Phase III Complete - Low Level Check...0E!

Don't go passin' out because I'm updating the site again so soon...I have to pass on some great news! I ended up flying my low level check this passed Tuesday after the crappy weather moved through the day before. It went great! Everything went as planned, and I had a good day flying. After the flight and ground evaluation were done with, I was very surprised to hear the check IP say, "Well, I have no downgrades for you. You flew and excellent ride!" I was totally pumped, and could hardly keep myself from yelling "SWEET!" in his office. Praise God I was able to finish up my checkrides with a bang...I'll take a zero downgrade excellent any day!

The day after I flew a formation flight down the LA and then had a night nav flight back here to the base. As we were planning our formation flight, the weather was supposed to be decent at our destination except for some cloud layers...no big deal. Well, that wasn't the case as we found out in the air. It was cloudy pretty much the whole way, but things didn't really start to get interesting until we got closer to the airport we intended to land at.. I was flying in fingertip on the wing when we started to get into some pretty dark, thick clouds with rain...and oh by the way, some pretty heavy turbulence. I had never seen that before. Lead's jet looked like a rag doll being tossed around so much, as were we. I told my IP, "Sir, I'm going to hang out a little behind lead to keep from hitting him." He also thought it was a good idea while lead coordinated for vectors south around the storm. After about 10-15 minutes of that we popped out of the side of the thunderstorm to see sun and a layer of clouds below us. "Man, I was getting a little anxious there for a second" is what came from the backseat. I too was wondering how this was going to play out, but as a student you have a sense of security with a dude in the backseat who has his wings. This whole time we had been keeping an eye on our gas and also and eye on the closest divert base, which at that time would have been New Orleans, NAS (Naval Air Station). Once clear of the weather and headed toward the airport, it was obvious we were going to have to split the formation and do separate approaches...we were going to have to go back into the weather to land on a wet runway. We're not allow to do a form approach and landing with a wet runway. To make a long story short, we split up and we ended up going in first. My IP says, "Make sure you're strapped in good and all your crap is secured before we go into the weather again." I got all my stuff together and shot the approach only to pop out of the clouds in the pouring rain...thank God for runway lights! =) No sooner had we taxied to the parking ramp did it start to rain even harder with lightning and thunder. We ended up sitting in the jets for about 20 minutes while it dumped, when finally we said screw it and made a dash to get inside. We were all soaked! It was easy to laugh at once on the ground, but in the air it could have gotten pretty hairy had the weather gotten much worse or the runway closed for some reason. It was a good learning experience and will make for a good story.

Unless something really cool happens between now and assignment night, I probably won't post anything...I just had to pass along the good news!

Video:

One Month Until Assignment Night!

Well, as with most things in pilot training, your plan for the day is never official until you're actually stepping out the door to the jet. The day of our solo x-country, the weather at Lake Charles, LA wasn't going to allow us to fly into there. So, one of our IP's mentioned we should try for Wright Patterson AFB (WPAFB), OH. I was down with that because I had worked there and had family in the area. A trip that takes me about 10 hours to drive only took about 55 minutes to fly in the T-38...and being able to do that solo was even better! We took of in a train of seven T-38's with IP's in their own jet leading the way and bringing up the rear. We spaced out our takeoffs by about 5 minutes or so. The flight itself was actually pretty uneventful, but fun. We flew up there at FL370 (37,000 ft) where it was cold enough to frost my canopy...I had never seen that before and it called for the use of the canopy defog. Once I started my decent into WPAFB, I started looking around to find places I knew. It was pretty cool to see the building I used to work in at the base, my old college Cedarville Univ. and even the 178th ANG Fighter Wing...it was cool seeing all the F-16s sitting on the ramp. After landing, I was able to meet up with some dudes I knew from the area, so it was a good time to catch up on the latest in their worlds. After a quite bite to eat, we blasted off for our flight home. As I was flying along both to and from WPAFB, and had to sit back and really think about what God was allowing me to do...I was flying a supersonic jet trainer solo to a base I had never been to. My training and God given ability had brought me to the point where I was able to do that, and do it well. Totally awesome!
I was able to fly a formation x-country to WPAFB the next week as well. The first trip was a last minute thing and I wasn't able to see any of my fam. So, this time I gave them a little more of a notice and it worked about to grab some dinner together before I had to leave. I was also able to show them the jet. We did a single ship night flight back to Columbus, so it allowed us to have a little fun during takeoff for the fam. As I was holding short of the runway I called tower and asked, "Tower, Poison 81 holding short 23R request unrestricted takeoff." Tower's response, "Poison 81 standby for coordination." So, I waited for a minute of so while they checked to make sure there wouldn't be any traffic conflicts in the air and came back with, "Poison 81, you're cleared unrestricted to 10,000 ft." Nice! I had never done an unrestricted takeoff before, but I wasn't that hard...plus, my fam got to see the whole thing. It was also just getting dark, so with the afterburner lit we shoot a little bit of a flame out the back. The fam liked that too. =) We took off, stayed low, kept in in afterburner until 400 knots and pulled it about 60 degrees nose high to 10,000' where we rolled inverted, pulled the nose to the horizon and then rolled back upright...good times!


The reason I have time to update the site today because my low level checkride got cancelled...the weather is crappy again. It's obvious the winter season has arrived here in Mississippi with all the rain we've been getting lately. Too bad it's not a little colder so it would all be snow. Low level flying is pretty awesome, especially when in formation. Low level form takes the principles we learned up high in the practice area and employs them at 500' and 360 knots. There's a lot more going on down low like looking for towers, finding your turn points and thinking about how you're going to turn the formation at each point. Too cool! I completed my six low level flights pretty quickly, but the weather has held us up some. I'm really looking forward to finishing this checkride because I'll be checkride complete!

The class before us, 05-03, had their assignment night this past Friday and if ours is anything like it I shouldn't have a problem getting an F-16. There were a total of 4 F-16s with one being ANG, one F-15E, a T-37 and T-38 FAIP as well as a B-1. After a lot of thought and talking to IPs, my first four on the dream sheet will be as follows: F-16, F-15E, F-15C, T-38 FAIP. The rest is up to God to give me when He thinks I should have. I'm off to the gym...

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!

Tweets On Steroids

I think that's a good way to put how the initial couple months of T-38's is going to be...Tweets on steroids. We have to learn a new plane again, but this time there's less time before flying starts. A typical day so far has been about 12 hours full of academics, sims and flights with 30 minutes of eating dinner and two to three hours of studying before bed...but it's awesome and wouldn't want to be doing anything else! I get a chance to exercise in the sometimes too. As you know, class and sims started right away getting us prepared for our first flights, and those took place this past Thursday and Friday. The sims are a really good representation of the actual plane (minus the movement), so it's been very helpful in getting us up to speed. There are three that have 180 degrees of view and three with just a flat screen in front of you.

After a week and half of academics and sims, we were off to Holloman AFB for the centrifuge. It wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be, but it was still pretty painful. The tumbling sensation along with the hi g's were the main factors making you feel weird. G's just means how much of an increase in body weight you feel. 7g's would be seven times your body weight, so for me that's about 1400 lbs. Dang! We did have a G-suit which increases g tolerance by about 1g. The purpose of the fuge is to make sure our bodies can handle the g forces of the next aircraft and give a chance to practice our g-strain (breathing techniques under high g loads). We had to do five profiles as follows:

Profile #1: a gradual increase to 4g's for 40 seconds (to warm up)
Profile #2: a slightly rapid increase to 5g's for 40 seconds
Profile #3: a rapid (about 1 second) increase to 6g's for 30 seconds
Profile #4: a rapid increase to 7.5 g's for 15 seconds
Profile #5: a rapid increase to 6g's while looking back over your right shoulder

The 6g's for 30 seconds was the hardest due to air hunger at about 20 seconds...you can't just relax and take a deep breath. Anyway, the whole thing took about 10 minutes per person, so we were out of there pretty quick with only five of us. We did have some time to relax after the fuge, so checked out some of the local dunes and were even able to fly a Stealth Fighter (F-117) sim and see a jet.



We got our new nametages the other day, which we're not going to wear until we solo...hopefully in a couple weeks. I'm in Falcon flight with the callsign of Pistol now instead of Skunk. My first couple rides were great...it's hard to explain a first ride in a supersonic jet! It's a total kick in the rear compared to the T-37. The training syllabus had us in the backseat for the first two rides, but we were still able to do the takeoff and even fly out the the practice area.

After some basic maneuvers, we had a little fun with loops and some other acrobatics. Just as an example, the entry parameters for a loop are 500 knots and at least 8,000-10,000 ft of usable airspace above you. It's a lot different since we're moving so fast. On our way back to the pattern, my IP took the jet so he could show me some of the ground references used and just so I could get a feel for how it all works. I didn't mind, it gave me a chance to take in the sites while flying in the pattern at 300 knots! My next ride I'm in the front seat and we'll start the contact phase of training. Speaking of all that I need to return to the books. I have a test and two flights tomorrow.

A Little Nicer Than The T-37

The T-38 is obviously a big upgrade over the T-37. It has what they call a glass cockpit along with other upgrades. Just check out the cockpit below...it's pretty obvious! =)

Thursday after track select was already filled with class and other things at my new squadron, the 50th Flying Training Squadron. The first 2 weeks will be academics and simulator training before we actually start flying in the 3rd week. The Talon has a lot more and complicated systems, but soon we'll have a good handle on it. Our new flight commander said that based on the weather, we could be soloing within 2 weeks after we start flying...TOO COOL! In a couple weeks we have to fly out to Holloman AFB in New Mexico to have our first experience in the centrifuge. I've heard it sucks pretty bad, but hey no pain no gain right?! =) Alright, I'd better get back to looking at some T-38 stuff.

Track Select...T-38s!

Well, my goal was reached this past Wednesday night at our track select ceremony...I got my T-38, God's good! The whole day was pretty cool being able to show our friends and family around the squadron and base. It started at 0800 with a mock run through of what takes place first thing in the flight room every day followed by a tour of the flight line and RSU. They scheduled sim rides in the afternoon for our friends/family, and then we had some down time before the club where track select took place.
The track select process goes something like this. First, they welcome the guests who came to the ceremony and then introduce the class. Then, they call each student up there one at a time to get their next jet. But, of course they have to make fun on you using stupid things you've done over the past 5 months before they let you go. They used a PowerPoint presentation with some interesting pics and facts to help. After the ridicule and making fun, you take a deep breath and then spin a wooden prop on a stand to see your next jet. As the prop spins they flash different planes [the T-1 (cargo/tanker), T-38 (fighter/bomber), T-44 (C-130) and UH-1 (helicopter)] on the screen. I was anxious all day, but pretty confident I had performed well enough to give myself a chance at fighters. When the prop finished spinning for me, the first picture below is what I saw up on the screen! AWESOME! I was one of 4 in our class of 23 (18 active duty) to get selected, and ended up #2 in the class overall. The #1 guy is going to fly KC-10's in the AFRES.


On to Phase III...

Phase II / Tweet Complete!

It's hard to believe, but I'm done flying the Tweet! I finished last Friday with my low level navigation flight, which was an awesome last ride. The whole flight was flown at about 500 ft and 210-220 knots. It simulates what may take place in a different jet in that we need to be able to find ground checkpoints and make sure we're on time to each so we reach the target on time. We obviously didn't have anything to bomb in the tweet, but our "target" at the end of the mission was a dam. Fun times!

Thursday I had my formation checkride and came away with a 3 downgrade excellent...I was happy with a 3E even though my downgrades were stupid mistakes. That's always how it seems to go. =) It was actually a bit out of the ordinary. I was scheduled to have my checkride on Wednesday of last week, but we were only able to get half of it done. I did all my lead work and had just given my wingman the lead when we heard over the radios, "Columbus AFB is now on weather recall." Basically, thunderstorms were moving into the area and we had to get home before they hit. My check IP took the jet and lead us home. Thursday I was able to finish up the rest of my checkride on the wing...we even had to dodge some weather then as well. It's so hot and humid around here, thunderstorms pop up fast. If I get the chance at the T-38, formation is going to be awesome!

A bunch of us went out last weekend to celebrate being done with the T-37 at a local restaurant. This pic goes out to my best friend from back home...John Deere!

Video:

Formation Solo!

I realize I lied last update saying it would be my last one, but my formation solo on Monday was too awesome to leave out! By far, it was the most fun and memorable flight I've had yet. When I sit back and think about the fact I was flying formation in my own jet against two IP's in the other jet makes it even more awesome. Everything went like any other formation ride. I was lead on the takeoff so I took us out to the practice area and gave my wingman some work on the wing doing different maneuvers. Soon, it was my turn to hand over the lead to my wingman so they could give me some practice...that's where most of the fun happens. When you're on the wing it's your primary responsibility to keep sight of lead and stay in position off his wing while he flys around. The IP's in the other jet thought I was doing well enough to give me crossunders at 90 degrees of bank (I realize that makes no sense to most, but it's not nomally something they give to students), which went pretty well. All of formation isn't in close to the other jet. We do an exercise called extented trail which kinda looks like a simulated dogfight...not anything close to a simulated F-15 or F-16 dogfight, but as a student in the T-37 it's pretty cool. The IP's gave me a lot of the extended trail and had fun trying to get me out of position on their six, but I hung in there pretty well. On our recovery back to the base, I had some more fun. I was in the fighting wing position (about 300-800 ft behind and slightly to either side of lead) on their right wing when the IP's racked their jet up to 90 degrees and pulled across my path of flight to see what I'd do to keep from hitting them! About the only thing I could do was a lag role (similar to a barrel role) up over top while maintaining visual on lead and then get back into position on the left. WOW...how awesome! So much of this stuff is hard to put into words, I just wish I could show some of you guys. I guess you'll have to trust me when I say this is the best job in the world! As it's looking right now, I'll have my formation check next wednesday and I'll be pretty much done. I have 5 flights left in the good, old and fun Tweet!

T-37 Academics & Simulator Complete

Tweets is going by fast...I only have 8 more rides until I'm Tweet complete! I flew a lot of instrument rides this week, and had my I-check today. Everything went really well and I came away with one downgrade. I didn't get any downgrades for flying, but I got downgraded on my emergency procedure during the ground evaluation of all things! CRAP! Oh well, I'm not complaining with what I got. I should have my formation checkride in the next couple weeks. Have I told you...formation is the coolest thing! I'm sure I have, but couldn't remember. =) We finished with academics a few weeks ago, but I've just forgotten to say anything about it. It's been nice not having to worry about that stuff...flying is where I can spend all my time now. I also had my last simulator thursday before my checkride today. We've been so busy flying and studying the past few months, that it's hard to believe we're almost done with Phase II!

Last weekend was cross-country weekend. It turned out to be a good time and a big learning experience. We fly so much around here in the Columbus AFB environment that we get really used to how things opperate. Going cross-country teaches you a lot of things about instrument flying and gets you used to how things are going to be outside of here. Due to weather, we ended up flying north. We hit Ft. Cambell, KY on the way up to Wright Patterson AFB, OH where we spent the night. Most of you know I worked a civilian job a Wright Patt before OTS, so it was good to see some buds and family around there. The next day we made our way over to St. Louis for a Cardinals/Marlins game. The third day changed from flying south down to the beach because of weather again. We ended up over in Arkansas, which wasn't too bad before heading back here on Sunday. It was a mentally tiring but great weekend. It totally helped bring together all the simulator and instrument rides we've had over the past months.


Packing our bags in the Tweet was a process. My IP stuffed his bag behind the seats and I put mine in the right nose comparment I'm doing in the picture above. Our shoes went wherever there was space in the front there and then with a little force the comparment was latched with my bad crammed in there. Fun times! All I packed was one flight suit, and couple changes of civilian clothes and the important stuff. =) As we were climbing in the jets, I said good-bye to the buds and then was pumped up by a couple F-16's from the 178th Fighter Wing in Springfield, OH doing touch-n-gos.

Well, that's it for this update. The next one will be my final update in Tweets probably...on to Phase III! T-38's baby!

Career Day

Well, we finally came to an agreement on our class patch and it should be in this next week sometime. It's tradition for the classes to get together and design a patch they'll wear the rest of their time in pilot training. Our first one didn't get passed, but it didn't bother me too much...I didn't care for the idea. I like the second idea much better, and if you're into sports like I am I'm sure you'll agree. A couple dudes in my class "stole" the idea from ESPN made a sweet design.

This next week is going to be a good one. We had a career day yesterday here on base from about 0900 in the the early afternoon which we had to be at. The operations group commander had a bunch of different planes flown in so we could talk with the pilots about their aircraft and what we can expect if we go that route. It was a good chance to get a close up of some sweet planes. I definitely know I want to fly fighters, and the order of my top three choices are F-16, F-15C, F-15E. At least for now...the order tends to change with time. Anyway, why this coming week is going to be so good is because first we have Monday off! The second reason is I'm going cross-country to the beach. We're taking off from here on Thursday and eventually ending up at Tyndall AFB in Panama City, FL. Friday we'll hit Hurlbert Field (Destin Beach) on the way to Pensacola, FL. Saturday we're headed to Keesler AFB around Biloxi, MS before flying back up here Sunday. It'll be nice to see some different airspace and relax at the beach some. I'll let you all know how that went sometime in the weeks to come.


Yeah, we do other things besides fly here in Mississippi. Some of our friends are from one of the local colleges in town, and they asked a group of us to a formal they were having. We hit up a nice restaurant in town before going to the dance, and then it was off to relax and get our grove on with friends.
Well, as it's looking right now I may be done with Tweets in about 3-4 weeks. It's gone fast! I have a few more instrument rides and then about 8 more formation rides before those checkrides. The cross-country takes care of most if not all of our navigation rides. It'll be nice to have some down time to get back in shape and prepare Lord willing for T-38's!! =) Take it easy.

T-37 Formation Flying, Very Cool

As you know, I had my Final Contact checkride at the beginning of the week. Thankfully it all went well, and I came away with a 3 downgrade excellent...3E. My three downgrades came from minor things in acro and a slight overshoot on one of my patterns. I still have a couple more chances for that 0E I'm shooting for! As with last checkride, I was able to read some critiques from past students on the check pilot I was going to fly with, and it did help. The emergency procedure he gave me in the debrief was just like I had read about, and the general knowledge questions were as well.

On Tuesday I had my formation "dollar" ride and saw what it was like for the first time...too cool! Formation I'm sure is going to be the best part of training! It was one of those demo/do kind of flights where my IP would show me what it should look like and then give me a try with the main objective being, don't hit the other jet! =) So, we took off in formation and got up through the clouds to where I could give things a shot. I was given two main tips from other pilots I know to help me out with form:

1. Wiggle your fingers and toes
2. Lower your shoulders

The more you can relax, the better you'll fly is basically what those two things remind you to do. My first try at trying to stay 3-5 ft from leads wingtip was a little shaky and I heard, "I have the jet" from my IP a few times, but soon I was getting a handle on being light with the stick and throttles. The 3-5 ft is in the horizontal plain, so we're a little aft and below lead as we're flying. I wish I could take some pics of that to give you all an idea of how cool it looks from the cockpit. Anyway, the IP I was flying with was a former F-16 pilot, so she had a lot of good tips from all her experience flying fighters. It won't be long until we're pressing up against my form checkride, so check back over the next couple weeks to see what's up...I need to go study some more before bed.

Moving Right Along

I tell you what, the tempo has picked up the past couple weeks! We've still been having great weather, and it's made for some awesome flying. The last time I updated the site, I was coming up on my first checkride, Midphase. The day before the checkride we were assigned our check pilot. Knowing who I was going to fly with allowed me to scan through critiques students wrote up from past checkrides. I read through that info and learned as much as I could about the pilot I would be flying with.

Thursday of that week was the big day, and overall it went well. Of course, I'm kinda ticked at myself because I had flown better previously, but it's all good. It was a little tense before we flew for a couple reasons. To keep it kind of simple, the navigation aids on the ground that tell us where we're at in the Military Operations Area (MOA) while we practice decided to go down about an hour before I was supposed to check. When this happens, there's a whole different procedure for keeping track of where you're at in the air. Of course, I had never flown with these different procedures so I tried to cram them into my head about 20 minutes before brief time. Crazy stuff...but thankfully as we were stepping to the jet the nav aids I was used to working came back on line! The second reason, well it was my first checkride ever and I had those pregame jitters going on.

Finally we got to our jet, and were off. I had everything all nice and planned out how I wanted it to go, but checkrides rarely go as planned. =) The pattern was very full, and some of the requirements (like normal and single engine patterns and landings) I wanted to get out of the way right off the bat in the pattern had to wait until we returned from the MOA. The big thing the check pilot was looking for was if I could safely fly out to the practice area, keep myself in the area assigned and the fly safely back. An area is defined by a min and max altitude, and two radials off of a specific nav aid. The area work all went great, and soon I was requesting recovery to the base. The recovery radio call goes like this, "Columbus approach, Ripsaw 35 (that was the check pilot's call sign) request recovery Marble, with Bravo." That all went fine and we were soon back in the pattern to finish a couple things I didn't get a chance to do earlier. Once the flying was over I had a ground evaluation to see if I've been keeping up and learning my stuff. After about 20 minutes or so of questioning and all, it was over and I came away with a 4 downgrade good...or a 4G. I was pretty happy with that, but I'm definitely shooting for better Monday!

After a long and tiring week, it was time to relax a little bit down in Destin Beach, FL! Eglin AFB was having an airshow, so a couple of us took of Friday after we left the flightline. My college roommate's parents live right there by the base and beach, and they allowed us to stay there for a couple nights. It was a great time to just relax. Saturday morning we got up for a run, had breakfast and then headed out on the boat for a while. Their house is on a bay off of the Gulf, so we cruised out in the the Gulf of Mexico for a bit and soaked up some rays. We got back to the house around 1100 and then headed to the base to check out the planes and catch the Thunderbirds later in the day. After being down there for the weekend, I don't think I'd have much of a problem with flying F-15C's there at Eglin...it's a great base and right by the beach! Come to think if it, that would be no problem at all!
With Midphase behind me, we were right into the next block of flights...advanced acro. I know I've said yanking in the pattern is fun, but the acro is ever more so. The Monday after FL I flew twice, with the second flight being my first area solo. The first flight was a demo-do kind of flight. The IP would show me what the maneuver should look like, and then I'd give it a shot. Besides the loop, aileron roll and split-s from before, we were now doing the cuban 8, lazy 8, immelman, chandelle, cloverleaf and barrel roll. I'm sure you can read about those maneuvers somewhere else on the web, so I'm not going to try and explain them. They're fun, that's all there is to it!

Now, back to my area solo. Like most of this stuff, I can't even explain how cool it was to be taking an Air Force jet out by myself to flip and spin around alone! How awesome is that?! Not to mention this is my job!! In this block of flights, I've been able to go to the MOA 4 times solo to practice the acro in preparation for my Final Contact checkride the beginning of next week. I'm totally ready for it, and just need to keep doing what I've been doing. The only thing that's easy to do with this new stuff is to go out the top or bottom of the assigned area. If you get set up and then start stringing the maneuvers together without keeping a good eye on your altitude, you'll find yourself a little too high or a little too low. Anyway, I'm not too worried about doing that...I'll be shooting for a 0 to 3 downgrade excellent. (0E-3E).

Once Monday is over with, I'll be into formation flying...that's going to ROCK! My formation and instruments checkride will be the only two I have left before we track select into T-1's, T-38's, T-44's or a helicopter trainer that I can't remember the name of. You all know by now T-38's is my goal, and I'll be finding out 30 June at our track select party if I reached that goal. There's only one more test as well before we're academics complete, and I'm definitely looking forward to that! We had our first Navigation test yesterday, and again thank God...another 100%. I did miss a question, but it's being thrown out.

Well, that's all for now. I need to hit the gym and then meet up with some friends to study for the checkride Monday.

Midphase Checkride Next Week

Wow, a lot has happened in the past two weeks...especially this past week. We've continued to have great weather and the flying schedule has been pretty intense. Some days we've been flying twice a day along with sims and tests, (100% on the Advanced Instruments test...rock on!) so it's been busy. But it's all good!

Tuesday this past week is where the fun began...solo day! My IP and I took off about 0600 that morning to an awesome sunrise, no clouds and no wind. There are some required things I had to do in the jet before I could solo that morning and those were three landings, a break-out and a go around. Those all went fine, so we landed and taxied back to the chocks to drop off my IP so that I could have some fun on my own. After he gave me his nametag with wings on it (it's bad luck to fly your initial solo without a pair of wings on your chest) and jumped out, I started the engines back up and headed back to the runway. Holding short of the runway I gave the radio call, "Number 1, Wings 07, static patterns." The Wings callsign is what all students use for their initial solo. A few seconds later I heard, "Number 1, you're cleared for takeoff. Winds are 150 @ 6." SWEET!! It was time for a little fun tearing up the pattern alone! I can't even explain how cool it was to be up there by myself with about 8-10 other planes flying around with me. I wasn't nervous, but it felt more like game time...you know when you step on to a court or field with the pregame jitters. The whistle blows, the jitters are gone and it's game on! It's the coolest thing in the world!

Well, after the ride is over it's AF custom to get thrown in a big tank of water if you get caught. I tried to get away but the odds weren't very good with all the guys around. I decided to suck it up and go for a swim to celebrate a big and totally fun accomplishment in my pilot training career!


After Tuesday, I was able to fly twice both Wed and Thurs for a total of 7 flights during the week. Double turning like that really pushed me ahead towards my first checkride, Midphase. The purpose of this checkride is to see if you can handle flying out to the training areas alone to practice acrobatics. If the weather stays nice I"ll be checking on Wed. I'm feel ready for it, and as long as I get enough sleep and just relax it'll be fine. This checkride has been known to cause trouble for a lot of people because it's their first one and the nerves cause them to do dumb things. In addition to the things I mentioned last post about the maneuvers we've been practicing in the area, we've added the loop, slit-s and aileron roll...fun times!! That just means a few more things to polish up before Wed rolls around. Well, I'll give it my best shot and let you all know how it went in a couple weeks or so!

Solo Flight Soon

The weather finally improved around here this past week, and as long as there was light the planes were in the air. We were getting behind on flying so this kind of weather is just what we needed. I was able to fly 4 of 5 days this week, which was great because it helps solidify things through repetition. When you can't fly much due to weather it's hard to fix and improved things you need to.

Throughout any given day there are 3 periods where the jets are flying...early, middle and late periods. The early jets start flying at sunrise and the late jets land around sunset. A class doesn't fly all three periods, but only two. In order to split of up the "fun" of having to report super early for the early jets, they rotate which flights are going do so every couple weeks. The past couple weeks have been nice for us because we were on what they call late week. For those on late week, they typically report around 0700 and fly during the middle and late periods. This next week we're going to start back on early week (report can be as early as 0400 in the summer) and we'll fly the early and middle period jets. The AF requires a minimum of 12 hours of crew rest, so if we report at 0600 we have to be out of the flight room no later than 1800 (6:00 PM =). The rotation is usually two early weeks followed by two late weeks. Hopefully that helps explain what a typical day looks like for me. Those 12 hours are filled with either a sim, flying, time in the RSU, the gym or just studying for the next days events.
The Runway Supervisory Unit (RSU) is the little tower out by the runways and controls the traffic pattern. There are two for the T-37 runway, which they call Sunfish, and two for the T-38 runway, which they call Liveoak. The Federal Aviation Association (FAA) is governed by certain rules for obvious safety reasons, and they control the center runway (there are three runways here in case I haven't mentioned that before). Since the FAA is governed by those rules, they can't fit as many planes into the pattern as the AF would like for training. So, they can legally hand over control to the RSU which has it's own set of safety rules. This allows for a maximum of 12 T-37's in the Sunfish pattern at one time, which is pretty busy but cool. When the pattern gets full, it's not uncommon to be on final just about ready to touch down when another aircraft is on takeoff roll or has just gotten airborne. The minimum spacing in these conditions is only 3,000 ft when we're using opposite sides of the runway to land on! To someone not used to the way it works, it would seem pretty crazy. There are four individuals who work in the RSU at any one time and they are the controller, observer, spotter and recorder. I've had the chance to be the recorder three times now and I'm responsible to keep track of how many planes are in the air at any given time both on a computer and on paper. It's a good time to work on my situational awareness and understand where planes are at in the pattern based on their radio calls...that's a good thing when I'm the one flying.


As I said earlier, the nice weather helped a lot of us push forward toward soloing this week. As it looks right now, I should get to solo within two weeks...it might be more like 1.5. Anyway, that's going to be an awesome day and I'm stoked about it! They're going to let me buzz around the pattern in a jet for awhile alone...too cool! I had a great confidence booster after my eighth flight this past week when the IP told me, "If the syllabus would let me, I'd solo you right now." I was like, "lets do it!" I figured I'd try, but didn't happen. =) I just took his words for what they were, and pressed on...confidence is what it takes. I still have a ton of stuff ahead of me to let things like that go to my head!

Well, that's about all I have time for this round. I'm just working on stalls, spins, recoveries (even inverted recoveries), slow flight and other things while flying. It won't be long until the aerobatics start!