KC135PIQJournal

Hey there everyone! Wow, it sure has been a while since I've been able to update the site, but now that I have
things up and running again out here in Altus I'm going to keep things a bit more current. Well, so many thing
have happened since my last update, lets see if I can summarize what's been going on.
After UPT finished up, I received my orders for combat survival training up in Spokane, WA, and I received my
orders for the KC-135 Pilot Initial Qual (PIQ) program. I discovered however that my survival date wasn't until
the very end of Feb so I had some time to kill before I went off to play in the woods with the bears, so I hung
out around the squadron helping out the casual LT's at the snack bar with some of their duties, and doing
some odd jobs around the squadron that needed to get done.
Combat Survival Training, you may know it as SERE, began at the end of Feb and was by far one of the most
difficult times I have ever been through in my life. It started out a bit interesting when during our parachute
training I was dragged into a wall headfirst during the harness drag and spent the rest of the night at the
Spokane Medical Center while they took X-Rays and CT scans of my head and neck to make sure I hadn't
fractured it. Thankfully everything was ok and the very next week we were out hiking in the mountains of
northeastern Washington. The survival portion of it was actually a lot of fun and they teach you some very
useful things, as they say, these are the things we have to teach you that we hope you'll never have to use.
The resistance portion of the training however...let's just say that was not so much fun. Given that most of the
course is classified I cannot speak much of it, but the things we learned will no doubt help us if we are ever in
such a situation, and it certainly gave most of us a new perspective and greater level of respect for those who
really have been POW's in past conflicts.
After SERE it was only a short while before I had to report to Altus AFB, OK for the KC-135 program which is
based here. It was nice seeing everyone again, as most of our class from Columbus was already here either
in the KC-135 or C-17 PIQ programs. Classes began right away with 3-4 weeks of academics before we ever
saw a simulator. Now we are in the sims on a regular basis although the schedules are a bit wacky- because
of student training demand, they have to run the sims 6 days a week 20 hours a day. Essentially they never
shut down except for a few hours, a night, and as a result of this we might have a 6am sim one day and sim
that only starts at midnight the next..kind of makes for an interesting sleep schedule sometimes! (The C-17
guys have a similar schedule)
So far the classes have been good and the sims are amazing. The imagery is excellent (much better than the
T-1) and they are full motion so you can really feel those hard landings (not that I've ever had any of course)!
Unlike the C-17 program, we still have classroom sessions to have system reviews and ask questions, but the
majority of the learning is computer based so a lot of time is spent in the computer lab. The aircraft has been
upgraded to PACER CRAG, which was a major avionics upgrade done several years ago to bring the airplane
up to modern standard. With multifunction instrument displays and FMS, the aircraft is as capable as anything
else in the Air Force inventory.
At the moment we're finishing up our systems and normal procedures simulators and are working our way
towards the mission sims, where we essentially fly an entire mission from the preflight through engine
shutdown. Those typically last 4 hours and require extensive preplanning before we go fly. All the flight
planning here is done with FalconView and PFPS...to those of you who are reading this at Columbus- CBM is
the only UPT base that does not let their students use PFPS and FalconView. Laughlin and Vance let
students use it during mission fam and for low level planning- hopefully they change this at CBM, but until then
try and get as much exposure to it as you can.
Other than that, I've just been hanging out, studying and counting the days before I move to Tampa!

.First flight today! I didn't think it was going to happen due to the weather in the local area, but we managed to
pull it off anyway. Arriving at the squadron around 10 this morning there were extremely low clouds,
thunderstorms, rain and all kinds of nasty weather moving through Altus. We met with our IP however and his
plan was to still continue and to try and get us the training we needed in the hopes that the weather was not
quite as bad as we had expected. We briefed the flight, went to base ops to get the weather, notams and all
other information pertaining to the flight and proceeded to head out to the jet. Getting to the aircraft I began
looking at it as though it was some sort of monster..I couldn't believe I was actually going to fly something this
huge. I mean, most of us have been in airliners before, but I had certainly never had my hands on the controls
of something quite so large. Well, the preflight was somewhat uneventful, even though it seemed like all those
hours in the sim were forgotten...it's definitely different when you're dealing with a real ground crew and a
boom operator in the jump seat backing you up on everything. Through our preflight the rain was pouring but
we managed to get a break from the thunderstorms long enough to call it good, so we took off! The next hour
and a half or so Jeremy flew doing his transition/pattern work from the left seat when we were all of a sudden
weather recalled because of lightning within 5 miles. Whenever this happens, all aircraft must complete one to
a full stop and all ground and maintenance personnel must leave the flight line, but once we stopped we
decided that we would hang out and wait for the storms to pass with the engines running....once the storms
passed we switched seats, I jumped up front and took off again getting 2 patterns and approaches in before
we called it quits for the day. It was a slightly stressful day with a new airplane dealing with the weather, but it
was easy to fly, had tons of power and was surprisingly easy to land...you almost forget about all that airplane
behind you and just focus on what's going on up in the front office....not a bad view either with plenty of room
to stretch out. I'll just be looking forward to the day when I land and drive home in Tampa....I can see the light
at the end of the tunnel :-)