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I really got a lot done this week.
Monday I had my 25 year physical which wasn't bad at all. Its supposed to
be the big one, but it was less stuff than before API. Tuesday I had my
first aero flight and also my first night FAM. Luckily I had my onwing for
both. We made it an in and out flight which meant we flew to another
airfield to split the two flights up. We first went out to area 1, got our
own little spot out there, and started doing some fun stuff. He demo'd
them to me then I tried to mimic them. My loop was ok, I wasn't pulling
enough at the start which is dangerous but then I started concentrating on
the accelerometer and was able to get to 3.5-4 Gs and stay there. The cool
part about this maneuver is the visual. The feeling isn't that great
because all you feel are positive Gs so it just feels like a tight turn.
But wow does it look cool. We then did a wing over which is pretty cool
because you get to float a bit when your nose is coming through the
horizon. The wing over is basically a lazy 8 but you get to 90 degree bank
when your coming back down. My IP during IFT demo'd the lazy 8 but we
couldn't go to 90 degrees in the tampico (like a trinidad). This version
was much cooler. After that we did a barrel roll which I just could not
get right. I was either rolling too much with not enough back stick or
vice versa. I had heard it was pretty tough to do and I was realizing why.
You need to get like 30 degrees nose up, start a slow roll, then be at 90
degrees AoB by the time you get to 55-60 degrees nose up. Then you want to
continue until you are perpendicular to your initial heading and
completely inverted. Then you just continue with backstick and roll until
you are back on course. We then did aileron rolls which are my favorite.
They are simple to do and they feel the coolest. Here you just bring the
nose up about 15 degrees and then just use full stick to one side and a
little rudder in the same direction. You get a bit of positive, floating,
and negative in this one and it tickles sometimes. I did a bunch of these.
He then demo'd the immelman, split-S and half cuban 8 but I didn't get to
do any this time. We had to head over to Mobile regional to land because
my onwing was hungry. It was already getting dark anyway. I thought it was
funny how my onwing ordered a pizza on the radio. I had to make fun of him
for ordering a vegitarian. He even had a diet coke with it. Its funny
because you should see what he normally eats. Anyway, as we were eating
there, to my surprise in this little airport, an F-16C pulls up to the FBO
and parks. It was brand new as the Lt Col was shipping it from the factory
to Hill AFB. It didn't even have the tail ID on it yet. He was in a rush
to go somewhere so I couldn't look inside but it sure looked big compared
to my little T-34. I sat out there and stared at it thinking if it was
what I wanted to do. I kept looking over at the lear jet next to it and to
my surprise it was a tough decision. I don't like that after one
operational tour they send you to something else. One option is UAVs,
another is a desk job or SUPT IP. I thought about being stuck in a small
town flying 4 hours a week and having another regular job to take care of.
Heavies fly a lot more, fly to big cities, and they don't have as many
side jobs. If you aren't on the flying schedule, you don't even come in. I
don't want a desk job and heavies don't have that one operational tour
then you're screwed thing. All I could think of that was good about the
fighter was the bragging rights. That is not good reason. I also
don't like the competition within the fighter squadrons. Some people love
this, but its not for me. When you choose an airplane you have to make
sure it is what YOU want, not what will make you cooler or anything. You
really have to consider the pros and cons of both. I didn't write down all
my considerations but there is a long list and you really need to think
about it.
Anyway, we got back in the plane, took off and
stayed in the pattern. Now I hadn't flown in a civilian airfield in a
while and I forgot how crazy it could be. Each time we did a touch and go,
we were turning in a different direction, sometimes going 45 degrees out
then turning in, then doing 360s, then zigzagging, climbing to different
altitudes and speeding up or slowing down. It was really nice to be flying
at night though. I love the city lights and the runway looks badass. After
our 5 interesting bounces at mobile regional, we went over the water and
he showed me how the lights on the ground could be confused for stars and
stuff and all the other night visual problems. We just flew around looking
at the lights and stuff and then came back to whiting and did a PPEL which
was a bit harder at night but I made it work somehow.
The next day, I went with another IP to do some
aerobatics back to area 1 and it went really well. He gave me some
emergencies such as a HAPL, LAPL, PPEL, PPEL(P), LAPL(P) and some other
stuff. It was basically another checkride since my next ride was a solo.
Everything went well. I tried the immelman, half cuban 8 and the split-s
and they all seemed pretty straight forward. The half cuban 8 is pretty
cool because you get a bit of floating and negative Gs (probably because I
didn't do it perfectly, but it was more fun my way). The split-s is
another good one since you have to roll upside down hold it for a second,
then pull back. You get some good sensations there too. We then did some
bounces at saufley and came home. He was happy and gave me 5 5s which made
me very happy. I went out on my solo the same day and the weather had
gotten bad in area 1 so I had to solo to area 2......again. I went out to
evergreen first to do my touch and gos and after 4 of them, I departed and
climbed to 8000ft and started to do aileron rolls. I then decided I had to
do a loop because it just wouldn't be right if I didn't so I pulled 4 Gs
on the meter, and held it. now my IP earlier that day had told me to pull
back more at the top since the elevator would lose effectiveness due to
the lower speed, so I pulled farther back and it turns out to be the wrong
thing to do. An inverted stall is a prohibited maneuver which isn't even
shown to us because of the danger. Well, that's exactly what I got myself
into. Its not exactly fun to be on your second solo after two aerobatic
lessons and getting into an inverted stall. But oh well. I pushed forward,
then thought I needed to go down to gain airspeed so I pulled back again
which stalled me again (both stalls the plane buffeted and one of the
wings dipped). I then pushed forward again and pulled back ever so slowly
letting it gain airspeed little by little until I had a enough to bring it
back around. This was a tricky situation because pulling back would stall
but so would pushing too much forward. I couldn't roll erect because I
would snap stall since I didn't have the speed so it was pretty
interesting. Needless to say I stopped doing loops and did like 30 more
aileron rolls.....to the point where my head still felt like it was
rolling 6 hours later. I love them. I got back and explained my loop
incident to some friends and their first thought was to pull back
more also since pointing the nose down would gain more speed so I had to
explain the whole excessive angle of attack thing like if you turn too
tight. My problem was more complex than a very tight turn. In s tight turn
you can stall by exceeding angle of attack even if you are going 120
knots. At the top of a loop you are already close to straight and level
stall speed. I was at both regular stalling speed AND going through an
accelerated stall at the same time. So pulling or pushing are both wrong
for different reasons. I never liked loops in this airplane for the reason
that it didn't have enough power to pull you through. My mistake was
pulling farther back at the top. The IP I flew with earlier that say was
wrong. At the top of the loop, ease off the back pressure so you don't get
into an accelerated stall which would slow you to a normal stall at the
same time.
The next day I had my formation class which
sucked and no one learned anything because the instructor just wanted to
finish and leave. Afterwards I had my last dual aero flight. I had done
really well on all my EPs before so he said we wouldn't do any EPs this
time and just have fun with aerobatics and some bounces. I did the loop
with him and this time I eased off on the backstick at the top of the loop
and I didn't even get rudder shakers. I haven't even seen an IP do
it without rudder shakers (well at least not until the guy I was with
today did it). We did everything a few times. We even did clover leafs and
"thunderbird turns" and those breaks you see fighters do where
you roll 120 degrees then pull back. I saw it on TV and had to do it.
Thunderbird turn is where you roll 270 degrees then turn. So you roll
right to turn left. We then went to brewton for some bounces and he wanted
to see some precision landings so he told me to land next to a truck that
was there. I complied and nailed it twice in a row. He took the controls
and tried it and missed. I got a 5 on precision landings that day.
The next day it was time for another solo. This
was my last flight into area 2H and my last time doing course rules for
any of the regular areas. I went to evergreen, got my 4 bounces out of the
way, then just did a couple of aileron rolls and just flew around the rest
of the time. I had done so many aerobatics the day before, I had enough
for the time being. Most flights you do about 30 minutes of aerobatics and
then do bounces and EPs. My last dual aerobatic flight we did close to 2
hours of it. I came home without any problems this time and after a few
hours of waiting and being cancelled 3 or 4 times, I finally got to go on
my second night FAM with my on wing again. This was the best flight of my
life. I wasn't being tested on anything, it was an awesome clear night,
and I dunno, I just felt good. This is what flying is all about. I
was saying to myself I can't believe I'm getting paid for this. Great
conversation with my onwing too. He's gonna try to hook it up so that we
go to Miami, then DC and an airshow on my big cross country during
intermediate. If we go to an airshow, we get to park our plane as part of
the show and stay there the whole time. No rush to get back. We went to
mobile international this time and it was an awesome set up. The runway
looked awesome at the edge of the city and it was right at the edge of the
bay so approach was right over the water with the city in the background.
I was loving it. We then came home and he asked if I wanted a normal entry
or a PPEL entry and surprisingly enough I chose the PPEL. It worked out
great and that was the end of a great flight. Next week is formation which
I have been studying for this weekend. I just have formation and radio
instruments left in primary. I hear the entire intermediate syllabus can
get one in one big cross country which sounds pretty cool. Good to know
that I am close to getting out of here. |
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