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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

Another update

One week closer to starting, and i'm pretty much ready to go (I hope). I've been completing checklists, getting all my flight gear and all that good stuff. Trying to get cable set up...what a pain in the ass. I decided to go with Time Warner (whom i've heard is not so good in Texas) and the tech who came out to install the stuff was from some other company that Time Warner contracted out...he didn't have a clue what was going on. It's like they gave him a box and said install this at this ad

Day 13

Really easy day today. I had to get my CAC card reissued because, surprise--MPF didn't put the correct stuff on it...happened to about half of our class. More of a hassle and an annoyance than anything else. We had 3 CAIs scheduled for today, but since I came in yesterday and knocked out 2 of them (i'm trying to stay ahead of the curve), I only had one to do today; so I did that after I got my new CAC card. I was free for a few hours until our introductory sim. We weren't expected to know a

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

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 21

Ok, thanksgiving is done...let's go christmas! Had our aerodynamics test this afternoon after some CAIs and a sim. This sim was the start of the "real life" sims doing checklists and flying around and stuff; pretty neat. I was way behind the power curve and it showed in the sim. But, now I know exactly what I need to study for the next time. Aerodynamics test....yeah, not so much. Didn't pass. I got some stuff confused in my head and only missed 2 more than what is allowed, but a fail

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

Mon May 12

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 updr

Day 22

Took the aero test - again - this morning. Passed! I have to keep those to a minimum... Had another sim today...went much better for me than the one yesterday, but still need to study like it's going out of style! I'm home for lunch right now and have to do about 5 CAIs before a class at noon tomorrow. I'm relishing these "easy" days before the poop hits the oscillating device.

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 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

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

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!

Mon May 5

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.

Day 16

Had a pretty mundane day today. We had a class and a bunch of CAIs throughout the day. Got done with those fairly quickly and headed home for a little bit. Then we had to come back and go through our dash 1...very painless, if not tedious: most of us had already put in the changes and there were only three write-in changes so it didn't take long at all.

Day 23

Pretty good day overall. Finished a couple of CAIs this morning covering flying fundamentals, then had our review class. Went straight into doing our boldface/ops limits and a class on basics of the checklists (challenge/response items, etc.). Afterwords, we had our PFT...passed, but I need to work on it a bit. Came home and have been studying for a couple hours now and i'm all studied out. Oh, I didn't mention...my son's cousin was sick over thanksgiving, which got our son sick, who in

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!!

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.

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 20

So there I was...stitting in our first class today and I was having the hardest time staying awake. I didn't have to be there until 9:15, but I couldn't get to sleep until 2am! I hate that! All we had today was 3 classes: two on operating procedures and one on aerodynamics. This aerodynamics is killing me! It's a good thing I sit next to smart people or this stuff would be much tougher than it is. Finished up around 1 and the holiday has started! Happy thanksgiving everyone...stay saf

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

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

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

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

Day 12

Pretty cool day...we attended 09-02's graduation and got introduced as the freshman class. Pretty motivating, but I gotta keep my head grounded and focus on what's going on now. Had a review class after lunch and then finished a couple CAIs and called it a night. We have our first sim on monday so i'm going to look over what's needed for that over the weekend.

Day 18

Mundane day...lots of CAIs and some classes on aerodynamics and checklists. That is literally all that happened during the day. After we were done with all our CAIs, our class all went out to Rudys and had some barbeque. Good times. One of the flights is doing a toy drive so we thought we would all go to walmart and pick up some toys to donate for their drive. After that, headed home! It occurred to me as I was writing this, that this is probably very boring to read: "...had CAIs and c

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