Riddller

More of the same. Showed at 0645, 0700 brief, lot's of shotgun questions were missed and like 4 people got sat down during the stand-up. I didn't take off until 1240, so I spent the morning taking care of queep (paperwork crap), doing another CAI, and studying for my flights. Flight went very well according to my grades but I felt like I wasn't sure what was going on a bunch of the time. It was fun though, so that's all that matters. After that, more studying until we were released at 1600 (yeah! no 12 hours again!!). Now another 3 hours of studying and I can go to bed!!

Yesterday was "Day 0" of the 15-day program (the scripted harassment of the first 15 days on the flightline). They showed us all how it was done yesterday, then we had to perform today (Day 1). That meant us doing the formal brief (that was a cluster-f), then stand-up and shotgun questions. The shotgun questions all come from required reading they give us each day, including the "notes, warnings, cautions" (NWC) out of the Dash-1. There can be up to 7 or 8 NWCs for each emergency procedure (EP), and we have to learn like 4 EPs a night. We actually thought they were going to go around the room saying, "You, what's the first note in the Abort Start checklist?" and, "You, what's the third caution in the Emergency Ground Egress checklist?" Turns out it was more like: "True or false: you can abort a start by reselecting Auto/Reset?" MUCH easier studying!! My flight went good again. I was much better with the checklists and radios, and actually got a few landings. This plane has a CRAZY amount of torque when doing a touch and go! Plan on FULL right rudder every time! I was first-go (took off about 0830) and was done by 1100. I did a couple more CAIs on Instrument Procedures and studied for tomorrow after that. We were actually released by 1600 (only 10 hours today!!) which was nice, but I don't know how often that's going to happen! Flying again tomorrow...

Dollar ride was a blast! It was kind of weird because they actually put my IP and I in a van to go to another airport down the road to take off. They had a number of aircraft come in off of cross-country's yesterday while Vance was closed so they had to park at Woodring. It's not unusual I guess. What was unusual was having a guy on his dollar ride do his first ever takeoff in a T-6 at someplace other than Vance! Anyway, we took off (this thing climbs like crazy!) and did a touch and go at Woodring, then went over to Vance for another T&G. They were both done by the IP, he was showing me around. Then we went to a working area and did a bunch of different stalls. After that he asked if we missed anything and I said, "Uh yeah, we need to do a split-S!" I was joking because you're not necessarily supposed to do acrobatics on a dollar ride, but because I asked, we did a split-S, a barrel roll, a loop, and started to do a cloverleaf before I recommended we stop before I got sick! I wasn't feeling at all bad, but knew I would if we continued doing that stuff. Anyway, we then went over to the aux field (Kegelman) and did a pattern (it was closed, so no approach) then went back to Vance. I almost had a landing, but flared just a touch too much and ballooned a bit, so he took over and we touched down no problem. I was done with the debrief by 1100, went and did a CAI and spent the rest of the day studying and taking pics of other people doing dollar-ride walk-around's of their planes. We started at 0600 and left at 1757 tonight... the full 12 hours!! 2.5 more hours studying tonight and I'm done, yeah!!

Had my first "Contact" sim today and it was in one of the sims with the full wrap-around screens. Very cool! It doesn't move but I actually caught myself getting queasy a couple of times! I've been told they've had a ton of students yak in there. Anyway, we took off from Vance, flew up to Dogface (the aux field north-west of Vance) and did some pattern work. Then went to one of the training areas, did a spin, some slow flight, and a power-on stall. Came back to Vance after that and beat up the pattern for like 6 touch and go's. This plane moves FAST! I'm sure I'll get the hang of it, but by the time I hit the downwind after a touch and go, I was already at 190 kts! I barely had enough time to slow down and configure before perching (turning base). Doing the actual approach at 105 kts isn't as bad as I thought it would be, but power management in this plane is HUGE! Anyway, had a blast. The rest of the day was studying, then we had a flight commander brief at 1630 which lasted until about 1745-1800. It was a basic overview of the "15 day program" and a lot of "Be-no's" (i.e. there will be no slacking, sleeping, or slumping in the flight room). Now it's on to some !! Have a good one!

Sorry, no cameras allowed in the plane. I'm going to try to get shots of people suiting up and doing their first walk-around, but that'll be about it unfortunately.

We're pretty much done with Phase I but it's not "official" until Monday. We all showed up at our Phase II flight room on the flightline today at 0800 and studied for our sims and did publications updates to all our pubs. My sim didn't brief until 1100, so I got all my pubs up to date and studied a bit. The sim was another Emergency Procedure (EP) ride, so it was pretty much one malfunction after another. I did have a good time flying around when I wasn't taking care of EP's though. The only bad thing about EP sims is you have to wear your full g-suit, harness, helmet, mask, etc... and it gets a bit hot after a while. After that I went back to the flight room and studied a bit more. We also put together a "practice" formal brief and gave it to one of the IPs. The formal brief is given every morning, there is very specific information which must given during it, and everyone must sit at attention during it. Not too hard once you get used to it, you'll have to do them at IFS when you go. We were done by 1700, then went to to class 08-13s track select. They only got 2 T-38s!!! Crazy... Anyway, I'm on the flight schedule for Monday for my Dollar Ride... yeah!! I'll be taking off for the first time in a T-6 at 0848 Monday morning, so steer clear of Enid if you're flying, the Riddller will be in the air!!

We had CRM training at AeroPhys today and were actually done by 1030! We decided to head over to the flight room to work on getting stuff ready, so didn't actually leave until 1230, but it was still a short day. I guess we're actually hitting the flightline on Monday, maybe even a dollar ride! Guess we'll see...

So one of our boys busted his boldface/ops limits test yesterday, so we were back in blues today. That sucks after having been in flight suits for so long. The good thing is we have to go back to Aerospace Physiology tomorrow to learn about Crew Resource Management (CRM), so we HAVE to be in flight suits, and we have simulator missions for the rest of the week, so we have to be in flight suits then too! So technically we're supposed to be in blues for the rest of the week, but so much for that. Yesterday was a couple CAI's then like 3 hours of Emergency Procedure classes, then today started out with like 5 hours more of Emergency Procedures classes! The instructor was good, but I'm sorry, it gets old after a while listening to ANYONE drone on about that stuff. We had our "last" official test of slackademics today after the EPs, this one was over Contact stuff. Contact is the first round of flight training you get in most planes, i.e. slow flight, stalls, steep turns, etc... basically all the stuff you do to get a PPL or going through IFS. The test was over how to set up for all that stuff (speed, pitch, power settings, etc...). I and most of the people I know did really well, so it wasn't a bad test, as long as you studied for it. We then spent the rest of our afternoon at our Phase II flight classroom (the "flightline") going over what was expected of us from the class ahead of us which is now finishing flying the T-6. They leave on Thursday and we report next Tuesday... less than a week until we hit the flightline!!!!! Yeah!!!! I and half my class will be in "R" flight over there while the rest of my class is in "S" flight (it's random who gets what flight), both flights being in the 33d Flying Training Squadron (FTS). Later!

I'm still sick, but now it's just down to a cough. Friday was a Emergency Procedure sim, full g-suit, hemet, etc... It was neat, I learned a bunch. After the day was up we went to the club to cheer on our team in the crud tournament, then went to roof-stomp the OSS/CCs house. Good times! Ended up back at the club after that and hung out for a while longer. Not a bad evening!

My wife was out of it 2 weeks ago, was fine last week, and now is back to dieing! I know one flight in phase II that 3 of their IPs are down for the count and another couple of students! I guess if I'm the first in my flight to get it, and it's before the flightline, then I'll be fine when it's time to fly and the rest of my flight will be down for the count!! OK, I guess it's not very nice to wish that on my flightmates... in fact, I wouldn't wish this stuff on my worst enemy (well... maybe Hillary)!

Short entry, I'm still sick as a dog. I think it's getting worse. Had the first "fly the plane around and do some landings/takeoffs" sim today, pretty cool. Studied for the Flying Fundamentals test the rest of the time. I did well and so did most of the people I know. Guess we'll find out tomorrow if anyone didn't do so hot. Show was 0800 and we were out of there by 1730, same as the last few days, kinda long but not too bad. Goin' to bed...

Wow, we've been busy the last few days. A sim on Monday (more checklists) plus a test (almost everyone did fine, one fail again but passed the 2nd time). We then started a new section, Flying Fundamentals. It's all about how to fly a pattern, approaches, landings, etc... There's actually a ton of different stuff involved so it's supposed to be one of the harder tests. The test is actually tomorrow afternoon, after another sim mission. And on top of all this, my head has felt like it was going to explode since Monday. I guess this "crud" is now considered an epidemic in Oklahoma. Hacking and coughing, chills, congestion, sinus pain, I've got it all. I'm just counting myself lucky I don't have any stomach symptoms! I saw the flight doc today and he DNIF'd me, but I don't hit the flightline for a few weeks, so no biggie. I'm glad he didn't put me on quarters (I asked him not to) or else I would have had to roll back a class. I really like my class now, so I don't want that! I got almost 12 hours of sleep last light and plan on getting the same tonight. Hopefully it'll help!!

I think they're referring to "the flight controls that act like rudders".

I would say the dates listed for the crashes stopped in the early 70's, but how often were they flying the Blackbird after that?

Ditto. I checked that site for the first time in March of '02 and now I'm 4 weeks into pilot training! My how the time has flown...

So Thursday and Friday were pretty long. We had to show at 0700 and didn't get out until after 1700. Lot's of CAI's and lectures on Thursday, mostly on Aerodynamics (lift, drag, stalls, spins, etc...) but some intro to the checklists. Friday was a sim day, I got to use one of the ones with the screen which was pretty sweet. It was designed to mostly just get through all the checklists, but my sim instructor let me do a bunch of approaches. They sucked pretty hard at the beginning (that sim is touchy!) but I was doing OK by the end. At the end of Friday was a review for our test on Monday. After that most of us went to the club for class 08-06's assignment night (free food and beer afterwords) then came back to my place to hang out. Nice ending to the week!

As an Exec at Whiteman for all of last year for the OSS, I reviewed probably 250 OPRs/EPRs, and EVERY ONE of them had to have a bullet in them about "Supporting assets that cost $2.2B a piece".

Vance 0806: 1 F-16 1 F-15E 1 A-10 1 T-6 FAIP 1 B-52 Couple KC-135s Couple C-17s Couple U-28s 1 C-5 Can't really remember the rest... too much beer.

So it was nice not having to show up to class until 0900 this morning. We had 2 CAI's this morning: Aerodynamics 1 and 2, which I was done with by 1030. Then we waited for the review which started at 1400. That was done at 1530, then we had our "Intro to Operational Procedures" until 1630. Basically just a "here's what's in the checklist". We were done after that. Tomorrow starts at 0700... ugh.

So we had a long weekend, which was nice, but now back to the books. We had our Systems 2 test today (Electrical, Fuel, Propulsion, Environmental, Canopy, and Ejection systems). 47 questions and it was way easier than I thought it was going to be, but maybe that's because I spent an extra 5 hours studying yesterday. Did very well again, as did the rest of the class (don't know what the average was yet) but we did have one fail. He retakes it tomorrow morning and should be fine after that. You're allowed like 2 or 3 failures before they put you on the "Commander's Awareness Program" which just means they watch you a bit closer. Not a big deal unless you fail more stuff, then it can be grounds to disenroll you from the program. After the test (we finished by 0830) we had to look at our flight pay paperwork at 1100 and yes, your flight pay starts the first day of academics, but it's only like $125 a month... better than a poke in the eye though. We were done with that by 1105 and then had nothing until our PFT at 1400. Everyone passed and we were done for the day by 1500. Tomorrow we don't have to go in until 0900... woohoo!

Wow, that is a good question... At first glance, I'd have to agree w/ rotorhead. Assuming you go to flight idle and nose down your herk to maintain 250 KIAS, it would make sense that ater stabilizing in that configuration, that the heavier aircraft would descend faster just from the weight/lift/thrust/drag equation. But it make also makes sense that becasue the heavier a/c is heavier and DOES want to descend faster, the indicated would want to creep up, so you pull back on the yoke, resulting in a net loss on your VSI. I think tac airlifter sealed it though when he looked up the penetration descent info. If the book says shorter distance for lighter aircraft, and everything else is equal, then the only variable in that equation is vertical velocity. Lighter a/c wins.

So like I said, we all went to 08-05's graduation yesterday. It was cool, I'm glad I went, gives me something to look forward to. After that I hung out in the computer lab for 4 and a half hours studying for our systems 2 test on Tuesday. The simulator mission after that was cool, we went through all the buttons and switches and stuff more in depth, then got to fly around a bit. I did a loop or two and the guy I was with practiced his prohibited maneuvers (where else can we do them?). A bunch of us went to the club for a bit after that, then came back to my place to play some pool and Rock Band and helped me try to float my keg (didn't happen!). Not a bad day!

So we had one CAI (Propulsion 2) this morning at 0800, then had our propulsion review with our instructor at 0930, then 4 more CAIs after that!! Environmental controls, ejection system, canopy systrem... Ugggh. The good thing is that most were done by 1430. So my whole class has to go to the graduation of class 08-05 tomorrow... in service dress. I guess it's tradition that the class one year behind the graduating class goes to "take the torch" or some such. Oh well, should be interesting. The only bad thing is they bumped all our simulator missions tomorrow for it, now I won't be done until 1830! I guess it'll give me time to study for our Systems 2 test on Tuesday. Supposedly it's harder than the Systems 1 test because no one can figure out the Environmental System. They have terms like "The Evaporation Blower Control" for the air conditioner, and the "Bi-level Heat Exchanger Bypass Control Valve" for the heat. Onward!

Hey Port Dog, A buddy of mine in the Marines is building me a 1911 right now and he mentioned that if you're serious about using it for home defence, the fiberoptic sights are close to useless. He said having a rail on the slide and just putting a flashlight on it would be much more worth my while. If you're ever in a serious home defence situation, checking on something going bump in the night, you're probably not going to be taking the time to sight in. Pulling the trigger at whatever's illuminated by the flashlight is a much more likely scenario. my $0.02

So everyone passed the test yesterday. The Navy students had a 96.3% average and the AF students had a 95% average. The Navy guys got a kick out of that, but they've only got 7 students to our 18, no biggie. The rest of the day was taken up with an Anti-terrorism brief, a JAG brief, another brief from the T-38 squadron (this time from the commander) saying, "If you want to be a fighter pilot, don't change your mind while flying the T-6!" This was followed closely by him saying, "Sorry, you guys are only going to get 3 or 4 T-38's vs. the 5 or 6 all the previous classes have gotten. And out of that, maybe one person will actually get a fighter! Sorry, cutbacks..." Bottom line: If you want to be a fighter pilot, you'd better hope your class number doesn't have an "09" in front of it (in other words, graduating in fiscal year '09). Today was more CAI's, this time on the electrical and propulsion systems, lights, oil system, etc... We had one review by an instructor for the electrical system, and were done by 1430. A buddy and I checked out one of the simulators after that and practiced our before start and taxi checklists. Towards the end though, we practiced flying some instrument approaches, just for the heck of it. It was one of the sims that has no "outside" view, so all we had to fly off of was instruments, hence doing instrument approaches months before they even tell us about them! So that's been the last few days. We've got our second test, Systems 2, next Tuesday right after the long weekend, let's hope everyone studies!