Halfway Home

It's been a quick ride through pilot training here in Oklahoma. I have completed about half of my hours in the T-6, and the second half will roll even quicker than the first half has done.

So far, I have flown a number of contact flights. These flights taught aircraft control, stalls, aerobatics, emergency management, and landing from a variety of positions (straight-in, circling, and overhead patterns). I have done well in the first half, working hard to get down the basics of flying. It's come quickly, with at least one class/simulator/flight/test every day - and often several events a day. That workload has kept me pretty occupied.

The next phase will get more interesting. We'll focus on instrument flying - how to get around when the weather/lack of daylight prevents you from using the ground as your baseline. It's a very different set of skills, much more precision-based than the previous segment of training. Integral to this phase is a cross-country trip, in which I'll fly seven flights to different airports far away from the comfort zone of Enid. I hope to traverse Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, but my instructor's guidance (and preference) may shape where we go.

I'll finish up with a bit of formation flying. The Air Force takes formation pretty seriously, so we'll get some great experience doing that.

Looking forward to the challenges ahead.

Back to Flying

It's been a week without flying. I was sick, with some bad sinus problems, for a while, so I did a whole heap of nothing.

Feeling better, so I expect I'll be flying a lot to catch up with our schedule.

It's a fun, complicated time in training. We are completing Contact (aerobatics) flying, Instrument simulators, Navigation and Formation classes, and some pretty meaty studying for check rides.

These checks are performed by special instructors, whose sole job it is to evaluate students at certain points in the program. The process is shrouded in mystery. They work in a secret lair, where students cannot enter. Though one hears of others' check rides, one has very little idea what to expect for his own. It's the best that I can do to study and pray - those ought to be enough to battle the check ride forces, right?

As you might guess, I'm coming up on my first check ride this week.

SOLO

Well, I made it. Last friday was a pretty big day, with a sim in the morning and my first T-6 solo flight in the afternoon.

To avert any doubts, I survived.

San Fran Fog

my first solo flight was scheduled for this past week. Had only two rides until I went up, alone, in the traffic pattern above Vance AFB. In a week, should be no problem to fit those in.

Then the fog rolled in.

It was the freezing, soupy, nasty stuff, keeping planes from taking off and us from doing much of anything. Attitudes took a nose-dive. The flight room became pretty stagnant. There's only so many hours that you can read the same books, in the same place, all day long. Not the best of weeks.

More of the same, weather-wise, is expected for the next week.

Up in the Air

I'm seven flights into the program here. It's been very quick so far, but I'm learning tons each time I go.

Just got back from a ski trip this weekend. Hard to believe that I was on the slopes just recently, but in the air today. Crazy fast life!

That's about it for tonight. Sleepy time.

First Flight

Doing it tomorrow - nerves are raw :(

The Phase One Roll

I'm flying...well, sorta.

We've done four simulators to this point. Each has built on the last - going from checklists to flying to emergencies to patterns flown over an airport. They put us in these nifty rooms with mock-up cockpits (all the switches work), and we look at simulated scenes on large screens that surround us as we fly around and over the Enid area. It's pretty neat to apply all that we've learned to this point.

On top of that, the class thing has started heating up. Several tests each week. This week, it's Contact (basic flying maneuvers, including some stalls and spins) as well as Weather. That second one's a recap of Pensacola's weather, so shouldn't be too tough. I hope.

Trying to keep up with other things in life (friends, running, etc) has proven a bit more difficult with the increased work-load. But I've done okay with that.