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Its finally all over!! Wow it feels good! Ok well, Intermediates were not bad at all. It goes really fast. The intermediate sims are exactly like the previous sims except that you do stationside tacan holding, high altitude approaches, intersection holding, and you have to brief the approach before you land. Its all using real approach plates this time. You also have to do a flight plan and jet log for every single sim which is a total pain. There are 8 sims to do and I finished them in 6 days. The Monday after, I went on my first intermediate flight. I went with my onwing to Ft Rucker to do all my PARs so that I didn't have to do them on my cross country. It went pretty well. The only difference was that now I was doing most of the talking. I had to call for my clearance and all that. That night I swear the whole clearance sounded like one word. Tuesday and Wednesday me and two other got together to plan for our cross country. We were all going together to Las Vegas. I had wanted to go to Miami and D.C. with my onwing, but they didn't let him go that weekend so I was stuck going wherever they sent me with whoever they sent me with. Anyway, the part of the planning which tool the most time was finding all the pubs we needed. Going to Las Vegas required most of the low charts and plates for the whole conutry because you never know where you will have to divert. I suggest getting one of those approach plate bags for your instrument stuff. Had I gone to Miami I would have only needed one low chart and one approach plate. Oh well. We had to plan for the first day of flights plus our first Vnav flight. Each day had 3 flights and for some reason it ended up taking us 12 hours to plan those first four flights. We were already drained before we even started. THursday came along and we met at 0630 to check notams and weather and finish up last minute calculations for wind. We took off at about 0830 and between the three of us we had every configuration possible: I was under the hood in the back seat, another was in the back without the hood, and the third was in the front. Where you sit and how will all depend on your instructor. I made all the radio calls and my instructor handled all the radio switching. You can also ask them to take the controls whenever you want. The first day I did one holding and an approach at each airport. My friends did a bit more. We stopped every 2-2.5 hours. I suggest bringing a seat cushion. I dunno what I would have done without mine. You can check them out at the same place you get your vest. Something else I sugest is having two kneeboards. One for you approach plate and low chart and one for your jet logs and writing stuff down. Anytime ATC says your callsign, pull out the pencil and start writing. OUr first day we made it to Kirtland AFB in Albequerque, NM. I didn't get to see much of the town, but I did enjoy Kirtland Tower advising the 727 behind us to be cautious of our wake turbulence. The last two legs I was able to do with the hood off, and there were some great views on the way out there. We got in at around 1900, got a room on base, went out to eat, and went to bed. We woke up and were ready to fly that Vnav we had prepared before but weather was bad in the west. There was no way to go bu south then east. That's exactly what we did. No more Las Vegas, no more Vnav over the grand canyon. That Miami trip was looking better every minute. We headed out VFR to the south an I actually enjoyed the first part since we flew around and over mountains. Very very nice views. We just had to maintain 1000 AGL. It would have been nicer without the 3000 AGL overcast. We go south to El Paso and I was amazed to see all the sand that was being kicked up. The mountains and greenery ended and the desert began...just like that...no fading or anything. At 1000 AGL I was straining to see the ground. Our friends were on O2 at 11,000 and they were still in the sandstorm. We were headed to Pecos, TX and after El Paso, this Vnav was no longer fun. I'll just say we landed in Pecos and spent the night there. We found a hotel as if what just happened wans't bad enough, I find a 2 inch scorpion inside my hotel room. I've never seen one of these things before and I caught it with the ice holder box and showed it off a bit before I flushed the sucker. You can imagine we did a thorough scorpion check in all our rooms before we went to bed. The next day the sandstorm was over and we headed out to San Angelo and then to Collage Station and used a courtesy car to go to a really good burrito place close to Texas A&M univertity. We got a lot of attention there showing up in flight suits. It was pretty cool =). After we were fat and happy, we headed off to Kelly AFB in San Antonio. Luckily they didn't have any room in the Q so they took us to an awesome hotel literally across the street from the alamo. That was the best night of all since we went out to river walk and had some fun. The next day we headed over to Lakefront in New Orleans, changed and went to a little casino nearby. After an hour and a half, we took off to Mobile regional. We had some of their free pizza and then did a night Vnav north and around back to Whiting. The night Vnav was pretty cool since we all stuck pretty close to eachother and did touch and go's at a couple of airports along the way. We got back to whiting and I was extremely exhausted and very happy to be home. We were all very tired. My friend was so tired that when he got to mobile after the 110 mile trip from new orleans went to put the gear down once established on final, and the gear was already down! He had nevr raised the gear after leaving new orleans! I was cracking up when I heard that one. His instructor just let him fly the whole way like that. Luckily we all passed the checkride. I'm sure they took our exhaustion into account. I got my whole point to point backwards and had to be corrected, but besides that my check went well. Anyway, we got back and went right home. The next day we had the day off and then got our grades (which don't count in intermediate) back and did our debriefs. I still had two Vnavs (didn't finish those b/c of the whole Pecos incident) and two tacforms to do. The next day I went to Jacksonville with my onwing who's always a blast to fly with and I was laughing the whole way. We flew at 1500 AGL the whole way there and when we got to NAS Jax, his mom was there with an awesome assortment of barbeque dinner. We got stuffed! That's the best food I've had on any flight. We then headed back at night and I learned that prisons are some of the best landmarks to find at night due to their perimeter lighting system. It was a great flight. Night is probably the nicest time to fly. I then had the next two days off and the Monday following, I went to a place north of New Orleans for my tacform flights. These are pretty fun since as wing you get to look around a lot. You fall back a good distance and are free to go side to side. I would speed up a tiny bit to slowly get closer so that I could do 90 degree angle of bank S turns to get my spacing again =). Its basically a Vnav but with two planes. Both planes are supposed to know where they are and have the proper timing at the checkpoints. We got to Hammond, ate and then flew back along the coast at 1000 AGL over the water and islands all the way to south of Mobile then headed up to area 2F. The whole time I was thinking wow this is my last flight ever in the T-34. It felt so good, you can't imagine. I wsa toally rusty on my formation procedures and my IP helped me out a lot, especially with the area 2F recovery procedures. I didn't really feel like studying all that all over again for just one out and in and the IPs know its our last flight so they are all cool with everything. Don't completely blow it off though or it might not be fun. Anyway, we got back over whiting, I kissed my wingman off and went for the break the whole time thinking this is my last landing. I got lined up, touched down smoothly and was elated to hear my IP say "congratualtions." Woot! Woot! I taxied back and shut her down for the last time. Me and my form partner were looking at eachother with huge smiles as the engine wound down. In the line shack my IP gave me my grades said "congrats, you're done" and I was outta there. I'm now on administrative hold which means I need to phone muster every morning at 0900 until I leave on the 7th of May. I report in to Vance on the 10th and start class on the 8th of June. My graduation is currently set for the 12th of December. I'm halfway there! Thanks for reading this journal about my days at Whiting Field. I hope I've been able to give you a tiny peak at how life is here and remember that everything changes and could be diffrerent by the time you get here. Goodluck to you in your training and thanks again! I might continue this journal at Vance AFB, but I am not sure yet. Take care. |
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