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spectre56

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Blog Entries posted by spectre56

  1. spectre56
    Today I got to sit in on several briefings to see how those go and to get a better feel for what I need to do to prepare for my dollar ride. That and studying is about all I did today. I wasn't flying today, so I got to absorb all the info I could from those who were flying.

    I was supposed to fly tomorrow, but me and several others got bumped for guys that are doing their checkrides. I'm not complaining, though. Hopefully I'll get thrown in the mix tomorrow or Wednesday.
  2. spectre56
    Today was the first day of flying for our class. I'm not sure about the other flight, but I don't think any of the 3 or 4 folks in our flight who were scheduled to fly did so. Winds were way too high all day. We got let go at about 1530 which was sweet.

    My first flight is on Tuesday so I'll be studying tomorrow and monday for that...should be fun!

    Oh, went and saw Iron Man last night. Pretty sweet movie! I definitely recommend it if you haven't seen it yet.
  3. spectre56
    Today we had our first real formal briefing and standup EP. I think they went well overall, but I don't know how much the flight commander liked it. We'll do it again tomorrow and every day until we graduate, so I we're going to do our best. We had some classes and then our academics test, and I made 100%! I'm pretty happy about that. After that and lunch, we spent a few hours in our flight room; just studying, nothing too daunting.

    Some folks are getting their dollar rides tomorrow (first flight where you decorate and give a dollar to your IP). I probably won't fly until next week monday or tuesday. I'm pretty excited!

    Oh, and we played dodgeball...good times today!
  4. spectre56
    Well, today we learned a bit about patterns, departures, and arrivals into the 3 airports we use up here. Some of it is fairly straight forward, but a good bit of it is sort of confusing. I'm sure it will become much more clear as we start flying. My suggestion would be to get with a buddy or your class and set up a runway on the floor with tape and simply go through taxi, takeoff, patterns, landings, etc. so at least you know the procedures. That way, it should be a little bit smoother when you're actually flying them.

    After PT, we had the review for the one and only academic test tomorrow. 85% is passing so we are all studying our butts off.

    Tomorrow, we also get to do our first real formal briefing and standup EP. I know how it's supposed to go, but I'm just so nervous because I don't know what to expect from the IPs. Guess we'll find out tomorrow!
  5. 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!
  6. spectre56
    Today was a good break from the normal classroom briefings. We still had some classroom instruction, but we got to go out to the aircraft where some of the senior class folks showed us what a preflight is for this plane. That was a great distraction from the tediousness of the classroom stuff. I have to be honest, the academics (aircraft systems, etc) are coming fairly quick to me because of my Marine maintenance background. Don't get me wrong, though, it's definately NOT easy by any stretch of the word.

    It's nice to get outside to the flightline; especially since we have no windows in our room (as mentioned by Sentry333). It also gives us a feeling of making at least a little bit of progress in this program.

    Also, myself and Sentry333 are in the same flight, so if some of this is redundant, oh well. Just trying to provide a different perspective.

    Oh, and after I'm done with PT and dinner, studying is pretty much the norm. Me and my buddy from the other flight were going over takeoffs, landings, and aircraft systems for a few hours. Now, it's time for bed. Early day starting at 0600 tomorrow!
  7. spectre56
    Well, I had a great weekend...didn't really do anything! Went up to Colorado Springs and visited the Academy and Peterson AFB. I'm sure our free weekends are numbered since all the classes are a little behind schedule, though.

    This morning we had a boldface/ops limits test and only 3 of us messed it up...yep, I was one of em. I simply skipped over one of the blanks on the ops limits. We then went over the aircraft systems, aerodynamics, performance, airspace and radio communication. Oh, and we had lunch sometime in there also.

    Our flights then split up and we went to PT while the other flight had another class. We switched it up after that: the other flight PTd and we had that class. Before we started the lesson, we had another boldface/ops limits test. Our flight got them all right, but the other flight had one mess it up. They paid for it at PT and now we are good to wear flight suits!

    Good day overall and more classes tomorrow and we get to find out what the formal briefing is all about!
  8. spectre56
    Today was an ok day. Death by powerpoint describes it well. We had our first boldface/ops limits test today, overall, not too bad. The PFT is another beast all on it's own. If you aren't running, start running well before you get here. You lose about a minute or two on your run time because of the altitude, and there is no waiver for altitude...we missed it by about 400 feet.

    This weekend is free for us, but it will most likely be the last one as all the classes are backed up and we'll probably be flying most saturdays. Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do.
  9. spectre56
    Ok, got here to the lovely brand new IFS facility at around noon. The Doss IFS website says report between 1000 and 1800 in one place and 1200 - 1800 at another spot on there. I think 1000 is what they mean. As was said in Riddller's blog, doesn't really seem like any better or worse to get here earlier rather than later or vice versa, but I guess I would err on the side of early. We have a meet and greet type thing later tonight, but once you get your room and get your flight gear, you're free until then.

    Tomorrow starts early and goes pretty much all day. Briefings, a couple of classes, boldface/ops limits test and PFT rounds out the day.
  10. 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.
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