RSU

I spent a few hours in the Runway Supervisory Unit today. Basically the mini control tower for a single runway, the RSU monitors the aircraft in the traffic pattern and helps take some of the workload off the tower. The RSU crew are pilots and student pilots keeping records, calling out tail numbers, and directing traffic. It was 4 lazy hours compared to actual flying. I also test-drove a Porsche today. That was pretty fun. Tomorrow is a half day, flying in the morning with a safety brief later.

Lazy Day

Not much happened today. I was supposed to have an instrument flight, but I got swapped out after some weather cancellations. Planning for out and back to Abilene tomorrow.

Cross Country

Whew! What a whirlwind! 2 Flights on Friday, 2 Flights today. I flew down to Waco on Friday, watched some TV with the IPs, ate some TX BBQ, got refueled, and flew into Ft Worth Alliance for our solo party/naming ceremony. I was named TIMMAY for something I did on the way down to Waco. Funny stories, good burgers, and a good time. On Saturday, a few of us walked around Ft Worth and checked out the water gardens. Very cool! We did some mission planning, then went to a Ft Worth Cats game. Minor league baseball, as it turns out, has a good fun-to-expense ratio.

This morning we got up around 7, drove back to our aircraft, and I flew to Fort Smith, Arkansas. List of states I've been to...Arkansas - check. We flew back around 3pm and here I am prepping for tomorrow. Busy weekend, but lots of improvement, especially with talking on the radio, filing flight plans, and strange fields. I have a great job.

Wow

I thought today was going to be one of the worst yet. I even had a terrible attitude going to work, but it turned out to be a great day. I flew with the Ops Group Commander, and even though I hadn't flown contact in 2 weeks, I did pretty well and didn't make any huge mistakes. My landings weren't terrible either. On top of that, I had the greatest sim of my life, my very last instrument sim. Nice! Tomorrow we're all flying to Fort Worth for our cross country. Should be fun, though much planning needs to get done before tomorrow at noon.

Wx

No out and back today due to weather cancellation. We just used the time to plan, get ready for the XC this weekend, and study. I fly tomorrow with the Ops Group Commander. It will be my first contact ride in a couple weeks, so hopefully I'm not too rusty. Maybe I'll shine my boots tonight. The IP who bought me Rocky Mtn Oysters brought pheasant today, so I ate a whole pheasant in addition to cookies from one of the wonderful wives. Good stuff!

Sim

I had the last out and back sim today. Tomorrow I fly the last out and back sortie. Instruments are quickly coming to a close. I will probably check next week. The sim went alright, but I didn't have the most up-to-date profile, so much of the planning I had scrambled together at the last minute was irrelevant, because it wasn't applicable to the profile anymore. This partly worked to my advantage though, because I think the sim IP was a little more lenient. I didn't do anything completely atrocious, but the whole thing was just a little sloppy. Lots of planning time for tomorrow's out and back to Abilene, so I should fly it well.

Out and Back to Amarillo

I flew to Amarillo today. The flight there went as well as the flight back went badly. We ate at the Big Texan, the mandatory tourist trap in Amarillo. My IP convinced me to eat the Calf Fries, fried Rocky Mountain Oysters, though he didn't let me know until after I had taken the first bite. They're pretty good though. All I have tomorrow is the morning brief and a sim.

2 More down, only 2 to go

I had two more instrument sims today. They actually went really well, especially the second one. I finally got an excellent, and my sim IP really didn't even have any major feedback for me. I messed up a couple things, but really ran the whole profile and mostly stayed ahead of the airplane. Only two more instrument sims. Low-level and formation only have one sim each, so I only have 4 total sims left in T-6s. Awesome.

Cross country tomorrow. Due to the weather, we'll find out exactly where we're going in the morning. Right now, it's still up in the air.

My job is awesome

I flew to Lubbock this morning. We departed IFR, then canceled our clearance once we found some good weather, and descended between the lines of clouds as we approached Lubbock. It was pretty cool flying 1000' up between the clouds. We just did a visual approach to Lubbock, then the ILS and localizer approaches. We made the last one a full stop, refueled, ate some Mexican, and took off again. Cool. Days like this make it definitely worth getting up at 5am.

My office

A visual

Double sims

I had two more instrument sims today - only 4 left, plus 1 sim each for low-level and formation. That's it, only six sims left. Amazing! I found out I'm going out-and-back to Amarillo tomorrow. Planning that tonight should be fun. I have to be at Base Ops tomorrow morning at 0545. One of my classmates had my back and already helped me out a little on the planning, since I was doing a sim and found out late. We've got good dudes in our flight. Amarillo should be interesting, we're flying at 3000' on the way out so we can navigate VFR, using ground references. Wish I could take pictures.

Not too busy

The schedule changed over the weekend, so I didn't go out and back to Amarillo. That will probably happen sometime later this week. I just had a sim today, which went ok. I had lots of prep time, which is always a plus. We had a standup right before we all left, and I got stood up at the end, but I improved a bit over previous performances. It helped that the standup had already run for about 45 minutes at that point. Usually they take 20 minutes. Just 2 sims tomorrow. Only 6 instrument sims left in T-6s! Time flies...

Found time to get a 2 mile run in too.

Transition to landing

This morning I had another instrument ride. It mostly went well, with a few deviations and dipping below the minimum altitude on one of the approaches, but it went much better than yesterday's ride. I landed out of a GPS approach - pretty cool. I found out I'm flying and out-and-back on Monday to Amarillo if the weather holds, somewhere else if it doesn't. There goes the weekend. These things take planning, especially when you've never done it before. It'll be good practice for going to Houston next Friday. Another assignment night tonight, that's always interesting.

Cross Country Sim and Instrument Ride

I had a sim this morning that went well enough. I need to put in more time planning the cross country and out-and-back sims/sorties. My 3rd instrument ride didn't go as planned either. I was behind the aircraft the whole time. Gotta clean up for tomorrow's sortie. It's the end of block. Giving the morning brief, too.

Another Solo

Flew another solo today. Still feels a little weird to just go fly myself around, but definitely awesome. Clear skies and mostly calm winds made it a really good flight. I spent almost a full hour practicing all the aerobatics, trying to work on the more difficult ones. On the recovery, my pattern was decent, with a slight overshoot and a serious crosswind. My instrument sim went well, so I'm planning for tomorrow's. Looks like our cross country will be to Houston. Cool, haven't been there yet.

A Day of Sims

I didn't fly today. Instead, I had two instrument sims, the second being a large improvement over the first. It felt good, because the sim IP I had for the second was no Santa Claus with my grades last time either. So, I know it's legit. Some of those guys are a little too nice. I need to get crushed every once in a while. I spent most of the day in the sim building, but tomorrow I have another solo. Hopefully the winds don't get too rowdy.

Area Solo

I still can't quite believe the Air Force let me fly a $6 million aircraft into the lawless barbaric region known as Oklahoma today. It wasn't like I just flew circles either. I did all the aerobatics I could, given that the clouds were descending and pushing me north. They weren't happy clouds either. They were the depressing kind. One of the best parts about it was not getting evaluated. It was a great day, but I should have asked for better weather.