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WEEKLY PILOT TRAINING LOGBOOK
LAST UPDATED 6 February 2004
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As Of 6 February 2004 Includes Graduation Photos
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PRE-UPT THOUGHTS 10/28/02
These first few entries will be focused on what I expect to encounter at UPT (Undergraduate Pilot Training).  As I said in my Bio, this has been a long time in coming.  I'm as excited as one could be and can't wait to get started.  I'm also as nervous as could be because I love my current job very much.  I hate to give up such a good job, and leave all the good friends I've made there for the unknown of UPT.  Setting up this web page is one of the pre-UPT things I want to get accomplished.  I'm using this time before I go to do a lot of the things I want before I go.  I've been finishing things up at work so I don't leave anyone with big projects to complete.  I'm working as long as possible in order to continue to have health coverage and a pay check for the bills. I have also been out hunting that elusive 30 point Buck, haven't seen him yet.  I have 1 final vacation planned to Colorado in December for some R& R and I'll have some of the holidays to visit with the family.
      I plan on going up to Selfridge the last week of November or the first work day in December and completing the paperwork for my transfer.  I am under the assumption that they will issue me the flight gear I need and give me any other information.  I've had one minor speed bump thus far.  I made my reservations at Vance for my arrival and they informed me that I would have to reside off base.  This was kind of a surprise since at every other school I have been to they provide lodging even though your married.  I think it is a little unrealistic to have a reservist move his whole family when they will be going right back home, considering I've owned my own home for years and my spouse isn't going.  I don't think I will be able to support two households on 1Lt pay.  I'm sure I will be able to work it out when I get there, I can't possibly be the first person in this situation.  They said if I submit a letter to the Support Group commander they will see if I can get a waiver so I will be able to reside on base.  I hope so or otherwise I'm eating PB&J for a couple of years.  I'm going to see if a permissive TDY is an option so I can get some house hunting done or get my waiver submitted.  I went to Brooks AFB for my flight screening and I checked out O.K.  I appreciated the Guard Bureau paying for my trip down there. The guard taking care of the guard.  I believe at this time all the minimum requirements have been met and its a matter of time. I haven't flown for about a month and I haven't really studied much of anything, but everyone tells me to take it easy and be ready to drink from the fire hose when I get to Vance.
        It is my understanding that I will be flying the T-37 Tweet for the initial 6 months and then move on to the T-1 Jayhawk since I'll be going the Tanker track.  That should last another 6 months.  The final aircraft should be the KC-135 Stratotanker at Altus AFB OK for about 5 months or so.  Survival school should fall in there somewhere also, and I believe it is about a month.  Until the next entry, have a good one!
View a T-37 Tweet
View A T-1 Jayhawk View A KC-135Statotanker
28 October 2002 - 22 December 2002
     I'm finally gone from Ft Wayne.  My last day of work at the 122FW was 27 November.  All and all it was my best assignment to date.  I'm back on the streets as a civilian, at least for a while.  Eddie, the NCO (non-commissioned officer for you non military type) in the plans office gave me a good send off party at his house with most of the people I worked closely with.  I want to say THANKS A LOT EDDIE!!   It was a great party!  I think all of the 22-24 people who were there enjoyed it.  Jamie sent me some good pictures of everyone!  I think it is safe to say that everyone would like to thank Stephanie for the great meal.  She really went over the top, the food was outstanding!  I guess I'm going to have to see if I can find myself a Greek wife and have one of those "Big Fat Greek Weddings."  I wouldn't tell Mandy though.  I can honestly say there is a lot of people I am going to miss from FWA, then again there is one or two I won't. Overall I left completing most of the major projects, but there was still a couple of cats that needed skinning and I would have liked to have seen completed, but I hope they get a good qualified person in my place.  They are going to need it with all with all the things they have on their plate.  I wish everyone there the best of luck and I'll keep in touch as best I can.  I appreciate everything everyone has done to help me get to where I am today!
      I've managed to have some free time and catch up on a few things!  You would think being out of work for a few weeks you would run out of things to do but it hasn't been the case.  I spent Thanksgiving with family and it was rather uneventful.  I was able to deer hunt the first few days of gun season even though it was extremely cold and it snowed a lot.  Unfortunately only does passed by.  December 4 -5 I spent at my grandparents in St Joseph MI.  They are doing well and asked a lot of questions about what was going to happen.  I went bowling with gramps and his buddies.  He beat me in the overall 3 game series even though I had two 175 games.  I blame it on the house bowling ball.  On the way home I visited with my other grandparent in Edwardsburg.
      Now the FUN STARTS.  Dec 7 - 8 was my first UTA at Selfridge.  I was officially assigned to the newcomers flight.  Since I live outside the commuting distance I am able to get a room Friday night plus Saturday.  That's a good deal.  They put me up at a Best Western and it was a really, really nice place.  I think that is how they suck you in.  They are pretty efficient with there time.  I was able to get all my paperwork and medical stuff done by early Sunday morning.  I went over to the squadron and met everyone who was there. My orders for UPT were done with the exception of a few amendments, so it is official now.  The people up there are really nice and I don't expect to many real problems.  As far as the pilots go, most of the part timers are either deployed or working there civilian jobs. They don't fly on UTA weekends except on a few occasions.  I think that is great!  It keeps UTA's  manageable and allows everyone time to get the ancillary training that is required.  We spent Friday before drill looking at houses around the St Clair area since we may move up there if I can get a job flying on the base when I get done with UPT. 
      Vacation was my next order of business after drill.  We departed for Indianapolis on the 12th for a Indy to Denver flight for a nice ski vacation at Copper Mountain.  The weather in Denver on Friday was great, Highs in the upper 50's and sunny.  Saturday and Sunday were good skiing days, low 30's and clear skies.  I thought I was in pretty good shape but my ass was dragging out on the slopes. We were always short on breath and had headaches unlike the last few times I had been out there.  I guess I shouldn't expect a whole lot at 12,441 feet.  We flew home late on the 16th.  No broken bones for you naysayers who kept saying  "don't brake a leg."  I scoff  at ORM.  The last 3 Days I was at Selfridge out processing.  A few things got screwed up in the transfer, but I think I got most of them fixed.  I picked up the last of my flight stuff they had, but I'm going to have to get a lot of things when I get to Vance.  All my out processing is complete except for one more trip to FWA to pick up my medical records and stuff that didn't make it up to Selfridge.  Everyone has wished me luck and says I'll be fine.  I agree!  I was greeted with some bad news in the fact that AFRC isn't hiring new pilots for a while because they have to many under grade pilots, but I'm sure that will change over the in a year, so I'm not to worried.  They have to many GS-9 and GS-12 pilots who need upgraded.  They also found out about my Log Plans experience and we may be able to work that angle to get a full time job in their plans shop.  Time will tell.  I also found out that I will probably never fly the E models since they are scheduled to convert to R's in about a year.  I've been told that it is both good and bad.  It means I may get to see a lot of sand.  YEH!   Overall the transfer went well.  AFRC does things very differently then the guard.  It will just take some  time getting used to.  I will make my next entry after the holidays once I arrive at Vance and get set up.  I'm sure it will be sometime the first few weeks of January.  Until then, See ya.
Week Ending 5 Jan 2003  Last Pre-UPT Week
     We departed from home on the 29th as planned.  I had a full truckload of junk, so I better not acquire anything else while I'm here.  We left Ft Wayne about 4pm after having dinner with some family and stopped in Terre Haute for the night.  The next stop was Springfield Missouri after another day of uneventful driving.  We got an early start on the 31st (0900) and arrived in Enid around 2pm.  It's official; this place is in the middle of NOWHERE!!!    80 miles of nothing between Joplin and Tulsa, suddenly in Tulsa there is 8 lanes of traffic for about 15 miles and then another 100 miles of nothing to Enid.  You literally can see the Enid grain elevators from 15 miles away.  They seem to be so proud of the base they can't even manage to put up a single sign when coming in from the east.  After asking for directions we were able to locate the base which is on the southwest side of town just off of Cleveland Street.  Ironic isn't it!  We checked into billeting and received some good news regarding base housing.  As of Tuesday there is no one on the waiting list and I should be able to get my hardship letter approved.  I am staying in billeting for 10 days paid and up to 30 days total.  However, at $30 a day I need to get out soon.  I went over to the 71OSS and talked briefly with them.  I have to sign in on Thursday morning, in process, do my letter, and get my uniforms issued.  He said there would be about 28 in my class.  The base is nice, but very compact, 1.9 miles around the perimeter.  All the buildings seem to be new.  I've never seen so many airplanes on a single ramp.  I can't imagine how busy this place is during the week, especially the flight line.
     There was really nothing going on New Years Eve that we could find so it passed in the night as we slept.  I checked in at the 71st at 0800, completed some paperwork and was off to get my hardship letter and my pay started amongst other things.  By the time I turned in my letter there were 4 on the wait list and they said it would be about 10 days to get a room.  On Friday the 3rd I set out to complete my uniform issue and yet another physical.  That makes 3, count em, 3 physicals!  Luckily clothing issue had everything I needed, so now I'm ready to hit the ramp!  As for my physical, my eyes checked better than 20/20 this time which is a good thing because I won't have to wear glasses for flying ops, but my blood pressure was up again, probably white coat syndrome.  It couldn't be the stress, could it?  The parachute shop was able to sew up my uniforms that day so I drug them back to my room.  When I got back I noticed Mandy had all the stuff in the room packed up.  They had a room ready.  Thank God!  The room is in the oldest building on base, at least by the way it looks, but it will work.  It is small but meets the need.  There is only couple of other guys in the building so I'm sure I will find myself in the other dorms studying more often.  We moved all the stuff in and spent most of the day Friday reorganizing and putting it away.  The room has no microwave, TV, VCR, cable, dishes, or towels and Etc.  I did do some planning ahead and brought a TV, VCR and linens plus some basic dishes and stuff.  They are supposed to hook up the phone and cable next week so I should be able to get online soon.  We had to do some shopping to buy groceries, a microwave, and other necessities.  We spent some pretty hefty cash around town trying to make this place a little more like home.  We spent the bulk of Saturday watching movies, shopping some more, and pulling enough strings of the 3 flight suits and jackets to make a complete new one.  If they would cut the strings right, they could cut the cost of those thing by 1/3, that should be worth some money in the suggestion program. 
     Saturday evening about 6pm a couple of guys knocked on my door.  They said they were having a party downtown for at a place called Past Times for a guy in class who just put on Captain.  Yippee, no class leader (SRO) for me!!!!   Most of the guys in the class have been here for a while. Like since July.  Us Guard and Reserve are getting here with just enough time to get started.  The class is mostly active duty and they have been getting together every week for a while, so they pretty much know each other.  I think there is about 6 or 8 part timers in the class with me.  Anyway, we went downtown and met everyone, seems like it should be a pretty good class.  There is quite a few my age and a lot of the class seems to be tied down to the ball and chain, at least the ones who were at the party.  We stayed for a couple of hours and then went back to the room.  There is another guy for Selfridge here, he's flying HERCS at the 171st and he will be in my class, so that should work out.  He is from the Detroit area. 
     I was up sick Saturday night and didn't sleep much.  No, it wasn't from alcohol either!  Sunday we woke up about 8:30, had some breakfast and headed down to Oklahoma City so Mandy could catch her flight home.  I was very sad to see her go, but I was very happy she could come along to help me get settled in.  The next few weeks are going to be busy for us both as she starts back to school at Defiance College full time and I start class. 
     I think I am settled in rather well and ready to go for class.  Most of the guys I talked to all had about the same number of flying hours I do, which makes me feel pretty good.  The flying starts around 7:30 am and goes until 6pm.  There are 5 runways here and the planes are non-stop stacked up 3 and 4 at a time on each runway for landing.  If you like airplanes, there is no better place to be!!!  With all the air traffic, it is going to take a lot to get use to all the radio chatter and being aware of that many people in the pattern. 
     Hopefully I'll get some pictures and post them for everyone to get a look at some of the things here.  I'm sure the next entries will be a lot shorter as I won't have the time.  I hope everyone had a happy holidays and a happy new year!  I know I will!! 
     If you've ever seen the movie The Mexican, I think I found that stop light that was always red.  It is on the way down to Oklahoma City.  That is how in the middle of BFE I am.  It is nothing more than Wheat fields, cattle, and grain elevators (which pose a flying hazard) for as far as the eye can see.
Week #1 Ending 12 January 2003
Monday and Tuesday were R&R days for the most part.  At my dental appointment they found a small cavity, so I will have to go back at some point to get it filled and my teeth cleaned.  My civilian dentist had poked at it a time or two but decided to wait a while.  Tuesday was a total slack day.  I didn't sleep much on Tuesday night because I didn't want to be late for the first day of class.  Everyone was on time for class and we had a morning of briefings while in our service dress uniform.  We were able to put the bags on in the afternoon.  We received our T-37 pubs of which there is about 10-15.  The theme for the day was the next year would be the best time of your life looking back, but until we graduate it will be HELL.  Academic days are no longer than 8hrs of class time.  Thursday was the first true day of class.  Subject was aerospace physiology.  We covered such areas as breathing under G's, atmosphere, and gases.  We also started to cover ejection procedures once you're clear of the plane.  Items like the chute opening, body position, and times to reach the ground from altitude.  Tons of info.  In 2 days of class we covered over 100 pages of testable textbook material.  The first instructor spoke so fast it was ridiculous.  On Friday we started with outside parachute landing practice.  It was freezing out.  There was about a 20-knot wind and the air temp was below freezing.  They briefed us; we ran about a half mile, did some exercises and started with the chute drag.  This simulates being drug across the ground in a higher wind condition.  I started by being drug across the ground on my back until I could release myself from the chute risers.  Next we did the face first drag.  It isn't bad, just use leverage from the chute to turn yourself over and disconnect.  We then did the 2ft freefall to practice our landing technique we had been taught and graduated to the 4ft platform.  Landing is basically using the entire side of your body progressively from the side of your foot up.  We practiced falling all different ways including sides and rear landings.  We did about fifteen jumps from the platforms and then we went to the suspension tower where they hook you in the chute harness and suspend you about 8ft off the ground, question you about all the different places you could land, like trees, water, power lines, etc.  They then swing you and drop you 6 times in all the different ways you could fall, which depends on wind conditions.  One thing is for sure, I am sore as hell.  Especially my neck from trying to keep my head in and my legs.  It is hard to keep you head from hitting the ground.  You definitely don't want the chute to open until you are a ways down, because if you hang in that harness for to long, it gets kinda uncomfortable around Jr and the twins!  They hang you for about 10 minutes in the chute which is about the time it would take to get down from 10,000ft depending on other factors.  The rest of the day we spent covering spatial disorientation (SDO) and viewed several mishaps and discussed what caused them.  We also covered death spirals, how your senses are affected in flight, motion/air sickness, and how it is purely mental.  It is caused by anxiety, which in turn causes an acid build-up in the stomach which makes you toss your cookies.  SDO is pretty serious and will kill you faster than anything in the air.  For the non-flying types, SDO for example is when say you are flying in the clouds or at night and you may think you are straight and level, but in reality you have been slowly rolling or turning and you end up turning or possibly inverted and don't even realize it.  Finally for Friday, we covered the anti-G straining maneuver (AGSM).  The T-37 has the fastest G onset rate of any aircraft in the air force inventory, 17G's/sec.  Basically, you can induce G's faster than any other but the aircraft cannot sustain more than 6.67 for structural reasons and power.  Since there are no G suits in that airplane we have to learn how to use the muscles from your abdominal muscles down to your calves to force the blood out of your lower body and maintain air pressure in your lungs to keep you from becoming incapacitated.  It looks and sounds funny but it works.  I need a little practice before it becomes second nature.  To cap off the day, the new club on base opened up so a bunch of us went over and took advantage of the free food and beer.  Since I only live about a 1-minute walk, I had a few.  Next week should be interesting and we have our first exam.  They are also going to parasail us up to 150ft and 300ft and cut us loose for real parachute landings!  Saturday and Sunday were for studying and cleaning the room.   More exciting news next week!
Week #2 Ending 19 January 2003
Overall this week was a very good week.  We had a lot of fun and a couple of buckle down days.  We started off the week with some more parachute falls!  We then graduated out to the field for some parachuting via parasailing.  Besides the fact that there was a 12mph wind and freezing, it was a blast.  You can check out some photos on my link.  We did three tows up.  At altitude, you had a pretty good view of the base despite the really low overcast layer that restricted some of the view.  I guess it doesn't really matter because all you are going to see is flatland anyway.  The good thing is that they weren't flying.  When we parasail they have to fly a different approach as to not get to close to us.  Overall my three times up were pretty good and no one got hurt.  Because of the wind we had to do a lot steering in the chute, which made for a real good experience.  Not quite like sailing on vacation, but it works.  It's free and I'm getting paid to do this.  What more could you ask for.  Tuesday we did the ejection seat trainer to practice strapping in with the chute on, man-seat separation, and good ejection body position.  We did some SDO training in the bearity chair and finished the afternoon in the altitude chamber.  This was pretty cool.  They take you up to 35,000ft and then back down to about 20,000ft and had us take off our O2 masks until we got hypoxic.  They do this so we can learn our particular symptoms and then be able to correct the problem before you become incapacitated.  I experienced deep breathing, headache, and tingling in my feet.  Since the onset of hypoxia is insidious, you are awake but completely clueless as to what is going on around you and end up a big smoking hole in the ground.  Two guys were pretty much out of it and had to be told to put their masks on.  It was funny to see people who were out of it.  This training is important because the T-37 is unpressurized, which means by AF standards you have to breath oxygen above 10,00ft or you could become hypoxic in about 5-8 minutes.  The next thing we did was the rapid decompression.  They took us up to altitude and decompressed the chamber, which simulates what would happen in the event of a hole or something in the aircraft.  It scared the crap out of me when they did it because they surprised us with it.  The most notable effect in the chamber was the fogging that occurs.  You only stay conscious 1/2 as long after a RD verses a slow ascent.  So if those little masks drop down in an airliner, get em on because you wont be awake very long!  Wednesday we had our physiology exam.  Thursday we had survival training and were out at 0630 shooting off flares to signal rescuers.  The wind chill had to be about -20.  Definitely had a good case of frostnip.  Thursday afternoon we had our survival exam.  Two tests, two perfect scores.  It is a good start; I hope I can keep it up to the end.  One guy in class had a seizure like episode during class.  It was really kind of odd.  I guess he doesn't like blood and we were watching slides on how to treat injuries, which were of a graphic nature.  I'm not sure what they are going to do with him, he is still with us, but I'm sure he is going to have to get some kind waiver.  Friday we started weather classes.  I spent some time over at the cockpit trainers to start getting familiar with the inside of the airplane.  A lot of the class is AF & Naval academy grads.  The active duty guys are all upset that we already know what airframe us Guard and Reserve guys are going to.  They all have to compete with each other and when the aircraft drops come down in six months, the top grad gets first selection and then on down.  Basically, the bottom of the class guy gets what is left over.  Makes for some good conversation in the class.  A bunch of guys are going down to OKC for the rodeo.  I think I am going to pass.  I have a lot of reading to do and I would like to get some real quality sleep.  
Week #3 Ending 26 January 2003
This week finished overall pretty well.  Monday was an off day for MLK day.  Tuesday was a day of BS briefings and Wednesday/Thursday were weather classes.  Friday was the weather exam.  Missed on question.  Friday morning I also had my Air Force Ergo test.  I passed that also.  Pretty hard to ride a bike for 15 minutes.  This week was slow overall and I was able to read a lot of stuff and get some studying in.  Friday we had party over at one of the captains in our class house.  Some of the upper classes were there so it was a good time to get some good information.  Saturday I cleaned, did laundry and went to the grocery store.  Been having trouble sleeping so I don't get up until noon or so.  Puts a hurt in the study time.  They tried to move us out of the dorms this week because they are bringing some Army guys up here and they wanted to put them in this building.  The two of us in this building said they were going to have to order us out.  If they order us they have to pay to move all the cable and phone stuff.  They decided that they didn't have any money to do that so they let us stay.  If they would have asked a couple of weeks ago it wouldn't have been a problem, but not in the middle of classes.  I'm going to go over to the club and watch the super bowl and eat the free food.   We are starting stand-ups in the morning and I am so not prepared.  Stand-ups are one of the more high stress things they do to you here.  They ask you questions and give you scenarios and you have to work through them in front of the class.  I've started working my start-up procedures for the jet and other flows so it is one less thing I have to do when we actually get to the flight line in a few weeks.  Well, it is about time for football so I will write more next week.
Week #4 Ending 2 February 2003
Monday started out with the shotgun questions and the Emergency Procedures.  Luckily they didn't get to me and it was only for practice anyway.  I answered all the shotgun questions that came my way, they weren't too bad.  It was only for practice to get us ready for the flight line.  The rest of the day Monday thru Wednesday were classes covering flying fundamentals.  Things like takeoff and landing data, charts, maps, maintenance forms, airspace, instrumentation, and local area review.  This stuff was pretty easy.  It is basically everything they teach you to get your private pilots license.  Thursday morning started with the Air Force FACT test which is a physical fitness test you must pass if you are going to fly a fighter/bomber aircraft or if you are an active duty Air Force member.  If Thursday morning was an omen to the rest of the day it is going to be a bad day.  I failed the FACT test because I couldn't leg press the 280lbs the 10 times required.  I got lectured for about 20 minutes by the physiologist and when I asked if Reservist had to pass he said not to even worry about it unless I was going to T-38.  Since I am flying the T-1 I don't have to worry about it.  Luckily I wasn't the only one who couldn't pass.  Hell, a former strike eagle WSO didn't pass.  Thursday afternoon we took the fundamentals test and I got a hundred.  Friday we started Aerodynamics.  We covered lift, stalls, turning performance, and drag.   Apparently this test has a high failure rate.  After class a couple of us are studying a lot of the flight line stuff to try and get a jump things.  I'm still not sleeping all that well.  So I just stay up and study until I fall asleep.  I'm trying to find out if presidents weekend is going to be a 3-day, but they won't tell us what the schedule is going to be.  If it is I'm going to try to come home for the weekend.  Saturday I woke up to hear the shuttle had burned up on re-entry.  We probably could have seen it from here since it is only about a 150 to the south of here and it was a clear blue sky that morning.  The temperatures have moderated here a little.  It was 74 yesterday and it is supposed to get up to 75 today.   Today I plan on studying most of the day and taking it easy. 
Week #5 Ending 9 February 2003
I read in the base paper yesterday that two of the astronauts who died in the shuttle crash graduated from pilot training here at Vance in the mid 1980's.  It is pretty humbling to think that I am walking along the same lines of some of the greatest people in the world.  I'm pretty sure I'll never go into space, but I will be doing a lot of the things they did early in their careers and flying the exact same aircraft.  Pretty cool!  Well, the weather took a crap this week and it has been pretty cold again.  It snowed a couple of inches on Tuesday night and hasn't warmed up since.  This week was uneventful as far as all things go.  We had our Aerodynamics test Tuesday afternoon.  I passed with another 100%.  We then started aircraft systems.  We went over to the hanger and got our first real look at the T-37.  The airplane is pretty simple but there is still a lot of stuff you need to know like the back of your hand.  We'll test on that stuff on Tuesday next week and then it is off to the flight line to get to the meat of this program.  We had our first brief on Friday morning with out flight commander.  I will be assigned to the 8th Flying training squadron, B flight.  They broke the class up into groups of 15 as expected.  Our flight commander seems like an O.K. guy but there is a lot of stupid basic training type garbage to put up with.  It's only 4 months worth;  guess it could be worse.  I'm ready to get up in the air but I'm real apprehensive about what is coming up?  Everyone seems to be.  They gave us the whole speech about how we are expected to know everything before our dollar ride and that all they are going to do is show us how to fly the airplane.  We feel like we are behind the curve already but its to late now to try to catch up.  The most important thing I've learned so far is that you can't forget anything you've learned previous.  It's not like collage where you only really need to know 70% of the materiel to pass, because they will bring stuff up in questions that you learned in week one. Other than the standard scare tactics and BS it should be a manageable.  We had another EP this week, I didn't get hit but I was ready though.  A group of us got together and practiced our ass of to try and get it right.  I answered all the shotgun questions right so at least that made me fell good.  Today was basic clean and laundry day.  Not much else is going on otherwise.  I've got a lot of studying to do tomorrow.  As far as going home for weekend, it will not be allowed or at least let me say very, very, highly discouraged.  Oh, well what's another weekend in the great town of Enid.  Now the fun is going to begin!!  If anyone has a good idea for what to do for my dollar on the dollar ride, shoot me an email.   I'm looking for any hints.
Week #6 Ending 16 February 2003
Tuesday we finished up the systems knowledge and then pressed on to the flight line after lunch for some briefings.  I aced the systems test and then waited for what the afternoon would bring.  The afternoon consisted of briefings and getting as much information from the class leaving as we could.  Wednesday we had some more briefings and tried to figure out how things work around the flight.  Thursday I had my first sim late in the day and it got over about 1930.  It went pretty well but it seemed like a real good workout because I was sweating my ass off when I got out.  I can't believe how much stuff is going on inside the cockpit and trying to keep up with the jet was a real pain.  We ran through several landings and other stuff.   The guy said I was a pretty good stick for my first sim and the last few landings he just sat there and watched me.  We had a 0730 report time for the next day, our first official stand-up, and I was scheduled for my dollar ride at 0933.  Stand up went O.K. and the early rides were canceled because of weather.   I was pretty bummed out.  I was looking forward to the ride to help get a little more excited about flying.  These first few days I've been made to feel like I don't know what the hell I'm doing and can't seem to get it right.  Friday night was the first time in my life I've ever felt like I may be in over my head.  Everyone kind of feels that way though.  Nonetheless I slept in until noon on Saturday and I feel a lot better.  Bottom line is I know I can be a pilot and a good one, but the bullshit is killing me. I guess what makes it so bad is you are expected to know stuff and have no idea you are supposed to know it.  During the greeting sessions I came to realize that with the exception of my assigned IP and one or two others, I've been in the military longer than the leadership in the flight.   As you can see playing the game gets a little annoying.  Four in the flight got their rides in the afternoon and two of them tossed in the jet.  Everyone said it was worth it and it puts a whole new perspective on what were doing.  I plan on studying all day Sunday and Monday.  I need to get my crap together.  It was about 70 degrees Friday afternoon and today there is a 20kt wind and it is about 30 out.  I think I'll go rent Top Gun and enjoy my evening.  Hopefully by my next entry I will have a few rides in and have a little better grip on what is going on around here.  All and all it was a good week, just a little overwhelming. 
Week #7 Ending 23 February 2003
This week started out pretty good, especially since we didn't have class on Monday.  I was scheduled for my dollar ride on Tuesday, but didn't get it until Thursday morning because of the weather.  So far stand-ups have been going pretty good.  I've been able to get all the shotgun questions, but haven't had to do the official Emergency Procedure by myself yet.  Their system is pretty much by alphabetical order, so it will probably be about day 13 or 14 until I get hit.  The days have been pretty long so far.  Our show times are 0540 and they keep us pretty much for 12 hours, which sucks when the weather is only good enough to fly 1 day a week.  Highlights of this week were Thursday and Friday.  Thursday morning we took off at 0730 just as the sun came up.  It was kind of hazy but it was really fun and enlightening.  We went to the auxiliary field and then out to the area to do some maneuvers.  The IP let me fly almost all to the mission so I was pretty busy looking for landmarks and navigating.  The flight went really well.  We did a couple of straight in approaches of which I landed the second one, and I must say it was a good one.  I went out into the area and did some high G turns, some basic acro, and looked at area boundaries.  It is nothing like riding a roller coaster.  A Navy Lt gave me my ride.  He was a pretty good guy.  I was able to keep my breakfast down unlike six of the guys in the flight of 15.  One guy still needs to get his dollar ride next week since he finally got off DNIF(duty not including flying) for the episode back in flight physiology when he passed out.  I will admit that I did feel like crap when I got out of the jet.  I think after a few rides I'll be OK.  I must say it was pretty neat to be 400 feet off the ground going 200 knots at 60 degrees of bank watching the ground going sailing by.  Flying the pattern is going to take a little getting used to since it is so much different that the civilian ones.  Friday pretty much sucked because we were weathered out again and then as a class we really hosed up the stand-up, I mean bad.  They pretty much let us have it so it kind of ruined the whole day.  Not to mention about half the class didn't pass the knowledge test, so overall it was a pretty piss poor showing.  I passed but it doesn't really mean much if you don't get the whole class to pass.  Friday I went out with some of the guys in the class and we had a really good time trying to forget the whole week.  Saturday I spent doing the usual things around the place and went to see Old School with a couple guys.  That movie was hilarious.  Today it is back to the grind trying to get ready for tomorrow.  I hope everyone is having as much fun as I am.  Mandy called this morning and said that the neighbors house burned down.  I guess it broke some of the windows in ours and may have ruined some of the siding but otherwise no major problems.  For those of you who have heard me talk of my neighbors, it was the place we refer to commonly as the neighborhood crack house.  She said it was totally gone.  Hopefully they won't rebuild.  It snowed about 2 or 3 inches over night and the wind is blowing something furious.  Probably be stuck on the ground for the first part of the week again.  Until next week, have fun.       
Week #8 Ending 2 March 2003
The weather this week only got worse.  After complaining of going in at 0540 all last week, this week our show times were between 9 and 10 since the weather was pretty bad.  We had a 7000ft thick cloud cover over our head all week with icing conditions, which doesn't make for good flying when you are using the ground for navigation and the airplane has no de-ice capabilities.  The sun hasn't been out here for about 8 days now.  The snow piled up pretty deep and put a halt to all flying.  After another week on the flight line and I've still only had one ride.  It's getting kind of annoying especially since the IP's have gladly take the time to pound on us all week.  I did have a couple of more sims this week.  One was a basic departure sim to the areas and the other was an emergency sim where they throw all kinds of problems at you.  Those are a real pain in the ass because you actually have to apply all this information you have to stand up and recite everyday.  It's a lot easier said then done.  We still have one guy who hasn't taken his dollar ride, but I'm sure he'll get it on Monday.  It is amazing how you can have one good day and then one incredibly bad one the next.  Monday was a really bad day, during stand up and I got hammered on pretty hard because I couldn't recite verbatim a warning out of the manual (Dash -1) was about 30 words long, in which the IP called me everything but a white man.  It really pissed me off, but you've got to have pretty thick skin around here.   On Tuesday I missed stand up because of my sim and it was a good thing because I guess they really went off on the class because they had a few problems reciting boldface (boldface is emergency procedures you have to have committed to memory for quick action in the event of certain things happening), the problem wasn't with the procedure, but with the title of the procedure.  Nonetheless I spent all day on Tuesday writing out boldface.  Wednesday we had our stuff together and stand up went well, then on Friday we screwed it all up again.  I got called up to the center for the Emergency situation.  I was able to get it to successfully control the situation and recover the aircraft with no real issues.  An emergency situation (EP) is where they call you up in front of everyone and give you a messed up scenario and you have to walk it through step by painfully detailed step to a logical conclusion.  I got dinged for not asking my IP if he checked his oxygen, then again I figured since he wasn't helping with the problem, he could at least take care of himself.  I'm just kidding about that, they just want to make sure you check everything and I forgot to ask if he had done the same.  If you screw something up, you can't fly that morning as punishment for not knowing everything.  We had our first class casualty this week.  We had our first person eliminated from the program on Tuesday.  It's to bad and you hate to see someone go.  If the statistics hold up, only 5 more to go.  There are now only 14 in my flight, and 29 total in the class.  Friday we had academics, and we are starting instruments.  They claim this is the hardest test and I believe em since you don't have any time to study.  They also said they are going to teach us instruments in 3 weeks, verses what takes 4-5 months in the civilian world.  Other than the usual, it was a slow uneventful week.  Hopefully I'll fly 5 or 6 times next week and have more to report.  I'm expecting some company the end of next week, which will be a nice change.  
Week #9 Ending 9 March 2003
This week went somewhat better.  We lost yet another person from my class this week.  Our class is now 13.  That leaves 4 more before the program is over to meet the statistics.  I only got to fly 2 times this week because we again had more bad weather.  The first flight went O.K. but the second we had to knock it off because my instructor lost his communication and we spent the rest of the flight using hand signals and stuff.  My comm still worked so I made all the radio calls and he flew the jet back.  We have finished the 15 day program on the flight line and now it will get a little more interesting since they can do what they want now.  One thing is for sure, Pilot training is no different than any other military school I've been to, there is a lot of wasted time.  As far as the flying goes, I've got a lot to learn and need a lot of practice to get caught up with the jet.  9 of the 13 in the class have thrown-up and I feel pretty lucky that I haven't yet.  Knock on wood!  They have decided to take the last thing we look forward to in this program and have taken our Sundays away from us.  Starting tomorrow we are going to fly on Sundays until further notice.  That absolutely blows!  The weekends give you the chance to forget about things and get some good rest.  Oh well!  I guess one day is better than none.  I picked up Mandy in Tulsa last night and we came back this afternoon so I could get some studying done today.  We have an instruments test on Monday and I'm not really grasping some of the concepts.  This could be a pretty tough one for me.  I've been really tired lately again, and I think I'll be going to bed early tonight to get some good sleep.  I'm scheduled to fly in the morning so I hope everyone has a good week. 
Week #10 Ending 16 March 2003
This week was a really long week.  I passed my intermediate instruments test on Monday.  I flew a 3 times this week.  We had all the late jets so I didn't get back until after 8:30 everyday this week.  So much for visiting with the wife.  My last flight this week was awful as far as my performance goes.  The others including the sims were O.K.  I'm having a lot of trouble with the overhead landing pattern and haven't really got any good ones in yet.  I'll keep trying though.  The schedule is pretty tough.  This week we have advanced instruments classes and some more flights.  The flight is doing O.K. as a group. We had a guy roll back from the class ahead of us so we are up to 14 again.  Friday we went bowling with a bunch of the class and we had a good time.  Saturday we had a barbeque and we went back to Tulsa.  We ate out and I took her to the airport this morning.   This week will be interesting.  I'm at the stage where another ride or so and we will be doing spins.  Everyone says they are not that bad.  Well, I've got a lot to do today since I haven't studied much this weekend.  I'll write more next weekend. 
Weeks #11 & 12 Ending 29 March 2003
What a fast last couple of weeks.  Sorry to all my faithful followers for not updating the site last week!  The question is where to start.  First, I updated my picture on the home page so check it out!  Week 11 I only flew about 2 or 3 times because again the weather (20-25 knot winds almost every day) isn't real conducive to flying around here.  The flights were pretty much crap because you can't get any real repetition in.  Plus we had advanced instruments classes, which are a real pain in the ass.  They are cramming a 5-month program for instruments into about 10 days.  Nonetheless it is progressing well.  My Dad came out last weekend for a visit, so we went out to eat and I showed him around the base and the huge town of Enid Oklahoma.  I think he enjoyed his stay.  I didn't study much over the weekend because he was here and that worried me a little because I had the advanced instruments test on Monday.  I passed the test with no problem at all and then the week proceeded to get pretty intense thereafter.  I had 4 instrument sims which were quite a challenge considering I have no real instrument time.  After the first one I realized that I need to study and I decided I would do it this weekend before I had another instrument sim.  Nice thought, but they proceeded to schedule me for sims the next 3 days.  Luckily for me the instructors are real patient because I didn't have a clue what was going on.  I not real sure what the method behind the madness is because we are still trying to figure out how to just fly the jet and then they expect us to do it with no outside visual references.  Anyway, its going along well, but flying approaches to airports you can't see and then popping out of the clouds a couple of hundred feet above the ground and landings is a little scary, at least when you don't have a clue what you are doing.  This last week was all late night jets again.  It is amazing how one week you will have a 1100am report and then the next week you will have 0500 report times like this week coming up.  Does no good for your sleep cycle.  We started advanced navigation classes this past week.  The learning never stops.  Monday I have a dental appointment so I probably won't fly until Tuesday.  I flew 4 times last week in addition to the sims so it was a real busy week for me.  The flights went OK but I still couldn't land the jet.  Finally, on Friday afternoon they gave me a pattern only ride and it went great.  I was finally able to land the damn jet.  I felt good to go up and not have the instructor touch the jet once.  I screwed up the first couple but then I finally got in the grove and put down 7 good unassisted landings.  It was a good thing because I am about 3 rides from solo and if you can't land, you can't solo and the program is over pretty quick after that.  Hopefully the good landings will continue and I should be soloing by the end of this upcoming week.  They say that if guys solo and continue (apparently a lot of guys leave after they solo) they make it all the way to the end.  I also started spinning last week.  Most people luckily will never get the opportunity to take an aircraft up to 22,000 feet and intentionally put it into a spin.  Imagine the aircraft rotating in a circular motion nose down at 360 degrees of turn every 3 seconds (very disorienting) and falling 550 feet for every turn.  If you do the math, it doesn't take a real long time to fall a long ways.  It usually takes 2-3 turns before the aircraft stabilizes in the spin before you begin the recovery process.  Spin entries are pretty smooth and not at all violent.  The hardest thing is keeping yourself from locking up at the controls, specifically the brain, and going through the steps to get the airplane out of the spin.  They're actually kind of fun.   Everyone in the class is progressing along, but we all have a long way to go.  On a sad note, we lost yet another classmate this week.  It was very much a surprise to all of us because this guy new his stuff and was the last person we thought would throw in the towel.  I think we as a class would unanimously say this guy was by far the smartest one in the class.  On a good note though, this freaking program is 1/4 over.......... 
Week #13 Ending 6 April 2003
Ahhhhhh!  Another week is over.  This week went by quick.  I didn't fly until Wednesday, so that was kind of a bummer.  Needless to say I didn't get to solo either.  I had another dial a death ride on Monday, which went O.K.  For those who don't know what a dial a death ride is it a sim ride where they throw every conceivable problem at you they can and see if you can work your way out of it. I flew on Wednesday and couldn't land the jet again.  Not good!  Thursday wasn't much better for landings but the area work went well.  I am up to par in everything but the overhead pattern.  I certainly hope I get better at it soon, or it's a short road to home.  Friday I got weathered out because the winds were out of limits.  This is probably the worst place for pilot training because it is always windy and they are never straight down the runway.  For those who are familiar with military overhead patterns, it makes it a real job to try and compensate for gusty crosswinds in the pattern.  Not to mention that they change directions about every other day so it changes the pattern you have to fly which makes you have to remember twice as much stuff.  I did manage to go to the dentist and get a cavity filled on Tuesday.  I needed to have that done!  I have a lot of work to do to prepare for the next week because we have a navigation test on Monday.  The hardest part is the damn whiz wheel.  If you don't know what that is, it is a circular slide rule that you use for all your computations.  It has been used for decades, but is a real pain to learn how to use.  You would think with modern technology we would find an alternative.  I guess that would be too easy!  I just need to learn how to use it for this place because you will never use it again after that.  They are really turning the heat up on us in class and we had a lot of guys hook(fail) rides this week.  We had 6 of the thirteen in class solo so far.  I should solo on Wednesday.  I have at least one more ride before that.  Friday we had a group get together and everyone had a pretty good time.  Everyone gets together and tells the weekly stories and it makes for a real good time.  The other flight had 2 guys get back to the flight room without getting dunked in the ceremonial dunk tank.  The fine for that is a case of beer from everyone in the class payable to the guy who got by.  So we had a party to drink the 14 cases of beer.  Today we had a barbeque, played wiffle ball, and volleyball.  I plan on studying and chair flying the rest of the weekend. Everyone have a good week!!!!!!
SOLO! SOLO! Week #14 Ending 13 April 2003
SOLO!
SOLO!
This week flew by in a hurry.  I pretty much double turned every day.  The week started off pretty well and I haven't had any really bad rides.  On Monday I had a marginal ride and didn't think I would solo because my landings aren't the greatest, or at least I should say the overhead patterns aren't that good.  I can land the jet fine once I get established on the final approach.  I'll be glad when I get to the T-1's because they don't do that type of pattern!  On Tuesday they took me up for a few patterns and the IP (Lt Hrynyk) let me go up alone.  It's a pretty big rush taking a twin engine jet up by yourself into the 3rd busiest airport pattern in the US by yourself.  However it is real nice not having anyone sitting in the seat next to you telling you what you are screwing up. I managed to get a few landings in with the limited amount of gas I had on board.  Once the nerves settled down a bit it was a total rush and it was a blast!  It was nothing like my solo for my private pilots license.  On Wednesday I started basic aerobatics.  Like I've said before, they never stop with the new things and it was right back into the fire.  The fun has started now.  Aero is pretty neat.  I've started doing loops (how cool is that), Aileron rolls, and a split S (for this maneuver, you roll inverted and then pull back on the stick back until you get right side up).  It's pretty intense when the G's really start giving you a workout.  I managed to get 6+ G's on Friday.  We had one guy in the class GLOC (G induced loss of consciousness) himself this week.  Shows the importance of a good G strain.  2 guys in the class had their first (midphase) check ride on Friday, and we have a 50% pass rate so far.  I should be taking mine on Wednesday or Thursday.  Wish me luck!!  For the midphase check you go up and do a profile and the check pilot evaluates your ability to safely fly and your knowledge of procedures.  If you pass you can then go out to the auxiliary field by yourself and to the areas to do aero by yourself.  Friday I had my pattern only sortie where you go up in the pattern solo for 1.2 hours and practice landings.  It's 1 hour and 15 minutes of having your head on a swivel, hoping you don't run into someone.  I screwed up my first pattern around the box by making a dumb mistake and I was for sure they were going to hook me for it but they let is slide.  After I recovered from that, the patterns went well overall.  I was pretty well whipped after 2 flights and was glad when the day was over.  Last night we went bowling with the group and had a good time.  Today I cleaned up the room, did some laundry and managed to squeeze in 9 holes.  The weather has been beautiful here all week, 75-80 and sunny.  I couldn't take it anymore and had to get outside for a while and do something.  I grilled out on the barbie this afternoon, and I think I might try to catch a movie tonight.  I have a lot of studying to do tomorrow for my check ride so I'm trying to make the best of today as I can.  Mandy is supposed to be coming out next weekend, that will be a nice break.  I'll try to write more next week.....
Week #15 Ending 20 April 2003
This week was both good and bad.  I'll start with the bad first.  As I mentioned earlier, I was supposed to check this week but it didn't exactly happen.  The week started out OK with 2 good rides and then it went to hell in a hand basket in a hurry.  I flew my end of block ride which is the only one you can't fail because you have to have a good ride going into a check ride.  Well I hooked my end of block ride (1st failed ride) on Thursday and then I hooked the end of block repeat ride because I couldn't land the jet.  I don't think the 30-knot winds helped either....  Bottom line is now I am down to my repeat, repeat ride tomorrow with the flight commander.  If that goes bad I go to a progress check known around here as an 88 ride.  That could quickly lead to an 89 ride which is the elimination ride.  Theoretically I could be 2 rides from being out of the program.  I don't think that will happen but it could, and it's one thing I have to prepare myself for.  I'm a little down over it but things will work themselves out.  If all goes well tomorrow I'll take my check ride on Tuesday.  Enough about flying for now and how about some good news.  Mandy came out for the weekend and we had a good time.  We played in a pool tournament with a bunch of the class and went down to Oklahoma City last night for dinner and then to a piano bar for a few hours.  She left this afternoon and now I'm feeling a little blah.  It would be real nice to just be able to take a week of leave and go home for a while to get away from this place.  I'll spend the rest of today studying and cleaning up around the room.  My neighbor and classmate is off to Texas this week to see if he can get over his airsickness.  Everyone but him has made it through their episodes.  I was one of only a couple who didn't get airsick.  The good thing is that this week is the half way point for being done with Tweets.  Thank god.  Hopefully I'll make another entry next week with some upbeat good news!
Week #16 Ending 27 April 2003
A much better week this week.  It is amazing how much moods change from week to week around here if you haven't noticed already.  I passed my repeat/repeat ride on Tuesday thanks to a couple of gifts by the IP.  Nonetheless I went to my check ride on Tuesday and got an overall good on the sortie.  There for I am midphase complete in the tweet and I am about 6 rides away from final contact and then it is all over for the fun stuff until we get to formation flying.  Until then, we will be doing instruments and navigation.  Our whole class finished up check rides on Friday and we had a 55% pass rate, which they say is about average for the first check ride.  Advanced contact is pretty fun.  Aerobatics are not to bad, just a lot of G's and going upside down.  The books say we do these maneuvers to demonstrate the fact that we can think just as well inverted as right side up. We had another guy drop from the class this week.  I beginning to think that there is something wrong with our flight.  I could go back and count, but I think it makes about 4 or 5 from my flight alone.  We had another guy fail his 89 ride yesterday so we don't know what will happen with him.  Good chance he may be washed back or eliminated.  We are down to about as many IP's as students.  Needless to say, they fly the crap out of the rest of us.  I had my first instrument ride on Friday and it went pretty well.  Pretty cool flying through the clouds and shooting approaches at airports.  I also had my final dial a death ride Friday morning.  The weather here started out pretty good on Monday and Tuesday until my check ride when there was a solid overcast layer in the middle of the high areas, so I climbed up above it but I didn't have required 8,000ft above the clouds to spin so I went back down to the low block and did my check ride.  It started to get windy later that afternoon when I went up on my next ride after the check ride.  Wednesday was weathered out because of high winds again and Thursday afternoon was canceled because of winds.  Not much else going on around here, just trying to continue to study to be prepared for the next day.  I posted a few new pics I received and I will try to get my solo pictures posted as soon as I get them.   We have our final academic test in tweets on Mission Planning Monday night so I've got a lot to do.    
Week #17 Ending 3 May 2003
Another week down!  I passed my Mission Planning test on Monday night.  T-37 academics are officially over.  A few interesting developments occurred this week.  We had another guy who was thinking he wanted to call it quits but I think we got to him in time and he is going to stick it out.  We will find out for sure on Monday since he has to make a decision by then.  If he goes it will put us at 9 in the flight.  Pretty skimpy numbers.  The guy who failed his 89 ride last week is at a Commanders Review (CR) and it doesn't look real good for him.  The guy who was getting airsick all the time got back from airsick specialist in Texas and has flown 3 flights without getting sick.  He should solo on Tuesday but they are going to put him back a class since he is over 20 days behind.  That really sucks because he has been with us since the start.  They could easily catch him up if they wanted to especially since we have so few students and we will likely finish early.  As we all know, its just a numbers game.  Our brother flight took their first cross country flights this weekend.  Our first ones to are going next weekend.  They are mostly going to New Orleans and then to Texas.  I will be going the week of the 16th and I am currently planning on going up to Offutt and then to Memphis.  Should be a good time but it is going to be a lot of work.  I had 2 area solo flights this week and they were great!  Nothing beats taking off from here and getting out of the pattern and going to areas and just flying around practicing the maneuvers.  Monday and Tuesday I got to go out and it was really nice out.  Clear and a million.  How many people get to take an Air Force jet out by themselves an screw around for an hour. I tried to spend as much time as I could upside down.  When else am I going to get to do that when I leave here?  Beats any roller coaster you'll ever ride.  And they pay me to do this!  I was able to practice all the aerobatic maneuvers and I managed to scare myself a time or two.  The whole object of going out to the areas solo is to go push yourself and the jet as far as you can so you know what your limits are.  I managed to do that.  I came pretty close to getting myself into a spin while doing a maneuver they call an immelman, or as we call it, the immelspin.  The weather was pretty crappy all week and I got another instrument ride in.  It was the first real flight in weather and we were down pretty close to minimums, and the clouds layer was a few thousand feet thick.  I managed to spatial D myself about 30 seconds after takeoff, thank god for instructor pilots.  I've really been struggling with instruments and all but failed my last sim ride.  For anyone who may be coming here it would be money well spent to get some instrument training before you get here, it will save you some trouble.  I didn't fly on Friday because of weather.  I'm glad I learned to fly at an airport where their was always a cross wind.  The freakin wind changes everyday and it shifts 180 degrees about every other day so you can never do the same thing 2 days in a row.  Today was the usual weekend, I went to get groceries, cleaned the room, and did laundry.  I plan on studying tomorrow to get ready for my 2 flights on Monday.  Friday night I went out with the guys from class for dinner and then went to play pool for a couple of hours to just kill time.  The instructors are telling us that we are a few weeks ahead of schedule so that could mean a little less pain in the whole deal, maybe even some time off to go home for a while.  We are only flying 3 days this week because of a safety down day and there is an air show setting up here next week.  I should be taking my final contact check ride the week after next.  I have about 6 rides left before my final contact check.  It will be nice to have that over. We had 2 guys check on Friday and so far we have a 50% pass rate for final contact.    
Week #18 Ending 11 May 2003
This week went by pretty quick.  As I mentioned we only flew 3 days this week so it was a little slow on the flying side.  I'm down to 3 contact rides and then I final check.  Monday started out on not such a good note.  I went on a solo ride to the areas and was having some trouble with my radios on the way out.  Once I did make it out to the areas the weather started to go south and they recalled us back to the base.  I sat in the hammerhead for about 20 minutes waiting for takeoff clearance and finally they let me go but the winds were in and out of limits the whole time.  I got to the areas and as I said they called all solos back and I started the return trip to the base.  As I entered the pattern the radios started to act up again and I couldn't talk to the RSU (runway supervisory unit) who controls the takeoffs and landings on the runway here.  I tried to figure out my radio problem but you don't have a lot of time to figure things out as you enter the pattern so as I approached the for landing I continued on but the RSU was trying to talk to me to tell me not to land because the winds were out of limits and they wanted me to circle until they could get me to a longer runway.  Since I couldn't hear them I continued to land.  My only thought was to get that piece of crap on the ground.  I didn't get into any trouble, but they weren't real happy.  I had a couple of instrument sims this week which I am getting a little better at but they are still giving me a lot of trouble.  Hopefully I'll get better at them as time goes on.  Tuesday we had our last guy solo and we had our solo party Wednesday night.  The party went pretty well.  We each had to get up and do a Keg stand for 10 seconds, make a toast, tell a funny story, and tell a joke.  The IP's then cut you tie off based on how much work it was to get you to solo.  The more tie he cut the more work it was.  You also had to by your IP a bottle of his choice of liquor.  Mine broke his before the night was over and cut his hand, but it was an accident.  We can now wear our new name and arm patches (View the Photos of the Class patch). It was a late night on Wednesday and then we had an early show for a bunch of sims.  It made for a long day.  Friday I had 1 sim and then I was off for the rest of the day because we weren't flying due to the air show on Saturday.  I finished my sim and went and played 18 holes of golf.  Nice and relaxing.  Friday night we had a party for one of they guys they are washing back a class so I went to that for his support.  We drank some beer, watched movies, and played a couple of yard games.  If we are not flying its like being in college, all anyone does is drink beer.   We are still holding at 11 in the class but we are waiting on the guy who has the CR this week.  I got a little sunburn playing golf because I forgot to wear a hat and I had just gotten my hair cut the day before.  I made it even worse today when I had to park cars outside for 4 1/2 hours for the air show.  Now my head hurts like crazy.  You would think that after 4 years of college and 10 years in the military you could get out of doing crap like that.  We were involuntarily volunteered.  Got to love it!  The air show/open house was O.K. but pretty weak by most standards.  Just wasted a day of my time.  I didn't get much else done so I will have a busy Sunday.  3 guys went cross-country this week and I don't really know how it is going for them.  I go next week so I will likely not make an entry since we won't get back until Sunday night.  I should final contact this week also.  We are night flying for our navigation portion of class this week so that should be a little different.  They call them out and backs, where we fly to other bases, get gas and then come back.  Our report times are 2:30 in the afternoon. Other than that, I wish all the mothers out there who read this a happy mothers day.  All in all it was a slow week but it was nice to have a little time off.  We have had some pretty rough weather this week.  Two tornados went through Oklahoma city in the last 2 days.  Luckily none have been to close to here.  We did get some hail last night, but it was nothing to major.  This week is going to be super busy with cross-country planning and final contact.  Wish me luck and I'll write as soon as I can.    
Weeks #19 & 20  Ending 25 May 2003
There is a whole lot to write about the last 2 weeks!  I finished all my pre-final contact rides despite some bad weather.  I didn't get to final contact before my cross-country because of the bad weather but it was my choice to wait.  It got cancelled on Thursday because of bad weather and I opted not to do it on Friday and risk not passing and then missing out on a weekend cross country.  Friday before the cross country the weather was really bad.  They clocked winds at over a 100mph.  It knocked some of the windows out of the control tower.  They tried to send us out early in the morning but that got cancelled because we were surrounded by thunderstorms.  We had originally planned to go to the north and then to Memphis but we had to change the plans at the last minute once we figured out that we were going to make a run to the southwest between the storms to get out for the weekend.  Otherwise we risked being cancelled all together.  We finally convinced the SOF (supervisor of flying) to let us go out between some of the storms.  We took off about 3:45pm and bounced our way out of Enid through the thunderstorms and we headed for Amarillo TX.  About half way there I called for the weather and the winds were out of limits for us to land so we had to come up with a quick game plan to go somewhere else while we still had the fuel.  We opted to go to Altus AFB OK to divert and that is when the fun started.  They told us we couldn't land there and then we informed them that we were diverting for fuel and they gave us the run around.  After an eternity of taxiing and explaining our situation, we got fuel and made plans to head to Dallas Fort Worth.  We couldn't leave Altus soon enough.  We made it to Dallas about 8pm and headed down town to get a hotel and some food.  We met up with a couple of other classmates and went out for a few beers and food.  We took off about noon on Saturday and headed back to Amarillo and then we made a long flight to San Antonio for the evening.  We had a ton of trouble finding a room to sleep in but it all worked out.  Sunday we took off about 10am and headed for Oklahoma.  After an enroute stop we made it back here about 4pm.  It was a really good weekend and I learned a lot about flying.  Cross-countries are a pretty non-threatening and a good learning environment.  Besides it was really nice to get away from here for the weekend.  I tried to study a little bit Sunday night but I really didn't accomplish much.  On Monday I took my final contact check ride Monday under other than the usual circumstances.  All the things that could go wrong for a check ride did.  The weather was bad, we had a restricted pattern and overcast layer up to about 4000ft.  I had to spin, do all my aerobatics, and maintain my area using only instruments.  To do it for the first time on a check ride is not ideal, oh yeah, I forgot about the runway change in the middle of all that.  I managed a good on the overall ride and now I can focus on my instrument training.  I have 1 airplane ride left and 2 sims before I take my instrument check ride.  I should take that on Thursday.  I wish I had a little more time because I don't know that stuff all that well.  I'm a lot more worried about that ride than any other so far.  The good thing is that I have only 15 or 16 T-37 flights left.  The flight room is getting a little more intense lately since no one has been able to pass an instrument stand up  EP.  I got sat down for the first time last week.  Hopefully I will only have to do 1 or 2 more.  They say they are going to take away our informal release if we don't pass on Tuesday.  Oh well!  I have been having a lot of trouble passing the weekly stand tests lately, and I don't know why. It has been a really busy 2 weeks, but only 4 more and tweets will be done.  Mandy made it out on Wednesday and we went to Dallas with about 24 others in the class.  We had a really good time.  We left in a caravan of about 8 cars and got there about 5 hours later.  We went out to eat at a Habachi restaurant and then we went to Hurricane Harbor Saturday afternoon.  Saturday night we went to a Texas Rangers game and called it a night.  Sunday we went to Six Flags amusement park and headed home.  We spent today cleaning up and catching up with the usual chores.  Wish me luck on my check ride and I'll write sometime next week.  I added a few more pics from the weekend to my pics page.
Weeks # 21 & 22  Ending 8 June 2003
As usual, it has been a busy couple of weeks.  I am finally simulator complete in the tweet!  Let me tell ya, it is nice not having to go back to the dungeon building and have the pain of doing those instrument sims.  One of my classmates said it best, "Sims are like a hot poker in the eye."  I finished the sims a week ago Wednesday, had my final instrument aircraft ride and took my check ride last Friday.  The weather for my check ride was good and I got an overall good on the ride.  The ride went really well and there was no major gotchas.  3 check rides down and I've managed to pass all three.  At least I've saved my 88 and 89 rides for formation.  We did manage to screw up the informal release by dorking up the first 4 or 5 EP stand ups for formation and we are back on a short leash until we graduate tweets.  Big surprise there!  I got stood up on a formation EP on Thursday and passed, so I theoretically could screw up the last few and be OK.  I have been having trouble failing the stan tests the last few weeks, but I did manage to past last weeks.  Friday after the check ride we drove to Tulsa and stayed the night in a hotel to catch our plane home.  It was really nice to get home and sleep in my own bed for once.  My sister had her high school graduation party on Saturday night.  We flew home through Chicago to Ft Wayne.  I noticed some cars at the guard base so I called and Eddie was working so we stopped in for a visit.  It was good to see that things are going good for him since I left.  He has got another NCO working in the office now and I think that makes a big difference.  There wasn't to many others around but I did visit with those who were.  Kinda miss that place and wish I could go back when this is over, especially since I'll be unemployed, but I don't think that will be possible.  Maybe they will need someone to mow the grass or something!  Not much need for a tanker pilot at a fighter base.  We managed to make it up to my moms for her party and I think my sister was pretty surprised to see me there.  We went to a lot of trouble to keep it a secret from her and it worked.  She was shocked to see us.  I was able to talk with a lot of people from home and catch up on things I've missed over the last 6 months.  Hard to believe I've been here that long.  We stayed around for 4 or 5 hours and eventually went home.  We went to the graduation ceremony on Sunday and my sister gave her Salutatorian address.  We managed to miss our plane ride home and it wound up costing me an extra 750 bucks to get home!  With the total cost of the trip after that fiasco, I could have rented a plane and flew myself home.  Monday we started formation flights.  Talk about helmet fire.  I had 2 form rides on Monday and was just glad we didn't kill each other in the planes.  We managed not to rub any paint off and it was pretty cool flying that close to another airplane.  To compare it to something the average person could relate to, it's like driving down the freeway at a couple of hundred miles an hour and instead of passing the guy beside you, you try to get as close to him as you can without bumping mirrors while trying to talk to people on the radio and giving hand signals between the airplanes.  It is really hard at first, but it is slowly getting easier.  I had a total of 6 rides this week.  I've been flying with a lot of different IP's but they keep the same student partners.  It has been the SRO and I flying together.  They say we will do our check rides together also.  It works out good because it allows us to practice together at night.  I'm down to about 9 or 10 T-37 rides and I'll be done with the tweets.  It is possible that I could check this week but not likely.  I expect we will check a week from Tuesday.  That's about a week and a half early.  The scary thing is that they are going to send us form solo this week.  I'm not nearly ready for that.  In fact, I don't even think it is a real good idea.  It will be interesting for sure.  We had a class picnic today at the park and played some baseball and hung out.  We have to work on Sunday for some unknown reason, which makes for a short weekend.  Things are moving along.  More news next week.    
Week # 23  Ending 15 June 2003
This week went well.  I flew 6 formation rides and they have all been going very well.  We got weather recalled one day and the rest have all been nice days.  You have to dodge the daily thunderstorms, but we are getting pretty used to them now.  Formation is getting a lot easier.  I was able to cap the week off Friday by flying formation SOLO with my flight commander and another student.  I had to lead the formation out to the areas, lead the profile, and then gave the lead to them and flew as wing for the rest of the sortie.  I can fly on the wing all day without a problem but I'm not the greatest flight lead in the world.  It is pretty hard to try and flow all the maneuvers together in an expeditious manner and then try and stay within your area.  I am getting better at it though.  I have 4 formation rides left before my check ride and I have to do one more solo because I don't have enough solo hours to graduate T-37's.  I will be the first to admit that I was scared to death to fly formation by myself.  You are so close to the other airplane and there is no one there to bail you out if something goes bad.  It was probably the most nervous I've ever been about anything.  However, when it was all said and done it was a really good time.  There is just nothing better than flying that airplane by yourself.  It is truly the greatest flights you will have in 37's.  These last few weeks have been kind of a pain in the ass in the flight because they still have us on formal release and we are there 12 hrs a day, even if you don't fly.  Not to mention the fact that we are senior class and we have the worst report times.  We had 0500 show times all week and again this upcoming week.  Hopefully we will get off formal release this week so that way when I finish up I can stay away from the flight room until everyone is done.  I'm hoping to form check on Wednesday.  We are scheduled to track select a week from Wednesday.  It is going to be close to get everyone done.  The other flight went to Wichita this weekend to fly since they are so far behind and we can't fly around here.  We painted our class patch on the ceiling tiles in the flight room this week and it looks pretty good.  I'll try to get a picture of it and post it.  Everyone is flying once a day for the most part, but with only 10 of us and flying formation it seems to make the days drag out.  If all goes well this week I should be tweet complete by Friday. That will be cause for some serious celebration!!  I will probably get stood up one more time in the morning formal brief for an EP and that should be it, I hope.  This weekend was pretty uneventful.  Friday a few of us went out to eat and called it a night.   Saturday I went around a tried to arrange for the class awards.  I got charged to come up with and order the gifts we will give out at the track select for the IP's.  I have everything arranged and should have them complete by Wednesday or so.  It is one of those things that no one cares about but we have to do it.  Saturday afternoon we went to a movie and I went out with a couple of the guys to play pool and have a beer.  I had to go pick up my truck from the dealer because I had an ABS problem and you couldn't stop it.  A couple of hundred bucks later and a new wheel sensor, it is fixed.  Today we went to the store and got groceries and the usual cleaning and studying this evening.  There isn't a lot of studying for formation, it is just chair flying the missions and getting all the hand signals down and radio calls.  This should be the last week of tweets for me and everyone wish me luck on my check ride.  The good thing is that I have saved my 88 and 89 rides for the end.  I'm looking forward to the end of the week. Hopefully I'll have good news next weekend.  I'll also write what drops the class gets and who goes where after track select. 
TWEET COMPLETE!!!!
TWEET COMPLETE!!!! Week # 24  Ending 22 June 2003
The report times didn't get any better this week so I had to get up early!  Twelve-hour days are starting to get pretty old.  We did manage to get off formal release this week, not that it really mattered though; I always had some other duty that kept me there until my crew day ran out.  Monday I flew a form ride late in the day and all went well.  On Tuesday I got stood up for my last T-37 EP in the morning.  I can say that stand ups weren't that bad.  I only got sat down once in T-37's.  I flew 2 form rides with the flight commander and they certainly weren't my best rides ever.  He decided to let me go to the check ride anyway.  Wednesday we showed up at 0600 for our check ride but there was some form of miscommunication and there were no check pilots available.  The weather was great in the morning but we knew it would rapidly deteriorate as it had all week previously. They moved the check time to 1100.  We briefed and took off on time.  The skies were clear when we took off.  Tim led out and ATC gave us the usual check ride screw over but Tim handled it well.  We each ran through our profiles and then the IP's flew around for a little bit since we had a bunch of extra fuel.  It was clear when we took off but by the time I had to lead the profile the big white puffys were building.  I lead the profile dodging clouds and then lead back.  Leading back started to be a fiasco because visibility was 3 miles and the cloud base was at about 5000 ft.  Luckily ATC called me and had to vector me for traffic, which was a godsend because I couldn't see the field.  We subsequently landed and debriefed.  I got a good overall grade, which is good enough for me.  Tim and I are the first in our flight to finish.  It feels good to be done although I will miss flying that airplane.  Two others in the flight finished on Friday.  The rest should be done by Wednesday.  I spent the rest of the week cleaning up my grade book and doing the usual extra duty jobs.  I was charged with getting the awards for the flight to give out so I got that finished up on Friday.  Tim and I went and turned in our T-37 books and got our T-1 books.  A lot more stuff to read.  Can't wait to get started on those.  I'll post a picture.  Friday a bunch of us went bowling.  There isn't a whole lot to do around here.  Saturday we went shopping up town and went to eat with a couple of guys in the class at a bar south of here called Eischens, which is the oldest bar in Oklahoma.  They had some great food.  We don't have any big plans for today.  I am hoping to get out and play a round of golf if I can.  It is very hot (upper 90's) and windy out here.  I've been trying to hang out with some of the guys this week because some of them will be leaving next weekend for home or their next aircraft assignment.  We are scheduled to track select on Thursday at 1730hrs.  It will be interesting to see what the other guys get.  There won't be to many T-38 slots and a lot of guys want them.  I'll post the drop next weekend.  I'm going to give Mandy a sim ride on Thursday; we'll see how she does.  I don't know what is in store for me this week, but I can say I don't plan on doing much if I don't have to.     
Week # 25  Ending 29 June 2003
I spent the majority of my week doing details around the flight room.  I had to make all the scheduling pucks for the new class and I also made all the new grade books for the 16 kids coming in to B-flight to replace us.  That took me most of Monday and Tuesday.  Wednesday I worked around the flight room a little more than I tried to go out and play a little golf but the weather wasn't all that good and I got rained out after 4 holes.  Thursday was red carpet day for our flight, which is where you take family members in to the flight room and show them a usual day.  The IP's made breakfast for everyone and then we did a mock stand up for family to see.  After that we signed the awards we were going to give out to the IP's and then went out to eat with some others in the class.  I took Mandy for a T-37 simulator ride that I think she enjoyed.  She got to do some landings and some of the usual stuff we do.  That lasted about an hour and 20 minutes.  We have a great track select video that I wish I could post to the web but the file is huge and would take up all the space I have.  If anyone is interested in seeing it I could burn it to a CD and send it.  The track select went really well.  There were 4 guard and reserve guys including myself who went to T-1's.  6 active duty guys got T-1's also.  At least 3 of them wanted T-38 so they were a little disappointed, but they seem to be O.K. with it on Friday. We also gained 6 guys from Corpus Christie and Pensacola.  That brings the total class size to 16 for T-1's.  The one guy who wanted helicopters got it so we all are real happy for him because that's all he talked about.  5 guys went to T-44's but 2 of them were reservists.  The class got 4 T-38 drops.  Overall the drops came as expected.  To recap, as it stands now the T-1 class is 16, the T-38 class is 7 with the addition of the guys from Corpus; everyone else has left or will be leaving very soon.  They wasted no time after track select in gathering us all up and handing out paperwork for the T-1 squadron.  I'm now moving to the 32FTS.  We had a 0630 show Friday morning, a bold face to turn and a whole bunch of other paperwork to do.  This was also the first time we met our new additions to the class.  Tim and I worked on all the paperwork until about 10 that night and then I came home and did my bold face and hit the sack.  Friday morning we went into the squadron and had our mandatory briefings and got to meet a bunch of the people we will be working with.  It seems like it is going to be a good learning environment, they act like they are going to treat us a little more like human beings.  After that, guys went to get thier pubs and then we had our first class at 1300.  Class lasted till about 3:30 and then we went over to the hangers and had our first look at the jet and did some cockpit training.  This plane is going to be fun to fly.  It is a fairly new aircraft and it has a pretty modern cockpit.  Can't wait to get started.  We have academics for about the next 4 weeks.  It is going to be hard to get back into the studying mode again, especially since I haven't really had to study very much for about the last 2 months.  Friday we went to Stillwater for the night because Mandy had to take a test early Saturday morning at the OSU campus.  I worked on some class admin stuff in the morning while I waited on her and then we came back here as the class was having a hog roast.  We stayed there from 2-9pm and then went over to some friends' house with some other couples and watched a movie and had ice cream.  I plan on getting groceries and studying the rest of the day.  I am off Thursday and Friday so we are planning on coming home next weekend if all works out.  Hopefully I'll see some of you then. 
Week #'s 26 & 27 Ending 13 July 2003
To pick up where I left off, we had 3 days of academics before the 4th of July weekend.  We started with Physiology and then got into the aircraft fuel system, basic operating limits, and engine operation.  Not all that tough, just a lot of numbers to memorize.  The good thing is that you learn what is important to study in T-37's, so makes it a little easier to sort through the T-1 books.  We finished up with the grueling academics (not) early on Wednesday and we left for home about 2p.m.  We got home early Thursday morning after a pretty uneventful trip of which I spent most of the time studying.  We got some sleep and then did a bunch of things around town that needed to be done.  It was great to be home again but with a little more time to spare.  Thursday evening Adam stopped by and we talked airplanes for a couple of hours.  Friday morning we went to the local Fly in breakfast at the local airport and socialized.  Following that we went up to Adams cottage at Bird lake and hung out there for the day.  It was nice not to have to worry about anything for a while.  The lake was the usual super busy 4th weekend but I did manage to get a ski session in after a pretty good storm passed through that day.  We spent the day soaking up the sun and talking about the usual, airplanes and golf.  Saturday I fixed up a few things around the house that had been neglected and went up to Lake James for a retirement party.  We went out with some friends later that night and then went home early that night since we had to leave early the next morning.  Sunday was a pretty uneventful trip home.  0700 Monday morning we had our first T-1 exam. I missed one question, but everyone passed.  We started the second systems section of the T-1 course after the test.  It was the ever-painful electrical system.  It is a rather complicated system and there are a lot of things to learn about it.  We spent the whole week on that system and had our test on Friday.  I didn't miss any questions, but still don't know a whole lot about it.  We had our first sims this last week also.  The first ride is a cockpit mock up trainer that we affectionately call the "Bamboo Bomber".  It is basically a wooden cockpit with a paper overlay of the cockpit.  I have been really trying to study a lot but there is entirely to many swithces in this plane (click here to see a photo of the cockpit).  Not to mention all the checks you have to do. I hope it will start getting a little better. Lt Vega and I had our first actual sim Friday night.  It was 4 hours of going over the checklists and actually moving switches for the first time and seeing the results of moving those switches.  It went well but I have a long way to go before hitting the flight line.  The feeling isn't much different than that at the start of the T-37.  You always feel like you are behind the power curve.  The good thing is that this airplane is going to be nice to fly.  We had a 1-hour class on how to program the radio in order to be able to talk to someone. I was able to fly the sim and shoot the approach.  The controls are really heavy and it is a lot different then what I am used to.  The cockpit is all glass (meaning no or few round gauges, everything is computer screens) and a little overwhelming trying to figure out what you are looking at and where what your looking for is.  You do feel like you're in the big leagues with all the displays and such.  We got out of the sim about 2030 and I went over to a friend's house and watched a movie.  Today I did the usual stuff around here and did manage to get to the base pool.  It was 106 degrees yesterday and was 100 today.  It has been really hot all week, almost unbearable and is expected to be in the upper 90's to lower 100's this week.  The rest of the weekend I plan on studying for another week of academics.  I plan on trying to learn the start and shutdown procedures as best I can.  Not a small task.       
Week # 28 Ending 20 July 2003
The most exciting thing that happened this week was that we got new name patches.  You can view it by going to the class patch page.  For those of you who know badges, it is the transportation badge since the Log Planner badge wasn't available.  The merging career field hasn't caught up with the patch companies yet.  Monday morning we had a test over avionics and electrical systems.  Everyone passed.  I missed 1 question over how to transfer panel displays from one side to another, however if they had worded it that way I could have answered it correctly, but no, they have to use big words like "lateral".  The question was really worded odd.  We had 5 days filled with classes and computer labs.  We spend a lot of time at the cockpit mock-ups going over the checklists and learning switch positions.  It is a giant pain it the butt getting this stuff committed to memory, but it is coming along.  Our T-38 class buddies have already had a couple of flights.  They have been under the hammer for a couple of weeks now.  Our time is coming very, very soon!  I just can't wait for those 12-hour days, stand-ups again, all that pain.  Art (our fix winged [a former helicopter pilot] qual guy) and I, who is my flying partner had a sim on Wednesday.  We went through the start up procedures again and then did several touch and goes with the occasional minor malfunction during the start up.  We did pretty good overall.  They gave us misc lights in the cockpit, engine fire on landing roll, and starting malfunctions.  Being in a crew airplane requires a lot of coordination in making verbal call outs at certain times and just making sure everything is going right.  The plane is pretty pilot friendly just a lot of switches and buttons.  I think we have one more week of academics and then back to the flight line.  It will be about 5 weeks since I've flown.  I've been trying to study a lot, but it is pretty hard to do.  It is nice to have a little break.  We have another exam Monday morning over the hydraulics systems.  I studied a little this afternoon.  It has just been a little slow the last few weeks.  Friday we went to the movies with some friends and ate at the local BBQ place.  Saturday I played golf with some guys in the class.  Not the best round of my life, that's for sure. We went to the pool in the afternoon because it is miserably hot out here still.  It was 110 (min) on Thursday and the highs haven't been less than 104 all week.  HOT, HOT, HOT!  You almost can't breathe.  Luckily I'm spending all of my time indoors right now.  They say we are going to get a little relief this week, upper 90's.  It hasn't rained for a couple of weeks now. It has been clear and a million.  Saturday night we drove to OKC to eat at the Outback.  I've spent most of the day sleeping and studying.  I have a sim in the afternoon and more classes.  All is well..
Week # 29 Ending 27 July 2003
We had 1 test last week and I didn't miss any.  Unfortunately the good times are coming to an end this week.  Classes end Tuesday morning after our last academic test before we hit the flight line.  So once again the Sunday blues are setting in.  I have a lot of studying to do today because we have an instruments test this week and then as usual they expect you to know everything before you get there kind of thing.  This past week I had another sim ride that went pretty well.  The instructor kind of gave me the shaft but I felt that I flew pretty well anyway.  Other than that, I've spent the majority of my days in the computer lab and classes.  We went over to the flight line on Thursday and talked to the class ahead of us and they said they have been working on Sundays since they got there.  Really looking forward to that!  Otherwise they said it was just like the T-37 side.  It was generally another pretty slow week.  I should take my first T-1 flight this week.  I have a dial-a-death ride, so I have to get ready for that today.  The weather is still hot.  We went to OKC this weekend to Frontier Land with some friends and went out to eat.  Hopefully I'll have more exciting news next week.  It has been pretty nice have some down time.  It gives you a little time to recharge the batteries.   
Week # 30 Ending 3 August 2003
This week was pretty interesting.  We started the week with our final academic exam over instrument procedures, both U.S. and foreign.  I missed one question that about 8 others missed also.  I had my dial-a-death ride Tuesday and it went pretty well.  They gave us the usual engine fires/failures, cabin decompression, hydraulic, and electrical malfunctions.  It went well for both of us.  When you do T-1 sims, students occupy both the pilot and copilots seat.  The instructor sits in the back and runs the computer inputting the malfunctions.  Wednesday we hit the flight line.  We spent all day going over aircraft malfunctions and sitting through numerous briefings covering every imaginable thing.  We did a publications review and went through our grade books getting them ready for the upcoming months.  On Thursday we had our dollar (first flight) ride.  Our show times all week were 0450, quite a shock to the system after 4 weeks of academics and getting up at 0800.  Plus we were having to do a lot of flight preparation getting ready so it was a few late nights with little sleep, not to mention the anxiety of going back to the flight line.  Thursday morning we briefed for the flight, which took about 1.5 hrs.  Our takeoff was scheduled for 0736.  We were assigned to fly with the flight commander.  The briefing was demonstrated to us and how we go about getting ready to fly.  The biggest pain in the butt about flying this airplane is computing the takeoff and landing data.  It takes forever!  This airplane is great.  It has tons of power and flies quite nicely.  It has modern avionics and takes a lot of the issues away that we had in the T-37.  For flights, 2 students go up with one instructor.  I sat in the jump seat behind the IP and student in the left seat for the first half of the flight.  We went out to the MOA (military operating areas) and went through a series of stalls, slow flight, climbs and descents, and steep turns.  We then went to Clinton-Sherman (csm) airport which, is an auxiliary field and practiced landings.  I then took over the controls at CSM and started practicing landings.  Even in the T-1 you do a closed pull up and do tactical overhead patterns.  These aren't quite as easy as it was in the T-37.  I then departed to the MOA and went through the same things as my stick partner and recovered back to Vance for a full stop landing.  The plane flies really nice and fast compared to anything else I've ever flown.  You feel like a big time pilot now!  I know I have a long way to go but at least you feel like you're finally flying a real plane.  The hardest thing I've found thus far after having my second flight on Friday was the plane does what is called a dutch roll, which they say all swept wing planes do.  Dutch roll the planes nose wobbles back and forth and can be a real pain especially during landing phase when you are slow and don't have any airflow over the wing and your fighting a stiff cross wind.  Its hard enough to keep the airplane lined up with the runway, let alone having the nose hunt around from side to side.  When it does that the spoilers on the wings aren't that responsive and its can be hard to counter act it.  This plane doesn't use ailerons like a normal plane to turn.  Instead, when you want to turn the plane a spoiler comes up on the top of the wing in the direction of the turn and disrupts the airflow over the wing which in turn causes that wing to lose lift and then that wing drops and you turn.  Not quite as effective as an aileron.  As I mentioned we flew again on Friday and I went first.  It was a really good flight and I actually enjoyed it.  I'm learning a lot and hope it keeps going well.  The days are long and the flight planning is pretty intensive, but I think I'll be able to get it.  Friday the weather was not as good but we were able to fly around the storms using the onboard weather radar, Nice!  We didn't have any emergency procedures stand up in the flight room this week but I guess they will start next week.  Oh well.  Not looking forward to it but I made it through tweets, so I should be able to do it there also.  I guess we will be doing them 3 times a week and then we will also have shot gun questions.  We did have a round of shotgun on Thursday and they were pretty tough.  The guy just opened up the books and start asking questions.  Friday night we went over to some friend's house and had dinner and watched a movie, but we were all tired so none of us made it to the end.  Saturday we got up around noon and did the usual shopping and stuff around town.  Today we are going over to the squadron commander's house for a social event.  After that I plan on studying for this week.  I should fly a couple of times this week and I know I have another simulator. 
Week # 31 Ending 10 August 2003
This week was an extremely busy one.  We only have to do 3 events a week and 1 flight or sim is considered one event.  Art my stick partner and I had Monday off, a sim on Tuesday and flew Wednesday thru Friday.  We had takeoff times around 0730 every morning.  With the brief times starting 2 hours prior, and then a good 11/2 to 2 debriefing after, it makes for a long day.  The flights went pretty well.  We do the usual stuff in the MOA's (stalls, steep turns, slow flight, and unusual attitude recoveries) and then went to CSM to beat up the pattern there.  I had a little trouble with the crosswind landings this week getting the sight picture for keeping the nose straight down the runway and keeping the dutch under control.  Friday I had a copilot ride where the student sits in the right seat and do what the instructor normally does.  It gives us the opportunity to see how an instructor would run the profiles and what an aircraft commander should do.  That ride went well once I got used to sitting on the opposite side.  It's nice that as soon you start to get used to where everything is in the left seat they switch everything up on ya.  Not to mention that all the buttons and switches are different but all the checklist items are different than what we've been MEMORIZING (that's another subject that I can't discuss in this forum)!  We are still in the unsat phase of training so they are grading pretty easy.  I have 1 more flight in that block and then I'm sure the blood letting will begin.  We have been getting more and more into instrument approaches and I suck at em, but I'll keep practicing.  We flew down to OKC and Tinker AFB Friday; it was nice to get to see some new places.  We had stand-up 3 times this week and I didn't get called up.  I'm sure my time is coming soon.  They are and aren't as bad as they were in T-37.  At least there are 2 of you up there and you have all the resources at your disposal as you would in the aircraft.  So you can refer to the books as needed.  We had academics every day after flying this week over aerodynamics and we have test on Monday after flying.  I need to do a lot of studying.  We will also be starting our first weekly stan test over general knowledge this week.  There just isn't enough time to study.  I've been sleeping about 5-6 hours a night and I get really tired by the end of the week.  I spent everyday after coming home from the flight room and had to plan the next flight.  It takes a lot of time and then a couple of us get together and go over whatever we need to for the next day. Needless to say, the days are long.  Overall things are going well up to this point.  Friday we had a birthday party for Mandy with a couple of other couples and watched some movies.  I slept in as much as possible this morning but it is hard after getting the body used to getting up at 0400.  I cleaned up around here since they are getting pretty anal about things.  They are having an ORI (operational readiness exercise) in 8 days.  For those who know what they are, they are a huge pain in the butt.  I don't know how much it will affect the flying operations, but I'm not looking forward to it.  It is usually a week of long day's and headaches.  Tomorrow we are planning on going to the lake.  We rented a ski boat from the base and about 6-7 of us are going to have some fun. 
Week # 32 Ending 17 August 2003
We rented a boat from the base and went to the lake on Sunday with several other classmates and had a great time.  I have some great pictures we took and I'll try to get them posted as soon as I can.  We went again on Saturday and it was another good time.  The lake is a lot like Cumberland in Kentucky.  Not as big but you hardly ever see anyone when you are out.  The week of flying was pretty busy.  I flew 3 times and had 1 sim ride.  All of them went O.K.  I'm getting better at most of the flying portion.  We flew to CSM for the first 2 rides and to McConnell AFB on Thursday.  We took our first stan written test on Wednesday and it was pretty tough.  I missed a couple of questions but I passed.  The plane is getting easier to fly, but I still have a long way to go!  The sim went better this time because we had a much better instructor.  I haven't got called up for stand up yet, but I'm sure my time will be this week.  I've got a lot of academic studying to do and I feel like I am way behind on the general knowledge.  There are 15 rides before your first check ride and I don't have to many left.  It is hard to believe that almost 8 months have passed since I got here.  It will be nice when it is over.  This place is going nuts with the ORI.  I had my room inspected on Wednesday, and it passed.  Not bad, it was the first time since I've been here that they have looked.  My neighbor Mark who was in my class graduated T-37 last week and is going to Corpus Christi to get started on his C-130 training.  It was his first choice and I wish him luck.  So far the biggest thing about T-1's is the preflight planning and systems knowledge.  A typical day is: report to the flight room at 0515, do premission stuff, brief for an hour, and step to the jet 1 hour prior to takeoff.  Preflight the jet, and takeoff.  The sorties last about 3+15 to 3+30 hrs.  Once back you debrief the flight for about an hour and a half, go over EP's and get ready for the next flight.  Usually that takes between 7-9 hours total.  We are on formal release until the first person goes to their check ride.  We are stuck in the flight room for about 11-12 hours a day.  The rest of the day is spent studying.  Not much else going on at this time.  I managed to get the worm running around and have been offline for most of the week.  I had to load a new virus program and spent most of the weekend getting my computer back up and running.  I should have it done by today. 
Week # 33 Ending 17 August 2003
Another week down.  I finally got those pictures posted I promised I would get uploaded from Kaw lake, so check em out.  This week went pretty well even though we had the ORI team here.  I flew 3 times this week and had 1 EP sim.  Monday we flew to Amarillo with a different instructor and we had a copilot ride on Wednesday to Tulsa with another flight commander.  The rides are going pretty well thus far.  Only 6 rides or so till transition check ride.  I can't wait.  I have a lot of studying to do as I've said before.  I forgot to mention that last week while while practicing stall recoveries in the MOA we had a compressor stall of one of the engines, makes you glad the IP's know what they're doing.  Let me tell ya, it makes a loud bang.  On our copilot ride, I flew first and it went pretty well.  We went to Tulsa and then to the Eureka MOA in Kansas.  That MOA is huge but it is a pain because you have to schedule it with McConnell and Tulsa and they don't really care for us that much.  We got the MOA scheduled and after some patterns at Tulsa we went there and did some work before the very directive F-16 guys decided they wanted the MOA and proceeded to tell us to leave asap.   We reluctantly agreed even though we had it scheduled.  Come to find out later the ops desk didn't tell us that our assigned time had not only changed, but had been shortened by 20 minutes.  We went back to Tulsa and an interesting situation developed there between a Cessna 172 and an American MD80.  This cessna had been cruising through the airspace and wasn't talking to anyone and the MD80 had to go around on a 3 mile final.  Let me say it was some interesting radio conversation.  I've never been on a commercial flight that had to go around.  I'm pretty sure the cessna was going to get violated, not to mention what the passengers might have been thinking.  On Wednesday I got stood up for my first stand up EP in the flight room.  Lt Clune and Myself were the victims for the day.  And OH Yeah, it happened to be on the day that the ORI inspectors were sitting in on the briefing to grade it.  No added pressure!  There were probably about 45 people in the flight room that day.  They gave us a flap asymmetry problem at the perch.  Needless to say it was fairly easy and we got through it without getting sat down.  The good thing is all I have to do is one more as a copilot.  On Thursday we did more pattern work and we had another interesting encounter.  My partner was taking off on initial takeoff and over rotated and we managed to get the aircraft into the stick shaker (Stall warning=bad).  That provided a little excitement.  On Friday I had an EP sim with Vega whom I hadn't flown with since the very first sim, and it went well.  They sent 22 different scenarios at us.  On 1 they gave us a 2-engine failure and I landed about 500ft short of the runway, but is was the first time I had ever tried the high key/low key forced landing.  I Did it a second time and actually made the runway.  Our show times are going to be a little later now that a baby class has started behind us.  The base is night flying next week but I don't think we will be.  I had dinner with a couple of the families from class last night and watched a movie when I got back.  I got up this morning and ran, since I am probably the most out of shape I've ever been.  For those who know of the situation I mentioned many entries ago, I bought the crack house next door last week.  Finally, I'll have some peace and quiet in the neighborhood.  The neighbors already appreciate it.  We've got a contractor scheduled to take it down in a week or so.  We are going to take up all the concrete and driveway and plant it to grass.  It will be nice to have some space between the houses.  We had to spend some cash to get it but it will be well worth it, even if we have to sell in the near future.  We basically got it for lot price.  Should be able to recoup that if we ever have to sell.   For anyone who may be reading this and planning on going to pilot training, the best times to have spouses or girlfriends visit would be the first 6 weeks of tweet academics and then after week 15 or 16 of the tweet flight line as you start formation until the 4 weeks of T-1 academics are over.  Most of the rest of the time is pretty high stress.  Nothing other than the usual weekend stuff going on here.  I went to the new exciting Wally world in town today the whole town was there.  I posted a pic of the parking lot, not an empty space.  We had another weekly stan test and I passed by the skin of my teeth.  Those things are pretty tough, and there is no gouge to study like in tweets.   I'll write again next week.
Week #'s 34 & 35 Ending 6 September 2003
Not a lot has happened since I last wrote.  I didn't write last weekend because I had company and there just wasn't a lot going on. I flew a couple of times the week before the holiday.  I am on my end of block ride on Monday, so I'm only 6 rides from the transition check ride.  I met MIF (standards) on my last flight so I should be good to go barring any major brain malfunction.  I flew a copilot ride before the holiday weekend and it was pretty interesting.  Let's just say I learned what not to do in the airplane! I was more scared after that ride than I had ever been in an airplane.  This forum wouldn't be a proper place to discuss those events.  Oh yeah, it was the first time both my partner and I got about as close to barfing as we had ever come, even counting tweets.  I had an 8-day break in training after those rides due to the long weekend.  They gave me a free (87) ride Wednesday, even though I said I didn't want it.  It just means that it is one more time I have to go up.  Every ride completed is one closer to being finished.  The flights are going really well!  Mandy came out last weekend.  I went to Tulsa on Friday and stayed the night after I picked her up.  It finally rained after months of heat.  We got weather cancelled on memorial Friday.  We came home on Saturday and had a barbeque over at Art's house.  It rained all day, but was very much needed.  Things are starting to green up around here again.  It was actually very cool over the weekend 70-80.  The highs during this past week were mid 80's.  Sunday and Monday were lazy study days.  As I said, I only flew 2 times last week.  I am having a little trouble keeping this plane trimmed in cruise, and they won't let us use the autopilot.  I got stood up on Thursday, so I should be done with the stand up EP's for a while.  Nice to have that monkey of your back.  The stan tests however are a lot harder than they ever were in the T-37.  We have had 5 of them so far and I've barely passed a couple of them despite a lot of studying.  Hopefully they will get easier.  A couple of guys failed twice last week.  That obviously doesn't make the IP's happy. They make sure they let us know during the daily hazing session of formal brief.  We've started shooting a lot of instrument approaches during our flights.  I'm getting a little better than I was in tweets, which is a good thing because you earn your money flying when you're in the weather.  Another good thing is 5 weeks are down and only 15 more to go.....Speaking of academic hardships we have an enroute navigation test on Monday morning.  The classes are a real pain and a lot of people are worried about this one because it is very vague and there is a lot of stuff to cover.  Wish me luck on that one.  The senior class went cross-country this weekend.  We are only 3 weeks behind them so we should be going in 3 weeks.  The only problem that may arise is that the end of the fiscal year is this month and that would be about the weekend we would be going.  For those who are in the government business, one issue we could have is that the flying hour program won't have any hours.  Every unit is only authorized so many flying hours a year and they have to have them zeroed out by 1 October and you can't go over.  It's a real pain in the ass but that's how they keep the books.  They are flying some crews over the weekends to ensure that all the hours are burned by a day or so before the end of the year.  The flying hour program could be the bain of our existence over the next few weeks.  They could either really slow us down or they could push us to the limit to fly all the hours off.   I went to a little town west of here about an hour to a good German restaurant and had a good meal/beer last night.  The scenery gets really nice about a hour west of here.  Plateau peaks and bluffs.  I ran in the base mandatory fun 5K run early this morning.  You had to have an off duty travel form filled out if you didn't show.  Get the point.  Got to love active duty.  I spent the rest of the day washing and waxing my truck.  It was the first time I had washed it since I have been here.  I think they may have done it once when I got the oil changed.  I plan on studying all day tomorrow, Lord knows I need it.  I am a little disappointed that I may not be able to fly my cross-country back to Ft Wayne for a night because we have to go somewhere that has billeting on base.  Bunch of crap!  I'm still going to try though.  Heads up Eddie, may need a room and a GOV!
Week # 36 Ending 14 September 2003
I flew twice last week, 1 navigation sim, and they went O.K.  I regressed on one maneuver and will hook my next ride if I don't get it right next ride.  I'm not to worried about it; I'll fix it on my next ride and move on.  The week went pretty slow.  We have finished our stand-ups for a while anyway. It's nice not to have to worry about that.  They told us we will be taking our cross countries the first weekend in October as long as the money has flowed down by then.  I have 3 rides and then I take my first check ride in the T-1.  Like any other check ride, I'm not looking forward to it too much.  They opened up one of the check ride fields that has been closed since we started and everyone is scrambling to try to get there a time or two before they check.  It had been closed due to the large number of bird strikes.  I failed my first EPQ test in T-1's.  So I didn't get to fly that day.  These things are a real pain.  There is no good study material and you cover hundreds of pages of stuff that they can ask the most detailed questions on.  I was able to retake it and pass later that day.  I wasn't the only one, so I didn't feel so bad.  We've had late takeoff times and I haven't been getting home until early evenings.  I have a lot of studying to do for the check ride and EPQ this week.  I played a round of golf Saturday at the request of my flight commander to evaluate my game for some tournament coming up this week.  I left him a message and it will be interesting to see if I'll play this week.  It rained most of the day Saturday so I didn't due much besides get the round of golf in.  There wasn't much happening to write about!  More next week!
Week # 37 Ending 21 September 2003
This week was pretty slow.  I flew on Tuesday and had a pretty good ride.  I flew with a reserve pilot.  Those guys are great.  They are here because they want to be and they're fun to fly with.  Like any other instructors, they have their not so good ones to.  I fixed my steep turns and passed the ride.  The landings were a little rough but we had 25-30 knot winds.  I passed this weeks EPQ.  It wasn't to bad but I guess I guessed well because their was a few I didn't know for sure.  Other than that, it was a good week until Friday.  I flew with one of the wing leadership on an early morning flight.  It was pretty cold that morning and the takeoff didn't go so well because of multiple things going on in the cockpit at the most inopportune time.  Nonetheless I screwed up 2 things on the departure in about the first 25 seconds.  After that the ride went outstanding.  I nailed all my maneuvers and then proceeded on to Forbes field in Kansas.  I had just past the final approach fix and was descending down to the MDA (Minimum Descent Altitude) when we got master caution lights in the airplane for hydraulic pump failure.  We went around on the approach because it was a short runway and I wanted to take the time to figure out what had our actual situation was and get to a longer runway incase we would lose the other pump and our brakes.  After a discussion between the jump and  myself (not the IP) we went through the checklists and I decided to full stop on the 13,000 runway.  I was being conservative, because I didn't want to press on and make a bad situation worse.  The IP then intervened and said we were going to go back to Vance.  We flew back with our gear/flaps down and it took forever.  We landed uneventfully and parked the jet after declaring a no assistance required.  All I got done was my MOA work and I felt the ride should have been incomplete.  Anyway, the IP completed me on the ride and then proceeded to hook me for the departure rather than incomplete.  I refuse to take all the blame for the departure, but what can you do?  I'm still a little P.O.ed over it.  Saturday I went down to OK City to the state fair.  It was O.K. but nothing like the Ohio's.  Needless to say I was a little disappointed.  It was something to do anyway.  The weather is starting to cool off and be a lot more fall like.  I am taking my to check ride on Monday.  Going into it on a hook isn't good.  It is one of the more hooked rides in UPT.  3 hooks in a row and bad things start to happen.  This week is going to be a tough week.  I'm not to happy about the IP I'm flying with tomorrow but I'll see if I can get through it.  Once I pass my to-check ride I'll take the actual check ride sometime this week I hope.  I would like to get it behind me so I can press on.  Wish me luck and we will see how this week turns out next weekend.   
Week # 38 Ending 28 September 2003
Wow, what a busy week!  I flew my end of block ride on Monday and it went well.  I finished up around 7 Monday night and rolled for my transition check ride profile to fly on Tuesday.  It was a pretty limited roll since I was going to go on my check ride as a singleton.  Going by yourself limits you to 2 bases and the one base was closed for official business only.  I had to go to our out base at Clinton-Sherman (CSM).  I briefed at 1145 in the morning and everything went as planned.  My departure went as planned and then ATC tried to assign me to a high area.  I told the check pilot to coordinate for a low area and we eventually got assigned one.  The maneuvers went well and then we pressed on to CSM to do my pattern work.  The winds were pretty sporty that afternoon and it was all I could do to keep the thing on the centerline.  I finished up there and flew back to Vance.  The total sortie duration was 2.2 hours.  A normal check ride is only 1.6 or so if you go with a second student.  We had an in-depth debrief on TOLD (take-off and landing data) and systems.  The Q & A session lasted about 2 hours.  All and all the check ride lasted about 6 1/2 hours and I received a good overall grade.  Good enough for me!  Glad it's behind me.  Amazing what a relief it is.  I only have 2 check rides left in the T-1. The relief didn't last long because the very next morning I had my second navigation sim.  That went O.K., but I was a little rough around the edges.  It was the last thing I wanted to be doing the day after my ckeck.  I just wanted a little break.  I finished up that ride and had to plan for the next days 1st navigation ride it the jet.  I was stressing out pretty good because I had no idea how to plan it and I was going by myself which is pretty unusual for the first nav ride.  the class we had over navigation planning was several weeks ago and I pretty much forgot everything they tried to teach us.  I managed to throw together a plan and the ride itself wasn't all that good.  I had to keep it local because the flying hours were about to expire for the year.  I briifed the flight and we stepped to the jet.  The winds had totally changed from what I had planned and that changed the approaches I was planning on doing.  That made my somewhat unprepared situation pretty much a totally unprepared one.  Shortly after takeoff we started having malfunctions with the heading system in the jet and had to knock off the departure and ask the controller for no gyro vectors back to Vance and terminate the flight.  They had a spare jet so we took it completed the sortie. Friday we had the weekly stan test.  I passed.  We had a low level classes in the afternoon to teach us how to fly low levels.  Great, now I'm opted for those.  Saturday I played a round of golf to get my mind off things and we have a tournament to play in on Tuesday.  It should be a good time.  It's a 5-man scramble and I've got a team together from the class.  I went out with Art and his family for dinner Friday.  Congrats to him and his wife, they had their second son 2 weeks ago!  I also managed to catch a movie and visit with some other friends Saturday.  Today I did the usual cleaning, laundry, and visit to the Commissary for some food. We are off of work Monday due to no money or hours left to fly.  It's dim, but I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel.   Still plenty of trains to get runover by!!!!!!!
Week # 39 Ending 5 October 2003
This last week was pretty uneventful.  We didn't fly on Monday or Tuesday because of the end of the fiscal year.  Tuesday I played in the squadron golf tournament.  We shot a 2 under and 5 under won.  The weather was pretty bad.  It was windy, cold, and rained for the last few holes.  Wednesday I flew an out and back sortie to Lincoln Nebraska.  An out and back is essentially two sorties in one day.  The first half went pretty well.  I got to do a couple of approaches that I haven't been able to actually do in the jet.  These sorties are pretty taxing because of the amount of flight planning you have to do.  The way home was another story.  The first airport I dropped into they told us to get out and then so did the second.  I managed to get a couple of approaches in and then flew back to Vance.  Thursday I planned with another guy in my flight to fly on Friday and at about 4 o'clock they called and said we weren't flying so it was pretty much a wasted day.  Friday we had to go in early for the stan test and then Art and I got tagged for a sim.  The sim went really well.  There is only about 3 sims left in the navigation phase.  After the sim Art and I planned for our flight on Monday.  We have to get a VFR leg in over the next few rides so I hope the weather holds out. We finished up around 1830 and I went over to his house for some grub.  Saturday I worked on flight planning and other things.  I've got a long way to go in the nav phase.  Our cross countries should be coming up soon.  The biggest thing about this last week is figuring out how to mission plan and the amount of time it takes.  I think I've got a pretty good handle on that stuff.  I'll write more next week.  
Week # 40 Ending 13 October 2003
This week was pretty slow again.  I flew to Lincoln on Monday and did my VFR leg along the way.  I was off on Tuesday and did some flight planning.  Wednesday we had the Wing golf championship against the reservists.  My partner and I (the flight commander) didn't play all that well.  We won the backside but got smoked on the front.  It was a 2 man scramble and we shot even par.  I went to Tulsa Wednesday night and picked up Mandy.  I wasn't supposed to fly on Thursday but they put me on the schedule anyway.  We flew to Colorado Springs and Pueblo.  It turned out to be a disaster because it got very hot there (90's) and we could barely meet the climb factors.  It was a night flight and I got a little sick trying to read some stuff out of the dash-1 while my partner was flying approaches.  All that bouncing around didn't help. I managed to feel a little better once we got up to cruise.  Friday I had another sim.  It went really well.  We actually got to shoot approaches down to minimums using the GPS.  It almost makes it a little boring when all you have to do is manage your airspeed.  All and all it was a slow week.  I'll have to do a couple of low levels this week.  They are closing the center runway for repairs starting this week.  It is going to make things a real pain around here.  They say we are going to lose a lot of jets due to delays.  I'm guess I'm going cross-country next weekend.  We tentatively have planned to go to Florida and visit the south coast along the way.  It doesn't look like I'm going to make it back home.  I was really looking forward to it.  There is a definite lack of planning on the management's part. Everything has to be a scramble around here.   Not much else going on.  I'll write more week after next!
Week # 41 Ending 19 October 2003
To recap this week, just like the last few.  SLOW!  I was scheduled for 2 nav rides on Wednesday and it was the usual pain in the ass getting ready to fly 2 flights in the same day.  I flew my first nav ride to Kansas and hit 3 airports up there.  The other student I flew with flew a low level and then we went to Fort Smith Arkansas.  We ate lunch and then pressed on our second sortie.  We were about an hour into the flight and we started having avionics malfunctions.  We opted to terminate the mission and flew back to Vance.  I didn't fly on Thursday because we were supposed to go cross-country this weekend but our IP couldn't go.  Nonetheless we were stuck here this weekend.  All of the class went except for 2 crews.  We will be going next weekend instead.  Friday I had a simulator ride.  It went O.K. it was over ICAO approaches.  It was an early morning sim so I was pretty much done by noon.  Saturday I went down to OKC to the bombing memorial.  It was pretty interesting!  Today I'm going to study and get ready for my low level ride tomorrow afternoon.  They closed the center runway here and it is a huge pain trying work around the schedule.  Flights basically take 8-10 hours now because you have to wait to come back.  It will be like that until I get done. 
Week # 42 Ending 27 October 2003
This last week picked up a little bit.  I had a sim ride on Monday and finished all my navigation sims.  Then on Tuesday I had the same sim over again because they messed up the schedule and another guy needed a partner.  Wednesday I did a low-level sortie.  For low level sorties you fly 500ft above the ground at 210kts of groundspeed.  Low levels are a real pain because its pretty hard to find your turn points, especially since there is a lot of nothing in Oklahoma to orient yourself too.  Thursday was an off day for planning our cross-country sorties.  I planned for 1 low level and a nav ride to Destin Fl on Friday and a VFR and Nav ride to Lake Charles La.  Friday went as planned.  I flew with a reservist IP, that made it real nice.  I flew a low level out of Vance up to McConnell AFB and then Doug took over and flew to Fayetteville Arkansas.  We got to see the Razorback football team getting on their airplane to go play.  It was pretty neat.  I flew the third leg at night to Eglin AFB with a drop in at Fort Smith.  I was able to work on my night circling approaches which are pretty tough.  We cruised down to Florida at FL330 and did a couple more approaches.  Eglin turned out to be a real pain.  The active duty bases will do as little to help you as possible.  Anyway, we finally got some food and hit the sack about 1AM.  We were set to depart around noon but the weather was crap along the route so we had to make alternate plans.  I flew my VFR leg to Gulfport and did some approaches there and went to Montgomery Alabama.  We stopped for fuel and then took off for Dallas. We encountered some turbulence along the route and we had to get in with the airliners to weave our way around the thunderstorms that were up around 41,000 feet.  Our biggest problem was that we couldn't go fast enough to keep up with them.  We were going .78 Mach or almost 8 miles per minute, which is as fast as the T-1 will go and we were left in the dust.  If you go to my pics you can see some of them in front of us.  We made it to a Dallas and it was freezing there.  We arrived about 6 pm and put the jet to bed for the night.  The good thing is that at civilian fields they treat you like kings.  We got a car and went downtown for some dinner.  We were both so tired, we called it a night.  Our IP lived in Fort Worth so we dropped him at home. I've only got 27 sorties and 2 sims left.  I didn't fly on Sunday or Monday and as of now I'm not on the schedule for Tuesday but I'm listed for 2 rides on Wednesday.   Things are going O.K. but the days are stressful.  Mission planning is hard and takes about 2 hours per sortie to plan. Another week is down and I'll get to go home soon.  It'll be over soon. The cross country was a lot of work for no more rides then we could get done.  With the center runway closed I may be going on another one soon.  Bye All!
Week # 43 Ending 2 November 2003
This week was pretty busy.  I didn't fly on Monday or Tuesday.  Wednesday I flew 2 nav sorties.  I flew St Joe Missouri and up to Lincoln again.  I flew with one of the IP's I didn't get along with so well.  Refer to week 37 as a refresher.  2 nav rides in one day is a lot of work, not to mention I wasn't to thrilled about flying with this guy anyway.  The first sortie was during the day and it was pretty uneventful.  I took off at night and flew up to Offutt for a high penetration approach and then over to Epply (Omaha's main airport) for a couple of approaches and then back to Vance.  All of our flights are really late now because the T-38 have all the day blocks of time and we are left to fly at night.  It is probably a good thing because all of the real world flying (except training missions) when we get out of here will be at night, at least that's what I would think.  Both the rides went well and I've only got 4 nav rides to go.  Nav rides are pretty tough because you are trying to do so much all at once.  Thursday I flew another nav ride from McConnell AFB to Tulsa and back.  That ride didn't go as well as I would have hoped, and it was another night sortie.  I passed, so it's good enough for me.  I've been riding in the jump for a couple of low level sorties now and I've about gotten sick on each one.  Friday Manny (see my pics) and I had our last dial-a-death ride.  Unfortunately it was a late sim and we got out sometime after 9 on Friday night.  It could have gone better but we successfully handled over 20 EP's and only crashed once, but it was because of a sim glitch.  After the sim we went to the movies to have a good laugh and forget about the week.  The syllabus is actually moving along pretty fast now.  Getting 4 events a week helps out a lot.  If the weather stays good, I think we could get done pretty early.  I won't hold my breath though.  I've got 1 sim and 25 aircraft events left.  Saturday was a boring day.  I tried to get caught up from being gone last weekend.  I've got a lot of studying to do and I'll admit, I feel like my General Knowledge is poor at best.  Studying is getting harder and harder to do.  The senior class only had 4 of 11 pass the Nav check ride.  Needless to say the flight room has been a little rough lately.  Which reminds me, they started doing stand-up EP's in formal brief again this week and guess who got stood up on Friday?  You guessed it, Me!  I got through it O.K.  I must be an easy target.  I finally got news regarding all my follow on training.  Once I finish up here in January I'm scheduled to go down to Altus OK for my follow on KC-135 copilot school, which starts 9 Mar and goes till 16 Jun.  I'm looking forward to that!  I going to try to take the time between when I leave here and Altus to take leave and do nothing.  After Altus I get to go to land survival otherwise known as "severe starvation and beatings school" on the 4th of July for 3 weeks up in Washington.  After that I get to go to water survival school in Florida for a week.  Once that's over I should be close to operational back at the unit.  It sucks that I'll pretty much lose another summer though.  The good thing is that I won't have to look for work for at least 6 more months.  I'll write more next week. 
Week # 44 Ending 9 November 2003
Another week down!  I only flew twice this past week.  Overall it was pretty uneventful.  I flew a low level on Wednesday and another one on Friday.  On Wednesday I flew down to Lubbock Tx and got my off station low level completed.  It was nice to get that over with.  I finally got all my special syllabus items done for the nav phase.  The weather wasn't all that good, and we barely had the minimum weather to get it done.  It wasn't to bad; there are some pretty good canyons too fly around down there.  Friday I flew a local route and we finished up early in the evening after we burned holes in the MOA for an hour waiting to land.  The single runway ops make it a pain to fly around here.  Once the T-38's are finished for the day they will let us in.  I guess they figure since we have so much gas to burn they leave us out until we either run low on fuel or everyone else gets done.  I had another 5 day break in training this week.  I haven't flown a Nav ride in almost 2 weeks.  I think I might be a little rusty later on this week when I finally get to fly.  I've got 6 rides left until I take my Nav check.  You just can't study enough.  Of course a little might help!  My study habits aren't that good lately.  We had formal brief on Thursday and we had shotgun again.  Therefore it was another chance for me to see that I need to study a little more.  We didn't have a stan test this week because the computer system on base is having some serious malfunctions and no one had any hard copies of the tests.  I think we might rely on technology a little too much.  Comm guys rule the AF.  I'm not scheduled to fly until at least Wednesday as of right now. We are off on Tuesday for Veterans Day.  The schedule is a real pain.  The senior class is getting close to being finished so they take all the jets.  The weather finally took a turn for the worse or at least winter.  I had to actually fly an approach down close to minimums for the first time for real.  I haven't seen the sun other than at altitude since last Tuesday.  Our class assignable students are scheduled to go down to Altus on Thursday and Friday this week to see all the major weapon systems they have down there.  It didn't really dawn on me that most of these guys have never seen or been on the airplanes they will be flying.  I guess I was pretty fortunate to have been around them over the past few years.  I'm going to stay around here and see if I can get some sorties done while they are gone.  Friday one of the guys form class and I went down to OKC to see the Matrix.  I was pretty disappointed.  I didn't think it was all that good.  Saturday I went back down to OKC to Tinker AFB to o pick up some stuff for my mess dress.  While I was there I went to the BMW Bike dealer and looked at couple of bikes.  Nice, but expensive.  Maybe in a couple of years, we can get ride of the wife's ninja and get something a little more comfortable to ride.  Today I went over to Arts house and watched some football and studied a little.  Be sure to check back next week!   
Week # 45 Ending 16 November 2003
This week was what is becoming the usual.  I didn't fly on Monday or Tuesday as expected.  Also as usual I didn't get anything constructive done.  I've gotten pretty good at wasting time.  Wednesday I flew a Nav ride to Arkansas and back.  I was pretty rusty since I hadn't flown a Nav ride in almost 2 weeks.  It was pretty ugly ride.  I passed nonetheless.  The weather here was lousy all week.  I got done debriefing about 10pm and the flight schedulers had scheduled me for an 8am brief the next morning.  You can't return to the flight room for 12 hrs after you leave so I was expecting them to cancel the flight on Thursday.  When I showed up at 10 the next morning they had slipped the jet until the afternoon.  I wasn't prepared, but I threw something together with the guy I was flying with and we were off.  It was windy, cold, and raining, hence the T-1's were the only ones flying.  Mostly because of the icing the other jets were grounded.  The good thing is we get some bad weather experience.   I was flying the second leg out of Fort Smith AK and on the takeoff roll I noticed high oil pressure on the left engine.  We did one approach while we looked in the books.  We were able to keep the oil pressure under control and opted to return to Vance.  I really wanted to keep going so I could finish the ride but it just wasn't smart.  It was dark, the cloud layer was about 10,000ft thick and there was a lot of icing going on.  We had to shoot and approach down close to mins here and it was raining cats and dogs.  The approach was pretty sporty. I wasn't scheduled for Friday because I was scheduled to have a local procedure done in the flight doc's office to remove a lump on my ribs.  I went in the morning and the flight doc had second thoughts and decided it was beyond his capabilities and wasn't comfortable removing it.  I appreciated his honesty because I was a little skeptical.  They have referred me to a surgeon downtown.  I should have to go sometime this week.  They don't think it is anything to serious.  I wanted to put it off until I was done flying but they wouldn't have any part of that.  They said I should only be DNIF for a day or two.  Lets hope.  I'm not getting any flying done as it is.  I have 5 rides until my Nav check.  It is possible that I could check yet this week.  Maybe on Friday.  I hope it's before Thanksgiving because I'll tell you right now I won't be studying that weekend.  I'm pretty confident this ride will be a hook.  The first guy in my class checked on Friday and I think he is probably the best in our class and he only got a good. I'm planning on going home on a flight into Detroit Thursday morning for Thanksgiving.  I spent Friday in the flight room and at the trainers trying to educate myself a little.  I spent the evening over at Arts house.  I got up this morning and had brunch with them and his cousin who's here in tweets.  I got some laundry done and some food for the week. 
Week # 46 Ending 23 November 2003
This week started off like the last week finished.  I was scheduled for a Nav/copilot ride on Monday and got everything ready to fly.  I briefed up the flight and we stepped to the jet.  The weather was looking kind of bad.  I got to the jet and started my preflight checklists and was getting ready to start engines and one of the instructor's instruments went out.  We reset circuit breakers and had maintenance come out and look at it.  They worked on it for a while and they weren't able to fix it.  We were getting ready to go to a new jet and they went stop launch for thunderstorms.  I'm not having a lot of luck with jets lately.  I should be done with my check ride by now but keep having to abort for bad jets.  I didn't fly until Wednesday.  I flew a Nav/copilot ride flying a couple of flight commanders down to Randolph AFB.  I don't recommend flying with 2 IP's because it is nonstop Q&A sessions.  After 8 hours of answering questions, it gets old.  The flights went well overall, I was just glad to get back into the air.  Every flight is one closer to being done.  I wasn't scheduled to fly on Thursday, so I went in to the flight room and hung around for a while.  We took the Weekly Stan test and we all passed.  We got a new USEM and he's pretty unpredictable with what he will do next.  We have another one on Monday.  Anyway, the weekly complaint was this.  As I said I wasn't on the schedule for Thursday or Friday.  I left the squadron about 4:30 and at 6:30 that night I get a call saying I'm on the schedule for a Low Level/Nav ride by myself the next morning with a 0510 brief.  Nice!!!!  I couldn't go in and get low level maps or anything because I would be breaking crew rest.  I was a little pissed.  They can't seem to get the schedule under control.  I had one of the guys in the flight go in and get me a map and schedule a route time.  Art came over and helped me plan out the flight.  We got everything ready to go by about 9pm and I tried to go to sleep, note the "tried"!  I got up the next morning at 430 and went in to brief.  The IP didn't show until 730.  Not happy!!!!!  It ended up I flew a low level only.  That was even messed up because we had to find something to do in the air for an hour and 45 minutes because we couldn't land back at Vance until they opened it up to the T-1's because of the single runway operations.  The total sortie duration was 3 hrs after we went to Wichita and I did 3 approaches and the instructor did 2.  It should have counted as 2 sorties but the rules only allowed it to count as one.  It was free practice on the government dime.  I have 2 rides left to take my Nav check.  I am scheduled to do one on Tuesday and then I'm off until I get back after the holiday.  We've had 5 or 6 check already and only one has hooked so far.  4 more are scheduled to go this week.  It feels like a ton of bricks on your shoulders.  I was hoping to have checked by the time I went home but it doesn't look like that will happen.  I'll probably go to my to-check the day I get back and check the following Wednesday after Thanksgiving.  I hope they aren't expecting too much that Monday because the holiday is my time.  I tried to get my ticket home changed to Wednesday but it was going to cost too much and was more of a hassle than it was worth.  Tim and I are going to try to play Southern Hills in Tulsa on Wednesday.  I just did the usual with the Vega's and Art this weekend.  Art had a brunch get together Saturday morning with a bunch of the neighbors.  Watched a lot of movies Friday and Sat night.  It turned cold and windy today but should better by the end of the week.  I'm headed to Tulsa Wed where I have a reservation at airport hotel to catch my 6 am flight to Detroit.  Looking forward to getting home.  I'll write more the week after Thanksgiving.  By that time I should have my checkride out of the way and be into the last phase of training.  See everyone soon.  I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and if you're traveling, be safe!    
Weeks #47 & 48 Ending 7 December 2003
Since I've last wrote, it has pretty much gone as expected.  I ended up flying on Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  We didn't get to play Southern Hills like we hoped.  Both Tim and I had to fly Weds since we were one of the only few who were still around.  I was the last plane to land before the holiday. It was my Nav to check ride and it went well.  I passed it and did a copilot ride home. Tim and I left for Tulsa about 8:45 that night.  I got to the hotel about 11 and called it an evening.  I got ride to the airport about 4:30 the next morning and my flight to Detroit was uneventful.  It was nice to be home for the weekend.  I was able to see the house next door gone for the first time.  We spent Thanksgiving day with family.  Friday we went lawn mower shopping since we need one now with the much larger lawn we have to mow.  We opted for a woods model 6170.  Saturday I worked around the house raking leaves and putting up X-mas lights.  Sunday I had to fly back to Enid.  The weekend went by pretty quick with all the things I had to get done while I was home.  I got back in  here around 10:30 or so.  I had to fly my low level to check ride on Monday.  It went well.  I didn't fly on Tuesday even though the schedule had me up for a flight.  I had to remind them that I was sitting on my check ride.  I had to pick up Art who was coming back from California.  His plane was delayed for a couple of hours so it was a good thing I had taken myself off the flying schedule on Wednesday because we didn't get home until late.  Thursday was the big day!  I was scheduled for my check ride.  Art did a lot to help me get ready to fly.  I rolled for my check profile and I got the low level I didn't want.  I planned out the sortie which took me up north and the weather was pretty bad up there.  I briefed the sortie Thursday morning and we stepped to the jet.  The low level weather was pretty good but the weather at my approach bases was 1000 overcast.  We got out to the jet and I made my first stupid mistake, I forgot to make a copy of the flight plan.  Not good, I had to go back to base ops and get the plan.  I got back to the jet and we started engines.  It didn't take long before we had serious electrical malfunction and had to shut down.  We were able to get a spare, so we moved all out stuff to the new jet and I coordinated our new tail number with ops and rescheduled my low level entry times while the check pilot did the preflight inspections.  We got ready to go but then they wouldn't let us take off because we were at the end of the T-1 block times and they told us to come back in and call it a day.  My check pilot was pissed that they wouldn't let us take off.  It isn't like we are going to hang around the pattern, we were going to be leaving the area.  When we got in, the check pilot was working to get us a new jet in the afternoon so we could still get the check ride done.  I wound up getting a new local jet in the afternoon.  I redid my plan for the sortie in the hour and a half we had before our next take off time.  We finally got a good jet and took off on time.  I opted to check the anti-ice system before takeoff at the dismay of my check pilot.  She didn't want to do it, but I don't trust the weather.  We took off and went to the low level.  I pretty much butchered the low level.  I had convinced myself that I had hacked at the wrong point and all my times were off.  Anyway it wasn't my best low level.  I think I hit the exit point about 30 seconds off, but it was total luck.  I think I only saw 1 or 2 of my turn points.  I had flown that same low level before and had about the same problems.  As we exited the weather was getting bad and we couldn't get our IFR clearance to go into the weather.  It was getting ugly quick.  The check pilot tossed me a bone and said she was going to climb through a hole in the clouds and go VFR above them.  Not a standard thing.  We finally were able to coordinate for our clearance to our base to do our approaches.  I missed my fix to fix by a half mile which kinda screwed up my holding before my first approach, but it all worked out O.K.  They held me up high in holding and then we were finally cleared for the approach.  It was a holding in lieu of approach to circle.  They had held me up in holding 2000 ft above the final approach fix, so I was screaming down to get down in time.  We were in holding just above the clouds.  As we started down it started misting.  I told the check pilot to keep and eye on the wings for ice.  It took about 3 seconds and we became an instant block of ice.  We couldn't turn on the anti-ice fast enough.  Turning on the anti-ice means you have to keep the throttles up and isn't helpful when you are trying to get down to an altitude and keep your speed down so you can configure to land.  Finally got below the weather and did the circle which went well.  On the climb out I requested higher altitude to stay above the ice.  I did an NDB approach.  During the climb out of the first approach we started having more malfunctions with the trim system.  We opted leave and head back to Vance.  We tried to trouble shoot our problem but couldn't get it fixed.  She decided that we would do a VFR arrival into Vance for one overhead pattern and we would call the ride complete.  On the flight back she asked me some GK and we landed about 630 that night.  I think she was nervous about flying approaches in the weather down close to mins.  Any reason to leave was good enough. I got an overall good on the check ride, so I passed.  At least it wasn't a hook.  Feels good to have that weight off my shoulders.  The senior class graduates this Friday.  We are now the most senior class on base.  Our graduation is next.  I can't wait.  I haven't had too much luck with jets if you haven't noticed lately.  Must be my magnetic personality.  I didn't fly on Friday because I went DNIF for a sinus problem.  Hopefully I'll get off on Monday.  I think I caught all the crud everyone had at home.  I ate dinner at Tim and Amy's on Friday and spent the day with Art on Saturday since his family is back in California.  I'm going to start looking at the formation stuff and get ready for my last block of training. 
Week #49 Ending 14 December 2003
Another week done.  I got off DNIF on Monday.  I wasn't on the flying schedule so Monday was a slow day.  Monday night and Tuesday it snowed and iced.  We had stand up again in the flight room and it was a painful one.  At least I didn't get stood up this time.  It lasted over and hour and a half.  Wednesday we lost 1/2 of day of flying waiting for the ice to melt.  I wound up flying my first formation ride in the afternoon.  I flew out as the wing.  Thursday I flew another form ride and it went O.K.  Formation isn't that hard.  I think the hardest thing is just seeing the other aircraft because it is so far away.  We only do some basic maneuvers.  We do practice breakouts from the visual position (200ft to the side and about .3 miles back), cell maneuvers, which is where you follow lead a mile back and 500ft higher, and then we do practice rejoins.  That's about it.  I won't say I 'm the best at it, but I'm getting by.  Another real issue with flying form is trying to figure out who is talking to who with all the radios going.  I'm scheduled to take 2 rides Monday, which will finish up my formation block of training.  I'm down to 10 rides and a check ride.  Friday I flew an air refueling sim.  It wasn't all that hard once I figured out what was going on, which is a good thing because that's what I'm going to be doing when I get out of here.  We got to practice as both the tanker and receiver.  I've got a new respect for those guys trying to get fuel.  Staying in position was pretty tough.  It started snowing pretty hard Friday afternoon and they cancelled all flying.  Mandy made it in about 630.  We got about 6-8 inches of snow Friday night.  We went out to eat with some friends and played a board game.  We also had a good snowball fight and built a snowman.  Check the pics!  Saturday we did some shopping and hung out with some other friends for the evening.  We made some ice cream and watched a couple of movies.  I've got some studying to do today and get ready for tomorrow.  I should get pretty close to finished this week since the senior class is graduated.  That will help free up their jets for us.  Their last guy took his check ride on Thursday. Good thing he passed because they graduated Friday morning.  Class 04-04 is now the next class to graduate UPT.  We are now the most senior non-pilots.  This week is the last full week of flying before the holidays.      
Week #50 Ending 21 December 2003
I finished up my formation flying on Monday.  It was a pretty easy finish.  I started right into the formation airdrop missions mid week.  Airdrop isn't really that hard, especially since they let us use the Flight Management System (FMS).  It makes life real easy.  It basically puts up a moving map on the screen in the cockpit.  It makes it pretty difficult to get lost or miss any turn points.  The hardest part is putting you stuff on target on time while flying 500ft above the ground with another airplane.  On my first two sorties I was about 10 seconds late to the target.  Not bad considering it takes 25-30 minutes of flying prior to hitting the target.  They wavered around a little on Thursday and I ended up getting selected to go fly cross-country this weekend, which is why I'm a little late in making this entry.  It wasn't bad, we flew out of Woodring airport, which is about 10 miles from here so I didn't have to worry about hotels or anything and I got to sleep in my own bed.  I flew 2 air refueling sorties and another airdrop over the weekend.  It was a busy time flying 3 straight days and coordinating for all the low level times and air refueling tracks to get all the training done.  The air refueling part as tanker isn't to bad, you just have to do some prior planning to make sure you know where you're going, coordinating with ATC, and making sure you rollout in front of your receiver.   It really is pretty easy.  As far as being the guy who is getting the fuel, it's actually pretty fun.  You're just a few feet from the underside of the other guy. Once you get the hang of it's, it not bad.  Just remember, small power changes and then wait once you make a change to see what it's doing for you.  On my first sortie I got into a pilot induced oscillation that was pretty interesting.  Basically what happens is the plane starts going from side to side between the wake turbulence of the tanker and it's hard to make it stop.  Once it happens and you see it, you learn pretty quick how to stop it.  The weather was clear and a million over the weekend which made the flying nice.  The good thing about this phase of training is that the instructors do most of the flying and we run the radios and just tell them what to do.  You actually have a little time to look out he windows and enjoy.  One guy in the class is done besides our fix wing qual guy.  I bet that feels nice.  I've got 4 events (2 rides) and a check ride left when I get back from break.  I'm hoping they won't give me a warm up ride after break, because I want to get done and I don't think it would help much.  I should finish up within the first week after break.  We're scheduled to go back the 5th of January.  It's a long break but I opted to stay here and conserve my leave so I can stay home longer when I leave here and not have to do anything.  My buddy Art finished up on Friday.  He completed all the Mission Fam block in 5 days.  I've been in it for almost 2 weeks.  It was a real pain for him, but he wanted to get home and he's got another school coming up soon.  We are working all the final details for graduation and I think they are coming along.  Red Carpet day will be on 22Jan starting about 0800.  Guests will be able to take a ride in the simulators, visit the tower and look at the airplanes among other things.  Graduation is at 1000 on 23Jan and the formal dinner is at 6pm.  Invitations are in the mail, plan accordingly.  I'll be departing here shortly after that.  I'll likely leave on the 24th or 25th depending on whether I can get out processed in time.  We got the drop for all the assignable guys, it looks pretty good.  We got C-17's (3), KC-10, KC135's (2), RC-135, E-8, C-5, C-21, and a T-1 instructor slot.  I kinda wish I could have one of the 135's to England that came down.  Talk about a good assignment.  I think everyone will be happy with what they get.  Since I was flying this weekend we didn't do anything.  We are watching Art's house until the movers come to pick up his stuff.  He opted to go home early, I can't blame him, I would have done the same.  Besides, it's nice to actually have a house to live in for a while versus this little room.  Most everyone except for one other couple in the class is gone.  It's amazing how quiet it is around here.  Don't expect too much over the next few weeks since it'll be slow.     
Week #'S 51-54 Ending 16 January 2004 The Holidays
T-1 COMPLETE
T-1 COMPLETE
A lot has happened over the last few weeks.  I'll start with the 2 weeks off during the holidays and then get into the last 2 weeks of flying.  Sorry I haven't written over the last 2 flying weeks, but we have been real busy.  The movers finally showed up to Art's house and all went well on the move.  It took them most of day and then it took us a couple of hours to clean and get it ready for the exit inspection.  He passed the inspection and we sent him his paperwork and called it good.  He finally got all his stuff back in Cali.  Everyone was gone so it was quiet.  We spent New Years eve with Joshua and Karen at their place and didn't turn the TV on until there was 9 seconds to go.  That was cutting it close.  We were occupied playing board games.  I was glad we were able to spend time with some truly good people.  Most of us pilot types did everything but study or think flying.  It was time to forget about life for a while.  I did hit the books a little, but not much.  As far as Christmas went, we exchanged a few gifts.  Thankfully the family supported me financially.  I took a trip down to Altus with some of my time off and that place was much as I had thought.  It was about a 3 and a half hour drive from here.  There was nothing there to speak of.  It is more in the middle of nowhere then here.  The base is pretty modernized at least in comparison to this place.  There were a lot of large jets there.  The facilities look nice.  Everyone I've talked to says you need to take and X box or something to occupy your time.  I believe it.  The town was very small.  Only a few restaurants.  I imagine I will be staying off base, at least according to the billeting people.  I was able to work on the cars and get the tires rotated among other things that needed to be done.  The first day after break was a safety day and we didn't fly.  All the IP's had to go out and get recurrent before they took us up.  I was pretty rusty when I got back in the jet.  I wasn't scheduled to fly on Tuesday but when I went in the flight room they jammed me into a copilot ride a half hour before takeoff.  It worked out well be cause we went to the out base and just did patterns.  I had to do a VOR approach full procedure the first time I was back in the jet after a long break.  Just trying to remember all the rules was a pain especially since I hadn't shot an approach in over a month.  It worked out O.K. and I was glad in the end because I needed the practice landing again.  Landing from the right seat is a lot different then landing from the left.  It just takes some getting used to.  I flew an airdrop on Wednesday and then I was off on Thursday.  Friday was another no fly day for the class because it was our assignment night.   Assignment night went great.  We had about 65 pizzas and a couple of Kegs of beer.  The club was packed, standing room only.  I would like to take the time to thank Todd Burch (former upt classmate) for producing the DVD video for the class.  He did an outstanding job.  I understand he is starting his own company doing this kind of thing.  We are going to get a copy and I'll be able to show it to family and friends when I get home.  Everyone was impressed.  It was based on the theme that we had technical difficulties in showing it and then we stumbled across a newscast talking about pilot training done by a local news reporter down in Oklahoma City.  She did a good job.  The final drop is as follows:
Aly KC-10 to NJ                             Brown E-6 OK                             Clune C-17 WA
Frankenfield E-8 GA                       Gilbert E-6 OK                              Herner T-1 OK
Jeffrey C-5 DE                               McCormack C-21 DC                   Navarro KC-135 FL
Spodar C-17 WA                            Tirado RC-135 NE                        Vega C-17 SC 
Biedermann F-15C FL                     Krischke A-10 AZ                         Horton F-15C HI
Menges T-37 OK                            Markowski F-16 AZ                      Laird A-10 AZ
Richardson T-38 OK                       Morris C-5 DE                              Dodd C-130 CA
King F-16 AZ                                  Scott B-1 TX                               Slabaugh KC-135 MI
It was an outstanding drop!  Everyone got at least one of their top 2 choices.  That doesn't happen to often.  We had a big party afterwards at a local restaurant.  A lot of people showed up and it was a good time.  The weekend was short lived, most people weren't able to nurse their hangovers very long because the T-1's had to fly on Sunday.  I flew 2 sorties Sunday going up to Wichita flying an airdrop and an air refueling ride against Marcy.  Tuesday we flew our to check rides together and passed.  We were all tired, because our brief times were at 0600 and the sorties were taking 12 hours to complete.  We went down to check flight and rolled for our profile.  Marcy and I rolled (we roll dice to determine our type of check ride and who is lead or wing) an airdrop on an instrument route and I would be taking off as wing first on Tuesday.  The partner in my jet was Capt Morris, a fellow AFRES member, and they had rolled an air refueling ride in AR 653 over Salina KS.  Mission Fam check rides are flown with 2 students in the jet so that way 2 sorties can be done in one day.  We had the usual check ride things happen.  We had a 0550 show for the brief, which was way to early.  Remember, we had early shows the 2 days prior.  The buses got us to the flight line late because of all the construction on base.  As I was doing the prestart checklist, and my jet had a dead battery.  We had to coordinate for a new jet and it was a race to get to the runway in time to make our entry time.  Why is that so important you might ask, well you have to enter the route within 2 1/2 minutes of your scheduled time or you have to coordinate for a new one and they're only every 15 minutes.  Not to mention you have to be over the target drop zones within 1 minute of the prescheduled Zulu drop time.  As we were taxiing to the hammerhead, Marcy's jet developed an avionics malfunction and we had to taxi back to the chalks.  We opted to leave and engine running and wait while they got there jet fixed and Marcy and them tried to coordinate for an out of block recovery and new entry times for both the low level and subsequent refueling ride.  Since the runway closure, we have to land within certain window or we have to wait and come back later.  Since our crew day started at 0520 we had to land NLT 12 hours later.  We couldn't land within our block so we had to coordinate.  It doesn't sound like a big deal, but the T-38 have a much faster approach speed than we do so and there like flies in the pattern and it makes it really hard to get us in.  Basically it screws the whole pattern up.  We were able to get everything scheduled and we took off an hour later.  Our flight went well, both Marcy and I were within 1 second of our drop times over our targets.  I took us up to the MOA and did our formation work and then we stopped in Salina KS.   They did our debriefs and EP's at the out base and we passed.  Overall good!  Pilot training is for all intensive purposes OVER!!!!!!!!!!!  It feels good to be done, but I don't think it has really hit me yet.  I don't have any rides left!  I turned in all my pubs on Wednesday and cleaned out my grade book.  I started packing my room up and out-processing base.  I plan on moving out of the room in a day or so.  I'm going to shack up with the Dodd's for a couple of days so that way I can completely clear base before graduation.  I have a few things to do in the flight room and getting ready for red carpet day next week.  Friday I have to go under the knife and get fixed up.  This weekend is a 3-day due to the holiday.  I don't know what I'll do, but I'm sure I'll find something.  Saturday I have to take the Military Competency Test to get my Commercial, Multi-engine, and Instrument ratings with the FAA and a Beech 400 rating so that way maybe I'll be able to do something when I leave here.  Pilot training is over.  There were a lot of times I wanted to quit, it wasn't a lot of fun at times but it's been worth it.  It was exactly as advertised.  It was the hardest thing I've ever done, but it was also the best time I've ever had.  It is amazing the people you meet and how good of friends you make here.  I'm pretty lucky I'm one of the few who ever get to fly military aircraft.  I can't say much else about it.  You would have to experience  it to truly understand.  I've posted some new pictures of the class and assignment night on my pics page in a new album.  Check it out.  If anyone happens to want any, let me know and I'll get prints made.  Everyone take care and I'll see some of you in a couple of weeks.  Graduation is scheduled for the 23rd and red carpet day is on the 22nd.  I'm looking forward to taking the family into the simulators giving them the taste of being in the cockpit.  I think they will enjoy flying the T-1.  I plan on leaving Saturday the 24th for home.  I'll write either next week or the week after with the final UPT entry.  I plan on continuing the site through out the rest of training that will take me through the summer, so don't leave me yet.  Check back soon!!!!!!    
 
Week #55 Ending 23 January 2004 and the weeks following Graduation!
Graduation went really well.  The family (Mom, Dad, Mandy, step parents) arrived Wednesday in the afternoon.  Adam was able to make it Friday morning.  On Thursday we had red carpet day and it went really well.  We had a morning social breakfast and had a huge turnout.  I estimate we had over a 120 people.  We took buses and gave everyone tours of the base.  We went to the runways and watched some jets takeoff and land.  We took them to static displays so they could touch the jets and get in the cockpit and get a feel for them.  We got to go up in the control tower and base ops.  I think everyone enjoyed physiology as I got to get in the spin chair and give everyone a demo on spatial disorientation.  Lucky me!  Friday we had the graduation ceremony at the base auditorium.  It was pretty windy and freezing cold as we stood outside.  Once we got inside it went really well and everyone got their wings without a hitch.  The ceremony went well.  You can see some pictures on my picture page.  I took everyone into the simulator and they all got about 15 minutes to do some landings and try to hook up to the tanker.  That was probably the best part of the whole deal for everyone.  Adam got the most workout of everyone.  The sim instructor gave us wind shear on takeoff and then once we made it through that we got an engine fire that wouldn't go out.  He did a great job keeping it in the air.  Then as we were coming around on final we got wind shear again in a single engine situation and we didn't make it.  The family got a real kick out of watching us try to keep this thing in the air.  I think it put a new perspective for them as to what goes on upfront in the cockpit, especially when things are going bad.  Needless to say, Adam got a real workout.  Dinner that evening went well and it ended up a good night.  They showed the class videos and gave out awards.  Capt Morris cleaned up the awards along with Josh Biedermann.  Congrats to you guys!!!   It is well deserved.  We took some pics with Capt Morris and the Vegas.  You can also see them in the pics page.  I said goodbye to everyone that night since I was leaving on Saturday.  All the family left Saturday morning after breakfast and I visited with Morris before I hit the road.  The weather was good for travel on Saturday and I drove to about St Louis and stayed with Mom and Ned that night at their hotel.  Sunday the weather turned to hell from the get go.  It was freezing rain all the way to Effingham Ill. before I turned north to Chicago.  You can see how my truck looked after I stopped.  It isn't as bad as it was earlier in the day.  I made it home without any problems and got everything unpacked and I am trying to get back to life as usual.  I got 2 great models of the T-1 and T-37 from Rich Hayes and you can visit his website www.hangarmodels.com. They look great and were worth every penny.  I have since been to Selfridge and got everything done I needed to.  I am scheduled to go to KC-135 school that starts the 9th of March assuming the funding comes through.  That's a long story though.  I'll continue to write in my logbook throughout the remaining schools and career as it progresses.  I'll probably create a new book to put new entries in.  It has been a long hard, yet fun year.  I would like to extend my congratulation to all the members of Class 04-04.  Your wings are well deserved.  Good luck to all and Godspeed!  Fly safe everyone.  On a side note, if anyone from the class is ever passing through Ohio, you are more then welcome to stay at my home.  We would be happy to have you!  Just call or email for directions.  Good luck all!  Matt 
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