IFF Complete

As of yesterday afternoon, I"m officially done with IFF! I've had a great time in the program. God was good to me as always and allowed me to adjust quickly to the flying here making it a lot of fun. I finished up the SA portion of my training here with a 4-ship to the bombing range flying the tactical pattern. This pattern simulates there is a high concentration of surface threats (surface to air missile sites for example) in the area, and we need to ingress to the target low and fast. For this tactical pattern, we fly at 500' and 420 knots between a series of ground references to a pre-determined "pop" point. This point is where we pull the nose of the aircraft up to either 15 or 30 degrees nose high (depending if we're doing 10 or 20 degree passes), acquire the target at our left 10 o'clock or so in the climb and then roll in to bomb the target. This all happens pretty quick, so keeping yourself ahead of the jet is a must. These rides were definitely up there on my list of fun rides! Once I finished the SA rides I was on to my last two HABFM flights. High aspect is just that...we fly nose to nose each around 400 knots each and at the merge (when we pass each other) it's time to fight and kill the other dude like we did in OBFM and DBFM. Both went well and now it's time to press to Phoenix!

We'll pass the next couple days with last minute paperwork and crappy stuff like that before we graduate on Thursday. I'll be packed up and ready to go as soon as graduation's over with because I have to finish some things back at Columbus AFB before I start the long drive to Phoenix this weekend. I'll give a IFF graduation update once out in AZ. Until then, peace out!