First double turn

We had some of our guys on P-CAP not do so hot on their test this morning, so they couldn't fly today. I was scheduled for just one flight originally, in the afternoon, but after that test, I got thrown on a flight this morning with 4 minutes to plan. Luckily I already prepared two flights in advance, so I was ready to go.

By the time I finished my debrief for my first flight, I was already late for my second one, so no time to rest. Before you solo, they aren't allowed to double-turn you on flights (they can on simulator missions though), but now that I'm done with my solo, they threw me right into it. It was cool, I got to do my first "official" aerobatics (I'd done some before, but couldn't log it). We did a bunch of aileron rolls, split-S's, and loops, along with all the other "basic" flying maneuvers (slow flight, stalls, etc...). I'm beat though! Another 12 hour day...

You only get 4 flights after you solo until your mid-phase check-ride, and I'm already halfway there! We had the first guy in our flight do his mid-phase check today, and he passed. He said, "I found out out you (and your normal IPs) grade you way harder than the check-flight guys", so that made me feel good.

Something else I learned, out of 12 guys in the flight, there's only 2 of us who haven't hooked a flight yet, so if you do hook a ride early on, don't let it get to you, it happens more than not.

And just FYI, "hooking" a ride means you got an "Unsatisfactory" or "U", hence the "hook". It's also called a "taco" for obvious reasons.