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Hey everyone....well, another week gone by, and although it was a short week with the long weekend and all, it
certainly was one of the longest weeks I think we've all had since UPT began, mostly because of the weather.
Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate at all this week and most of us had the chance to fly only once this
week, and of the few flights we had, only a few of them were graded rides since we're not allowed to have a
graded sortie with more than a 5 day break in training. This simply means that if we dont fly for more than 5
days in a row, we get to take an extra flight just to get back into the swing of things, but it is a no grade flight.
This is what most of the flights this week were.
Since we didnt do a whole lot of flying, they did get us going with our instrument sims which are actually a lot of
fun,and from what I hear most people seem to be doing pretty well at them. I finished the first block of
instrument sims last week and completed the first 2 sorties of the second block introducing different types of
precision instrument approaches. Once this block is complete we will be opted for our first actual instrument
flights...this is where they say pilots "make their money" as instrument flying is very precise, complex and allows
very little room for error. The simulators help out a lot with getting our situational awareness and basic
understanding of how things are supposed to work however, so we should be prepared once we get into the
actual airplane. Something interesting about instrument flights too....we are going to be sitting in the back of
the airplane, not the front as we have been for all of the contact phase.
Something else interesting that happened this week- 4 F-15's from Tyndall were diverted due to weather to
Moody, and the pilots came over to the squadron and had an informal Q&A session with the students about
fighter flying and the F-15 specifically. One of the pilots who was speaking to us had flown all over the world,
most recently in India, being a bad guy at the fighter weapons school in Las Vegas, flying against F-16's at
Kelley and was one of the flyby pilots for the Bud Shootout NASCAR race last week, and in addition to all that,
he was recently picked up for the F-22..not a bad deal at all. And after listening to them and then seeing the
C-17 from March ANGB that flew in this week, I'm more confused than ever now as to what I might like to fly...lol
This week the weather looks like it is going to hold out for us and with that, 6 people including myself are
scheduled to solo this week....again, wx pending the first will be on Tuesday with the rest in the latter portion of
the week, so I'll try to have all the pictures of us being dunked up by next weekend. I must say that I'm pretty
excited to solo...I've been licensed to fly by myself for almost 7 years now with nearly 500 hours of flight time
behind me, but for some reason there's just something a little intimidating about taking up an air force airplane
by myself...but this is what we're all here for!
Also, be sure to check out some new videos in the links section, "UPT Cribs" and a new Top Gun Spoof from a
Laughlin Class.

So I was getting out of the airplane after my initial solo, and as I'm walking back to the bus to take me back to
the squadron, a police car pulls up in front of me, two officers get out and tell me that they had received reports
that I had stolen a T-6 for an hour and needed to come with them. I turned around and faced their car, and as I
felt the handcuffs clicking around my wrists I knew what must come next....yup...the pool. THey proceeded to
take me to the solo pool where everyone was waiting, and yeah, straight in, handcuffs still on and all...lol. - yes,
that is a true story. I SOLOED!!!! lol...definately a whole lot of fun and very different without the IP in the
backseat telling you what to do....its up to you to do everything correctly, from the walkaround to all the
checklist items, to staying on altitude and on airspeed throughout the flight....but in the end, it was one of the
best flights I've ever had, knowing that I was in an air force aircraft, by myself, alone, with no instructor, and I
was getting paid to do this...kinda cool.
We also had a few other solos this week...John and Jeff went today and we got them in the pool as well...all
went great and we should be having most of our class solo out next week sometime. I also can plan on my first
checkride next week, as the midphase checkride comes only 4 rides after solo....so wish me luck! This weekend
I was going to head down to bikeweek in Daytona, but I think I'm going to stay at home instead and study...lol
This week there was also a tragedy in the squadron. One of our IP's was killed in a car accident last monday
morning, and we had a memorial for him today outside of the squadron. The number of people who showed up
was incredible, from all the family and friends to the entire squadron and many from other squadrons. The
ceremony included remarks from our group commander, squadron commander, some of his closest friends and
a 4 ship missing-man flyby, a tradition carried out by flying squadrons when one of it's members dies. Another
friend of mine was also killed in the same accident, they will both be missed by all who knew them.
Next week will be back to normal after a quiet week in the squadron, filled with instrument sims, solos and
checkrides...things are showing no signs of slowing down...only 3 months to go...

Hey everyone...sorry I haven't been able to update the site in a while, but things have been pretty crazy around
here. After solo there are only 4 flights between your solo flight and the mid phase checkride. The first of 4
checkrides, your mid phase is a flight that evaluates your performance up to this point and if passed, will allow
you to take a T-6 to the MOA solo and practice all of your maneuvers. Being able to practice solo is great
because at this stage in the game, for the most part you know exactly when you're screwing up, and you know
how to fix what you're doing wrong....not having an IP in the back seat allows you to practice correcting your
own mistakes which is a great confidence builder. This week I was able to complete the 4 flights required before
mid phase in a reasonably rapid manner and took my mid phase checkride on weds. earning a grade of 2E, the
number being the total number of downgrades (mistakes) and the letter representing an overall grade of
Excellent....Now it's off to start advanced aerobatics and prepare for my Final Contact checkride, although now
I have many more flights that I am opted for, including instrument flights. Those should be interesting...I'm not
quite sure how those are going to be, but we'll see! Tomorrow we also start navigation training which means
that our x-country weekend is coming up soon, probably within the next month or so. We were also able to solo
out the rest of the class this week....a great accomplishment for everyone and one of the most memorable
moments in an air force pilots career.
This past week has also been quite a week because I found late Monday that my roommate from freshman
year in college and a close friend throughout college was killed in a motorcycle accident in Daytona Beach last
Sunday night. We received special permission from our flight commander to attend the memorial services on
Thurs night and Fri morning of this week in Daytona Beach so we spent those days and the remainder of the
weekend in Daytona. The memorial was very well done and the attendance was amazing...Craig really did have
a tremendous impact on so many people...we all miss ya buddy.
Now back from Daytona and all the craziness of bike week, it's time to get our heads back in the game and hit
the books once again. New pics are up from solos so be sure to take a look!

Well, another week behind us and this one was as busy as ever....instrument sims, checkrides, flights...it never
seems to end, although the flow chart seems to be filling up quite nicely with the number of flights until
graduation getting smaller and smaller every day! So far we've been doing great on checkrides with 5 passed
so far and 2 more people to check tomorrow so things are going well there too. Our class patches also came
in, and tomorrow will be the first day we get to wear them along with our friday patch! It'll be nice to finally wear
something that represents our class...if nothing else yet we've certainly earned that! Next week is looking like it
might be night week for us which means sleeping in and showing late...probably not getting out until 10 or 11
or so. The following week is x-country weekend for me and a few others. We were thinking about Key West but
since our first day includes a VFR night flight and Key West NAS operates on island time, I dont think we're
going to be able to make it before they close....now we're looking at Charleston, Macdill and a whole slew of
others, so if anyone has any ideas please feel free to email me! We're looking at an area from approx. here to
North Carolina and as far west as San Antonio....
Well, hope everyone has had a good week and I'll keep working on putting up new pics as they come in!

Night week is upon us and we get to sleep in a bit tomorrow! Our day doesn't even start until 10, and we'll be
flying well into the night tomorrow as well as the rest of the week as we log our 2 night flights of the T-6
syllabus. I'm looking forward to making one of them an instrument ride, as flying instruments at night is so
much smoother than flying during the day...things are much easier in the cockpit when you aren't being
bounced around by the rising thermals that appear in the mid afternoon here in the south. I also enjoy night
flying because it gives you such an incredible perspective as to where the populated areas are around you,
and being that it's usually more clear at night, you can typically see cities and lights from distances you would
have never been able to during the day....it's actually quite peaceful at night, usually more quiet on the radios
and the aircraft performs better since the night air is usually cooler... I can remember one night flight I took with
my dad on a delivery flight of a 172 when I was back in High School....we were coming back from Illinois
enroute to Maine, and we had to make a fuel stop, but the only airport that was open at that time of night was
Albany, NY....it was our planned stop on this night VFR flight, but what we hadn't expected was the front that
was passing through was creating direct crosswinds on the landing runway of almost 30kts....lets just say that
a combination of light snow from a high overcast along with nighttime conditions and those kind of winds made
for somwhat of a...lets say interesting approach and landing...lol....we got our money's worth out of our
seatbelts that night!
Anyone ever seen George Thorogood in concert?? I'd recommend it for sure...he came to Wild Adventure this
weekend and we went to go check him out along with his opening band, Cross Canadian Ragweed....both
awesome rock n' roll bands...especially when u get to see them from the front row! Check out the pics from the
concert...

Wow...well I know it's been a while since I've last updated everyone on whats been going on lately, but here's
the first thing I want everyone to know...EVERYONE IN OUR CLASS HAS PASSED MIDPHASE!!! In the past it
has been said that the most difficult thing for a class to accomplish is for eveyone in the flight to pass the
midphase checkride...well the last person flew today and now it is official...we're all moving on together!
Congrats to everyone and good luck to those who are up for final contact!
Lets see...so much has happened over the course of the last week or so. Last week I had my first instrument
flight, which I must say was some of the most fun I have had since UPT began...finally being able to go
somewhere other than Moody, shoot an approach and come back, in the weather, is just the coolest thing in
the world. I was lucky in that my first instrument flight was in actual instrument conditions with a ceiling of only
about 400 feet, so we were right into it from the moment we took off all the way up to about 8500 feet when we
broke out on top of a solid cloud layer. We ended up being recalled for weather as 4 planes before us were
diverted to Tallahassee because they never broke out of the clouds...we, with 3 other planes were able to
make it back in to Moody, however the weather was right at minimums for the approach....
The rest of the weekend and this week has been spent studying for my final contact checkride which I finally
had today and was able to earn a score of 4E, that's 4 mistakes and an overall grade of excellent....It was a
great day to fly with billowing clouds in the area that made aerobatics challenging, but because of a restriction
we had on when we could return to the airport we had to spend some extra time in the MOA doing a little bit of
"cloud chasing"... The debrief was cut a little bit short however as I had an instrument sim so go to immediately
after my checkride which left virtually no time to prepare so I cant say that it was my best instrument sim ever,
but hey, u have to decide which alligators are bigger and badder and tackle them first, then worry about the
little alligators later.... We've also started formation academics and have our last test in UPT on monday
morning, then we're opted for formation flights as of monday afternoon, so wish us luck!
Cross country has been moved to next weekend (my birthday weekend) so it should be a good time down in
Key West..not a bad way to spend a birthday! We'll be doing an out and back to Daytona that saturday, so
everyone down there who's reading this feel free to come on out and check out the plane and bug my IP with
all kinds of questions...Ruballs will be with me and we should be flying in at the same time, so come on out and
say hi. Well, I've got to prep for a flight to Tallahassee tomorrow and then another instrument sim in the
evening, so I'm out. Hope everyone has a great friday!