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Geoff's Blog

A blog by spectre56 in General

  • Entries

    110

  • Comments

    93

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    31,465

About this blog

Fun times at IFS, UPT and Airfield Ops

Entries in this blog

Here we go again

Well, got my RIP this past friday and looks like i'll be heading up to Oregon in June. I'm still super excited about it and can't wait to start. Otherwise, things are going well. I got to be a pecker checker the other day which was no bueno, but I got through it. That's about the most work i've done in the past week or so (knock on wood). Also, out of all the other folks that were on CR, 3 or 4 have gotten the boot and, surprisingly, one guy just got reinstated! I'm pretty happy for hi

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

Gone!

Headed out Saturday for Dallas, and then Keesler. Everything was going fine when I heard a strange noise...my tire had blown! It wasn't too bad, but it happened just west of Flagstaff, AZ and we weren't going to stop until we hit Albuquerque! Well, put on the donut and pressed on. I was feeling good, so I pushed the speed up, eventually getting to 80mph. Is that safe? Who knows, but we made it. Anyway, got 4 new tires this morning so all is good for the drive to Keesler. I'm actually goi

Going, going...

So, found out today that I definitely will be heading off to Keesler next week. Just to clarify, it was unclear whether I would be going next week or next month. It's a good thing...will be getting started doing something, finally. Short post, I know...nothing new beyond that.

Going good

Tower sims are going good so far. I'm not doing too bad...just some minor mistakes here and there. I'm actually finding it pretty fun! We have our practical application test at the end of next week or beginning of the week after. I'm pretty positive i'll do ok as of right now. We'll see!

Fri May 9

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

Fri May 2

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.

Fri June 6

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 60

Free Agent

So the commander's review process begins and I am what they refer to as a "free agent". I'm not actively in pilot training, but i'm not out yet either, so I just hang out everyday like the guys on casual, but I have to stay up at work all day to study and stuff like that. Not too bad, I guess. I'm staying positive and hoping for the best.

First Monday

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,

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!

Finally

Well, the man has decided that it would be best if I not continue in pilot training. My new assignment, however, will be airfield operations which, from what i've read, doesn't sound too bad. It sucks that I won't be able to be a military pilot anymore, but I did try my hardest and gave it my best shot, and it just wasn't in the cards for me. I thank everyone who has been reading this and supporting me along the way. I'll still be around on Baseops about as much as I normally am, but proba

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

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

Donuts anyone?

Well, still waiting on word on where and when i'll be going. Little bit of good news today, though: learned that i'll find out when and/or where i'll be heading either friday or next week sometime. Bad news about that is that, since the school is 2 years long or so, and each of the 10 guard bases where the training occurs can only accommodate 4 trainees each, i'll be sticking around here for another 2-3 months. Not bad in the grand scheme of things, but it would be nice to leave sooner rather

Done!

Took our last test yesterday and passed with flying colors! I know I haven't updated this in a while, but everything's been going very well. I'll finally get to do a job...and on the second try! Graduation is later today and i'll head back up to California.

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.

Day26

Started off with a visit to what is going to be our flight room for several months. Got an intro by the flight commander and then, when the students from the class we're replacing showed up, they showed us what a standup and formal brief was all about. Pretty exciting...we start flying next tuesday! Had yet another sim and some CAIs and that was the day.

Day One

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 p

Day 9

Aero Phys Day 6. Did the altitude chamber today. That was pretty fun...it had been about 8 years since I had done it and it was still pretty cool. That took up the whole morning then one of the aero phys guys grilled burgers and hot dogs for us for lunch; good times! After lunch we came back to practice egressing from the aircraft/study for the test for a couple hours. I passed the test! Again, we had no failures. 2 tests down and 6 to go or something like that. We have tomorrow off fo

Day 8

Aero Phys Day 5. Had a couple classes on acceleration, stress, and the anti G strain maneuver (AGSM). We all got to look retarded in front of the class doing the AGSM, but it's pretty important, so it's cool to look like an idiot! After lunch we did the Barany Chair - or as some know it, the spin and puke. Also had a class on night vision and then we did the FACT test. I thought I was going to have a really hard time with it because my upper body strength is not great, but I passed it...I h

Day 7

Aero Phys Day 4. We did parachute landing fall (PLF) stuff all morning and, while a lot of fun, my knees are killing me! After lunch we had a couple classes on spacial disorientation and noise and vibration. Pretty good day overall. We still don't know if we passed boldface/ops limits or not.

Day 6

Aero Phys Day 3. More classes on physiology and one on the parachute...pretty uneventful. We had our boldface/ops limits quiz today. We were sitting in the classroom waiting on our flight commander to get there and the lights flicker and then go out. Our flight commander came in and we went outside to do our boldface/ops limits. We didn't get done until about 6:15 or so, so he didn't get to grade them on the spot like he did last week. Hopefully everyone passed!

Day 5

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!

Day 4

Day 1 of Aerospace Physiology...sweet. Not too much done today; although, we do get to wear flight suits for most of this, so that's a big plus. We did a bunch of Aero Phys inprocessing and got more briefs from various people (Health and Wellness Center and various instructors). Had some classes over local area survival and learned basic SABC (self aid buddy care), what plants you can and cannot eat, how to protect yourself in a survival situation and signaling. We went out to practice with

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