

Well, I'll be in the formation phase for quite some time and won't have too much more info to pass along...I don't think. If there is, I'll let you guys know.

Flown Solo / Started Formation

We've had lots of nice weather and lots of sweet flying since the last post! So much so that we've all soloed, have had a couple formation rides and will be having our Contact checkride next week already. It's been great though! Flying the T-38 is so much fun...it's hard to explain unless you're actually the one doing it.

Once those first two instrument rides in the backseat were done, it was our turn to sit on the point of our new rocket instead of the IP! It helped a lot being in the front merely due to the fact I could see better...overall I felt the front seat help my situational awareness go up quite a bit. Just like in Tweets, the first block of rides are contact rides where we practice the same kind of acro (loop, cuban 8, immelman, split-s, barrel roll, lazy 8) and use ground references to stay in our areas . After the area work, we head back to the pattern for practice in preparation for our upcoming checkride. They told us the hardest part about flying the T-38 is landing it, but I didn't think it was too difficult. Thank God for good hands...He made me what I am. After my first flight with my new flight commander he said, "I rarely put well above average on a student's gradesheet, but I'm going to put it on yours." That gave me a lot of confidence right from the beginning.

Only after about a week of flying in the front seat we were ready to go solo. Not just a pattern solo, but solo to the practice area! I could hardly believe I was getting paid to go fly some acro in a small fighter jet by myself...a great feeling. There were times all five of us studs (students...of course) would walk together out to our individual jets for solo flights joking about how we should get a little formation solo practice in while we had the chance. The same went for the "pregame" jitters this time around too, but once I was strapped in the jet it was game time ladies and gentlemen! Your first solo in the T-38 you have to do some crazy stuff to push the limits, but what I did you will never know. We've had four solos already, and I have three more dual flights before the checkride. I'm feeling pretty confident about it. As always, I'm setting the goals high with shooting for a 0 to 2 downgrade excellent.

We also started formation this week, and like before it was sweet! The majority of our flights in the 38 are formation flights, so that's cool. We move beyond the basic form stuff we did in Tweets after a few rides and get into some more advanced maneuvers...like acro while in formation and tactical turns. Also, towards the end of the program we get introduced to 4-ship formation. I'll let you know how all that goes for sure...what a job!