As I suspected I was double pumped through sims which at first was a bad thing. The first day I actually had one since I had the INAV lecture before. The first sim is super simple and they spoon feed you through the whole thing. You do basic simple stuff like tracking and station passage and radial intercepts. The second one is a huge leap from the first since you are doing approaches and departures already. The rest are all pretty much the same thing with VOR and TACAN holding being thrown in. You also get to do TACAN arcing approaches which takes some getting used to, but its not that bad after a while. Sim 2 and 3 seemed the hardest to me but after that it got easy. Part of the reason might be because for sims 1 through 4 you are in a non radar environment so you have to make all the position reports. For all but two of the sims you are using student approach plates which are sort of like the real thing except your MDA (minimum descent altitude) is at 4600 feet instead of 460 feet.  On 7 and 9 you use real ones which on 7 is a wake up call because the real version of the TACAN 23 approach into Whiting is a nightmare. You are doing a terminal descent while you are arcing and it has like 4 step downs once on final. All in all the sims weren't bad at all. 
     The first two flights started the next week and I didn't like how they went at all. I felt like I was behind the airplane all the time especially when I was doing approaches and trying to look at what altitude I had to be at which DME while on the approaches. I seem to have had a habit of giving myself reverse sensing on the CDI which meant I kept on twisting in the reciprocal of the right course. Once I put in 305 instead of 035 also. Oh well. For the flights, you use the student approach plates and you decide wat you want to do. You choose 3 approaches, one departure one holding and one point to point. They almost always go with what you planned out. In the first couple I suggest you do what you have had problems with. And as with all stages of training, always let them know you are having problems with it so they understand, they expect it and they are really paying attention to see how they can help you. The first night we landed in Monroeville to gas up and eat but for some reason they didn't have any more food so me and my IP had to starve. The briefing was at 1600 and we ended up taking off at 1900 due to a plane shortage. We got back at 2300 so we were damn hungry.  Our second flight was just an hour long.....half the time of the first. Wednesday we had bad weather and another plane shortage so we didn't get to go up. Thursday I got to fly though and the first flight was pretty cool since we did PARs. I did 4 of them at Ft. Rucker and afterwards, he did one while I had the hood off so I could see how it all worked. Its pretty cool. We then stopped at Florala and luckily they had some good food there. I had one of everything they had. That's definitely the place to go for food and while we were eating an Apache was doing approaches down the runway. The second flight didn't go as well since for some reason I just didn't seem to be able to hold altitude. I drifted as much as +/- 250 feet at times. I was also missing certain descent points during approaches and was very happy when it was all over with. When I got back I asked for a supervised practice in the sim and my new flight leader hooked it up which was surprising since it was so late. This shows how much they really try to help you here. I went in for my sim the next morning and for some reason everything seemed to start to click. I then went up for my end of block flight and did the exact same flight I did in the sim. It all came out perfect. I actually gained a little confidence for a change. I think the one thing that helped me out the most was my sim instructor telling me to say everything I was doing out loud. It worked like a charm. I said all my six Ts out loud including what altitude I was going to, how long I was going to wait before I turned around, what I was tuning in the OBS, what headings I as turning to, everything I was doing and planning to do. HUGE help. Its also good because the IP can catch an error before you even do it which saves you time instead of having to do it wrong and then turning around and trying it again. That was Friday and since they wanted me to start intermediate classes the next Monday since I was already selecting next Thursday, I had to fly on Saturday. I drove to Pensacola regional on Sat. to meet my IP there for the final checkride. It was the same guy I ha flown with the day before which was good because he was a good grader. The weather was crappy, but we took off anyway and went to do PARs at NAS Pensacola. I just had to do one on the check and this one was cool because at my decision height of 226 feet, he took the controls, I took the hood off and watched him land. We then went to do a VOR 18 at Saufley followed by a point to point to BUBBA (initial approach fix for TACAN 1 23 approach at NASWF). There I did TACAN holding followed by the approach which I managed to finally do all correctly for the first time. I did a missed approach and he took the controls and we went home. And that was the end of primary. WOOHOO! I was so relieved =) 
     Monday I had two classes which related mostly now to crew environments (T-38 guys still had to go). They told us that from now on, we could ask the IP to take controls while we looked something up, or ask them to change frequencies etc. My fave will be asking them to list off the DME and MDAs while on approaches so I don't have to have my head down on my kneeboard anymore. We were also taught all about aircrew coordination training all over again. Tuesday I got stuck with wheels watch which has to be the worst duty by far, but I got off after only 2 hours since the weather was so bad that they shut down the airfield. Wednesday I had VNAV and TACFORM classes. It was the same as the FRR class in API. We had to do 7 computer lessons for it also which only took one hour. We were out at 0930. Thursday was selection day and the 7 of us gathered in the skippers office. Some people were pretty nervous, especially the two who wanted fighters. I pretty much knew what I was getting. The skipper gave a little introductory speech, then went down the list of who got what. Both fighter guys got their fighter (one was a marine who got jets) I got my T-1, and another got his T-44. He'll be flying C-130s which is actually the hardest thing to get out of Whiting for any service. There are only about 2 slots per month right now for USAF students. All those rumors about being forced into a C-130 at Whiting are totally wrong, at least for now. After we found out what we got, the skipper told us to relax and gave Miller Lights out to those who wanted one.  He then asked us what we thought about the program and wanted us to offer suggestions on improvements. We talked for a little while then we were released and that was that. The next morning we had to show up at 0800 to talk to our liaison for the track we selected. None of them seemed to be available so that made for a pretty short morning. For those who want to know how I finished, I had a 64 NSS and got the academic award and the commodore's list (flying award). My formation partner was amazing. He got a perfect 80 NSS. I dont think that's ever happened before since when we checked in the skipper was telling us the highest ever was a 79.9. This marine actually scored higher than an 80 but 80 is the highest they can write down. He chose C-130s and as I said, its the hardest to get. They didn't have a slot, but they are going to find him one. I've heard you need a 55 to even consider jets/38s, but this isn't true. The 38 guy I selected with had a 53 and someone a couple of months back had a 46. I think what your IPs have to say about you is what makes all the difference. They also break your grades down into stages such as contact, PA, Formation and RIs. If you screwed up contact but were super human in PA and formation you can probably still get the fighter. If you want a T-1, don't worry, ask for it, you'll get it, no matter what. My goal, at least right now, is to fly C-21s with a C-17 follow on. Maybe I'll learn more at Vance that will change my mind on this like I changed from wanting fighters shortly after starting here. 
     Next week I start my 8 last sims here and the week after I go on my long cross country. I'm hoping to go to Key West, then stay in Miami the whole time but we'll see who I end up going with.