What a long day today, but I must say that it wasn't nearly as stressful as I thought it might be. I'm not quite sure why that was...maybe it was because we were told so many times about how horrible our first day will be we were expecting it to be much worse. It began this morning with some CAI's, but we quickly moved over to the 3rd where we found out that we were to be giving a formal brief this morning..something that we were previously not aware of. Well, we managed to pull the brief together and Scott did a great job of giving the brief with a few minor snags but all in all I don't think the IP's thought we did all that bad. We then moved into a mock emergency stand-up, where on e person gets up, is given an emergency situation and has to work through it step by step to a logical conclusion in front of the entire class and all the IP's...kind of a stressful situation. Some briefings on the local area followed and then study time began, most people working on pattern procedures or studying emergency procedures information. I also had my fourth sim today which happened to be my first emergency procedures sim...not as hard as I thought it might be although I definitely have a long way to go before I feel comfortable...although how comfortable are you ever really going to feel in an emergency situation anyway?!? I guess that's why we practice them....  I'm giving the formal brief tomorrow so hopefully that all goes well, then I'm heading up to what we call the RSU or mini control tower to get checked out as an observer in the afternoon. The days are also much longer for us- for the next 3 months or so we're pulling 12 hour days so don't be surprised if we're in bed by 9 or 10 most nights!! This is the real deal...it's what we've all been waiting for. Dollar rides begin Monday and that's when the real fun begins :-)

Allright...emergency procedures sim #2 is complete, now it's a double turn on Monday with emergency procedures sim #3 and my first contact sim, then my dollar ride on Tuesday! Things are starting to pick up around these parts as the flying is getting closer. These 12 hour days actually pass quite fast when you're so busy- with each sim event lasting 3 hours and academics typically mid morning, time seems to fly by and I'm sure it will seem even faster once we get to the real airplane and start double turning on flights (two flights in one day). We also had our first stand-up yesterday which Scott did a great job on, and some shotgun questions about general knowledge and EP's...easy enough, but when the lights are down and you're under pressure the most obvious answers can slip your mind, but that's why we practice! Monday we have Brian, Brett and Tim getting their dollar rides so they'll be able to give us the rundown of what to expect, but it's going to pretty much be a free ride, not graded and simply an introduction to the aircraft. We also found our that we're out of our monkey suits (blues) and finally into our flight suits on Monday, which is a great relief for all of us. Hopefully this is the last time we'll ever have to "earn" our flight suits. We're also finding out that although UPT is free, it ends up being quite expensive with all our patch fees, class dues, squadron dues, stocking the flightroom fridge with "water" and of course going out to dinner with the class....it's definitely not cheap! Ah well..welcome to the life of a military pilot! So I think this UPT thing is going to be pretty cool- the United States government is teaching us to fly a 5 million dollar airplane, they're going to let us take it out by ourselves, say "oh by the way let's teach you some aerobatics, instrument and formation flying too", then give us another airplane to fly with bombs, missiles, afterburner or PJ's in the back doing a HALO jump, and then on top of all that they pay us to do it....kinda cool huh?

Hey everyone! I know it's been a while since I have updated this site but we have been absolutely as busy as one can possibly be while still keeping their head on straight. Things are going great however, and finally being on the flightline is definitely different than I had ever expected it to be. First of all, we have IP's who many seem to feel are some of the best in the squadron, and it shows in the flight room. They do not go easy on us, however if we work hard for them they treat us fairly and allow us to do what we need to do in order to learn- very different from some stories I have heard from other flights. I feel more willing to work hard for someone however, who is firm but fair rather than yelling at us for stupid stuff all the time, and I think most of my classmates would agree. Most of us have also had our Dollar Ride and first flight, with many of us working on our second, third or fourth flights this past week. Much of our training within the next few weeks is going to consist of basic maneuvers which will ensure that we can stay safe in the practice areas, from nose high and nose low recoveries, stall recoveries and lots and lots of work in the traffic pattern. The pattern is quite complex with a lot of non-standard radio calls from what many of us are used to, plus the face that we fly the pattern at 200 knots and things happen pretty quickly. Most of us can expect to be soloing within about a month or so, so it certainly comes up quick! There is no slowing down, and from now on the pace is only going to pick up with two events a day after solo, instead of just one flight a day. My dollar ride was absolutely incredible, and the T-6 is an awesome airplane. As you put the power lever to max and feel yourself being pressed into your seat, that 1100 shaft horsepower engine trying to pull you off the side of the runway with all the torque, it is the most awesome feeling in the world as you lift off and pull up, climbing at twice the speed most of us are used to cruising at. As I was cruising along at 15,000 feet looking out the window on the way to the area the other day, I looked left and saw the gulf, then probably another 30 or 40 miles out into it, looked behind me and saw the outskirts of Jacksonville, to my right the smog of Atlanta, then on my right wing I looked down and saw the USAF painted on the wing, looked at myself in the cockpit all strapped in with my helmet and mask on, and could not wipe the smile off of my face. It's been a long time coming but that moment made it all worth it - we're all pretty lucky to be where we are.

Another week has flown by...it's amazing how fast time is passing now that we're so busy. These 12 hour days really seem short when you have so much to do. This week I was fortunate to be able to fly quite a bit, getting 3 flights and another which was scheduled for today but was cancelled due to weather. See, in the very beginning of training much of your work is focused on the pattern, learning how to get in and out of Moody safely, and basic aircraft control. If the weather is bad down low, even though it may be clear in the practice areas, they don't like to send students up because their training in the traffic pattern would be severely limited. On one of my rides this week something interesting did happen to me however, well actually, two rides ...My first flight of the week I was never scheduled for, so I walked into the classroom after my sim and sat down to eat lunch, when one of our IP's walked in and say "Joel, you're flying with the squadron commander in 20 minutes"...the other flight was when I had just entered the area when a PMU STATUS light illuminated in the cockpit. For those who dont know, the PMU is the computer which controls the engine and it's operation in normal day to day use. When that computer fails, we have the capability to fly without it, but as pilots we have to monitor the engine much more closely so it doesn't go out of limits, and it is not considered to be a normal procedure. My IP set up for an emergency landing pattern here at Moody and I had a firsthand account of what happens when there is an issue in the aircraft vs. just talking about it on the ground...pretty cool stuff and obviously, it came to a successful conclusion. Gosh, so many things are going on it's hard to list them all...we just finished our meteorology academics and have begun our instrument academics, instrument simulators will be starting soon. We are doing well on our Emergency Procedures Quizzes with no one failing one yet (only 3 wrong out of 20), our class patch is well on the way, for some of us we have our first solo to look forward to in a few weeks, Brian is our Bonehead of the week for losing his wallet (which if he reads this he will discover that someone has found it..it's up to him to figure out who and how to get it back) and oh yeah, next week will be just as busy as this one...lol. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Block one complete of training....well, looks like they might just trust me to eventually fly this thing by myself after all! My first block of training rides are over and tomorrow I double turn with a simulator in the morning and a flight in the afternoon....new procedures, new maneuvers...it's a lot to get ready for! Everything that we're doing now however is to prepare us to solo. In the class we are at all different points in our training...we still have some individuals who are on their first few rides in the block- this doesn't mean anything except for that's where they fell in the alphabet for scheduling purposes...everyone should be caught up in a week or two though. We also began our Instrument 2 material today....talk about a firehose- this is the license that most people on the civilian side take 6-8 months to get, and we're doing it in about 2 weeks...at least the academic portion. Then we begin instrument sims later on this week or at the beginning of next. This past block has gone pretty well, a lot of the basics being covered, although a new policy has come out where we need to go to our auxiliary field whenever it is open and we're flying, so that's another airport to learn the UPT pattern references to and another which we will be graded on almost every flight. We do need to visit this field on our Final Contact checkride however, so it's good we're getting the experience with it now. I also had the opportunity to fly with the Director of Operations or as we call it, the DO today...the flight went really well aside from the fact that I definitely have to work on those patterns and setting power and pitch at exactly the right times...things happen much more quickly in this airplane than what I'm used to, but it's slowly coming. The funny thing about flying with him was that when we got back from the flight I asked where he was from, and it turns our that we're from the same area, and his parents live in my hometown...how weird is that? Lets see, what else is going on....oru class patches are being finalized, we lost the bet with our flight commander for our last test, so we have to buy a kegerator for the flightroom, and the weekend is only 2 days away....always an important thing. More flying tomorrow...one more day till friday.

Hey everyone...sorry it's been so long since I've made an entry but as usual, things just dont seem to stop around here. Things have been going well however...most of us have finished up our first block of training and have moved into the second block which is right before solo. Weather permitting, several of us should be ready for solo by the end of this week or by the beginning of next. This second block of training we have also introduced several new maneuvers including nose high, nose low and inverted recoveries as well as spin/ocf recoveries...it's pretty cool to finally be using the airplane closer to the capability level it was designed for- as students, most of us do not typically "max perform" the airplane as we should early on in our training...it takes a little while to get comfortable enough to put it where you want, when you want it there. As a flight we're also at a point where we are typically the only ones who are tearing up the pattern, and last Friday was rediculous...5 or 6 of us in the pattern at once, the IP's trying to beat one another to the radio calls and trying to break before the next calls 5 miles....all I can say is it was definitely the most fun I've had in the pattern yet... We've also started instrument sims and are pushing through the first block of those, working on our basic aircraft control referencing strictly the instruments as well as course intercepts, fix to fixes and arcing....all basic techniques needed to fly any typical instrument approach. I just finished the first block of instrument training, so next up is finally getting into the approach structure with various types of instrument approaches...tough stuff but so far I'm enjoying it. An instrument rating definitely has helped me from the civilian world, and for those of you wondering, I would definitely suggest at least starting your instrument rating before arriving at UPT. Generally speaking, the rules dont change from military to civilian so you can expect much of the same once UPT starts...it's good to have a heads up as to what they're talking about. Along with our sims we have been going through our Instrument 2 academics with our exam on Thursday, a test which is supposed to be the hardest exam in all of pilot training, so hopefully everyone does well! Well this week it looks like we have early show all week, which means in bed by 830 or so and arriving in the squadron by 5-6 in the morning depending on what day it is. That means I should be jumping in bed about 15 mins from now, so I've gotta run. Look for new pics later on in the week especially once solos come around...!