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Geoff's Blog

A blog by spectre56 in General

  • Entries

    110

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    93

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    39,055

About this blog

Fun times at IFS, UPT and Airfield Ops

Entries in this blog

Wow, just wow

So none of us flew this morning because of fog. Spent some of the day studying for the next EPQ and manning the snacko. Well, I had been in there for about an hour or so and my flight commander came in there wondering what I was doing. Needless to say, I was supposed to fly with him a few minutes earlier. Well, I had mission data cards, but I didn't really have anything on them, and was totally unprepared for the entire flight. Ugh, the whole flight was horrible. I was off altitude when

Wouldn't ya know it

Well, took the instruments 2 test this morning and, due to carelessness (bad math, marking the wrong answer, etc) I hooked it. That sends me to commander's review. So i'll be in limbo while the wing commander decides my fate. I'm expecting the worst and hoping for the best. All I really know right now is that i've done my best.

Wed May 7

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

Wed May 28

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! B

Wed May 21

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 ha

Wed May 14

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

Wed April 30

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

Waiting

So, still sitting around waiting on a RIP or some orders to move on to the next stage of my life/career. On a different note, it seems like our class is getting knocked out like flies! We have another person on Commander's Review for flying stuff, one guy on the edge for puking 3 times after solo and someone else on med hold for eye problems. I really hope for the best for these guys...they are really good people and are busting their asses to do the best they can in this tough program.

Update

I know it's been a while since i've written anything...sorry. I've been bored out of my mind without much to do. I got my new set of orders and i've been busy outprocessing all the agencies on base that i've never been to, plus the 2 or 3 I have. Still no word on when i'll be going to Oklahoma City. I guess it's still being worked out with the FAA. Maybe I won't go...at least not at this rate! I'll keep yall posted!

Tuesday 29 Apr

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

Tues May 6

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!!

Tues May 27

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!

Tues May 20

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, m

Tues June 3

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!!

Travelling

Well, looks like I'll be heading up to Oregon soon! I have been told that I should receive my orders in a week or two, so hopefully about a month after that we'll be heading up to the northwest. If anyone knows anything about Klamath Falls, let me know. I start part of my training at Keesler around mid November, there for about 3 months, then head back up to Oregon for 2 years to train alongside the F-15s up there. I'm pretty excited and can't wait to move on!

Tower stuff is done!

Had our tower "test" this past thursday...I passed with flying colors! Our whole class, in fact, did very well. Not quite as hard as pilot training stuff, but still had to work at it, nonetheless. Moving on to radar lecture for about a week and then in the radar sim for a couple weeks. It's supposed to be harder, so should be great! On another note, does anyone still read this stuff?

Thur May 8

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

Thur May 29

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!

Thur May 22

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

Thur May 15

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!

Thur May 1

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 (fir

TGIF

So I flew this morning and it didn't go great, but I don't think it was all THAT bad. I haven't checked the grade, but the IP said I was going to get a fair or a unsat. Not good. I think I would learn stuff a lot better with a different IP...granted, I don't know as much as I should know, but don't get all pissed off and cuss when I do stuff wrong. Nuff said. It's friday and the super bowl is on sunday!! I have a weekend full of studying for instruments 2 test and the EPQ that the rest o

Still Waiting

Just letting everyone know that i'm still waiting on the word from the man. I've had to make up a dream sheet just in case he says no, and I know I would enjoy just about anything that I put down: there just wasn't all that much that I qualified for (no tech degree or anything like that). Have a great LONG weekend and maybe i'll have news on tuesday or wednesday.

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