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Geoff's Blog

A blog by spectre56 in General

  • Entries

    110

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About this blog

Fun times at IFS, UPT and Airfield Ops

Entries in this blog

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.

Another week

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!

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

Last minute flight, anyone?

So, there I was, sitting around the table, studying when one of our guys calls the flight room and says that he's sick in quarters (or whatever the AF calls it). Well, our scheduler and flight commander are scrambling around trying to fill the slot (see where this is going?) and they come up with me. Fantastic! Fortunately I had about 30 minutes to get my data card ready so that was sweet. I get to the brief and I had forgotten to put winds, fuels, and weather on the card. That didn't go

Still Hangin On

Ok, sorry i've been absent for the last few days...my head's been elsewhere. Had my 88 ground eval on thursday: didn't pass. Had 89 ground eval yesterday: passed. I have been having my doubts about this lately, but thanks to some dedicated family and friends and at least one reader on here, i'm back in the game. I get in a funk sometimes (like everyone else in pilot training at some point, I would suspect) and it takes a lot of poking and prodding to get me out of it. But my attitude is muc

More of the same

Had a great 3 day weekend, but it didn't last nearly long enough...no kiddin, huh?! Came back and flew tuesday morning. The flight went fairly decent; ya know, for my 4th flight. I was supposed to have an EP sim in the afternoon, but I was having some personal issues, so that got cancelled. Took the next EPQ this morning, and unfortunately, it was more of the same. I busted it, again. I take solace in the fact that about half our flight didn't pass it, but it still sucks. So that's my 5

Farewell and happy birthday

So today was our flight commander's last day as a UPT IP. He had his fini flight, which was pretty cool...those of us not doing anything in the flight room went out to say hey. His family and some friends and some of the other IPs went out there...pretty neat! He's going to a much better place than Del Rio: he's going to England! He is a great guy and will be missed. Safe travels to you and your family, sir! One of the guys' birthday was today (or yesterday) so we had some pizza before w

Great day!

Retook the EPQ last night and passed! So I flew today, and I felt I did much better. I probably didn't actually do any better, but I thought I did and that's what counts! Anyway, I was having an "A" day all day, so i'm hoping that flows into tomorrow and friday. Not flying tomorrow (as of now) so i'll be studying all day. Oh yeah, some U-2 guys came down to give a brief on their capabilities. I hear it was pretty neat. I have a sneaking suspicion one of those guys was HuggyU2. I didn't

EPQs

So, did I mention that I really dislike EPQs? Well, I do...why? I busted another one; this time by one question. But I guess that's all it takes. These things are killing me! I understand the material, but i'm just not recalling all the info that we have to read. Ugh, I'll make it...it's going to be tough, but i'll get it! Other than that, not much going on today. It's night week so we don't go in until 9ish (am for those who didn't catch that). We don't have many flights this week be

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

Instruments 1

Another uneventful day for me. All I did was study all day for the instruments 1 test. Most others flew, but some of us didn't. Then had our instruments test this evening. I was feeling confident about it ever since we had our review of it the other day. Well, I made a 91! Only missed 4...would've only missed 2, but I couldn't resist the urge to change my answers to 2 of the questions...dummy! Never change your answers unless you're 1000% sure that you're changing it to the right answer.

Keep on keeping on

Well, some people flew today, but the winds were crazy and were gusting up to 20 and 30 knots, so most of our flight didn't get to fly. For me, it was another day of studying. I did some chairflying of the radios and more studying. The end of the day consisted of a 3 hour review of instruments for our test thursday. I was clueless before, but our instructor made it fairly easy to understand. Plus, I got some help from a buddy of mine in the class behind me that flew Learjets and a few of th

Back to the suck!

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

Back to the suck!

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

Christmas

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 be

One thing after another

Was supposed to fly this morning after our EPQ (emergency procedures quiz) but more than half our class busted! The ones that I saw only missed it by one or two questions, but since there's only 20 questions, each one is worth 5 points. That caused 8 of us not to fly so we got to sit in the flight room and study all day...all 12 hours of it. We retake it in the morning and, assuming I pass it, I'm set to fly at 9 in the morning. It was a brutal morning. No fault of his own, but the guy

Finally!

Weather cleared up around noonish today and got to do my dollar ride this afternoon! Pretty cool, but I need to put my nose in the books that much more now. That was my only free ride in T-6s and we just went out to the aux field and then to the area to tool around some. Came back after an hour flight and called it a day. End of week 1 in phase II and so far so good! We get paid to do this stuff?!?!?! What a deal! Have a great weekend!

Still bad weather

Weather tanked all day, which means no flights for us! Oh joy. Got to do some instrument CAIs and write out some boldface/ops limits. So apparently some of us (9 exactly) got some stuff wrong on the boldface/ops limits yesterday, so we each have 9 due tomorrow. My hand is killing me! It's the price you pay for screwing up, I guess! Hopefully the weather will clear up tomorrow for my dollar ride (seems like i've said this before...).

Dollar ride? Nah...

I was scheduled for my dollar ride this morning, but the weather decided it was more important, so cancelled for the morning. Got to go to commander's call, though! Got back and got scheduled for a dollar ride in the afternoon. You guessed it...the weather was just crappy enough to make us not go--again. We'll try again tomorrow.

Phase II

Phase II started today! Since I busted the weather test, I had to take it again today, after formal brief. Passed it, but now i'm on CAP: commander's awareness program. Basically, they give me a little extra instruction after reviews and a 24 hour period off before tests...i'm not totally off, but I won't be flying or doing any sims in the 24 hour period before the tests. So I couldn't do my dollar ride today like I was supposed to but I'll be doing it tomorrow. Our flight does dollar rid

Day 31

Started off the day by going to the gym for a little while with the wife and kiddo. Followed that with an end of phase critique; hopefully we'll have helped out future classes as far as scheduling goes a little bit. Came home for lunch and study for the weather test then came back for a DTS brief: how to set it up, basically. Had another break after that so I studied some more for the test. Took the test, and wouldn't ya know it...3 of us busted! Sonuvabitch! Well, studied for a a few ho

Day 30

Had a boldface/ops limits test this morning...I can only assume that we passed it: guess we'll hear about it on monday or tuesday if we didn't! Had a brief by the IG after that, then learned how to log in to ePex (which i've heard some folks don't like). Had a couple hours for lunch and came back after noon for 5 hours of weather classes. I could have shot myself halfway through them...it was brutal! One more day of phase I and then we hit the flightline! I am super excited and nervous.

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