Lana's Upgrade...

Lana arrived today with some really interesting news...she's become a pilot! I couldn't believe it myself, but if you look at the pictures below they say it all. She says the upgrade was really stressful and difficult, but in the end it was a good decision for her career with Lufthansa. She was specifically selected because she's one of the better looking flight attendants, and Lufthansa needs to keep a good image around the world. We just finished telling each other stories from our days in pilot training...what a great time!

Here she is after her first flight as co-pilot landing back in Munich. She did well and the captain approved of her performance and landing...she's off to a good start!

If you're reading this and still think it's for real, lets get one thing straight...I'm the only pilot in this house! But, Lana and I had a good time typing this entry!

Year In Korea...Half Over!

The time here in Korea has gone both slow and fast at times, but my year here is more than half over! I'll be submitting my "dream list" of desired next assignments here in about a month and should know sometime in October where Lana and I are headed next. Currently, my list of assignments is as follows: Spangdahlem (Germany), Aviano (Italy), Eglin (Florida), Hill (Utah), Shaw (South Carolina), Misawa (Japan), Luke (Arizona), Nellis (Nevada), Eielson (Alaska). Of the first 6, 5 are what we call "operational" squadrons which are those prepared to deploy for war at any time. Luke is the "school house" for new F-16 pilots and Eglin / Nellis have operational test squadrons which develop and test new F-16 equipment and munitions. Eielson and another squadron at Nellis are full time "red air" who train and study to simulate potential air-to-air threats we may face in a future war. There are other job opportunities, but not all are flying related. There are those who will go back to the initial pilot training to teach the brand new pilots while others will go to non-flying assignments. There are many aspects that go into matching pilots to their next assignment...thankfully God has a plan for Lana and I and we have peace knowing wherever we head next is His plan for us! We'll be sure to update everyone on where we're headed next as soon as we find out!

I've said it many times before, but I'm also VERY thankful for the job God gave Lana and the ease with which she can fly to see me. We've been very blessed and it's made the difficult year not living together much easier than it would have been otherwise. We've been able to experience another culture and travel Asia some, so there have been definite perks to being over here.

Lana and I got an email a few weeks ago letting us know that she has been approved to apply for a permanent resident visa to the USA. We're currently in the process of filling out multiple forms, gathering police reports, immunization records, getting a medical exam done in Seoul and so on. We hope to have another appointment scheduled at the US Embassy in Seoul in early September so that she will be fully legal to accompany me to the USA if that's where our next assignment takes us. We'd appreciate your prayers for a continued smooth visa process. We have also decided it's time to start a family! Lord willing our family will have a little one sometime in 2010...we'd appreciate prayers on that as well.

Well, I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow so I'm going to call it a night. Take care, fly safe and check six!

Busan (부산), Korea

I've been to the town of Busan (also known as Pusan) twice now since I arrived in Korea. It's located on the southeast coast of Seoul and is Korea's largest city next to Seoul at 3.65 mill. My first trip was to the Korean Airlines CCIP factory to pick up a jet from the depot. If you remember back to last summer at Aviano, I made a couple trips to Greece in order to flight test and pick up a few jets that were going through a major avionics upgrade. Well, here in Korea we send the jets to Busan where the same upgrade is done by Korean Airlines. A couple weeks ago on a Monday night, I took the KTX (Korean bullet train) to Busan in order to perform a functional check flight (FCF) on Tuesday morning and fly the jet back to Kunsan in the afternoon. I stayed in the Lotte Hotel...a very nice hotel where I was given access to the business suite on the 33rd floor. The airport I flew out of was Gimhae International. Had I been quicker with my camera while waiting for takeoff, I could have snapped a picture of the Lufthansa jet if front of me holding short of the runway...Lana will actually be flying to Busan this coming Saturday (sorry Babe =).

The second time was this past weekend for what our squadron calls "Money Night." The name says it all...we get dressed up for a nice dinner and night out without minding how much it costs (that's very difficult for a Ferguson to do by the way). The weekend included a trip to the local aquarium and beach before the night's events which took place at our hotel. It was enjoyable to get away from Kunsan again, but of course would have been much better had Lana been in town. But, she's in the air currently and will be here tomorrow early in the afternoon! Until the next time...

More Pictures:

Busan, Korea

Video:

This is a video of my FCF takeoff from Gimhae, Korea...yes, it's as fun as it looks!

Rice Fields & Soccer

Now that summer is half way over with, the Korean rice fields are more than just a field of mud. Lana took the picture below on a bike ride around the local area while I was at work a few weeks ago. Everywhere you look there are rice fields...one after another. The Koreans also finished harvesting their wheat crops a few weeks ago, and as they burn the stubble / chaff remaining in the fields (not sure why they don't plow it back into the ground) it makes for some more interesting smells driving through the country side.

Last Sunday afternoon, some of my friends and I decided to drive to the nearby town of Jeonju to watch a semi pro soccer team play. It was a good time and the Koreans are pretty serious about their soccer teams. It's nice to get away from base and enjoy the culture when I can.

Well, it's Friday evening and I'm hungry...time to round up some of the bros for dinner. Enjoy the weekend!

The Simulators At Misawa Air Base, Japan

This past week 4 of us from the squadron flew to Misawa Air Base in Japan on an Army C-12 to use their 4 Mission Training Center (MTC) F-16 simulators. We have 2 Unit Training Device (UTD) simulators here at Kunsan, but there are a lot of differences between the two. The main difference is the MTCs have a 360° field of view whereas the UTDs just have a large flat screen in front of the pilot. After the pilot sits in the sim cockpit, simply pushing a button closes the back half of the sim around him like a clam shell. The JHMCS helmet can also be worn in the simulator. They can link all 4 of the MTCs together, so in essence "flying" in the MTCs is like flying a regular 4-ship mission in real life...the best video game in the world! We "flew" 2-3 sim periods a day and by the end of the week had learned a great deal and became more proficient in certain F-16 missions.

Our first sim period each day except for Friday didn't start until 1030 so it was nice to hit the gym before work. After the last sim finished around 1830 we headed off base for either Indian (if you didn't know already, I like Indian food), sushi or Japanese steak. I guess I talk about the food when I am traveling so much for a couple reasons. First, I really like food period. Second, Korean food isn't very good so I'm always glad to have more of a selection when traveling.

Anyway, on Thursday we finished a little early and hit the base course for 9 holes of golf finishing as the sun went down. I actually shot a 40 (Brent, you'd be proud) which was very surprising. I 1 putted 4 of the 9 holes, so there was some luck involved. Friday around noon the C-12 was back to pick us up for the flight back to Kunsan. Flying on the C-12 was a great deal since we could fly direct from Kunsan to Misawa. We had our own military taxi service...kind of nice!

Well, this next week is another Operational Readiness Exercise (ORE) so more fun times simulating war time 24 hours a day. I'll be flying 2-3 times each day, so I'm relaxing this weekend to get ready. Enjoy the weekend, fly safe and check six!