Wow...this is frustrating! So instead of maybe soloing this week, I have not flown once. Nothing! There have been a number of reasons why, and they are legitimate for the most part...however, it is still very annoying. I have three flights before I can solo, and I am in a purgatory of sorts. I was hoping to build a solid rhythm in these last few flights...oh well. It will work out, and not flying at all helps put a perspective on how great my job is. I am happier when I can actually go to work each day.

Anyways, that is what is happenin down here...nada...except Lys came down for a day at the beginning of the week. It was great to see her before she heads to San Diego for a few months. She tries to convince us that she is getting a bum deal, but she is having a tough time getting me to believe her.

By the way, Navy was literally a fingertip away from beating Notre Dame once again! They thought they had it sealed up and then Navy scored a touchdown, recovered an onside kick, scored another touchdown, recovered a SECOND onside kick, and missed a receiver my about a foot all in the last 3 mins of the game. That is why I love service academy football...you get to be the underdog a lot and they always play it out. Hell, thats why i love college football in general.


Alright, I am out...catch y'all later!

Whew, long week! Four flights this week, and it would have been five had I not been maintenance cancelled on Monday. So, on Tuesday I got back in the airplane after a four day break. I could without a doubt tell I had been out of it for even just a few days. I felt a little slow and a touch behind the airplane. However, I was able to knock the rust off about half the way through the flight. During the flight, my instructor's microphone went on the fritz right in the middle of the landing pattern. So, while he tried to troubleshoot in the back, I kept flying the pattern. After finally taking his helmet off to diagnose and fix the problem, we were able to re-establish comms. However, for that short period, I was pretty much solo. I got an entire pass and landing with no input from the rear cockpit. It was pretty cool as it dawned on me that I had absolutely no help bringing the plane in.
The rest of the week held a flight each day. These flights are all check flight prep, so they have been heavily focused on emergency procedures and problem management. With luck, and good weather, I could solo as early as this coming Friday. I have two more flights before my check flight. Once I pass that, the solo flight will probably be later that day.
It has started to dawn on me how quickly they move a student from knowing next to nothing, to trusting them to take an aircraft out on their own. And that is when it dawns on ya that maybe...just maybe...there is a method to the madness. There is a great emphasis on instilling an independent nature which is a hallmark of military aviation, and for that case aviation in general.

Alright, enough lofty thinking from me...it is the weekend. I am out to go meet up with some friends for the night. Ready to get back in the cockpit with that solo flight sitting so close.

Chris, out...

Alright, finally, I am back at the blog writer. At the time of my last post, I was finishing up my BI sims. Luckily, those went off without a hitch, and I was able to get back into the plane. After the sims, we do three BI flights with us actually flying in the rear cockpit. The instructor takes the forward cockpit and does most of the flying into and out of the working areas. It was pretty cool watching the instructors go through the procedures which I am used to doing. They fly through the checklists and knock stuff out pretty quick. Once at altitude, I threw the hood over (which I of course found a way to make way more complicated than it should be...took about 5 mins the first time I tried to use it) and took the controls to fly my maneuvers.

My last BI flight was scheduled as an out-and-in with a mandatory warm-up. No worries, translation to follow. An out-and-in just means we conduct one flight event on our way to another airport, land, take a break, grab a bite, and knock a second event out on the way back to NAS Corpus. The mando warm-up is something they give us if we go 14 days or more without flying in the front cockpit. It is basically a "free" flight. We have a normal brief, but the grades do not count like a normal flight. It helps a ton. It was pretty cool to get away from the rest of the training squadrons and drop into a smaller municipal airport for a quick bite.

The next two days I got back into the regular graded flights. They were pretty exciting for me because I could tell that I was finally showing significant improvement. The mando warm-up allowed me to knock some of the rust off...trust me, there was a LOT of rust. However, it all paid off in my next two flights. To date, they have been the best I have flown so far. I am getting into the heavy build-up to my solo, which could happen as soon as a week and a half from now...wow...that thought is somewhat daunting. The flights focus on handling in flight emergencies, recovering from out-of-control flight and spins (which are wayyyy cooler than I thought they would be, though my stomach is still trying to get used to them), and working the landing pattern constantly.

I get back into the plane tomorrow after an awesome weekend going back to Annapolis to see my sponsor father do the flyover at the Navy vs. Temple game and having a mini-reunion with my buddies. It was pretty weird seeing good ol' USNA without being a mid anymore. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. Anyways, I am gonna go hit the books. Hope things are going well for everyone. Take care.

Chris

Howdy from down here in South Texas. I think this is the shortest turnaround time between posts from me in a long time. Anyways, things have slowed down just a touch. I have been scheduled for nothing but BI sims since my last post. I just finished my fifth one yesterday, and number six is tonight around 7 PM. They have been going pretty well as I have been getting the good civilian instructors for the most part.
The sims have been a double edged sword. Things slow down a bit when only scheduled for simulators each day. Each event is shorter, has a shorter brief, and their are fewer things to think about in the simulator. I do not have to worry about course rules into and out of the airfield, radio calls, or avoiding traffic. All I do is sit in the sim, and the instructor puts me at 13000 ft and we get to work. So, there is less to study and more time in which to study it (hence the two wall posts in the same week). However, I know the ugly side will show itself once I finally am put back in the plane. Today is the eighth day of not actually flying, and that surely means I will be quite rusty once back in the real cockpit.
However, I have been able to focus attention on other things which I let slip away from my mind during the first FAM flights. You know...little things like voting, cleaning the apartment, and determining the airspeed of a laden swallow. Also, it gave my mom and chance to come down last Friday for a few hours. She non-rev'd down in the morning to see what life was like down here in Corpus for the fledgling aviators. It was great to see her, and she also hooked us up with some things for the apartment. After showing her around for a few hours, I guess we scared her enough to jump back on a plane to Dallas before my sim that day. So, if you talk to her, and she has not repressed the memory, thank her for risking life and limb and coming to see how the young bachelors live down here.
Alright, I can see you are checking your watch trying to find something else to do...I will wrap it up. Things are going well down here, and once I start flying again...the race will start right back up. I am hoping to have solo'd by early to mid November.

Hang loose,
Chris

Well hello again...or if this is your first time landing here...I do apologize (this will assuredly be the last time you let your hand just wander with a computer mouse in its grasp until you wake up and say "what the hell am I looking at?") Since my last post I have had two more FAM(iliarization) flight and one BI (basic instruments) simulator.

FAM 3 was last Thursday, and it went alright. I had not been in the cockpit for a week, and I could tell. Everything was slow, even my ground procedures. However, I was able to cheat death once again on take-off and head over to one of the outlying fields for some pattern work. It was my first time in the landing pattern doing touch and go's, and it seemed like every T-34 out at that time was at the field. Sweet...now everyone and their mother can hear and watch the new kid try and land the plane like a real pilt...this should be a treat! Things went alright with the full flap landings. It was nice having that soothing voice from the rear cockpit..."trim, TRIM...alright, get the nose down, power, right wing down, top rudder, OK...wave-off, Wave-Off, WAVE OFF!!!!" Luckily I did not have too many of those.

Anyways, after five of those or so, my instructor offered to take the controls and give me a break while he demo'd a no-flap landing. (The difference being that no-flap landings are flown at a higher airspeed through the approach). Damn, he makes it look easy. Alright, my turn. I would say my first attempt could best be envisioned by picturing the WWII dive bombers bearing down on a Japanese battleship. The exception was of course that the "battleship" was in fact the runway. So, needless to say, I had a touch (wait, lots) of trouble at first. However, I started to get a better idea of the procedures, scan, and sight picture I needed to have on the approach. The best part of the flight was the home field break...it was the best break, landing pattern, and approach I had flown to date. While that was a good feeling, I was still somewhat frustrated with my earlier attempts in the pattern.

Before my FAM 4, there was a little thing called the three day weekend! That was a welcome time as the group of us trotted up to San Antonio and the river walk. A good time was had by all....y;all understand...no need to elaborate on that.

So, finally, this past Tuesday I had my FAM 4 flight. I was looking forward to some more pattern work and a bit more basic maneuvering at altitude. However, as I drove to base that morning, I could not help but notice those large anvil shaped clouds over the bay that I had been warned about so many times in API. As we started our pre-taxi checklist we were hearing over the radio some instructors debating on whether to launch or not. Thankfully, as we taxied to the run-up area, we heard that while there was a touch of rain over NAS Corpus, one of the the outlying fields was clear as day. So, We took-off and quickly scampered out of the rain and into a clearing. Again, the radio call must have gone out that I was coming to the pattern because everyone and their mother decided to do pattern work that day too. So I took the controls and went in for my first pass of the day. Rusty was I...the pass, ugly. However, after that first pass things got a lot better. In fact, the rest of the flight was great. Obviously, I still had lots of necessary and timely input coming in from the back seat, but I could tell that I was starting to shorten the gap between me flying the plane and the plane flying me. Trim was coming quicker, procedures were going better, and maneuvers were the cleanest they have been yet. And to top it off, I flew my best break, pattern, and pass ever at the end of the flight over NAS Corpus. I was pumped...on the inside of course.

With the first four FAM flights done, I moved yesterday to my first BI sim. That went well, nothing too big to report...just that the simulators are a pain to try and trim. Anyways, I have rambled long enough. Take care.

Well first of all, I apologize for not updating this thing in a while. Needless to say, things have picked up dramatically. The fire hose of things to learn has been set to full. First of all, we had CPT's (cockpit procedures trainers). Basically, they are just cockpit simulators which we practice going through the normal checklists and emergency procedures. The civilian instructors who run the simulators have an incredible amount of time in many many aircraft. Some of them have time in aircraft like F-86's, F9F's, and F-8's. After they ran me through the grinder for five sessions or so, I was feeling pretty good. I thought I had things pretty well under control, and I was looking forward to getting an on-wing instructor to start FAM's.

That process all started on Tuesday when I met my on-wing instructor for FAM 0. He outlined for us what we needed to start studying for our first few flights...wow! To say I was behind was an understatement. I do not even really know how it got that way, but I knew I had to hit it hard. So, I spent most of Tuesday night trying to prepare for my first brief and flight on Wednesday morning.

My first brief was eye opening as to how in depth and down cold I needed to know the information for each flight. However, I was pretty pumped as I strapped in for my first actual flight (that by the way takes forever especially out on the line in South Texas). When we got the hold short, my instructor told me that I would get to take a shot at the take off. The good news is that I did not crash the airplane. However, beyond that...the airplane flew me more than the other way around. After two hours of trying to stay with the airplane, we were back on the ground. It was awesome on one hand, and at the same time it was very eye opening as to how much I had yet to learn. That night was spent almost entirely studying for my second flight. I wanted to get back into the plane and try to start fixing my troubles.

The second flight went better, but I was still having trouble with trim. That remains my biggest challenge. However, my instructor will be busy through at least monday, so that gives me some more time to study.

Anyways, I will sign off here after my diatribe. Hope things are going well for everyone.