| CAREER LOGBOOK |
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| Well, I'm back at it again here at Altus after my month of leave. I managed to get quite a bit done while I was at home. I got most of the house projects completed. I won't go into the list because it is long. I spent 2 days before coming here up at Selfridge and got to know a few more people. I think it will be an O.K. place to be. I was offered to go on a flight while I was there but it was a night sortie and I needed to get home to get ready to get here. The trip out was uneventful considering I had just got the beater car out of storage, so I was a little concerned about it making it. It took me 2 days to get here, about a 1000 miles. I took my time, I wasn't in any hurry. This place makes Enid look like a metropolis. Not a whole lot to do. As usual, when I got here they didn't have any rooms so I was stuck off base at the Ramada Inn. Not bad, but not as nice as the quarters on base. I spent 5 nights there and finally got on base last night (Friday) and got settled in. Base rooms are much nicer. I'll try to post pics of the room for those interested when I get a chance. I'm updating my page from the library since they charge .35 cents for phone calls from the rooms. I think that is a bunch of B.S. I can't use my camera hook up here so maybe another day, just check my pics page. We started class on Tuesday and there are currently 22 in the class. They are expecting 10 more in a couple of weeks when the upgrade pilots get here. They gave us a ton of books and I have a lot of studying to do. They don't give you much direction on what to study, so it is definitely a big boy program. Most of the classes are taught on computer, with little instructor based classes. The first week was a little frustrating because of the fact there was no guidance. I'm sure it will get better as we get into the flow. Art and Tim are here for their C-5 school. The only 2 in their class. That would be nice. There isn't much to do so I plan on getting my things in order and studying some this weekend to try to get ahead of the curve. I expect about 8 weeks of academics and then a month or so of flying. We only get 12 sims and 9 flights. Should be fun. The plane isn't nearly as nice as the T-1 to fly as far as avionics and integrated systems go. I guess it's hard to realize that this plane is almost 50 years old. All is well and I'll post a new commentary next weekend. |
| UPDATED 5 January 05 |
| Altus Week #1 Ending 13 March 2004 |
| Not much has happened this past week. 5 days of endless academics. You spend about 7 hrs a day on the computer doing computer based training and about 1 hr a day with instructors. We are still covering aircraft systems and such. There isn't really much to talk about because there isn't a whole lot to do. I did play a little golf yesterday and it was nice to get out for a while. It has been in the upper 80's the last couple of days so it feels really hot, especially since I left home it was bearly in the 40's. I should have my first academic test in the next week. hopefully I'll do alright. Not planning on doing much this weekend. Art and I went to eat in Lawton last night, just to get away. Thinking of maybe going to OKC tonight, but I should probebly stick around and study a little more. Wish I had more to say, but there isn't much to talk about here. |
| Altus Week #2 Ending 20 March 2004 |
| Altus Week #'s 3 & 4 Ending 4 April 2004 |
| 2 more weeks have gone by and not much has happened. Last week was purely academics. I have finally finished all my computer based training and instrument refresher course. I took my block A test last Friday and I missed a couple, but I passed nonetheless. It's nice to have that out of the way. I went to OKC to get a new pair of sunglasses and to hang out for the night. It's about a 2 hour drive so I didn't get back until late. I have 2 more academic tests before I leave. The next one is coming up in about a week or so. This past week I had more academics and then I had my first sim. The sim wasn't to bad, mostly going through all the checklist items to get familiar with the switch positions and where they are on the jet. Thursday we met all the A/C upgrades, known as PUPS to us (Pilot Upgrade Program). Basically these are the guys who have been copilots for the last few years and are now moving from the right seat, my side to the left seat. Mine is from the Nebraska Air Guard out of Lincoln. He actually lives not to far from where I used to live when I was stationed at Offutt. He seems like a pretty cool guy, which is nice since I'll be flying all my sims and aircraft sorties together. He's very knowleadgable which puts a lot of pressure on me to know my stuff since he expects so much. After all, we are each going to make each other look good or bad. Friday was an off day so I made an eye doctor appointment and had to get some glasses. I was having a bit of trouble seeing things in the distance which isn't to good in an airplane. My new glasses should be in next week. I just have to wear them to fly. I can read and everything O.K., just can't see far away. I figured I might as well get it done here and have the government pay for it since I need a new FAA physical when I get done and you have to have 20/20 to pass that. Vega and several others from 04-04 made it here this week so 5 of us went out to eat last night in a little town north of here and talked about the days gone by. Amazingly it was all guys from B flight in Tweets, so we decided to call ourselves the survivors, since the 5 was 3/4 of us who made it through that flight. It's nice having a few more people I know around. I played a little golf on Friday and got a lot of the weekend stuff out of the way so I can study the rest of the time. The car has been running bad so I monkeyed with that and I think I got it fixed. Other than that not much else is happening. We have to work next weekend for some unknown reason so I'll write in a couple of weeks after I've had a few more sims under my belt. As far as the weather, it has been WINDY and in the lower 70's with the occasional thunderstorm. Last weekend a few tornados popped up north of here. |
| Altus Week #'s 5 & 6 Ending 17 April 2004 |
| The last few weeks have been pretty busy. We finally started flying the simulators. They are pretty nice full motion type sims. The first few are pretty easy, just some basic takeoffs and flying around a little bit. Flying is definitely a perishable skill. It is amazing how much I have either forgotten or basic flying skill that have diminished. I've had 6 sims so far and Thursday we had to do one over because the sim broke 3/4 of the way though the profile. The sims last 4 hrs and it is one hell of a busy time for the copilot. We have sim 6 on Monday and it is a mid sim check ride. It shouldn't be too bad. As far as being busy, the copilot in this airplane seems to do almost everything. I could try to explain it, but only those who have sat in that seat would understand. At this point in the game I am pretty much mentally drained by the time I get out. I took my block B test on Friday and didn't miss any. I've got another test next week sometime over Emergency procedures, so I've got a lot more studying to do this weekend. All the classroom academics are done and now we are focusing on sims. I've got 3 next week. We are supposed to hit the flight line on May 5th. We have 12 sims and 8 total flights. All seems to be going well at home, at least from what I am told. The weather here has gone from nice to cold to rainy back to nice and then windy again today. I played some golf yesterday since I had the afternoon off. I went to a resort north of here thinking the course would be nice, I was wrong. Seen cow pastures in better shape. It was pretty warm, 91 degrees as I came through town. Tim and Art checked out of the C-5 yesterday and they both left this morning for home. Must feel pretty nice for them. We went out last night to say our farewells. Not much else has been happening, I keep plugging along and trying to finish up here. I hope everyone had a fine Easter weekend. |
| Altus Week # 7 Ending 25 April 2004 |
| Here is the latest on training at Altus. I finished my Emergency Procedures test, bold face test times 2, and my end of course academic test last week with no major issues. I had 3 sims to include my mid phase check ride. It went without a hitch. All and all it has been a busy but good week. I don't have any sims until Wednesday and Friday this week so it is a nice long weekend. I haven't done a whole lot so I've been just relaxing a little bit. Our sim Friday night didn't get over until about 10:30 so Friday was shot. The Sims are getting a lot easier to do and I'm getting pretty good with the checklists and running the radios. The sims are pretty much grill the copilot sessions since they can't ask the pups much that they don't already know. I played a little golf yesterday before the storms rolled in and I think I'm going to play some more today. It's about 3 weeks of stuff crammed into 4 months. I'm starting to get a little more worried about what I'm gonna do when I leave this place. I've sent out dozens of applications and I haven't even got a single call back. I've gotten plenty of we are going to hire someone else letters though. Most of the other part timers here are airline pilots. Unfortunately I'm a few years away from that luxury, not to mention they all fly home every weekend. I swear on some weekends my car is the only one in the parking lot. I'm afraid that I might be out of work for a while when I leave here if things don't change. Have a good week! |
| Altus Week #'s 8-10 Ending 15 May 2004 |
| Sorry it has been a while since I last wrote. It's been a busy few weeks. Ben and I finished all our sims (12 total), took our sim check ride since my last entry and it was pretty easy, for me anyway. In a 3 hour mission I never touched the yoke once. I guess copilots don't fly. All I did was run the checklists and make sure the rendezvous went as planned. An Air Force instructor gives the ride and it wasn't bad at all. They ask you a few questions and check through your pubs and that's about it. Nothing to really worry about. A tanker copilot does nothing more than run the radios and manage the fuel panel to make sure we don't run out of gas or flame out an engine. They say in the tanker the last thing you'll hear on the cockpit voice recorder is "Co, what did you do!" They pretty much treat the co's like dough heads. You get used to it after a while. I have managed to get to the gym a lot lately. We had some flight line training 2 weeks ago to show us all the survival gear and how to get out of the jet in a hurry. We got to use all the escape ropes out the crew windows and the over wing exits. Pretty simple stuff. The crew windows are about 18ft up. Once all the life support training was done we had 4 days off, so I went home last weekend. It was so nice to get away from this place. Ben and I carpooled down to Dallas and caught planes home. I got home early Friday morning and it was a really busy weekend. Saturday I worked on the dirt pile that used to be a house next door. I got it all leveled off, the driveway torn up, and managed to get some grass planted with the help of my dad on Sunday. That's one less thing I'll have to do when I get home. Hopefully the grass will be up by the time I get home. They had an auction at a house about 4 houses down so we went to see what the house would sell for. I ended up buying the house. The plane ticket home cost me more then what I had planned. The place doesn't need any work and I already have it lined up to be rented out. I flew back to Dallas on Monday and met Ben at the airport. We got pulled over driving home but the guy only gave us a warning. Tuesday we had our first brief for our first flight in the actual jet. You brief the day before you fly and you debrief the day after your flight. Planning missions isn't anything like it was in UPT. You can be ready to fly in about an hour. Our first 2 sorties were 5.1 and 5.7 hours in duration. This airplane is huge. I didn't realize how big it was until I was sitting in the seat and looked out the window to see those huge engines hanging under the wings. It's a great feeling to know you are at the controls of something like that. We refueled a C-5 the first ride and a C-17 on the second. The first ride was a day ride that took us down over Louisiana and back to Oklahoma. I got to do a bunch of approaches on the first ride and they went surprisingly well. I only had one hard landing and did pretty well considering the cross winds we had going on. The hardest thing I think is trying to make sure you don't drag an engine on landing because they are only about 18 inches off the ground. Last night we had a night flight that took us up over S. Dakota and back. I got in a few more landing and they went O.K., but not as well as I would have liked. The airplane floats a long way down the runway because it's fast and has low wings. All in all they weren't bad for a 2nd ride and first night landings in the jet. The air refueling track was a rough ride and we were in and out of the weather, which is real hard to see at night and didn't show up on the radar at all.. It bounced us around pretty good and I got to see static discharges off the airplane that I had never seen before. The windscreens had a blue green glow the whole time we were up and little lightning bolts would form on the windows. It was a pretty good light show. We finally landed about 2:30 AM. I don't have to fly again until Tuesday night. We have 2 more night flights and then back to days. Flying 2 times a week I should be done in about 3 weeks. That's a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. I would be nice to get out of here early. Our Instructor is a great guy. He used to be with the Nebraska guard and then with american airlines before he went back to active duty. He makes the flying fun again, and keeps it interesting. Other than all that, not much else. |
| We had 2 more night flights since my last entry and they went pretty well. Nothing exciting happened. It was the same track except for Thursday because of some storms so we ended up on a track over Louisiana and the same C-17 receivers. I've gotten pretty good at all the checklist stuff and that's about all they expect out of me. Landing the jet has gotten to be pretty mechanical and isn't much of a problem unless the winds are blowing. We had 2 formation rides this past week and we ended up having a few problems. Our wingman had all kinds of problems and then they had maintenance out working on the jet and they bumped one of the fuel valves and ended up draining a bunch of fuel aft. Not to good since these jets can fall back on their tail if your not careful. We ended up going up alone that day. The weather guy here said, "no thunderstorms that day", well it ended up being about a 100 degrees and we had to dodge the biggest storm I had ever seen. I didn't get to much hail damage to the car, thank god since I only have liability on the old thing. A lot of people did get some pretty good dents though. We took an extra long form ride on Wednesday and finished all our formation requirements so I shouldn't be stuck here any longer. Formation is pretty neat; I got to see air refueling from a another perspective, watching from a mile and a half from the side. A little scary though going through the weather and not being able to see the other guy for some extended periods of time. We had to switch instructors for the last 2 rides and the guy was pretty good. It's no longer the type of program it was at Vance, everyone is here to help and make sure you succeed. It is a good feeling. I've talked to my unit and they said I'll have some time off in June and then I should get some orders for August and that I'm already on the board for a deployment this fall. I'm starting to look for some work, but haven't had much luck yet. We have a long weekend, but I have a lot of studying to do since our check ride is going to be this upcoming week. We have our too check on Tuesday. We already found out who our check pilot is and it's the same guy who gave us our sim check out. He wasn't to bad, so I'm not real worried. But like I said, I've got a lot of studying to do. I haven't done much over the last 3 weeks because we've been flying every other day. Everyone says you'll have a lot of free time but not us. We are going to be out of here at least 2 weeks early. One of the guys in the class and I are going down to Dallas this weekend to go to 6 flags. It should be a good time, besides we will probably be the only 2 left on base. Last weekend myself, Ben, and another PUP here went to Dyess in Abilene to do the pyrotechnics for the Tora Tora Tora airshow. It was pretty cool. I was able to mess with dynamite for the first time and build all the bombs they use for their show. It was a really good experience to get to see that stuff. If you ever get a chance to see the show, it's worth it. We had one hell of a good time. The people in the group were really nice, and I was able to get in and sit in all those old warbird planes. I got a little sunburn around the neck but it was well worth it. I should be on the road for home a week from Monday. See everyone then. |
| Altus Week #'s 11-12 Ending 28 May 2004 |
| Altus Week # 13 & 14 Ending 7 June 2004 |
| The final week at Altus finished with a Check ride. It's been a while since I left so I'm totally recalling from memory. We flew our too check ride on Tuesday (June 1) and everything went fine. We prepped for our checkride on Wednesday and had a late show for our Check. Our show time was 10:00AM. We briefed the check the day before like any other ride. We got hammered pretty hard on the ground eval and thought sure we were already in the hole. On the planning day they we got a B-52, which we had never had before. Not only that, but a formation of Buffs on a track we had never been on. Only on a check ride, right. It only gets more fun. The buffs were broke so we waited on the ground for an hour and a half before we got switched to a C-17 on a different track. By the time we got engines started we had yet another new refueling time but now we were fueling an AWACS on a different track. That was all good, and we had the saying SEMPER GUMBY.... Always flexin! The great thing about Altus for copilots is that we never actually pump and transfer fuel like you would in the real world. I'm sure you can see where this is going. After the receiver called inbound on the track he proceeded to tell us he needed an actual fuel offload. You guessed it, I was scrambling to try to get fuel to the transfer tanks because we were light as it was and hadn't planned for any offload. I had the jet configured and started moving fuel aft. As the they hooked up, our boom broke and we couldn't connect. Now I had a pretty good aft balance problem. I spent the rest of the mission burning fuel from the aft tanks to get back into balance. We made a quick descent back into Altus for our approaches. As a copilot you have to do 4 approaches and only one landing. I got 2 touch and goes and one planned go around and I sent myself around once. I started outprocessing on Friday (June 4) and headed for home after a short day on Monday (June 7). I'm officially a qualified KC-135 copilot. Since I've been home I've been working on the rental house to get it ready. It took me about 9 days to get it complete. It's rented out and we're good to go. I finished working on our house today and thought I should take some time to update the website. I haven't flown since I left Altus, but I am going to try to get checked out in a cessna again if I get the time. I managed to get the boat out last Friday and spent a day at the lake. I've tried to get a hold of Selfridge to make up some UTA's but no one ever seems to be around there. I'm a little frustrated with that place, but hopefully it will get better. I have started looking for work, but nothing to serious. I have a couple of leads but I'm going to take my time. I have to go up to Selfridge sometime to make my arrangements for survival school which I leave for on the 4 of July. I think I'll just show up one day next week and let them figure out how to pay me. I have to go to Spokane and then to Pensecola. I'll be gone and banished from society for about 3 weeks. Wish me luck. Overall, Altus wasn't that bad, just not much to do and I was pretty busy finishing 2 weeks early. I'll write more after survival is over. I should be on Orders for 30 days when I get back for my seasoning and mission qualification training. . |
| KC-135 COPILOT SCHOOL COMPLETE |
| Current up to 5 Aug 2004 |
| I thought I would catch all of you up like I said I would. I had a few weeks off and then I headed to Spokanistan for land survival. It went pretty well. I'll give you as much of an overview as I can. Basically you spend 5 days in academics learning how to tie knots and a lot of boyscout stuff. You then go out to the woods and practice all the skills they taught you in the classroom for about a week. The school was a total of 19 days long. It was some really great training but like everyone else, I wouldn't want to do it again. The good thing is that a lot of those skills I would be happy to share with anyone who wants to know. I posted some pictures on my pics page for all to look at. I also posted some other miscellaneous pics. I met a couple of guys from some time ago and we were able to hang out. It was really a pretty uneventful trip, other than the fact that I couldn't get back to Ft Wayne. I wound up in South Bend due to cancelled flights. The weather and scenery in Washington was great. Low humidity and sunny days. I was an element leader and I had 6 others in my group out in the field. We had 2 females which made it a little more of a challenge. 1 of the guys was from Ft Wayne Guard so we go along pretty well. They grouped us by the aircraft we flew so you were with a lot of the people who had the same mentality that you have. I can't really say much else about the training. I spent a couple of days at home between land and water survival. I didn't get much done around the house. I took off for water survival, which was a blast. We spent 1 day in academics and then the rest of the time was out in the Gulf of Mexico. The water was really warm. The first day in the water I got stung by a jellyfish. They were so thick in the shallower water. It hurts a little bit, but it isn't totally unbearable. Kind of like sticking you hand in nettles. The stupid thing stuck me in the only place he could of. They taught us how to get out from under your parachute in the water when it comes down on you because some guys have drown. We did a zip line into the water and various life raft exercises. We got to parasail up to about 650 feet and then free fall into the water under canopy. It really is a good time. I got 2 rides up and splashes into the water. The weather in Pensacola treated us well. We spent some time in the one-man life rafts and the 20 man like we carry on the tanker. Again, the training was good and I would do that again! We also did parachute drags in the water behind the boats, simulating being drug under canopy in high wind situations. It is pretty easy stuff. I got back on Friday and had to go to drill Saturday and Sunday. Drill was O.K., I got a lot of inprocessing done plus a flight physical. My arm finally healed from all the blood they drew. I didn't fly due to the Inspection going on up there this week. I'm supposed to start flying next week and maybe even a deployment the week after that. I'll try to keep this up to date as time goes by. Check back every couple of weeks to see any new updates or photos. Wish me luck on my next few flights, I haven't flown in over 2 months. Trust me, you forget a lot when you don't fly everyday. See you all around! |
| SURVIVAL SCHOOLS COMPLETE |
| 5 August Thru 8 October 2004 |
| The question is where to begin. I returned to the squadron and began my flying career. I continued in the tradition of my schoolmates and pounded my first landing at Selfridge after a 4.5 hr nigh flight into a 7000foot runway. It was quite a bit different than what I was use to back at Altus with the 13,000ft runways. Oh and did I mention it was a no notice checkride. 2 flights in a row were check rides. Hell of a way to start out at a new unit huh! The good thing is that I'm free of check rides for another year anyway. I passed nonetheless and the endless flying has begun. I've flown a 1/2 dozen local flights with instructors and then I went on my first off station missions down to Georgia for a week in the middle of all the hurricanes going on. Those were uneventful and were really helpful in building some good flying skills and repetition. I did some more local flights and then flew a formation ride with Sham from T-1's in his new jet, a KC-10. It was my first formation since Altus and I was lead. A little radio buffoonery along with being tired since it was 3AM. After that we landed in NH where I met up with Mooney from my KC-135 class and we went out on the town while we were at Pease ANGB. I've flown as far west as the Rockies and as far south as Miami. I'm flying an average of 3 days per week and the hours are starting to pile up. I'm pushing the 100 hr mark in tankers. Not bad I'd say. I had my first overseas trip to Iceland and you can see the photos on my photos page. Not much to look at because the weather there is terrible. Wind gusts peaked out at 81mph while we were there and it rained almost everyday (stinging rain). More or less that was a boring deployment. The Unit is busy as hell and I'm scheduled for 3 overseas trips in the next 2 months. I'm looking forward to it. I haven't started looking for real work yet since I'm on the flying schedule thru Thanksgiving weekend. I haven't made Captain yet and I'm waiting for the promotion letter to get thru Washington. I can't write large amounts of details for good reasons, but check back on occasions to where I've been and what's going on. |
| 9 August 04 Thru 5 January 05 |
| I did finally make Captain in November, so I am happy about that. I've got a few stories to tell since my last entry. I spent a couple of weeks in Iceland, I didn't fly much since it was always so windy all the time. Winds hit gusts of nearly 80mph there. I flew a lot in October. I went to Germany to pick up some medical troops deployed from Selfridge. I got to spend a few extra days there because we had some aircraft malfunctions. I had a hydraulic failure on a trip down to Texas and we recovered uneventful into Lackland AFB. I spent 28 days on the road in October. December I went to Las Vegas for 2 weeks for a school and flew almost every day there. I was grounded for 2 weeks in November after we drug 2 pods on a windy night landing. Luckily I wasn't flying, I was the pilot not flying. Nothing serious resulted from it, just a bad day. I'm headed to Japan next week for a 10 day trip that I'm looking forward to. I tallied up my logbook and I'm getting close to 200 hours in the tanker and I'm quickly approaching 500hrs total time. I've been able to keep busy and make a living being a bum, which I'm happy about. If anything exciting happens, I'll be sure to write. |
