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Blogs

Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

Still sick...

Short entry, I'm still sick as a dog. I think it's getting worse. Had the first "fly the plane around and do some landings/takeoffs" sim today, pretty cool. Studied for the Flying Fundamentals test the rest of the time. I did well and so did most of the people I know. Guess we'll find out tomorrow if anyone didn't do so hot. Show was 0800 and we were out of there by 1730, same as the last few days, kinda long but not too bad. Goin' to bed...
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

Sorry, I been sick...

Wow, we've been busy the last few days. A sim on Monday (more checklists) plus a test (almost everyone did fine, one fail again but passed the 2nd time). We then started a new section, Flying Fundamentals. It's all about how to fly a pattern, approaches, landings, etc... There's actually a ton of different stuff involved so it's supposed to be one of the harder tests. The test is actually tomorrow afternoon, after another sim mission. And on top of all this, my head has felt like it was
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

Long days...

So Thursday and Friday were pretty long. We had to show at 0700 and didn't get out until after 1700. Lot's of CAI's and lectures on Thursday, mostly on Aerodynamics (lift, drag, stalls, spins, etc...) but some intro to the checklists. Friday was a sim day, I got to use one of the ones with the screen which was pretty sweet. It was designed to mostly just get through all the checklists, but my sim instructor let me do a bunch of approaches. They sucked pretty hard at the beginning (that sim is to
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

Another day, another dollar...

So it was nice not having to show up to class until 0900 this morning. We had 2 CAI's this morning: Aerodynamics 1 and 2, which I was done with by 1030. Then we waited for the review which started at 1400. That was done at 1530, then we had our "Intro to Operational Procedures" until 1630. Basically just a "here's what's in the checklist". We were done after that. Tomorrow starts at 0700... ugh.
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

Systems 2 Test

So we had a long weekend, which was nice, but now back to the books. We had our Systems 2 test today (Electrical, Fuel, Propulsion, Environmental, Canopy, and Ejection systems). 47 questions and it was way easier than I thought it was going to be, but maybe that's because I spent an extra 5 hours studying yesterday. Did very well again, as did the rest of the class (don't know what the average was yet) but we did have one fail. He retakes it tomorrow morning and should be fine after that. You're
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

08-05 graduation

So like I said, we all went to 08-05's graduation yesterday. It was cool, I'm glad I went, gives me something to look forward to. After that I hung out in the computer lab for 4 and a half hours studying for our systems 2 test on Tuesday. The simulator mission after that was cool, we went through all the buttons and switches and stuff more in depth, then got to fly around a bit. I did a loop or two and the guy I was with practiced his prohibited maneuvers (where else can we do them?).
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

CAI marathon...

So we had one CAI (Propulsion 2) this morning at 0800, then had our propulsion review with our instructor at 0930, then 4 more CAIs after that!! Environmental controls, ejection system, canopy systrem... Ugggh. The good thing is that most were done by 1430. So my whole class has to go to the graduation of class 08-05 tomorrow... in service dress. I guess it's tradition that the class one year behind the graduating class goes to "take the torch" or some such. Oh well, should be interesting. Th
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

Everyone's still here!

So everyone passed the test yesterday. The Navy students had a 96.3% average and the AF students had a 95% average. The Navy guys got a kick out of that, but they've only got 7 students to our 18, no biggie. The rest of the day was taken up with an Anti-terrorism brief, a JAG brief, another brief from the T-38 squadron (this time from the commander) saying, "If you want to be a fighter pilot, don't change your mind while flying the T-6!" This was followed closely by him saying, "Sorry, you g
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

Woo hoo! No more blues!

So we passed our 3rd consecutive boldface/ops limits today, so no more blues... unless we bust a test later. They only give the tests every Monday now, though, so we're in flight suits for at least this week. We did a GPS CAI this morning, basically all about how to work the GPS system, and we had our first simulator. We just got in the cockpit and the instructor had us flip all the switches on and off to see what they did, not graded and no biggie, but pretty cool! The avionics on the T-6 a
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

LOTS of computer classes

So we're back to our normal training now, and back in blues. About 90% of the instruction we've received so far has been on the computer, which is actually working really good. Each section (Hydraulics, Navigation, Communications, etc...) has it's own ~1 hour "class" on the computer. They have rooms full of computers so everyone can "take the class" at the same time. You just click through the pages, they each have maybe 3-8 sentences and a picture or video, and answer the quiz questions at the
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

More Aero Phys, but some good stuff too!

So Monday morning was colder than crap, and we had to practice our "low" Parachute Landing Falls (PLFs) all morning... that sucked! In the afternoon we got a tour of all the simulators (very nice!) and got to check out a T-6 with most of the panels removed, so we could check out the guts. That thing looks like it'll be a blast to fly! This morning we had a dusting of snow on the ground, and had to do all our "high" PLFs. It was even colder outside than yesterday! Oh well, glad I'm done wi
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

Back to Aerospace Phys.

More classes today, this time on managing stress, etc... Then after lunch we took the FACT (Fighter Aircrew Conditioning Test). It's basically just a weight-lifting and endurance (push-ups, crunches) test and EVERYBODY said it was harder than they thought it would be and were wore out afterwords. Unfortunately, my tubby butt failed miserably (well... maybe not that bad, but still a fail). It just means my chances of getting a fighter went down (I want heavies anyway), but you can retake it as of
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

Chamber day

So we all got our chamber rides today. For those of you not in the know, the "chamber" is a little room they sit you down in, with a bunch of oxygen regulators. They depressurize it up to 35,000 feet, then bring you back down to 25,000 feet. Then they tell you to take off your mask and do really simple things like writing your name and simple math problems. Within a minute or 2 everyone starts feeling different symptoms of hypoxia, and when you feel you could no longer fly an aircraft (i.e.
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

Death by powerpoint!

So today was the first day of Aerospace Phys. Powerpoint all day. We had Physiology in all it's forms, then parachute stuff, and egress. One of the cool parts was night vision (not NVG) and Oxygen intro. They turned off all the lights and had REALLY dark powerpoint slides for the night vision class. You couldn't even see them fully until your eyes adjusted. The Oxygen intro had us in the high altitude chamber (they didn't depressurize it yet) and just ran us through how to use all the stuf
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

Day 2...

So 0800 at the OSS, in short sleeve blues, began the day. The head civilian instructor started us off with a brief about both what the civilian instructors do here (everything except flying) as well as how to survive UPT (don't get in trouble, study a lot). Then we had briefings from our Asst. Flight/CC, and a Government Travel Card brief. After an hour for lunch, we came back and got issued like 50 lbs. of publications (literally, 50 lbs, try stacking about 8 reams of paper [at least] on to
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

1st day of UPT!

So, I'm back. I had some friends who wanted a better idea of what it was like at UPT, and the blogs they found out there just weren't doing it, so now I'll blog UPT as well! I'm in class 09-05 at Vance AFB. Today was our "official" start date, so now I'm in Phase 1, academics. We're supposed to be done with Phase 1 on 10 March, then we'll move to the flightline and start flying the T-6 in Phase 2. The end of Phase 2 is scheduled for 22 July, and the end of Phase 3 (and winging) on 12 Feb
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

Leaving tomorrow...

So I guess I had to have one more post. It's tougher than I thought leaving my flight. Every single one of them are great guys and I see them doing fantastic things for the Air Force. As of the time I'm writing this, (Friday night at 2300 hours) we have one guy who washed out, and another guy who decided it wasn't for him. I wish them both the best of luck. That brings the grand total (so far) to 3 guys saying it's just not for them, and one not making it through, for a 15% "not graduatin
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

Checkride!

WAHOO!!! I'm DUN!!! Did my checkride first go this morning. I had some mistakes, like everyone does, but overall did great. They have checkride gouge books here with info on every instructor. It tells you what knowledge questions they like to ask, what kind of stuff they have you do during flight, what emergency procedures they run you through, etc... You just study those and glance through all the stuff you've been studying for the last 5-6 weeks and your good!! They tell you over and over a
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

Solo ride day

So I had my solo today, along with about 5 other guys. It was a blast. You have to do all your solo landings to a full stop then taxi back to the runway, but it's not a big deal. The problem comes in when you FORGET to do your full stop and just do a touch-and-go! Enter me... they understood that you build the habit patterns based on touch-and-go's, but they were still pissed after I told them about it (no one knew, the IPs were driving to the tower to watch us when I did it!). Oh well, th
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

Checkride Saturday

Did my checkride yesterday, went well, I passed no problem. I actually thought I busted standards on a couple of the maneuvers, but the IP said they're more looking for people who notice when they bust and try to correct right away, which I did. I solo with like 5 other people on Monday. Everyone in the class should be checking within the next few days, then doing their solo's. Yes, they are back to letting us solo by ourselves in the pattern. I've got 5 more flights in the syllabus after my
Riddller's IFS & UPT Blog

TD-whatever+3&4

Flight went good again yesterday, getting ready to fly again here in a couple hours. The new class is supposed to start flying Monday. I was told yesterday that they want to proficiency advance me. Same with the other guy in my class with a PPL. We're supposed to have 6 flights in this "block" of instruction, but they want us to skip the last two flights and go straight to the pre-solo checkride. So I've got one more flight today, then my checkride on Saturday. Oh yeah, everyone is fly

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