spectre56

They told us it doesn't matter either way, but there are a lot of us that did bring them and log the hours.

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"!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

Unless things have changed in the last couple of years, I'd say you'll still go to FT after sophomore year. Where did you read about going another time?

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.

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.

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.

Yeah, there are always a few you can go and do a preflight or chairfly either in the maintenance hangar or on the ramp. You're best bet is going to be those in the hangar because most of the airplanes on the ramp are either flying or about to be flying. I rarely study by myself; that being said, there are times when i'm in the flight room just looking over stuff by myself. I study with a buddy of mine for probably about 2 hours a night most of the time. I am also studying on sunday for a few hours.

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!

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!!

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.

You could start out as a junior...you would have to start your masters to continue once you got your bachelor's. You would either start out as an AS100 or 200. If you start out as a 200, you would go to an extended (2 weeks) field training (if they're still doing that)...just learning about the military, customs and courtesies, etc. I wouldn't worry about the AFOQT. I liken it to an SAT with some aviation stuff thrown in there. Definitely study for it, but don't kill yourself doing so. Talk to the cadre to find out exactly what your options are and go from there. Or you could try OTS, which is extremely competitive to get into from what I hear.

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.

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!

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!

Yeah, he has left big shoes to fill, but it's all pretty much the same information, just from different perspectives.

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!