Friday, May 9

Well, yesterday (thursday) I got to go on my dollar ride, which is my first ride of the program.  The term dollar ride comes from the student giving a dollar (all dressed up and decorated) to the IP for taking you on the flight (or something like that).  We performed just basic maneuvers: takeoff, landings, slow flight, etc, plus I had to do all the radio calls as well.  It's actually a lot of work when you're not used to doing all of it.  It was a great time, and now I finally know what else I need to be studying for for my next flight, which should be on monday.  Today was a "relaxing" day.  I didn't study very much in class and we got off at a pretty decent time.  The guy that ran the formal brief this morning messed up and someone else had to finish the brief.  Our flight commander considered putting us on formal release (we have to be formally released to leave for the day...at least a 12 hour day), but said that since we had worked so hard during the week, he would give us the benefit of the doubt and didn't do it; thank goodness!!

Weekend plans are to go up to Colorado Springs, "the Springs", and check out some sights up there.  No studying tomorrow, but Sunday, it's back to studying and chair flying.  Good times!

Tues, May 6

Sorry I haven't posted in a little while, just busy studying and stuff like that.  Well, we finished off last week with our academic test...I got a 100!  Pretty stoked about that; but can't celebrate for too long because we moved right into flying...at least some of us did.  I wasn't initially scheduled to fly until today, but there was a couple of guys from the senior class who needed checkrides so that bumped me and 2 other folks from our class from today to tomorrow.  However, the weather is supposed to crap out on us later today and tomorrow from what I hear.  I guess we'll see if I get to fly tomorrow.

When we're not flying, we're basically just studying.  Studying includes simply looking at the books or chairflying.  Chairflying is either sitting in front of a picture of the cockpit or going and sitting in the cockpit trainer and "flying" your mission or practicing your radio calls, etc.  It's invaluable to be able to do that, but I find that I can only study so much before I have to actually get in the airplane and do this stuff.  It seems that i've hit a plateau in my knowledge until I can see how it actually goes when we're in the aircraft.

29 Apr

Today was a fun day, compared to the other days so far.  After a couple classroom lessons, we got to go out to the flightline and check out the aircraft.  Some of the folks from the senior class showed us what is involved in a preflight inspection.  Also, today was the first day we got to wear our flightsuits...not normally a big deal, especially since I wear a flightsuit to work normally, but the only other option is wearing blues.  Those get uncomfortable after a few hours of sitting, so wearing the bag is very nice!

We also got a taste of what a formal brief and a standup EP is like.  For those who don't know, the formal brief is simply briefing the flight on winds, runways used, NOTAMS, etc first thing in the morning.  A standup Emergency Procedure (EP) occurs in the classroom and is where a student pilot is given a situation that could occur in the aircraft and is given control of the aircraft and has to take the situation to a logical conclusion.  This could last for about 30 minutes or even more depending on the situation and how screwed up it is.  We have to go through every detail or we will get sat down, which is bad, and we probably won't fly for that day.  No pressure!  Fortunately, i've been practicing these with my boss back at work, so they are familiar to me, but still very difficult.

It felt like we were actually making a little bit of progress in this program today.  Just a small step on the way to UPT and wings!

First Monday

I'll start by mentioning my weekend...nothing special, just went up to Colorado Springs and visited the Air Force Academy and Peterson AFB.  Not too bad.  I only mention it because it will probably be one of our few/only free weekends here because all the classes are backed up a little bit.  Oh well, it's only 6 weeks, right?!

Today was full of classroom stuff.  We had classes over aircraft systems, aerodynamics, performance, airspace and radio communications.  Oh, we also had our boldface/ops limits test this morning.  Only 3 of us failed it...including me.  I skipped over one of the questions...stupid mistake.  We had PT late afternoon and then back to a class over traffic patterns, but that went real quick.  Also did another boldface/ops limits test, and everyone in our flight passed!  The other flight had one failure, but they made it up during PT; so now we are cleared to wear flightsuits!

Day 1

Arrived at Initial Flight Screening (IFS) yesterday.  Not a busy day whatsoever...just checked in to my room, got my uniforms and we were free until dinner: so about 5 hours to kill.  The kicker is that we couldn't leave the facility and we had to stay in our blues...oh well.

Our first real day of training today.  Again, nothing real cosmic; we met our flight commanders: we have one civilian and one military flight commander.  It will be intense and very difficult, but very doable.  We just got done with our PFT a little bit ago.  If you have never ran at any sort of altitude, it's quite the kick in the pants!  Anyway, we're free until monday morning at 0640 (get to sleep in!).  I'll probably just stick around here and study a little and hang out with the dudes in my flight.

EDIT: I failed to mention that our class has about 70 people in it, and we're split into 2 flights.

Work!

I finally got tasked with something today! I am now someone's sponsor...for those who don't know what that is, I am basically the guy that will attempt to make the transition to his new duty station easier and less painful. What's funny about it is that he is a pilot...what am I? Just a casual lieutenant who just got to the squadron a week ago!

Good news is: only 3 weeks left until I go to my first formal training! I am super excited!

As always, feel free to leave questions and/or comments about what i'm up to!

Settling Down

So, we're mostly settled in to our new place. Only a few random boxes laying around that need to be put away.

As for work, i'm busy (sort of) checking into my squadron and the base. What a confusing process compared to when I checked in to my squadron in the Marines. Oh well. I don't think i'm expected to do a whole lot of real work around the squadron. I'm leaving in about 3 weeks for a month and a half, so i'm not really going to be here a lot.

Wait for it.....

So, i'm finally going on active duty here in a couple of days. It hasn't really been that long (3 months) since commissioning, but it seems like forever. We're going through the painful process of packing all of our crap and moving it to Abilene. My old commander said I would only do a DITY (now called Personally Procured Move) once...he was right!

I know I haven't done anything on here in a while, but it will pick up now that i'll actually be doing something. I will also be posting this on a website called BaseOps (www.baseops.net). It will be on their forums (www.flyingsquadron.com/forums). Just look for the blog section and it will be under the user name spectre56.

Stay tuned and feel free to leave comments, questions, etc.!

Dates and Bases

Well, I found out that, as of right now, my first duty station will be at Dyess AFB where I'll be sitting on casual status until I get sent to the rest of my training. I'll be going there around the end of March, next year and won't go to UPT until the end of October. I will be going to IFS (initial flight screening=pre-UPT) exactly a month after I get to Dyess. IFS is in Pueblo, Colorado and lasts about 6 weeks. As of right now, I'm not scheduled to go to ASBC (AeroSpace Basic Course), but don't worry, Big Blue will get me there, no doubt. Hopefully it will be before I go to IFS, that way I can go on active duty that much quicker.

So, in a nutshell, here is what the next year or so will look like.
-Dec 15: Commission
-Mar 24: EAD (enter active duty) and PCS to Dyess AFB
-Apr 24: IFS in Pueblo Colorado
-Oct 21: PCS to Laughlin AFB for UPT
-Nov 4: UPT start date
-Nov 3 2009: Officially become a USAF pilot

I won't go into any detail now as to what all this stuff is. When I go to the different training schools, I'll go more in depth as to what it is and what it entails.

A new beginning

Well, this is the start of what I hope to be an ongoing journal of my new career that will start here in a few months. I've already gotten through many hurdles to get to where I am now. The only one left is to pass my racquetball and ROTC class and then i'll commission!

Some background for those of you who don't know me all that well. I joined the US Marine Corps on June 20, 2000; went to boot camp in San Diego and ended up being a KC-130 flying crew chief in the reserves. I got out and transferred to the US Air Force on Aug 21, 2006 when I contracted/enlisted in the Air Force.

I've been in ROTC for the Air Force since January 2005 and went to Field Training (AF officer "basic training") in the summer of 2006 at Maxwell AFB for a whopping 4 weeks. Upon graduation of that, I contracted/enlisted in the Air Force.

I competed for, and received a pilot slot in March of 2007 which entitles me to a chance at becoming a US Air Force pilot. I went for my flight physical a couple months later, and, after a slight hiccup, was approved by the surgeon general to continue.

I'm now at the point where I (and the rest of us that are commissioning in December) am about to find out which bases I will report to for the first year or so and when I will be there.

I will keep you updated!

EDIT to add a little more information: After I got my pilot slot, I had to set up a flight physical with the folks down at Brooks City Base in San Antonio. Let me tell ya, that is one crappy place to be. Me and my buddy were there for about 3 days while we had EVERYTHING checked out. I've had a flight physical before for the Marines, but this one was a little bit more intensive. Well, there was an issue while the flight doc was checking me out (the last thing before we left) and that started something that lasted for about 3 months. So, after going to my personal doctor several times and some waiting for word from the Surgeon General's office, it was cleared (if you want to know what it was, ask me in a comment and I'll tell you). All this occurred around the middle of this year, but everything is all good.

Also, had to apply for a secret clearance to be an officer and then a top secret clearance to be a pilot. I SHOULD have had a secret clearance from the Marine Corps, but apparently it was just pencil whipped and it turned out that I didn't have one. So did the paperwork for that and that was cleared in a short amount of time; then I applied for a TS clearance, and that took considerably longer. Bottom line, that was approved shortly before I started this journal. So now all I have to do is graduate/commission and pass IFS and i'm good to go for UPT!