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spectre56

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Blog Entries posted by spectre56

  1. spectre56

    Day 5

    By spectre56,

    Day 2 of Aero Phys. More classes on life support stuff. Also got to go into the altitude chamber to test mask functions; we'll go "up to altitude" in a couple days, pretty sweet. We also did egress training. Ended the day with a test: everyone passed so that was good. One down, 7 to go or something like that...taking it one at a time.

    Blues tomorrow and boldface/ops limits. Hopefully everyone will pass...we'll see!
  2. spectre56

    Day 1 and 2

    By 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!
  3. spectre56

    Lackland Airshow

    By spectre56,

    Went to the airshow this weekend...AWESOME! If any pilots reading this were there, it was amazing. Saw lots of cool aircraft (just like most airshows) and got to look around some of them...pretty sweet. I'm not going to say much about it, except that it was probably one of the better airshows that I've been to. I thought the F-22/F-16/F-15/P-51 show was one of the highlights in my opinion: I had never seen that in person and it was great! The Blue Angels were there and, as was mentioned in one of the threads, only 5 jets flying: 3 in the main formation and 2 solos. I've seen them many times and they never cease to impress.

    Good weekend, Aerospace Physiology is this week, should be good times.
  4. spectre56

    Day 3

    By spectre56,

    Day 3 was flight physicals. We showed up at 7 and I was out of there before noon. Not too shabby. I thought it was much "easier" than the one at Brooks: not quite as intensive and it seemed like it was just a diagnostic to make sure that nothing had changed since the initial flying class I. Looking forward to the weekend; going to go to the airshow up in San Antonio, should be a good time!
  5. spectre56

    Another update

    By 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

    Pre UPT

    By spectre56,

    I checked in today and it turned out to be pretty uneventful. Pretty much your typical base inprocessing stuff. I got a couple lengthy checklists that I need to complete by next week, but that should be easy. I also got a house on base - those who have been here know - the place we got was, well, less than exceptional. I have a queen size bed and it barely fits in my bedroom. They told me I have a floorplan with one of the most square feet, but it's all in the kitchen...the living room and all 3 bedrooms are tiny. Oh well, i'll get used to it; i'll be too busy most of the time to notice anyway.

    I'm still pretty excited to get started!
  7. spectre56

    Pre UPT update

    By spectre56,

    Just a little update for those still reading this. I made it through ASBC and got back home to be on casual for about a month before heading down to Laughlin this weekend. I'm nervous and excited all at the same...I finally get a shot at doing something I've wanted to do since I was little. I'll get there this weekend and report next week, so I'll have something else to put on here then. Wish me luck that none of my crap gets broken/stolen/etc on the way down there!
  8. spectre56
    Alright, well, I expected to have more lessons learned, but I don't. Feel free to add on to this as necessary. In no particular order...

    - Relax: I was super nervous going there. Don't be. Everyone is very helpful and friendly especially while checking in, but also throughout the whole time I was there. Everyone is really there to help you make it through.

    - If you don't like really hard or fluffy pillows, bring your own.

    - Bring some electronic entertainment: XBox, PS, Wii, etc goes a long way and your classmates will appreciate it.

    - Go somewhere else on the weekends. Me and my buddy went to either Colorado Springs or Denver every single weekend we were there. You are generally not spending much money on food and nothing on lodging, so get out; if for nothing else, to get a room with a window! We stayed at the Hyatt Place: excellent!

    - Drive and stay in Colorado Springs the night before your RNLT date if you are coming from far away. You have to get there in blues and you don't want to be driving for like 10 hours with those damn things on. I say drive because it sucks (for me) to bum rides off of everyone all the time.

    - Learn the boldface and ops limits backward, forward, upside down and in no order in particular before you get there. Also learn the black items on the ops limits: you'll use them just enough to know them by memory. Learn everything you can in the In Flight Guide as far as the departures and arrivals go: it may not make a whole lot of sense, but if you are familiar with them, it helps immensely.
  9. spectre56

    Fri June 6

    By spectre56,

    So, Wednesday I was initially scheduled for one flight around lunch, but the weather was acting up a little bit, so a priority list was made up that consisted of folks that were behind, and I was on it! So, I'm eating breakfast and I get told that I'm double turning and my first brief is in like 30 minutes! I go brief up my 604 with a different IP than originally planned and the flight went pretty decent. I get back and sure enough, I'm supposed to be briefing AGAIN with the same IP for my 605. It went ok, but I definitely was not 100% and my IP could tell. He still thought I did pretty good overall, which is very good. That meant checkride on Thursday!

    Thursday comes and the weather tanks, so no one flew that day. Oh well, another rain delay and checkride Friday!

    Friday comes and weather is good, so checkride is a go! I go brief it up and step to fly. The flight went pretty good; I messed up a few things, but I think my IP let those things slide. He passed me and I got to go home! So after about 4 hours of outprocessing (because our flight commander was busy) me and my buddy got the hell out of Doss!

    After I get back into the swing of things, I'll be making another post in a couple of days containing some lessons learned from the whole ordeal.
  10. spectre56

    Tues June 3

    By spectre56,

    Flew twice today: first was my area solo, 602, then the second was the 603. Area solo was pretty fun! Kinda boring once I got into the area simply because the only maneuvers we are allowed to do are steep turns and VOR navigation stuff. Overall, a very fun flight.

    Second flight was ok...wind was picking up and it was hot. Nothing eventful about it, just another flight.

    Only 3 more flights left!!
  11. spectre56

    Mon June 2

    By spectre56,

    Flew my 601 ride today...not too bad. I messed up some simple radio calls and my IP downgraded me for those, but got a good for the overall flight. Going out for my area solo (602) in the morning, should be exciting (and boring from what I hear)! Then i'll get my 603 later in the afternoon when it will be nice and hot...sucks. Should be a good day...actually, should be an "A day"!
  12. spectre56

    Sat May 31

    By spectre56,

    So I did my 306 ride for the second time yesterday and passed. I got scheduled for my checkride and pattern solo today.

    Just got back from my checkride...PASSED!! I still need some work in many areas, but apparently i'm safe enough to go solo. Scheduled for the solo here in a couple of hours. This short weekend could potentially be great as long as I pass the solo.

    (about 4 hours later)

    And just got back from my solo, and did well! My IP said I did better by myself than I did with him in the plane with me...go figure!

    This weekend is going to be the best weekend since I've been here. Going to stay the night Colorado Springs and have a cold one. See yall monday!
  13. spectre56

    Wed May 28

    By spectre56,

    I was scheduled for a flight this morning, but the cloud layer was at 600 feet which means....you guessed it, no flying! Pattern altitude is 800 feet. So my flight gets cancelled. I get back from lunch and find out there's a list with a bunch of people who are behind on it....including me. So, I get a new IP from a different flight and brief up a flight and I don't know which profile i'm doing or which area i'm going to. Turns out I get a profile that i've done a few times before...whew! But the winds were still pushing us around and our area happened to be directly under a ginormous cumulonimbus cloud which was giving us up/downdrafts the whole time. I thought that was one of my worst flights since i've been here, but my IP had mercy on me and thought I did decent overall. I busted my area so he downgraded me on that, but overall, not that bad apparently.

    Lesson of the day: be as flexible as humanly possible! Be ready to fly at any time and know the procedures for every approach/departure and the boundaries for your areas.
  14. spectre56

    Thur May 29

    By spectre56,

    As I was stepping to fly this morning, the winds started to pick up. I think they went out of limits about halfway through the flight, but who knows. I hooked it, though. It was just a terrible flight...I was getting blown all over the place (sts) and my maneuvers sucked. I guess I wasn't 100% today and I paid for it. I'll try it again tomorrow and hopefully be ready to check on saturday: that would make for a great weekend! Wish me luck tomorrow!
  15. spectre56

    Tues May 27

    By spectre56,

    I was supposed to fly this past friday, but winds were crap...again. So I had a nice 3 day weekend; went to Colorado Springs for the night on Saturday and relaxed and didn't think of IFS once!

    Finally got to do my 304 just a little bit ago. I think it went well overall. Weather was still kinda crappy but not so bad that we couldn't go to the area and do some stuff out there. I'll get to the checkride....it may take a long time, but i'll get there!
  16. spectre56

    Thur May 22

    By spectre56,

    Supposed to fly twice today and only got the first one in this morning. Second one was cancelled due to winds. We went out to the other aux field (Fremont) and did a bunch of touch and goes. I thought the flight went pretty well and my IP pretty much agreed. This is a one time flight where you only go out to the aux field and beat up the pattern and you don't go to an area at all. It's a nice change of pace, plus there aren't nearly as many people at that airport as there are here at Pueblo and at Fowler.

    I'm thinking i'll at least get my 304 flight in tomorrow (as long as the winds don't pick up) if not attempt to double turn. It's not looking good for the double turn which just means i'll do it on tuesday. Oh yeah, we get monday off for Memorial Day!
  17. spectre56

    Wed May 21

    By spectre56,

    I was supposed to fly this afternoon, but, as you guessed...we had crazy winds! (This seems to be a trend!) I get to switch IPs now also, which is cool because I get a different perspective on what I'm doing right and wrong. I'm on the schedule for tomorrow morning, but winds aren't looking promising, again, so we'll see. If this weather keeps up through friday, I won't fly until tuesday (monday is Memorial Day!). This just means we'll be here that much longer than scheduled. Oh, and we had one guy check yesterday and do his solo today. He has gotten proficiency advanced (PA) through alot of the 300 block because he is a CFI and has 1200 hours or something crazy.
  18. spectre56

    Tues May 20

    By spectre56,

    So, I didn't end up flying on Friday, which just makes it that much more hectic for me this week. Yesterday, I flew in the morning; today I flew twice in the morning (double turning). The first flight was decent, but the second flight sucked. The winds had picked up and I was all over the place. Not to mention I got a headache as we were stepping...I fought through it, but I was beat from the first flight so that wasn't helping any. I ended up getting a good overall and for the most part, my IP was lenient (I think).

    I'm flying tomorrow...once as of now. Halfway done with the 300 block and only 3 or 4 more flights till the checkride. I don't think I'm ready for it just yet, but i'm hoping i'll get it down in the next few days.
  19. spectre56

    Thur May 15

    By spectre56,

    So, as of last night, wasn't scheduled to fly...but I get back from breakfast this morning and, voila! I'm on the schedule! I'm getting ready and planning, etc, and there's a stop launch because of winds....again. There were a few people that flew today, but not too many. Chalk another day up to weather.

    I'm thinking that i'll probably fly tomorrow since the senior class' IPs are getting freed up. Also, the new class got here today, so the place is getting crowded!
  20. spectre56

    Wed May 14

    By spectre56,

    Flew again today. I've been flying about every other day to start out with; but as the senior class finishes up this week, we will start getting their IPs so our class will be flying much more. I'm looking forward to flying, but not to double turning, oh well...gotta do what you gotta do.

    The flight went well today; had smooth air and I thought I did fairly well for the point I'm at in the program. Basically just did some steep turns, stalls, slow flight, and my IP demonstrated an area SFL (simulated forced landing). That looks fairly straightforward, but that apparently gets a lot of people here, so I guess it's not as easy as it looks.
  21. spectre56

    Mon May 12

    By spectre56,

    Had my second flight today...ugh, not so good. The wind wasn't that bad when we started and taxied, but as we were finishing the runup, the SOF called stop launch for high winds. He cleared us all to go about 5 minutes later (there was about 6 of us waiting to go). My IP said I improved from my first flight, but the winds were kicking us around pretty bad, so the whole flight I was trying to keep altitude and airspeed. Just when I thought I had good airspeed and altitude, a downdraft or updraft would hit us and there goes the altitude!

    There's a reason why there is a 25 knot limit on this plane! I got an overall good on the flight, but i'm still improving. I don't fly again until wednesday, so I can sorta take it easy tonight.
  22. spectre56

    Fri May 9

    By spectre56,

    Another benign day of just studying. The guy that was doing our formal brief didn't know what some of the stuff was that he was briefing about (I think it was the NOTAMS: Notice To Airmen). Well, our flight commander didn't like that so much so he got a little upset and told us that he was thinking about putting us on formal release, but didn't since we had worked so hard this past week. Just means we need to keep it together and help each other out that much more. We all got out at a decent time, so it's a nice start to the weekend.
  23. spectre56

    Thur May 8

    By spectre56,

    Woohoo!! Dollar ride, baby!! It finally happened and I think I did well overall. Even though I got all U's: that means I attempted the different maneuvers but wasn't that great at them, I did get the plane back in one piece! There wasn't too many maneuvers on this ride; just slow flight, steep turns, and your takeoff, landing, radios, approach and departure. Sounds fairly straightforward, but it's a lot of work to do in not much time. It's pretty exciting, and I finally know what I need to work on and study for. I think I will take it easy tonight since I don't have to fly tomorrow. I'm scheduled for monday so i'll be studying for that flight this weekend.
  24. spectre56

    Wed May 7

    By spectre56,

    Well, didn't fly again today. I think a few flights got out this morning, but the weather came in late morning and all flights were cancelled for the rest of the day. Good news was that our flight commander bumped another guy off the flight schedule who was supposed to do his 2nd or 3rd ride to put me on there. I was going to be one of the last flights of the day, but, as I mentioned before, the weather rolled in and it started raining.

    I just studied all day, went out to one of the planes and practiced a preflight and chairflew what my mission would have been. Not a bad day overall. We got let out early and we have a Emergency Procedures Quiz (EPQ) tomorrow so I will be studying for that tonight. It's basically an online test that tests your knowledge of different systems and flight concepts, etc. Shouldn't be extremely difficult and you only need an 85% to pass, but i'm still going to study my butt off!
  25. spectre56

    Tues May 6

    By spectre56,

    Alright, I didn't fly today...don't know if i'll fly tomorrow, either. There's 2 of us that I know of that haven't flown at all. Our IP said that he would bump some folks tomorrow to get us up in the air, so we'll see how that goes. So, i'm stuck studying the same stuff: radio calls, checklists, etc. I feel like I can't get any more productive studying done until I fly and figure out what I need to work on. Maybe tomorrow!!
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