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!