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spectre56

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Blog Entries posted by spectre56

  1. spectre56
    First week down...though I wouldn't consider it a week since we had Friday off. All the trainees here get every other Friday off, called a compressed work schedule. So far, the material isn't too bad. Went through the basics this past week: the FARs, rules and regs, etc. Getting into weather this coming week, and then the tower sims the following week! It all seems pretty cool!
  2. spectre56
    Well, I'm taking a cue from Riddller and doing a blog about IFS (and hopefully UPT). I know he put a lot of great information in his so i'll try to do the same. Hopefully I'll be adding a different perspective on things.

    So far, everything Riddller has in his opening remarks of his IFS blog holds true...i'll find out for sure when I get there. Also, my supervisor and a Major in my squadron have been trying to help prepare me for this by imitating standup EPs...I am given a situation and I have to bring it to a logical conclusion. Even in a non-stressful environment in my squadron, these are extremely tough. Not trying to discourage anyone, but I can just imagine how it will be at IFS and UPT.

    My buddy and I are driving up there in two days and are staying in Colorado Springs for the night so we can be ready to hit the ground running. I'll admit, driving with my buddy may not end up so well in the end as one of us may go home quicker than the other, but i'm really not worried about it. I'll get reimbursed either way!

    About me: I spent 6 years in the Marine Corps as a KC-130 flight mechanic...basically a flying crew chief. Went through part of USMC OCS and decided that the best thing for and my family was to join the Air Force. So, I enrolled in ROTC and commissioned this past December. So far, it's been a great decision.

    I am going to try to post as much information as I possibly can to help out the guys and gals after me, so if there is anything that anyone wants to know, ask and i'll try to provide some answers!

    Talk to you guys in a couple days when I get there!
  3. spectre56
    So, we got here to Travis this morning at 1 AM...ugh, what a drive. We left monday and made it to Albuquerque in about 9 hours. Left at about 10 AM and finally made it to our new home for a couple years.

    I don't have to check in until monday, so i'm relaxing and exploring the area as best as I can and trying to find a place to live. If any of you have any suggestions about where to live around here, feel free to let me know. There's a thread on the forums specifically about Travis, but any other suggestions are welcome.

    I probably won't post anything else until monday or something more interesting starts happening. I get to start the "fun" process of checking in monday, so i'll probably put something on here about that as there will probably be something very frustrating happen in all that. We'll see!
  4. spectre56
    Took our second test this past friday...passed with a 93! Getting into the tower sim this week...should be tough, but fun! Spent a good portion of the weekend going over phraseology and stuff. Good times!
  5. spectre56
    One week closer to starting, and i'm pretty much ready to go (I hope). I've been completing checklists, getting all my flight gear and all that good stuff. Trying to get cable set up...what a pain in the ass. I decided to go with Time Warner (whom i've heard is not so good in Texas) and the tech who came out to install the stuff was from some other company that Time Warner contracted out...he didn't have a clue what was going on. It's like they gave him a box and said install this at this address, and no questions were asked. Well, I ordered an HD DVR and he came out with a regular DVR; he said they didn't have any of the HD ones, whatever. I went with regular cable and when the guy comes back out a few days later to install the stuff, the box that he brings in says "HDDVR" on the front...WTF!! I now hate Time Warner.

    In other news, a buddy of mine in my class just got bumped for something that I consider stupid. The Air Force doesn't agree with me, and I understand where they are coming from, but i'm still bummed (and so is he). I have a mask fitting on monday, and then it's down to the wire! I'm still excited to be in pilot training (almost)!
  6. spectre56
    Well, my flight last friday didn't go as well as it could have, and I got a fair on it. Oh well, I know what to work on.

    Besides that, I had a study day today with an hour of extra instruction thrown in there with one of the sim IPs. I've got the instruments 2 test tomorrow morning. I'm pretty confident about it, but I know there's going to be a couple obscure questions thrown in there that will attempt to trip me up. I'll let ya know how it goes.

    Have a good night!
  7. spectre56
    Back to the grind! Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years!

    Well, had EPQ 2 today...not so bueno. So, academics aren't going so well overall and now I'm on procedural and academic CAP. I'm understanding the material, I guess i'm just not retaining all of it that I need to.

    We didn't do anything today besides the EPQ. Supposed to go to the OG/CC call this morning, but I guess there were too many people and all the studs were told to go back to the flight rooms. So we took the EPQ and then had about 6 hours to study. I gotta tell ya, for me, it's tough to sit there for hours on end and get any kind of productive studying done. I'm sure others have this problem too, but that's how the program is designed (I guess) so I just have to grin and bear it.

    At the end of the day, we had standup covering the last set of notes, warnings, and cautions. That went pretty well, so we got let go after about 20 minutes because our flight commander wanted to go home. Tomorrow we get an IP demo for the EP standup. We'll see how this fiasco will go once we start it on Wednesday!
  8. spectre56
    Back to the grind! Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years!

    Well, had EPQ 2 today...not so bueno. So, academics aren't going so well overall and now I'm on procedural and academic CAP. I'm understanding the material, I guess i'm just not retaining all of it that I need to.

    We didn't do anything today besides the EPQ. Supposed to go to the OG/CC call this morning, but I guess there were too many people and all the studs were told to go back to the flight rooms. So we took the EPQ and then had about 6 hours to study. I gotta tell ya, for me, it's tough to sit there for hours on end and get any kind of productive studying done. I'm sure others have this problem too, but that's how the program is designed (I guess) so I just have to grin and bear it.

    At the end of the day, we had standup covering the last set of notes, warnings, and cautions. That went pretty well, so we got let go after about 20 minutes because our flight commander wanted to go home. Tomorrow we get an IP demo for the EP standup. We'll see how this fiasco will go once we start it on Wednesday!
  9. spectre56
    Well, it's back to work tomorrow. I guess it wouldn't be back to work, since I only popped in for a few minutes last monday...so, just time to go to work. Yeah, that'll work.

    Looked at a bunch of houses and found a few nice ones...and a few duds. My concern is when will DLA and my PCS pay come through so I can put down the exorbitant deposit these places want!! We've got a few on the short list, so hopefully we'll hear about them in the next week or so: the wife and kiddo are getting antsy!

    I'll keep in touch as I get going. Oh yeah, and still haven't heard a peep about that test down in OK City.
  10. spectre56
    Ya knew it was going to happen! Well, dates are still the same, but we'll be moving up to Travis AFB instead of Oregon. Still pretty excited about the move; even a little moreso now that we'll be at an actual base with all the amenities therein. I will be sent to Oklahoma City for a day or so to take an ATC aptitude test to see if i'm "worthy" to be an ATC dude. I guess a lot of people have been washing out of the program so the AF wants to implement this test to nip these things in the bud. I liken it to IFS for the pilots: if you can pass this, then you should be good to go for the rest of the training.

    I have to go through the rip and orders process again so probably won't get orders for another week or two. Oh well!!
  11. spectre56
    So those of us who failed the EPQ took it again this morning and we all passed. So, we were opted to fly, but the weather tanked again! A few people briefed it up for practice, but nothing came of it. We had some shotgun question time for about an hour and our flight commander basically called it a day around 11 or 12. I was glad to leave early but disappointed that I didn't get to fly...oh well, we'll probably start double turning when we get back so I guess I'll just enjoy the down time before the storm.

    Everyone have a great Christmas or whatever holiday you may or may not celebrate and have fun and be careful!
  12. spectre56
    Me and my buddy got to Colorado Springs a little bit ago. We're staying here tonight so we don't have to wear our blues for that long when we actually get to IFS.

    Not too much to post for today...pretty much just driving the whole day (came from Texas). Tomorrow is day 1, so i'm sure i'll have much more to post then.
  13. spectre56
    Day 1 and 2 were pretty tame compared to what I imagine is coming our way in the not too distant future. Both days were filled with briefings by just about every agency on base: from Equal Opportunity, to Services, to the Mental Health Clinic and how to handle stress, etc. Not too bad overall. We got issued our pubs today...I'm no tree hugger, but several trees died just to make one set of pubs for one person, not to mention a whole class and 15 classes a year; i'm really ok with it. I had to go get binders for it all and now I get to figure out how to group them together. Then we get to incorporate all the changes into them...oh what a joy that is! We have flight physicals tomorrow, and from what I hear, it will be a short day...we'll see!

    Anyway, i'm excited to be in pilot training and I keep telling myself, dude, you're in pilot training! What an awesome opportunity and experience!
  14. spectre56
    Aero Phys day 7. Final day of aerospace physiology and i'm guessing the easiest day of training?? Just a guess! We had several classes on crew resource management (CRM) and talked all about communication and decision making and stuff like that. They put some funny video clips in the briefings so that made it bearable.

    We start learning about the aircraft tomorrow and I can't wait! I'm still excited to have the chance to live my dream and there really is no other place i'd rather be than here, in pilot training!
  15. spectre56
    Today was great! We had an intro class this morning and then took a tour of the airplane...pretty cool. Then we did a pubs check after lunch. What a pain...and all we did was the in flight guide and the checklist. I did a few computer aided instructions (CAI) before the 12 day was up and called it a day.

    This was the first time I actually felt like I was in pilot training. It's a good feeling and we haven't even done very much!
  16. spectre56
    Pretty cool day...we attended 09-02's graduation and got introduced as the freshman class. Pretty motivating, but I gotta keep my head grounded and focus on what's going on now. Had a review class after lunch and then finished a couple CAIs and called it a night.

    We have our first sim on monday so i'm going to look over what's needed for that over the weekend.
  17. spectre56
    Really easy day today. I had to get my CAC card reissued because, surprise--MPF didn't put the correct stuff on it...happened to about half of our class. More of a hassle and an annoyance than anything else. We had 3 CAIs scheduled for today, but since I came in yesterday and knocked out 2 of them (i'm trying to stay ahead of the curve), I only had one to do today; so I did that after I got my new CAC card. I was free for a few hours until our introductory sim. We weren't expected to know a whole lot so it was pretty relaxed...the instructor showed us where basic things were in the cockpit. It was pretty neat, and i'm excited to get more into it.

    We have our systems 1 test tomorrow so hopefully i'll do well on it!
  18. spectre56
    Had to get up a little earlier than usual for a review that lasted 3 hours--that was painful, but it was useful for the test we had a little bit ago. After the class, we had a few hours of study time before the test, so I went and had lunch with a buddy of mine who just got here, then went home to study for a little bit. Went to take the test and my CAC card wasn't working properly...go figure! I'm starting to get tired of this. Warning: if the pin number on your CAC starts or ends in a zero, the CAI program that administers the test won't like you and you'll have to make up a new pin, so don't have zeros! I finally got to take the test and I ended up missing 1, making a 97ish. I'm pretty happy about that!
  19. spectre56
    Busy day, sort of. Had a couple CAIs in the morning. I got done with those fairly quickly so I was able to go home for about 45 minutes, then had to go back up to work for a review class, then had a few hours of free time before we took our boldface/ops limits test. Hopefully we all passed it! Did a couple more CAIs after that and headed home.
  20. spectre56
    Had a pretty mundane day today. We had a class and a bunch of CAIs throughout the day. Got done with those fairly quickly and headed home for a little bit. Then we had to come back and go through our dash 1...very painless, if not tedious: most of us had already put in the changes and there were only three write-in changes so it didn't take long at all.
  21. spectre56
    It's friday! We had a review lesson this morning and then I had a couple hours of free time before our sim. I don't know if i've mentioned it yet, but these first 2 sims that we have done is basically a show and tell type thing; the LSI instructors show us stuff in the cockpit and how they work, etc. Had to go directly to Commander's Call after that and get our holiday safety briefing. He was also talking about how he was trying to get the different MWSs to come and have a "fly in" type deal. I think Columbus does that (or did that), and it would be really nice to get touchy feely with the different aircraft that the AF has.

    Going to drop night tonight, so that should be a good time. Have a great weekend!
  22. spectre56
    Mundane day...lots of CAIs and some classes on aerodynamics and checklists. That is literally all that happened during the day.

    After we were done with all our CAIs, our class all went out to Rudys and had some barbeque. Good times. One of the flights is doing a toy drive so we thought we would all go to walmart and pick up some toys to donate for their drive. After that, headed home!

    It occurred to me as I was writing this, that this is probably very boring to read: "...had CAIs and class and went home". Well, I know it is and I hate that, but it should pick up and get more interesting once we start flying. I'm still going to do this as much as I can, partially for me and partially for those who are coming to UPT after me.
  23. spectre56
    Once again, lots of CAIs and lots of classes. Took our boldface/ops limits today...did we pass? Guess we probably won't find out until after thanksgiving.

    Again, not much to write about today. Sorry.
  24. spectre56
    So there I was...stitting in our first class today and I was having the hardest time staying awake. I didn't have to be there until 9:15, but I couldn't get to sleep until 2am! I hate that!

    All we had today was 3 classes: two on operating procedures and one on aerodynamics. This aerodynamics is killing me! It's a good thing I sit next to smart people or this stuff would be much tougher than it is.

    Finished up around 1 and the holiday has started! Happy thanksgiving everyone...stay safe and be careful! (a little redundant maybe...)

    P.S. the opening statement is credited to Fuse. It makes it a whole lot better, I think!
  25. spectre56
    Ok, thanksgiving is done...let's go christmas!

    Had our aerodynamics test this afternoon after some CAIs and a sim. This sim was the start of the "real life" sims doing checklists and flying around and stuff; pretty neat. I was way behind the power curve and it showed in the sim. But, now I know exactly what I need to study for the next time.

    Aerodynamics test....yeah, not so much. Didn't pass. I got some stuff confused in my head and only missed 2 more than what is allowed, but a fail is a fail. Not much to do about it but study.

    Retest is at 0800 so i'm going to bed after I study.
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