The End of This Journey

After 102.4 Hours of flying the U.S. Air Force's T-6A Texan II.....

After 179 Successful Landings with 0 Emergencies......

After 4.0 T-6 solo hours, including a POGO pattern solo, 2 x MAGOO area solos, and 1 x Formation Solo.....

After accomplishing every event in the T-6 Phase II syllabus.....

After 7 months of Undergraduate Pilot Training and $400,000 of military aviation training.....

It has been decided by higher powers that I am not to continue on to Phase III to fly the T-1 Jayhawk, followed by cargo/transport aircraft.

It has been a pleasure pursuing my life goal all the way up until track select in Phase II of UPT! Looks like my fellow USAF brethren are going to have to fight the nation's wars one less. Godspeed, and Check 6!!!!!

Class 11-01

UPT Class 11-01, Ace's Flight

Due to a poor winter in SW Texas and working 5 weekends to stay on the "time line" base XL initiated a base wide "wash back" of students to go back from their current flights to get back on track. From 8 February 2010 - 29 April 2010 I was part of Aces Flight, which was commonly referred to as America's Flight (thus the Captain America Shield in the picture above).

UPT in a nutshell

Fellow Ohio State Graduates show O-H-I-O pride on the T-6 Flight Line

Class 10-15

UPT Class 10-15, Longhorns Flight

I started UPT with Class 10-15 (the 15th flight class to start in fiscal year 2010) on 8 September 2009. We went through Phase I together for 6 weeks, then spilt into our 2 respective flights - I was in Longhorns Flight. I was part of 10-15 from my first T-6 flight on 23 October 2009 - 8 February 2010.

The menacing 10-15 class patch that we designed, purchased, and wore on our right shoulder after we all got past our mid-phase check ride

The 10-15 "Friday Patch" we wore on fridays

Weclome to The EMAN Flight Log

Welcome to The EMAN Flight Log! I have created this "flight log" to keep my family and friends updated with my day-to-day training as I go through the U.S. Air Force's Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT). Enjoy!

Me!

What I fly:

I fly the T-6A Texan II - a two seat trainer that is fully aerobatic and includes a pressurized cockpit, Anti-G system, and two Mark 16 Ejection Seats. The T-6 has a 1,100 horse power engine (equal to 2,975 lbs of thrust) which hauls the aircraft up to 320 miles per hour (Mach 0.67) . The T-6 can climb up to 31,000 ft and costs $5.61 million per aircraft.

T-6A Texan II

It's GO Time !!!

UPT Week 32 (April 19-23)

Formation Solo Time!!!

Monday April 19, 2010 (Day 144)
Double Turn! Normal formation flight in the morning (F4302) and then...

FORMATION SOLO in the afternoon (F4201)!!!! Yep, thats right! I flew by myself (SOLO) versus another IP in another jet (who happened to also be solo). It was very cool! It was the ultimate culmination of fly abilities; solo, aerobatics, and flying in close formation for the entire sortie. It was very empowering to know that they trusted me not only to fly solo, but to go do it flying in formation!!! It was an AWESOME day!!!!!


Tuesday April 20, 2010 ( Day 145)
Double Turn Formation Flights

Wednesday April 21, 2010 (Day 146)
Double Turn Formation Flights (again)

Thursday April 22, 2010 (Day 147)
Double Turn Formation Flights (and again)

Friday April 23, 2010 (Day 148)
Formation Check Ride
0800 - Showed up early to make the brief (low cloud deck, so Instrument status)
0950 - Filling out bold face/ops limit (GPS-Bravo Status)
1000 - Weather changes to Dual, Qwail Departures
1045 - In the plane, WX changes to Dual, Highway Departures

After getting suited up, and briefed with the SUP at the front step-desk, he ended his operations brief with "And its a great day to fly." One second later.....ALL THE ELECTRICITY GOES OUT!!!!!!!! ( 5 Seconds later it returned). Standing there in the dark, non-powered ops area, all I could say to myself is....."OHHH SHIT!!!!!" (......foreshadowing is a bitch)!

UPT Week 31 (April 12-16)

A picture of how this week went....

Monday April 12, 2010 (Day 139)


Tuesday April 13, 2010 ( Day 140)


Wednesday April 14, 2010 (Day 141)
4 inches of rain over night!!!

Thursday April 15, 2010 (Day 142)
Flooding of up to 2 feet on the main roads!

Friday April 16, 2010 (Day 143)
No Fly

UPT Week 30 (April 5-9)

Monday April 5, 2010 (Day 134)
Filled out my "dream sheet" for what I desire to track - fighter/bomber, cargo/aerial tankers, helicopter, T-44 (with the U.S. Navy). We shall see...

Today was the most influentially, mixed-up, mind blowing, life altering, head shaking day that I ever experienced in my entire life. More than all the stress of applying for the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2003, more intense than getting pumped up for Field Training in 2006; more intense than all that!

Today I chose not to fly continue my goal of flying jet fighters (and thus becoming the next American Fighter Pilot). Either given T-38 fighter jet trainer or not, I do not possess the constitution to do whats needed, to do whats necessary, to achieve that goal. (In other words, I don't want that lifestyle)! I chose....T-44s & to train with Corpus Christi, Texas.

This morning was a train-wreck. Finally came to terms with something that was not what I envisioned for, oohhhh lets say the last 13 years! I asked myself if I honestly had what it take to even make it through the rest of pilot training. UPDATE: I elect to stick with it, and will continue on with pilot training.

Then I saw a sign! After walking back from lunch on the flight line, I saw a plane that I never saw here before, land on the runway. Looking at it closer as it taxied in front of me, it was a T-44 from Corpus Christi!!!!!!!! It just happened to visit this base at this time and land exactly at the time that I was standing out front. Wow. Im calling it a sign!!!!!!!!

On the way home, I was driving back into town while listening the song "Beautiful Day" by the hit band "U2". In front of me I saw a 2-ship formation of T-6s gracefully fly over the highway in close proximity, and I just sat there and said, WOW.......(it was beautiful).....what a beautiful day.

Tuesday April 6, 2010 ( Day 135)
No fly

Wednesday April 7, 2010 (Day 136)
Flew my first Low Level (L4101) mission, SR-281 to the south of the base. It was just ok. You fly 500 feet above the ground, and every single target point is either a river that is no longer a river (dried up), or a Y-intersection of roads (in which there are many of). So its more like a game of "find the random ground reference that all look the same." Thats about it. To the far south it was cool - there was a huge field that was covered with yellow flowers, and from the air it looked like a big Wizard of Oz scene. That was neat.

Thursday April 8, 2010 (Day 137)
No fly

Friday April 9, 2010 (Day 138)
Double Turn! Flew a low level in the morning (the 2nd of 2 low levels in T-6s) L4102. Flew SR-283 up to the North and it was a lot prettier scenery than was the south. Flew over the big Lake Amistad, then flew over canyons/rivers that I never knew existed in SW Texas. It was neat. Then upon landing, I only had 20 minutes to eat/drink and then briefed up a formation mission (F4103). That went well, getting better in many areas, as well as getting more comfortable flying 10 feet away from another plane!!!

Not quite as low as we fly low levels....

UPT Week 29 (March 29- April 2)

Monday March 29, 2010 (Day 129)
F4004

Tuesday March 30, 2010 ( Day 130)
F4101

Wednesday March 31, 2010 (Day 131)
No fly

Thursday April 1, 2010 (Day 132)
No fly

Friday April 2, 2010 (Day 133)
No fly

Just in case anyone is wondering why these 2 weeks weren't filled in with detail, it shows how things were going on in my "early-formation" life. Things were hard, and starting formation was a brand new ball game. It was an entirely different type of flying. Two aircraft, two separate areas of brand new responsibility, and even the ground operations were entirely different!!! Ohh eyah, and we were flying 5 feet (wingtip to wingtip clearance) from another airplane!!!! =0

These two weeks were interesting. The "ball crushing" was brought on in traditional fashion. But the part that I didn't do well with was when certain IPs would say what I like to describe as the TOP GUN stereotypical phrase "Its not your flying, its your attitude." I can take bashing of how I fly, but when its said that I have a bad attitude, thats when the rock met the hard place. Nonetheless, I got through it, and would eventually form solo and complete the T-6 syllabus.

UPT Week 28 (March 22-26)

Gear Up (in progress)!!!

Monday March 22, 2010 (Day 124)
No fly

Tuesday March 23, 2010 ( Day 125)
Flew! F4002

Wednesday March 24, 2010 (Day 126)
No Fly

Thursday March 25, 2010 (Day 127)
Flew! F4003

Friday March 26, 2010 (Day 128)
No fly

UPT Week 27 (March 15-19)

"Formation Flying......I never thought I'd see the day!"

Monday March 15, 2010 (Day 119)
89 ride - "an above average sortie on a challenging instrument day."

I nailed this ride...home run...out of the ball park! See what you can do when you get properly trained with proper flying continuity!?!?!? (To put things into perspective, those 4 instrument rides I flew last week took me 4 WEEKS to accomplish before!!! No wonder I was sucking at instrument flying!! I'm still kind of upset that I was even placed in this unfavorable situation to begin with, but I guess that's how the cookie crumbles. Thanks for all of your support!!!

1.4 hour “Elimination” Ride (73.5 hours total T-6 flying time)
129 Total landings

Tuesday March 16, 2010 ( Day 120)
T-38 Sim - it was sweet! I guess it's part of an on-going 2 year study that all of us T-6 trainees have to do before track select happens (in 5 weeks). I flew approaches to/from the airfield start at speeds of 250 mph, then went up to speeds of 600 mph!!! Then the sim dude put a T-1 trainer flying with me, and I got to dog fight (aka shoot it with my guns). It was awesome. I could definitely get used to flying that T-38, but I don't know how many trainees with 3-in-a-row hooked check rides track T-38s....

Wednesday March 17, 2010 (Day121)

Low Level sim, which just happened to be my LAST T-6 SIM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEEEE-HAHHH!!!!

Thursday March 18, 2010 (Day 122)
Flew my first FORMATION FLIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Boy oh boy I never thought this day would arrive! I flew with another student/IP combo in another plane, and flew in formations with our wings only 10 Feet apart!!!! Madness, just madness. Soooooooo close!!!!! =0 I was #2 for the first half of the flight, then we switched. I took the lead position and flew us back to base. It was sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!

F4001

1.5 hour Formation Ride (75.0 hours total T-6 flying time)
129 Total landings

Friday March 19, 2010 (Day 123)
Took a Physical Fitness Test......69 push ups.......69 sit ups......9:18 run (1.5 miles)!!!!!!!

UPT Week 26 (March 8-12)

OK Hands up!!! I give up.....NOT! I will N-E-V-E-R give up!
Honor Defend, Fight to the End, O-HI-O !!!

Monday March 8, 2010 (Day 114)

I4103 – hook, not ready to check yet (but I could have told you that)!!!!

As usual, Im not prepared to check tomorrow, so I hooked this ride and will get another shot at it tomorrow.

1.4 hour Instrument flight (67.9 hours total T-6 flying time)
129 Total landings


Tuesday March 9, 2010 ( Day 115)

Things went a lot better today, and performed at a level that should allow me to fly my checkride tomorrow.

I4103(2)

1.4 hour Instrument flight (69.3 hours total T-6 flying time)
129 Total landings

Wednesday March 10, 2010 (Day116)

Instrument Check ride !!!

Everything went well, except one thing (again). I requested clearance to a holding pattern to the west, but really wanted the holding pattern down to the south. After rolling off my approach, performing the missed approach procedure, contacted approach control, and turned south to do a fix-to-fix procedure to the south holding pattern. Not until that time did I realize that I requested (and was cleared) to the non-desired pattern! So I requested that I proceed to the south, but unfortunately the radio controller was super busy, and ended up taking 3 minutes to get back to me. Requesting new clearance was fine, but what I needed to do (but didn’t) was to head west (to my cleared holding pattern) instead of continuing to proceed south. For that…..U! (12U)

1.5 hour Instrument Check ride (70.8 hours total T-6 flying time)
129 Total landings


Thursday March 11, 2010 (Day 117)

Hold, did nothing today but work out (at least that went great)!!

Friday March 12, 2010 (Day 118)

Another squadron commander ordered 87 ride (1.3 hours). Why? Because my instrument training was lack-luster! My first instrument simulator was on 16 November 2009, my first instrument flight was on 12 January 2010, and I didn’t check until 10 March. It took me 57 days to complete 6 instrument rides. My breaks of NOT FLYING in between instrument flights were 14 days, 7 days, 15 days, 5 days, then a normal 3 day. That’s just wrong, so the SQ/CC is making me fly this 87 “Free” ride. The difference between an “86” and an “87” ride is that the first is flight commander authorized, where the second in squadron commander authorized/mandated (thus a bigger deal). My ride went awesome today! I was hoping to fly my 89 ride, but I guess this will do too.

1.3 hour “87” Ride (72.1 hours total T-6 flying time)
129 Total landings

UPT Week 25 (March 1-5)

Going through the vertical!!

Monday March 1, 2010 (Day 109)
Final Contact check ride (C4890) !!! It went really well……… except for 1 thing. I was so close to earning an EXCELLENT (with only 6 downgrades) but hooked for not doing one thing, resulting in UNSAT (with 9 downgrades). Sadly to say, this check ride was literally 3x better than my first check ride in terms of score! =0

1.4 hour checkride flight (62.6 hours total T-6 flying time)
125 Total landings


Tuesday March 2, 2010 ( Day 110)

So I was supposed to make up my checkride (due to hooking it) but since I had soooo many days from NOT flying, all the assistant directors of Operations (ADOs) were shocked when they saw all the breaks in training I had, so they gave me an “87 ride.” The dealio about an 87 ride (different than an 86 ride) is that an 87 is a super-special commander authorized ride that is so special that the hours don’t count in your overall total. I was surprised to get one! However, after looking at my breaks in training (BITs), I discovered that in this year alone, for the first 50 days, I didn’t fly for 42 of those days!!! (17 days straight of NO-flying due to weather, 7 days for administrative reasons that I have no idea about, and 18 days for me getting washed back). So doing the math, for the first 50 days of this year, I flew for 8 of them! =0

So the 87 ride went well, nothing special.

1.4 hour "87" flight (64.0 hours total T-6 flying time)
125 Total landings

Wednesday March 3, 2010 (Day111)

Had my make up for my check ride, sadly these rides – “89 rides” – are literally titled “Elimination Check.” So I flew with a Lt. Colonel who is the 3^rd level of big dog – and gets paid the big bucks to make the tough calls; such as determining if people shouldn’t continue with pilot training! =0

To further explain, where normal checkrides are evaluated by looking under a microscope, 89 rides are big picture focused – can this dude make it through pilot training?

As murphy’s law works, I literally had the WORST ride of my entire life in the T-6! It was bad. The only thing that went well was the only item I was initially worried about – my Emergency Landing Pattern (ELP) – which I shacked! Everything else, ironically, sucked. We were the FIRST plane to take off and even took off 8 minutes before sunrise – so it was still dark. The first landing I did, I didn’t even see our little inside runway, and lined up with the center runway! The RSU was calling winds calm, but we had a huge wind up at pattern altitude (1,000 ft) that was pushing me in towards the runway, causing tight turns off the perch down to the runway. In the area, I busted my MOA twice – a first for me! All in all, absolutely horrendous. BUT! As shitty as it was, I landed the plane nice and smooth and didn’t crash, so I got to stay in pilot training! YAY! Way to go me!

C4489 1.2 hours 4 landings

1.2 hour Elimination flight (65.2 hours total T-6 flying time)
129 Total landings

After I was done with all my contact flying, I got to relax…..NOT! Got thrown into an instrument flight and got to sweat through more tough flying – “Earning that paycheck!” It went pretty bad, for besides my long breaks of NOT flying, my instrument sims starting back in NOVEMBER 2009, and me trying to survive through pilot training, it was safe to say that I am not where I should be in instruments flying! In natural fashion, I will give it my all and do what I can to get back on top and pass that darn instrument check ride next week!

I4102 1.4 hours

1.4 hour Instrument flight (66.5 hours total T-6 flying time)
129 Total landings


Thursday March 4, 2010 (Day 112)
Last instrument sim (I2205) –YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday March 5, 2010 (Day 113)
Did a formation sim – it was neat. Only one more sim to do - EVER! (Until I track select into the next aircraft).

UPT Week 24 (Feb 22-26)

How inside the T-6 looks at night....dark!!!

Monday February 22 , 2010 (Day 104)
Another productive day at UPT! Had an instrument sim (I2203) in the afternoon - only 2 more instrument sims to go!!! Then had a NIGHT FLIGHT (C4109) - took off at 7:45PM and flew for an hour under the pitch black sky! There was a little bit of moon out, so that helped brighten things up a little bit. Flying in the night is apparently different in the sense that you have no outside visual cues, but then again, its pretty similar to instrument flying - where you don't need to see outside to navigate! So it was cool. Plus got to say hello to the moon from 2 miles above the earth! "Hello old friend!"

1.0 hour contact flight (56.7 hours total T-6 flying time)
116 Total landings

Tuesday February 23, 2010 ( Day 105)
SNOW!!!!!! It snowed today!!!!!! A raging cold from stormed down from the Northeast, made temperatures drop below freezing, and resulted in big ol snow flakes blowing horizontal with gusting winds! Burrrrrrrr - too cold!

Wednesday February 24, 2010 (Day106)
Did an "Out and Back" today - flew 100 miles up north to San Angelo, Texas......and back! Flew up there during the day, shot multiple instrument approaches using multiple runways, then landed and got a bite-to-eat. 2 hours later, started all over again...except it was NIGHT TIME! Flew back to XL in the darkness of the night. Those were the last 2 of my instrument rides!

1.6 hour contact flight (58.3 hours total T-6 flying time)
117 Total landings

1.4 hour contact flight (59.7 hours total T-6 flying time)
119 Total landings

Thursday February 25, 2010 (Day 107)
Did....nothing! =0

Friday February 26, 2010 (Day 108)

2 checked for my Final Contact Check ride – I should check on Monday. (C4507) 1.5 hours 2 landings

Departing the runway we flew through a flock of small birds. We didn’t hear any thumps nor saw any blood ‘n guts on the windscreen, but to be on the safe side we flew up to our high pattern (2,000 ft above the ground) and got a chase ship to come up and check us out. It actually wasn’t a big deal because it was just another plane flying around XL practicing landings. But we cleared them onto our wing and had a mini-introduction to formation flying – it was SWEEET!!!! I wasn’t flying, so I got to watch the other T-6 fly from 2 miles out all the way up to 10 feet off my wing!! =0

It was crazy amazing! If I can get through these next 2 check rides (final contact checkride and instrument checkride) then I will get to fly formation!

1.5 hour contact flight (61.2 hours total T-6 flying time)
121 Total landings

UPT Week 23 (Feb 15-19)

T-6 on Cross County - out in the Real World!

Monday February 15 , 2010 (Day HOLD)
Still on XC!

Tuesday February 16, 2010 ( Day HOLD)
Retrun from Cross Country!

Wednesday February 17, 2010 (Day 101)
Sat all day and did nothing. =I

Thursday February 18, 2010 (Day 102)
OFFICIALLY OFF FREEZE!!!!!!

Got a free flight to get me back up to speed - C4586 (I think my 4th "86" ride to date)! First time flying contact in 20 days! =0

1.2 hour "86" flight (51.9 hours total T-6 flying time)
105 Total landings

Then flew a ride that counted - C4505. Again, its been way toooo long since doing my last contact flight (due to flying instruments, being on FREEZE, and going XC).

1.3 hour instrument flight (53.2 hours total T-6 flying time)
108 Total landings

Friday February 19, 2010 (Day 103)
Had another busy day - 2 flights!!! An ever-so-learning instrument flight (I4104) and then a contact ride(C4506) in the afternoon with the old flight commander. There is always so much to learn in that darn instrument flying! I went to a new place - Junction Airport - about 60 miles to the North of XL. Learning learning learning! Later that day though, I had a rockin flight with all my area maneuvers and "turning and burning" - probably my BEST FLIGHT YET! I slapped that flight apart! And I swear to you, I heard my first "Double Click" on the radio!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Double Click" - when a student/IP performs an EXCELLENT landing , the control tower (or at UPT bases we also have RSUs - Runway Supervisory Units [mini-towers that control just the T-6]) gives the pilot a "Double Click" on the radio by simply pressing the mic trigger, indicating that the landing was shit hot!!! And I finally got my first Double Click - BOOOYAHH!!!!!

1.3 hour instrument flight (54.5 hours total T-6 flying time)
108 Total landings

1.2 hour contact flight (55.7 hours total T-6 flying time)
113 Total landings

If I had to guess - Davis Monthan AFB, AZ

UPT Week 22 (Feb 8-12)

Monday February 8 , 2010 (Day 100)
BREAKING NEWS: Due to over-sized class sizes, under-manned Instructor Pilots, and terrible weather, Base XL has initiated a series of major "wash backs" starting with my class 10-15 (convenient...NOT)! Yours truly has been hand picked to lead the charge (backwards)!!!

Class 10-15 is washing back up to 10 people (1/3 the class).
Class 11-01 (who started 3 weeks AFTER me), already wash backed 8-16 trainees!
Class 11-02 (who started 6 weeks AFTER me), are washing 20+ trainees back. ETC...

Effective immediately, I have been put on HOLD, and am awaiting pending paper work status (submitted last Friday) to be wash backed to Flight Class 11-01, Aces Flight. The waiting begins.....


Tuesday February 9, 2010 ( Day HOLD)
Standing by....to stand by. Its really hard - I (and one other) are on hold, or FREEZE, which means we can literally do nothing syllabus related. Ohh we can always study our 500 pages of pubs!!! =0 Its hard to sit back and freeze, while you watch everybody you trained with for the last 5 months progress ahead of you. I am officially dead to Longhorn Flight, Class 10-15. =(

Wednesday February 10, 2010 (Day HOLD)
Standing by....to stand by.

Today I died a Longhorn and was born an.......ACE !!!!!!!!!!


Thursday February 11, 2010 (Day HOLD)
Standing by....to stand by. First full day hanging out with A Flight, the "Aces", or "America's Flight." Its a completely new group of people, things are totally different, and my comfort zone got completely obliterated! =0

Even though I'm on hold, I had to complete a last-minute Navigation Sim (N3001) so I could on my cross country! SO I was taken off hold, scrambled into the OFT Simulator (see the bottom of Week 8's post for pictures of the simulators). I did an "EXCELLENT" job - so lets go cross country!!!

Friday February 12, 2010 (Day HOLD)
Standing by....to stand by. And..... going cross country!!! We originally wanted to go EAST - to Miami and then drive down to the FLORIDA KEYS!!! However, a huge ice storm front moved in over TX and decided to clog the entire coast east of me, rendering my new cross country destination to be....WEST!!! Here's the itinerary:

Friday - Flew to El Paso (Texas) to refuel, then off to Tucson (Arizona)!!!!! Spend the night with the cacti, had $10 of taco bell, and was happy to see all of the A-10s flying around!

Saturday - Flew to San Diego (California)!!!!! It was an AMAZING approach into a windscreen of the Pacific Ocean! The approach we flew in was right over the beach, then right over the bay with tons of boats, blue water, waves, and terrain that is 100% NOT-like here in Del Rio!

Sunday - Flew to Reno, Nevada - the "Biggest Little City in the World." Flew in, parked the plane, and drove to the slopes of LAKE TAHOE! Saw the lake on the drive there (obviously) and it was gorgeous. Spent the night there, hit the casino, didn't lose any money. Good times!

Monday - Got to sit ALL day. Ohh what day.

Tuesday - Returned to XL!!!! Flew from Reno, Nevada back to Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona (to get gas). Had a candy bar and a pop, then flew another long 600 mile leg back home to XL!

Hours:
N4001 - 1.7 N4002 - 1.1 N4003 - 1.3 N4004 - 1.8 N4005 - 2.2 N4006 - 1.9

10.0 hour cross country trip (50.7 hours total T-6 flying time)
101 Total landings

UPT Week 21 (Feb 1-5)

Monday February 1 , 2010 (Day 95)
Did my first NAVIGATION simulator - getting ready for going Cross-Country in a few weeks! It was neat to do this sim. (N2001)

Tuesday February 2, 2010 ( Day 96)
Weather was bad all day, but got a little better towards the end of the day. I got squeezed into an instrument flight, and even though it went better than all the previous, I will have to re-do it go procedurally get the Missed Approach Procedures as well as be sure to check the RAIM before doing the GPS Approach (in which previously I had NO idea that our base even had! AMAZING what you can learn in a day! =0 Damn you instrument flying!!!!!! (I4003)

1.2 hour instrument flight (39.4 hours total T-6 flying time)
101 Total landings

Wednesday February 3, 2010 ( Day 97)
No flying - for anyone! Cold front with lots of icing up at altitude (and rain)!
Here is a picture of the HUGE weather front thats been sitting over TX for the last 2 days.

Thursday February 4, 2010 ( Day 98)
What a DYNAMIC DAY!!!! Walked into the flight room this morning to start my day - as usual with the morning briefing! Better hurry because I have to then brief for my flight 20 minutes after the morning brief is done. Then the flight commander says that all IPs have a meeting til 1100, resulting in all 5 morning flights be canceled! =0 Then the flight commander said that we should probably find somewhere else to be until 11, so........

We went BOWLING!!!!!!! First time since 1994!!!!! 2 games in the overcast morning! It was fantastic! We got back, studied more (STANDARD), then BAM, the weather got a smidge better and they launched the fleet! I got thrown in last minute (literally) for an instrument flight - got to redeem myself! And I did! YEE-HAH! I still have some work, but I'm definitely making progress!!!! Now I'm technically allowed to go Cross Country next weekend!!! Beach or Ski Mountains???

1.3 hour instrument flight (40.7 hours total T-6 flying time)
101 Total landings

Friday February 5, 2010 ( Day 99)
Two sims today! My second navigation sim (N2002) and then yet another instrument sim (I2203). Looking forward to knocking 2 training events off the to-do list!!!

The Cloud City is up there!!! I know it!!!!!

UPT Week 20 (Jan 25-30, 2010)

Monday January 25, 2010 (Day 89)
Passed that dreadful sim!! Got a lot of good practice too! I continue with training!!!

Tuesday January 26, 2010 ( Day 90)
Flew 3.1 hours today! =0 I had another free-bee ride (C4586) where I got to get spun on all the flying that I missed out for the last 2 weeks. Then I had my second instrument flight, and to make matters worse it was at night! I couldn't see anything inside the plane! So that was interesting to see the stars and moon up there at night!

1.5 hour flight (32.7 hours total T-6 flying time)
94 Total landings

1.7 hour flight (34.4 hours total T-6 flying time)
94 Total landings

Wednesday January 27, 2010 ( Day 91)
Took my FINAL academics test in T-6!!! As in the last T-6 academic EVER!!! It was in formation and I got a 98%, missed one question - DOH!!! I wanted that ACE! So consider me ACADEMICS COMPLETE!!!

Then I had a night flying simulator (C3601) to get prepared for my night flight, which was tonight, but weather rolled in late and canceled that! So we'll try again tomorrow night.

Thursday January 28, 2010 ( Day 92)
Instrument Sim - yah. =I Passed! I2201, nice guy! Night flight? Weather canceled!

Friday January 29, 2010 ( Day 93)
Morning - final contact sim! YAY! It was also my 3rd and final emergency procedure sim. So I had to bring ALL my gear, strap in into the sim, and got to see all the different ways things can go wrong in the airplane! =0 HAHAHAAH. It was actually really good practice doing so, because it is quite important to take the proper steps in case of an emergency. Then, after this sim......

I got to SOLO!!!!!!! Not the baby-solo where I only had 3 patterns (a whopping 17 minutes), NO! A 1.7 hour solo!!!!! The first "landing pattern only" solo call signs earn the nickname "POGO" - like a pogo, that bounces up and down. That describes seeing the solos' landings, BOUNCE! Just like a pogo! So thus the name POGO! But no, this time I got to do the big-boy solo! The nick-name is MAGOO. Got to takeoff, go out the MOA (refer to week 17), and do all my aerobatics for an hour!!!! Then I returned (C4502, 1.3 hours long) and landed ALL BY MYSELF! And to make matters even trickier, there winds gusting up to 31 knots back at base, but I nailed that landing - BAM! NO PROBLEMO! I'm a big kid now! It was sweet!

1.3 hour flight (35.7 hours total T-6 flying time)
95 Total landings


Saturday January 30, 2010 ( Day 94)
Worked again for the 2nd Saturday in the row! I flew twice today! 1 contact sortie with an IP - to help critique all my aerial maneuvers (C4503). Then got to MAGOO again - AREA SOLO! Flew out to a MOA and did aerobatics for an hour without an IP, just me! Two stories:

1) Flew out to Area 7 low, about 40 miles south-southeast of XL. Bottom of the area is 7,000 ft above the ground. Now that sounds like its pretty high, in which it is. But you'd be surprised how well you can see below you - meaning you are still pretty close to the ground. There's a big high that stretched all along the landscape, and I was surprised to see all the cars out driving - perhaps it being a gorgeous Saturday? While flying above them and looking down, I thought about being in their shoes, and looking up at me flying. There was a bend in the highway around the middle of my airspace, and I couldn't help to notice 8-9 cars huddled right along that bend. I spent about 5-10 minutes contemplating what they were doing - there wasn't a house near by, no restaurants, no rest stop buildings, yet too close to the road to be a a junk yard. So in conclusion I liked to think they were watching me, just like an airshow!!!! A plane in the sky doing crazy stunts. It felt sweet! (Some naysayers say its not likely cuz I was so high, but I recall seeing planes dogfighting above me when visiting Tucson, AZ - as well as at the airshow when the fighters zip up to 15,000 ft in 10 seconds - its totally possible)!!!

2) Flying solo again and going to the MOA all by myself is simply bad ass. Period dot. I've been flying for over 3 months, and to finally get the keys (metaphorically speaking) and taking the plane out 30 miles away and play around in the sky for an hour with no IP intervention, no one else in the plane but ME! It was sweet. Doing the maneuvers for an hour is exhausting! So I took periodic breaks and did "border patrol" - just flying straight and level around your area to just sight-see and relax for a bit. It was the first time in training where it TRUELY felt good to make it to this point. Yeah everything else is grand and good to accomplish - but being up there with me and only me, it was an actual point where everything else wasn't a factor, and I could enjoy JUST FLYING!! (when u past an academic test, or pass other events, its great you did it, but there's still an immediate event to instantaneously take over that event to worry about and start preparing for. But in this case, the point where I thought of the appreciation of getting to this point, there was NOTHING else to take it over. I had a plane to fly. Nothing else, literally, nothing else in training could overtake that moment, and it felt extremely GRATIFYING!!! I thought of the phil collins song "In the Air Tonight" when border patroling, just looking outside and actually for once ENJOY FLYING (aka not training):

".......Ohh Lord. I've been waiting for this moment, for all my life, ohh Lord. Ohhhhhh Lorrrd."

1.3 hour flight (37.0 hours total T-6 flying time)
100 Total landings

1.2 hour solo flight (38.2 hours total T-6 flying time)
101 Total landings

Solo!!! Perhaps a MAGOO???

WHHEEEEEEEE!!!!!!
Note that there is no one in the rear cockpit!