Riddller

Sorry, couldn't resist making this one...

Had my dollar ride today... very cool! The plane flies a bit easier than the sim, but not by much. It was also nice to see how they do it "on the flight-line" vs. in the sim (checklists, etc...). We took off, went to a MOA for about 50 minutes, then went to McConnell AFB to do touch-and-goes. It's pretty nice to be up at 15,000 feet doing 300 indicated! Seriously cuts down on the drone time between places. We flew for a total of about 3.5 hours, split between two students, which I guess is about normal. My next flight will probably be Wednesday, along with more academics... ugghh! Bad thing is we're back on 12 hour days and formal release. We'll probably be in at 0500 every day this week. Oh well, it's 2030 and I'm going to bed! Later!

Hey all! Sorry I haven't posted for a bit, but academics is kinda boring to talk about unless your actually here. The stuff I'm learning about the plane, i.e. what all the switches do, how the electrical system works, etc... is pretty cool for me, but I'm sure you would all fall asleep if I started talking about how the DPU interfaces with the EFIS and the IAPS and is controlled by the DCP. The days are still fairly easy. I got ahead on my CAI's and so got to sleep in until 1130 on Monday and was still done with everything by 1245. I'm doing lot's of studying of the checklists with my buddies, and going to the gym a bunch, but that's about it. The sim missions are cooler now, though. Had my second "real" sim today. They take 3 hours a piece, and that's not counting the 1 hour and 15 minute brief and 1 hour de-brief! You're paired up with another student, and so spend the first half of the sim as the pilot or co-pilot, then you swap and do it all over again. The T-1 flies like a pig! We have our third test tomorrow, this one over the avionics. I don't know if it's just because I've already seen stuff that's similar or what, but these tests seem a lot easier than the ones for T-6's. It's not just me, either: out of 13 people each taking TWO 27 question tests, we've had a grand total of 5 questions missed! Maybe we just finally learned how to study, who knows? Later!

FACT situps: Put your feet up on a bench or something so that your legs make 90 degree angles at both the hip and knees. Put your fingertips on your collarbone, now touch your kneecaps with your elbows. Repeat.

I'm still alive and kicking, and no one has told me to stop, so I'll keep going!

The more academics I do it seems this is a pretty cool plane! A lot more power than the T-6, we're supposed to pull up to 15 degrees nose-up on take-off, and climb at 220 knots! The T-6 was 10 degrees nose-up and 160 kts to compare. There's a ton more to learn about this plane than there was with the T-6 though, which I guess is to be expected. There's a crap-load of stuff in the checklists you have to memorize too. The T-6 checklist said "Trim - CHECKED" and you just ran the elevator, rudder, and roll trim to see if it worked. The T-1 checklist says "Trim - CHECKED" except you have to do a 5-minute multiple-step procedure involving all the normal, emergency, and disconnect trim switches, by both the pilot and co-pilot, with everyone, including the crew chief, having very specific responses. And it all has to be memorized! I've been told that once you get it down, it makes more sense and really only takes about a minute, but it's fairly intimidating right now. And there's a bunch of checklist items like this! Oh well. The days are still short, in at 0900, done by 1300 unless you're doing a sim. In that case you might be in at 0600 or not done until 2000. We haven't had any of those yet though. We have to do a PFT before our dollar ride though, so I've been spending a bunch of time in the gym getting my but back in shape. Feels good... when it doesn't hurt like hell!

Looking for C-17's to Charleston right now I think... And thanks to everyone for the support!

Back to doing CAI's again... (that's "computer aided instruction" for those of you who don't remember my posts from 6 months ago... what, you don't study these things??) The day after track select (yesterday) we showed up at the T-1 squadron at 0830 and got a couple of briefings from the flight commander and the SQ/CC. We'll still have another "15 day program" and be on formal release at first (12 hour days) but we were told it's much more of a "big boy program", i.e.-not as much IP harassment, the program is hard enough by itself, which sounds fine to me. Academics mean short days again: in at about 9, done by 2 or 3, depending. Two classroom lectures and a metric crap-load of CAI's already completed... many many more to go... T-1 dollar ride will probably be in about 4 weeks, I think I'm suffering flying withdrawl...

Got my #1 choice... T-1's! We had two get T-38's, two got UH-1's (they both wanted them... including one of the Top Sticks!), two got T-44's (they put T-38's first but are happy with T-44's), and the rest of us got T-1's (including the other Top Stick). We start T-1 academicsat 0830 tomorrow... I'll let you know! Half-way done with UPT!

Hydration is a big one. I didn't fly for two weeks from being sick (not in the airplane) and didn't drink enough water before flying again. I actually felt queazy and my G-tolerance was crap. Drink a lot of water!!

You plug the winds and temperature into an excel spreadsheet to figure out what airspeed you need to fly to hold 210 groundspeed. Other than that, it's just navigating visually.

My Formation checkride and last Low-Level were yesterday. My complete dork of a Form partner and I did really well, we both received "excellent's". I had about 5 minutes to prepare for my Low-Level after the checkride, but luckily one of my flightmates was cool enough to do pretty much all my flight planning for me. He was already done with T-6's and knew I'd have min-time between my checkride and LL, so he hooked me up! The LL was fun and quick, no biggie. So now I get to sit around until next Tuesday for my Track Select! I'll write more after that and (hopefully) let you know what T-1 academics are like! Later!

To the Maj at the SUP desk today who reads my blog: here's my next entry, thanks for reading! I've done one of my two low-levels now and have started the last block of formation flying (4 flights) of my training in T-6's. The low-levels are fairly low threat. You only do two of them, the low-level charts are already made up for you, and an Excel sheet calculates all your airspeeds for you. You fly it at a constant 210 knots ground speed, so just adjust your airspeed to maintain your timing. Assuming all is well with the bird condition and weather, you fly them at 500ft above the ground, which is pretty cool. My form partner and I (they do their best to have you fly all 18 of your form flights with the same guy) did really well today double-turning (two flights in one day). We were hanging in there really well during the lazy-8's (it's actually called "wing work") and are getting the aerobatic portions down really well. We're double turning again tomorrow, and the plan is to do our last checkride this Tuesday. I'll probably end up doing my second low-level after my checkride (which would make it my last ride in the T-6) but that's fine with me, I taught probably over a hundred low-levels as a Nav instructor so they're not hard. The days are staying fairly easy. Showing up between 0630 and 0730, done by 1430 or 1500 at the latest. No more stan-tests and and no more stand-ups... YEAH!! Getting close to the end!!

Week 4 of Phase II = not a good time to get married. Phase I = ok Last month or two of Phase II = better than week 4. The first month and a half of Phase II is the busiest most stressful time in UPT. Guaranteed 12 hour days plus 1-3 hours of studying every night. The workload steadily goes down from there (mostly because you've studied all the stuff you need to know so many times that you can finally remember most of it). If you really want to get married at that time, don't accept the class push-up. If it's ok to wait, push it off to the last month of Phase II. I've got 2 weeks left of Phase II, and we have a guy in my class getting married this weekend. No biggie.

So once you get towards the end of T-6's (at least at Vance), they have you go over and do a T-38 sim. At this point, no one (except for the Navy guys) know what we'll be flying for Phase III, and supposedly this sim has nothing to do with that selection (no one at Vance even sees the results, they just go to Randolph for statistics). Anyway, it was fun. You take off from Randolph AFB in your T-38, and fly an ILS at 250 knots. Then again at 300 knots. Then again at 350 knots. Over and over until you're flying the approach at 600 knots! Making your turns at the right places in the radar pattern is pretty interesting at 600 knots! Formation is going better. It's quickly becoming easier to hang in there in fingertip while doing the lazy-8's. We had the first Air Force guys in my class do their final checkride today, but I left before they got back so I don't know how they did. I'm sure it was fine though. Couple more weeks!

My Form Solo was this morning and it was a blast! It's so much nicer being out in the area with someone to play with (sts). The other plane had an IP and one of my classmates working up to his Form Solo. We did a bunch of lazy-8's while -2 tried to stay in fingertip (5 - 10 feet away), and bunch of pitch-outs and rejoins, then went to Extended Trail (ET) Lvl 3. ET is when both of you have your power set at 85% and -2 tries to stay in sight of lead about 500-1000 away at about their 4 or 8 o'clock position. Lead starts yanking and banking up to 120 degrees, 3-4 Gs, using big lazy-8 maneuvers. If -2 is in sight of lead on the inside of all the turns, then lead can take the formation "over the top", i.e. loops, barrel rolls, cloverleafs, cuban eights. If you're solo, you can't go over the top if you're -2, but you can lead the formation over the top. ET Level 1 is just level turns, Lvl 2 is the big lazy-8's, and Lvl 3 is over the top. Good times! We've had 3 of our Navy guys finish their Form Solo's now, and because they aren't going fighters, they're done with T-6's. Navy fighter guys and all the Air Force guys have like 10 more formation flights after their solo. So, couple more weeks and I'll be T-6 complete!

Unfortunately, I've heard UAVs are going to be dropped from T-1s too...

We've had a couple briefs here at Vance from the DO and CC of the -38 squadron saying: "Hey, we're still great! You top guys should still pick us!!" They're obviously worried that Mr. #1 isn't going to want -38's.

Done with 6 form flights now, and it is getting easier to stay in position. I only flew once last week because I messed up my back working on the house last weekend. I wasn't hydrated enough before flying on Friday and we were doing formation aerobatics. All those G's about made me puke! I didn't though, just kept flying. If you puke on any flights after you solo, it's an automatic hook, and we have had two guys in my flight blow chunks on formation flights because you're always looking around. They're fine now though. I probably have about two more weeks of flying before I'm T-6 complete, then sitting around until track select on July 22nd. We've already had one Navy guy finish. We had our last stan test this past Friday... woohoo! And I have to brag, I ended up with the top stan test average in the flight! T-1's, here I come!! The days are much more relaxed now. 4-5 hours of work, a couple more studying, and we're done! Not too shabby!

My formation flying is getting better, I can hang with lead a bit easier than for the first 2 flights. Our days are shorter now. If we fly first go, then we only have to hang out until second go leaves to go fly, then we can go home. Works out to be about 7 hour days now. The weekly stan tests are still kicking peoples butts. Luckily I haven't busted one since the first one, but a lot of people have been busting multiples, which means they have to take a retest, then another retest if they don't pass that one, then on to a Ground 88 (or 89 if they already had an 88). If they don't pass that, they're out of the program. We finally had our solo party last week, which was a good time. We got named (for as long as we're in T-6's anyway) and got stories told about us by the IPs who solo'd us out. It's amazing getting back into the pattern here after our form flights. We normally break up the flight after coming back, and just do a bunch of touch-and-go's on our own. What used to take all my concentration, such as staying on airspeed, altitude, ground-track, etc..., now comes like I've been doing it my whole life! It's seems so easy now. I hope formation flying eventually gets to that point for me... Later!

Yup, instrument complete, now straight into Form. I'm not going to lie, the first flight scared the crap out of me. Flying 10 feet off the guys wing with 90 degrees of bank just doesn't seem right (at least not when I'm the guy doing it!). Overall I had fun though, it should be a good time. Was supposed to have my second Form flight today, but due to the "mishap" we might not be flying for a bit, I don't know. Unfortunately, all we're allowed to say is that both pilots are OK, and the MIB is investigating. Later!

Good lesson! You'll need it at UPT... like within the first week!!

Wahoo! Only one more checkride to go and I'm done with phase II! Check ride went really good. Sorry if I have to brag, but after hooking my last one, I hope you understand. I'm sure no one who already has their wings will care, but it's a big deal at the moment. Anywho, the IP only marked me down on one item, so like I said, I'm pretty flippin' happy! I'm academics complete (our Formation test was last week), and I only have two sim missions left (formation and Low-level). The formation sim will be Monday and I'll probably do the low-level one next week too. So, on to Formation!! From what I've heard, everyone hates it for the first few flights then absolutely LOVES it. We'll see!

Sorry about no post for a week (again) but it's been kind of boring. I finished all of my flights (except for the one before my Instrument checkride) in the middle of last week, but I still needed like 6 sim missions before I can do my checkride. It pretty much sucks, same-old same-old stuff over and over. I should be doing my checkride on Thursday or Friday though, which I'm excited about. One good thing: We finally got off Formal Release last week (week 10 of Phase II) because everyone finally passed their mid-phase checkride. It's cool 'cuz now we can go to the club or off base for lunch and can leave after the last flight's launch. That's about the biggest event of my week! Let me know if you have any questions!

In the scenario, the bay doors of the JSF open up to allow the missle to fire, but the missle jams and the pilot can't close the doors. With the doors open, the JSFs stealth characteristics (supposedly) are nullified or at least greatly reduced, making it easy for others to target them. I caught it too. Cool show! A B-1R with super-cruise and 20-30 AMRAAMs... I like!