Riddller

You're coming here?? Sweet! Of course I'll be here! Who's this 'we' you speak of? PM me if you don't want to plaster names ll over the internet. Just don't pull a repeat of your first test at ASBC...

Yup, flight suits after the second day (blues before that). The DOSS website asks that you try to get 2 of them issued by your base, along with gloves and a summer-weight jacket. If you can't, they will give you all the stuff here. As for getting rank sewn on, if you get the stuff from your base, you need to get your rank and velcro sewn on yourself. They'll give you all your patches here. As for the instructors, I would say it's probably a 50-50 split between prior military (mostly AF, but not all) and straight civilian. Regardless, they pretty much all have several thousand hours of flying time. And thanks!!

Wahoo! I forgot how much I love to fly! Even if it is just a Katana! Anyway, had a blast, did well, and my IP was suggesting a proficiency advance (get me through the syllabus a lot faster). I guess that in some cases they don't let guys who finish early leave right then, they have to stick around. So, I figure if I have to be here, I might as well get the free flight time! So that's what I said. For the first ride, the IP does EVERYTHING unless you ask to do some stuff. I asked for as much as I could get. I did screw up a radio call (totally blanked as soon as I said our callsign ), but was pretty good with the rest of the stuff. Even greased a few landings! We spent some time in one of the training areas too, but after getting the basics down, I just flew around doing whatever for a while, B.S.'ing with my instructor, before we had to go back in for a full stop. We weren't allowed to do anything else, like slow flight, steep turns, etc... I asked. After that, I studied for a bit in the flight room, and we had our first academic test at 1700. Almost everyone got high 90's or 100's, except for one failure. He gets to re-test tomorrow though, so should be fine. Really good guy, I hope it works out!! That's about it. Some people got their second flight today, and others get their first tomorrow. They space it out so that not everyone will be doing their checkrides the same day, they have a limited number of people allowed to give them. So people are randomly selected to start flying early, and some later. I'm in the middle. It all works out in the end. A bunch of us are going to check out Pirates...III tomorrow night, then a bunch more are going to check out the putt-putt in Pueblo on Saturday. And before anyone asks, we have already planned for the DD's for the putt-putt outing! Should be interesting. This place ain't so bad!!!

Yup, we use them to chair fly. That same room has a bunch of posters of the cockpit on the walls with chairs in front of them. If the cockpit trainers are full, we'll just sit in the chairs in front of the posters to do our thing.

"Supervisor of Flying" (I think) Whenever you go out to one of the training areas, you call "Tiger Traffic" and let them know where you are. The SOF monitors the frequency (It's an IFS IP who does it) and makes sure people are deconflicted. Also, if you have any problems or questions about regulations, you can call up "Furball" and they will answer you.

Crap!! I didn't get to fly today. The weather was fine for the morning, but by the time the afternoon flights were supposed to take off, the storms had rolled in. Oh well, I was rescheduled for tomorrow at 0930. Cross your fingers!! We had CRM and ORM classes when we weren't flying (an hour and a half total), the rest of the time was spent studying in the flight room or listening to other people's briefs or debriefs (they encourage that). There's also a radio in the room that you can use to listen to ground or tower or whatever to learn the radio calls. We're NOT technically on formal-release right now (which would mean 12 hour mandatory days). This means you can be studying, working out, chair-flying, etc... while you're not flying. Anywhere but in your room chilling out. If you keep the flight room clean and don't abuse the free reign the give you (nobody realy checks where you are if you're not in the flight room), then they don't see any reason to put you on formal release. Some are flying for the second time tommorrow, and others haven't even made it on the schedule. They have their methods for scheduling this stuff, don't bother them with questions. They told us the first week or so of flying is pretty slow (one flight a day, maybe) but pretty soon, many people will be flying twice or (rarely) three times a day. Mandotory PT was canceled today because it was raining, and the roof of their zillion-dollar facility leaks in the Gym like a sieve, literally!!! It was pouring in there!! Oh well, we worked out on our own. A bunch of people played dodgeball. We have our first academic test tomorrow. Mr. Siple (Uncle Siple ), the academics instructor, gives a pretty thorough review before the test I guess. Plus, after every testable lesson, he gives us a set of 10-20 exercise questions, all multiple choice. ALL of the test questions (50 of them) are pulled from those exercises. So we all just studied that tonight. So I guess a total of 5 from the previous class of 20 or so either quit or were washed-out. That's a 25% (or so) rate!!! I haven't seen that it's that difficult so far, as long as you want it. Certainly less study time than I put in getting my engineering degree. I would have to say that ANY ground school or flying experience you can get at an FBO before coming here will DEFINITELY pay dividends. Cheapest would be to get any book designed for a person working on their PPL, like I said before, but most flight instructors will charge $30 an hour for ground school if you can't afford $100 an hour for flying. The instructors here are good, and they care about you making it through, but most of them have many thousands of hours and have forgotten what it was like to be a brand-new pilot. As a result, they use terminology during the classes that they think a second-grader knows, but are really understandable only by people with at least some ground school or flight experience. If you don't understand a term, stop them and ask what it is!!! Chances are, 75% of the class was wondering the same thing, but was too afraid to ask!!! Any questions, feel free to post...

ferraricommander is in my flight. He's right. Unless you're flying solo, then instead of Tiger, your callsign is "Kitty". Seriously. The IPs think it's funny. And the SOF callsign is "Furball". Don't even get me started.

So I gave the first formal brief this morning: Note to self: make SURE your alarm clock will work before having to give the FIRST formal brief Luckily, my 'wingman' came and knocked on my door before it was too late!! More academics today. Went through navigation, using the IFG (In Flight Guide), and the procedures around here, etc... They give you a full checklist-sized IFG here, with almost everything you need for any flight planning, already bound with the little plastic rings and in sheet protectors, very nice! Reccomendation: See if you can get one of the nice (empty) checklists before getting here, I mean the ones w/ the heavy plastic sheet protectors and the blue covers that say something like: "Flight Crew Checklist". The ones they give you are nice enough, but they use those cheap sheet protectors like you find at Office Max. CORRECTION: They have them here, but regardless, hold off on getting one. The checklists they print off (in the crappy sheet covers) are too big to fit in the nice checklist-sleeves. I have to figure out how to make it work before reccomending you buy the nice checklists... Another one: Get a kneeboard. They sell them here if you want to get one here though, so don't be too concerned with that one. Flight schedule came out today: 20 of 28 are flying tomorrow for their "dollar ride", and I'm one, yeah!! Supposedly the minimum proficiency required for each maneuver is "Unsat". So, you can taco EVERYTHING, and they will still tell you, "Nice job!" Looking forward to it...

So Sunday was pretty mundane. I slept in, got some chow and studied all afternoon and evening. Nothing interesting to report. Today kind of changed my opinion of the overall instruction here. They made it pretty clear that if people are having problems, the instructors will stay to all hours of the night to help you. That doesn't mean you always get extra flight time (you can, though), but they will go over things with you again and again if they know you really want it and are really trying. The planes were flying again today. I guess two instructors were flying a plane back into the AFA and their engine shut down on Friday or Saturday (not sure). They didn't declare an emergency, and didn't even tell anyone until 2 hours after landing at the airport!!! Nice!! Another interesting fact: 3 people from the previous class have QUIT in the last 4 days!!! And they were ALL graduates of the AFA!!! The instructors have no idea what's going on, but are VERY interested in finding out what the problem is. We had an example Formal Brief, EP, and stand-up this morning, I guess it's just like they do at UPT. We have to start doing it tomorrow. They told us who would do the stand-up each morning for the rest of this week, but after that, anyone is fair-game. The rest of today was more academics. We went over weather, EPs, checklists, preflight, etc... then started PT at 1630... rough!!! I guess we'll be on the flight schedule for our dollar rides on Wednesday, sweet! Oh, and don't forget to bring $20 for landing fees. They need it for your patches, the pool table, building the bar (they don't stock it), and I guess they want to get a bunch of plasma T.V.s eventually.

Went to C-Springs for a steak at Outback w/ a bunch of people last night. Came back and had a few too many Captain and cokes in the lounge last night. Had a great time, but had a hangover like you read about this morning. Didn't study much during the day. One of the security guys has a crap-load of DVDs that he gave me (class leader, the old guy) to let everyone use for free (check-out of movies at the front desk costs a couple bucks). Watched a couple, then did some chair-flying/studying with some other students. Drank some more in the lounge and shot the shit w/ some guys in the class before me. I guess an engine went out on a Katana up at the AFA the other day, so nobody's flying here until they figure out why. So we're pushed back a couple days for our first flights. Oh well. I plan on studying Sunday. We'll see.

Class started at 0715 today, more academics. We went through more systems, then went into reading a VFR sectional, how to land and take off, the pattern, and airspace classifications/requirements. 45 min for lunch, and we started PT at 1620. Circuit training until about 1715, then we're done! First Formal Brief is Monday morningat 0640. The IPs will demonstrate it, then we take over Tuesday and every morning from then on. DON'T expect be allowed to leave the immediate (C-Springs is ok) area on the weekends. We had one guy who was supposed to be the best man in a wedding. He wanted to fly out Friday evening and come back Sunday. They said nope. Had another guy who was supposed to be participating in an O-6's retirement one Friday afternoon in Denver. They said nope. Supposedly, when this place is going full-tilt, they're going to have 90 students, 60 IPs, and 48 aircraft at any given time. They're talking about having us start flying on Tuesday, we'll see!

Up at 0530, get into blues, then breakfast at 0600 (you don't have to eat if you don't want). In-briefs started at 0635, and went until 1200. Every guy in our chain of command, up to the OG/CC, had to have his 30 minutes to tell us: "You're lucky to be here, it's really hard, don't fvck it up." Also got our boldface and Ops Limits test today. They look EXACTLY like the practice tests on the website. Everyone has to do it over and over again, until everyone gets it PERFECT. You have to write every boldface exactly as it appears on the study sheet. Down to the upper-case letters and everything. The only difference is that the study guide has three dashes '---' just before the action (you'll see, the ones my class downloaded did, maybe they'll change it), and you really only have to put one dash. We had to do it twice. Some classes have had to redo it 7 times before they got it right!! Study ahead of time!! We also got medical and physiology briefs. After lunch (1200-1300) we had more briefs. Security, flight safety, and Ops Chief. Then we started classes. Basic aerodynamics, then on to aircraft systems. At 1645, we had to do a PFT. The altitude SUCKS! ...literally. Most did OK though. If you don't get at least an 80, you have to re-test in 3 weeks. None of it is entered into the real AF system though. We've got mandatory PT 3 times a week, run by a former Marine who likes to run it boot-camp style. Except for Fridays, that's dodge-ball day! Then we were done for the day. Dinner, then studying a bit over some adult beverages (bring a stash with you!!!). To answer one question, all of the standards for each of the maneuvers can be found in the syllabus on the dossifs.com website. And I guess my class was the first class EVER to all show up in blues and on-time. We're also the largest class ever, with 28 people. I'm beat, going to bed... start it all over again in the morning.

Yup, sure is. Most of the washouts are for flying they tell us. They rarely have people washout for academics. They explain the maneuver, demonstrate the maneuver, then give you a limited number of tries to execute the maneuver within standards. Don't mess it up!!

Made it to IFS today. Got here about 1300. The website says be here between 1200 and 1800 in one spot, and between 1200 and 1500 in another. There's nothing bad or good about showing up early or late. I guess I wold reccomend early. Showed up in blues after my short trip from C-Springs (I DEFINITELY reccomend staying the night somewhere close by before driving in in your blues). The people were very nice, and the one officer I've met, our MTO (Military Training Officer), was very cool and helpful. No uniform inspections, but make sure you look sharp to avoid notice. In-processing took about 15 minutes, was on an individual basis, and consisted of getting your room, filling out a quick medical questionairre, and getting a DOSS ID badge to wear around everywhere. They are VERY serious about security here. After that, we moved all of our stuff in, we were free until dinner at 1730. There was supposed to be an in-brief at 1830, but our MTO made the 1730 dinner (in blues) mandatory so he could do it there. Rooms are nice. Kinda small, but you have a little fridge, microwave, DVD player, TV, your own bathroom/shower/bathtub. I've been in worse. EVERYTHING here is in the same building. You literally could spend your whole time at IFS without ever leaving the building except for flying. There's like 6 other people here I know, from school, ASBC, my base, even one of my CTAs! Don't expect to get here and not know anybody. We were told that everybody, no matter what flight experience, will be coming through here within three months (we've got two w/ PPLs in my class) and all the CSOs (Navs) will be coming here within 6 months. We were also told the current washout rate was running at 10% to 15%. Study hard!! And one more thing: They don't block anything on your free internet, but they DO monitor it. So.... NO PORN!!! EVERY DAY starts at 0600 according to the schedule, and we're in blues again tomorrow. PFT in the afternoon, and they don't like it if you don't get at least an 80. Any questions, feel free to post coments!

So, made it to Colorado Spings, after only 10 hours on the road. I checked into the Double Tree hotel, just south of the intersection of Hwy 24 and I-25. Nice place! I told them I was on orders and got the Gov't rate. I don't know if it's any better than the normal rate, but it said Gov't rate on the receipt. $80 a night for the rooms w/ a queen-sized bed, $90 for the king. $80 is the max-lodging in C-Springs, so that's what I took. Big chocolate chip cookie on check-in, I was sold!! Seriously though, it's in the middle of a big shopping area: Target, Arby's, Chili's, Subway, Movie Theatre, etc... all accross the street. I don't know about the night-life proximity, but I'm not too concerned with that at the moment. The rooms are nice, there's what seems to be a decent hotel restaurant, I'm happy. Went on about a 2.5 mile run and about died from the altitude, but a buddy said it was best to start quick so you don't REALLY die on the PFT they give the first couple of days. Maybe it would help if I quit smoking too... hmmmmm..... Think I'll grab a beer at Chili's and check-out Spiderman 3. Pueblo tomorrow!

So I posted this in the IFS thread, but I figured it would be good here too. I made flash cards on the computer for all the boldface and ops limits, to be put on 4 x 6 cards. It's in color, but if you don't have color, the required limits all have asterisks. And the front and backs of the cards are on separate files for those of us who don't have duplex-capable printers. Unfortunately, this Blog program doesn't allow attachments (or I can't figure out how to make it work), so here's a link to there thread where I posted it. It's post #66 here Later!

So, I've changed my plans a bit. A friend of mine told me that if I get a hotel room in Pueblo, then I will have zero chance of getting reimbursed because I "arrived" at my destination. So, I'm going to get a room in C-Springs Tuesday night. On a similar note, I talked to another friend who went through IFS recently. He said him and a friend drove the 9 hours to get there, showed up in there civies w/ their blues in hand, expecting the IFS people to allow them the use of a restroom to change. NOPE!!! They said, "There's a gas station down the street, go there!" Well... OK then, good to know! He also gave me the low-down on the instruction there, and it seemed like it wouldn't be too bad. Yeah, you've got stand-up every morning, and the days are long in the beginning, but nothing impossible. He said they go through everyone at least once before calling you again for stand-up. So unless you've got a bunch of knuckle-heads in your class who keep getting sat-down, you will only get stood-up about 3 times or so. PT's a big one. If everyone doesn't get an 80, they make you redo it a few weeks later, NO waiver for the altitude! (That sucks!!) He did say the staff pretty much wait on you hand-and-foot, and the facilities are REALLY nice. YEAH! There is a plus side! On the down side, there are people out there who NEED someone to say, "OK, this is a wing, this is the landing gear, etc..." and from what I was told, they don't really take the time to really help people who are struggling. There's no pride in, "Hey, that guy was having problems, but I taught him right, and I'm proud that he made it through!!" from the instructors. There seems to be a, "Either you make, or you don't" attitude. This from an O-6 Spec Ops Herk driver. So, once again, it seems the lesson is: Watch your Ps and Qs, and DON'T fvck up!!

So I was saying "Later!" to some of the people at my squadron today and I got what I thought was some good advice from a Maj that I work for/with whom I respect quite a bit. He said, "The AF doesn't care if you've got zero hours or 10,000 at any of their pilot training courses. They care if you learn to do exactly what they say, exactly how they tell you to do it. They don't want to hear, 'Well, I learned to do it this way from my instructor.'" It made sense to me, and while I never intended to be "that guy" with "those comments", it just reinforced my plan to throw [almost] everything I've learned thus far out the window, and do <exactly> what they tell me to do, <exactly> how they tell me to do it. We'll see!

So, here's my Blog of going through IFS, class 07-11. I've never done a Blog before, so please no bashing if I break some rule of "Blog etiquette". There are a number of active duty pilot's there, and I'm sure at least one of them has heard of Baseops.net, so I'm not going to be doing any serious bashing of anyone, I still want to graduate!! And I won't guarantee spelling either, so suck it up if you're a grammar/spelling nazi!!! I'm driving out of my base this Tuesday for the 10 hour trip to Pueblo. Class starts on Thursday, but I talked to an instructor out there and in-processing is actually the day before, on Wednesday. Which brings me to my list of things I've learned so far in preparation: 1: Read everything on the Doss IFS website, they'll hold you to it. 2: It says on the website that you are required to check-in in blues (no service coat). What they don't say is that you CAN'T get there a day early, get your room, and make sure your uniform looks good after a good night sleep and a shower. They want you in your Blues when you step out of your car onto the IFS property. Me, I'm not about to wear my blues for a 10 hour drive, so I'm going to check into a hotel in Pueblo the night before. This will, of course, be basically on my own dime, since they won't pay for any more than a plane ticket would cost. Whatever. 3: I've heard through the grapevine that this is another weed-out course for the soon-to-be Air Force Pilot. In other words, they make it as hard as they think people can handle (which is pretty tough). I've heard washout rates are anywhere from 1 to 3 people per class of 25 (or so). Bottom line: I'm gonna be studying my ass off. I'll let you know how it is. 4: Read everything on the Doss IFS website, they'll hold you to it. So, a little bit about me: I'm not your typical IFS student. From what I hear and after reading their syllabus, this course is designed for a pilot or nav selectee who has never held the stick of an aircraft while under instruction. I have my Private Pilot's License (PPL) already. Granted, I've only got like 42 "pilot" hours, so I am by NO MEANS a "Hot Shit" pilot, but I have proven to an FAA examiner that I more than likely won't kill myself or anyone else while buzzing around in my Cessna 172. Which is something. Not much, but something. I'm also 29 years old. Once again, not your "typical" 22-23 year old selectee. I was prior enlisted in the, (ahem, no bad jokes please!) Marines for 7.5 years. The short story is that the AF simply had what I wanted to do (fly transport) in more abundance than the Marines. And, it was easier to get into the commissioning program in the AF. There isn't any more to it. So, while in the Marines, I was an enlisted navigator on KC-130's. I have quite a few hours up in the air, and my last 3 years in were as an instructor. I will say that when I left, I knew more than a little about how to operate in the sky (knowledge I mean, not the monkey skills). That was 4 years ago, though, so I am freely willing to admit that I probably lost quite a few of the important details while drinking beer in college, but not all of them. The IFS syllabus clearly states that a student may be moved through the syllabus faster if they have prior flight experience. Believe me, if I had my way, I'd take all 25 hours! I firmly believe that practicing flying is something you can never have too much of (within reason). I am going to do my best though, so maybe if it meets their standards, I won't spend the whole 6 weeks there. We'll see. The way I see it, it doesn't matter how much flight experience you've got. It's a weed-out course. If you don't work your ass off, they'll find some way to boot you. So I gotta say, I'm nervous. This is another step in getting to where I want to be. There is no DG or SP or top 1/3 awards at IFS. It's pass/fail. I wouldn't care if there were awards (seriously, what instructor at UPT would take you seriously if you told him about how you "Rocked that Katana, baby! DG at IFS!!! 20 whole hours, WAHOO!!!"). I want to make it through, make some friends who want to help each other make it through, and learn something. We'll see what happens!! Later!!

I'm at Whiteman now. Just met a 2Lt who's checking in here to fly the B-2. He's checking into the T-38 squadron, so I don't know how long it will be until he flies the B-2. Just filling in my $.02 from the other side of UPT (not me, the other guy). It seems it would be a crappy assignment though. Hardly any flight time (T-38 or B-2), and once your qual'd on the B-2, where are you going to go? Knob Noster is a nice little town and all, but I wouldn't want to be stuck here for my entire career!! From what I've seen, once you get into a B-2 specific job, this is where you stay. Any comments?

Boulevard Wheat! Nectar of the GODS!!! You can only get it in the Midwest though...