Instructor Pilot Upgrade Complete

As of 29 Jun 2009 I officially became an instructor in the F-16! It's been a busy, humbling and yet fulfilling 3 months since I started the process back in the beginning of April. Despite 2 weeks in the Philippines and 1 week of the Operational Readiness Inspection (ORI) I made it relatively quickly through the upgrade with having to repeat only a couple of rides...either due to my briefing or flight performance not being up the level it needed to be. I'm now responsible to teach new wingmen, future flight leads and eventually future instructor pilots how to use the F-16 tactically. It's a great feeling to have the stress of the upgrade over with! God is good!

Lana has been here the past few weeks and has been a GREAT encouragement and support to me through the many long days I was at work either planning for my next flight, briefing, flying or debriefing...sometimes up to 14 hours. I want to publicly thank her for her love and support and being an awesome wife to me; I couldn't have done as well without her!! We're looking forward to the nice long 4th of July weekend we're planning to spend most of in Seoul relaxing without any stress on my part.

There isn't too much in the near future that I want to pass along at this point. In a couple of weeks I'll be going to TDY to Misawa Air Base, Japan as an instructor with 3 other pilots from here at Kunsan to use their nice 360° simulators. So, some good sushi is in my near future! It's nice the warm weather is here and Lana and I will spend the time exploring some of the local national parks and beaches. We hope all our friends and family are doing well! Until next time...fly safe and check six!