Combat Ready Wingman (CMR)

This past Monday I finished the MQT program, so I'm officially combat ready! It's a good feeling to be done with that and to fly without needing a gradesheet. Flying is always awesome, but being able to relax a little more makes it that much better.

This past week was a surge week here in the 510th, which just means that we flew a lot more lines than normal. I flew 8 times Monday through Thursday with one of those flights being an out and back to Slovakia to use a range for bombing practice. The other three days were here in Italy with hot pits in between. Hot pitting is when we land from a flight, refuel without shutting down, and then blast off again for another flight. The total flight time for a double turn like that is around 3.0 hours. We've also been carrying Maverick missiles on our jets for training. The Maverick is an infrared seeking air-to-ground missile with a very large war head, and it can track both stationary and moving targets. I hope to get a chance to shoot one sometime, but we'll see what happens. Can't believe I'm getting paid to fly F-16...in Italy of all places. Buzzards Rule!

Anatolian Eagle in Turkey

A week ago we returned from Konya, Turkey after flying for 2.5 weeks in their Anatolian Eagle Exercise. AE is modeled after the US's Red Flag. We flew with the Turkish Air Force and a couple other countries in simulated war scenarios during our time there with the weekends off to do some sight seeing. It was good for me as a brand new wingman to get that experience under my belt. Red Flag with be much more "push it up" than AE was, and I'll be better prepared for it. They had great airspace, awesome low level routes through the mountains (some of the coolest flying I've done...valleys through the mountains were sweet) and a nice practice bombing range that we were able to take advantage of.

Our first weekend was spent in a region of the country called Capadoccia. People have been living in the region basically from the beginning of the world, so there's a ton of history. Noah's Ark even landed on Mt. Ararat in Turkey. We visited an underground city that was used both for self protection during war and to stay cool in the hot summers...the area is mostly desert. The earth isn't solid rock like many places, so it was easy for them to dig tunnels and rooms to live in. We also took a look at some cliff dwellings around the area...crazy to think people actually lived there up until the 1900s. We had lunch in a restaurant that had been carved into the side of a hill with the tables and seats even being carved out of the rock. Our second weekend was spent down on the Mediterranean coast soaking of the rays and relaxing.

I'm still waiting to finish up my MQT program...I was able to get some of the rides during AE, but not all. We've been pretty busy back here in Aviano and there hasn't been an IP available to give me my checkride. It has a to be a pilot instructor that's been upgraded to check pilot. Anyway, I've still been flying a decent amount so I'm not complaining at all. According to the schedule when we left the squadron Friday, I will have my Mission Emergency Procedures Evaluation (MEPE) in the sim on Wednesday and then fly my checkride on Thursday. I'll finally be done with gradesheets for awhile and just be able to fly!

Yesterday I checked out a cool place I hadn't been to yet, called Barcis. It's about a 30 min drive up into the mountains from Sacile where I live and was well worth the time. The scenery was awesome and the lake's a cool aqua color. It was really cold too, but not cold enough to keep me from jumping off a 35' ft high bridge into the water. I went back today with a group from church to grill out and enjoy the area again...which meant more bridge jumping since the guys had to prove they weren't chicken! Things quickly upgraded from jumping feet first to diving...one of the more crazy things I've done recently in my life. I hope every one's having a great summer. I'll get back with you after Combat Hammer and Red Flag.

More Pictures:
Anatolian Eagle, Turkey

MQT Half Way Done...Enjoying Italy!

It took me about a month here in Italy, but I was finally settled in a couple weeks ago with the last shipment of my household goods. It's nice having everything set up and organized in my new place. I've put a pic on here of the car I bought a few weeks ago. Some of the guys in the squadron said my apartment will end up being a place just to sleep here and there since we're TDY or deployed a lot from here. Speaking of that, I'm going on my first TDY next week to Turkey for 2.5 weeks of flying in their "war games" call Anatolian Eagle. After getting back near the end of June, we'll be heading to the States for Combat Hammer at Hill AFB, UT and then to Red Flag at Nellis AFB, NV. I'm really looking forward to all of that as a brand new wingman in the Viper!

My flights here have gone pretty well. I'm enjoying the bigger engine in this jet. It's a GE100 that has about 5,000 lbs more thrust than the jets at Luke had. We do a lot of our training out over the Adriatic Sea, which takes us just to the East of Venice as we fly to and from the airspace...rather cool. Yesterday on the return to base after a 2 v 2 TI/ACM flight, the mountains were the most visible I have seen in my few flights here. It was a perfectly clear, cool morning and the Alps were a sight to see...it's hard to believe I'm flying the Viper here!

I've had a chance to see some pretty cool stuff already in Italy. The second weekend I was here, I hopped a train from Sacile and went to Venice for the day. The city is awesome and very easy to get lost in. It's a labyrinth of shops, homes, rivers and small walkways. I was able to get to San Marco's Square and the Doges Palace pretty easily from the train station, but got a little lost on the way back. It's all good though since there was plenty of new stuff to see. This past weekend a few buddies of mine and I took a 4 day road trip over Memorial Day weekend around parts of Italy. We saw so many places it'd be hard to recall everything, but the main places we saw were Montalcino in Tuscany, Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius, Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast and a couple American WWII Memorial sites close to Florence and Rome. Montalcino is known for the best wine in the world, Pompeii dates back to before Christ was born and was buried under the ash from Vesuvius' eruption, Sorrento was just a cool place and Amalfi was a great site to see. The four of us rented scooters and drove about 20 miles along the coast stopping here and there to take pics of the great view out over the Mediterranean Sea. The Memorial sites brought perspective to the job God has given me...it was humbling to see how many guys gave their lives in the war. What some Americans pay thousands of dollars to do we did doing for much less! That's the latest from over here in Northern Italy...I should be done with MQT soon after we get back from this upcoming TDY.

More Pictures:

Venice; Memorial Day Weekend Trip

Aviano Air Base, Italy

I've been here in Italy for close to two weeks now, and things are going well. I've been able to get a lot done in the time I've been here, which I guess is pretty good considering the Italian way of life it a little slower than we're used to in the USA. I picked up an apartment the second day I was here in a town called Sacile, which is about 10 min from the base and the Alps...I'm moving in this weekend. I also picked up a '95 BMW 318i just yesterday from an Italian dealer here in Aviano that was in pretty good shape and should last me just fine during the time I'm here. The northern part of Italy I'm living in is right out of a movie...very nice scenery and nice old towns. The weather has been in the 70's and sunny for the most part. Some of the taller mountains in the Alps still have snow on them, and I'm planning to go do some site seeing up there very soon. I can't complain at all...I'm living in Italy really close to the Alps flying F-16s!

There are two squadrons of F-16s on the base here, the 510FS and 555FS. Like I mentioned before, I'm in the 510FS Buzzards...above is our squadron patch. I've met most of the guys in the squadron, and all of them seem to be good dudes. The moral is high and commander has done a lot to make the squadron a great place. I'll start some class and simulators next week and will be flying the week after...looking forward to getting back in the jet and being an MR wingman. Basically that means I won't have anymore gradesheets and will be combat ready! We have a lot of cool trips coming up for training purposes both in Europe and back in the States, so I'll be getting my fill of flying soon! I've said it a ton, but God's good and has given me a lot to look forward to!

I'm going to take a train down to Venice this weekend to check out some of the sites around there. It's a 55 min train ride for about $10 bucks round trip...not bad! Some people save up for years to take a trip to Europe to visit places like Venice and it's basically a short trip down the road for me. The town of Sacile has a train station 15 min walk from my house, so it's very convenient as well. I have plenty of room in the new apartment for visitors, so hopefully people take me up on it! Below is a picture of my new squadron building and one of the base looking down from the mountains.

More Pictures:
Sacile; Apartment

310FS Night Systems Course

There isn't really a good place to put this update, so I figured I'd put it here. Before we leave Luke AFB, there's some additional flying that all F-16 graduates do to get qualified in flying with the Targeting Pod (TP) and Night Vision Goggles (NVGs). While we're still officially a part of the 63rd FS, we fly with the 310th FS Tophats. Their mission is solely to train guys with the TP and NVGs. The TP provides an infrared (IR) image in the cockpit and allows us to target things on the ground based on the temperature contrast between the target of interest (a building, truck, tank, etc.) and it's surroundings. The TP also has a high powered laser in addition to the IR camera. Once the target is being tracked, we can laser designate it and drop a laser guided bomb (LGB) with very high accuracy. We can carry GBU-10, GBU-12 and GBU-24 LGBs. They are merely "dumb" bombs with laser seeker kits installed in the nose and fin kits installed in the tail for directional control. The flying consists of three days rides learning the TP and five night rides which involve a basic formation flight, two air-to-air flights and two air-to-ground rides using the TP while wearing the NVGs. The third TP ride was the most memorable since we had a chance to drop two inert GBU-12 bombs! On previous rides we would call "splash" when the time to impact clock read zero, but this ride we were able to call it based on the huge cloud of smoke and dirt thrown into the air at bomb impact. I currently have three NVG flights left in the 310th before I'm done flying here at Luke. The Air Force is packing up my stuff the end of the month to ship it over to Italy, and I catch a flight out of Phoenix on 15 Apr. I'm looking forward to getting settled into my new life and new squadron soon!