Good way to end a week

Yesterday I flew my last solo in T-6's. A little bittersweet, but definitely a lot of fun, despite the haze in the morning. I flew a decent formation sortie in the afternoon. Only two more form flights before the check - probably Wednesday.

Been slackin'

...on writing blog entries the last couple days, not on flying. Tuesday and Wednesday's flights went alright. Formation is coming along. Tactical is still really fun, and challenging. Fingertip still gives me fits, but I think I have it under control. Today I flew regular ol' contact to rehack all my currencies for dual-only maneuvers like the spin recovery, stalls, and ELP. I got to see Hacker again for the first time in about 2 months, but it was largely uneventful. I forgot to squawk the appropriate code the whole time, but almost no one was there, so it went unnoticed. We debriefed, and I rolled right into a solo in the afternoon - probably one of the best times I had yet. Sky was clear with some white puffies below and some anvils off in the distance. Finished all my aerobatics and all of them felt pretty good...not perfect, but definitely improving. I got stood up this morning too, and it wasn't the end of the world. Funny how some of the days you just think will be terrible turn out to be the best. I love that. Seems to be the way God works.

我要成为优秀的飞行员

Today I flew another formation ride, but I went to an IP who really lets students "flail" after flying last week with an IP who was almost giving me a PAR for every maneuver. That's a little frustrating... I feel like I learn better when people just tell me what to do and let me do it, saving the debrief for later, as opposed to when they just tell me what to do as it's happening. At that point I'm just a transducer for their verbal inputs into the aircraft. So while I really appreciate his style of instruction, it was tough to adjust.

A PAR is an instrument approach mostly used in the military in which a radar controller on the ground tells the pilot exactly where he/she is on the glideslope and in relation to the runway. It's the equivalent of someone giving you directions whilst you are driving.

Feels like Saturday

After hooking my first formation flight after the formation solo, I flew much better yesterday, and was able to go into the weekend feeling a little better. The flying we're doing is so cool, but some aspects of it are pretty difficult for me. The tactical stuff is great though, we're basically flying around in a spread-out formation offset vertically, and crossing flight-paths to maneuver.

We didn't have any lines today, so we didn't even have to go to work. Starting the weekend early.

Removing the Rust

I flew plain ol' contact today, complete with area work, emergency landing patterns, and aerobatics. I felt a bit rusty, but other than that the flight went pretty well. I would have liked to move through each maneuver in a more timely manner, but I got most of it done anyway. Flying more formation tomorrow.

Form Solo

I flew my formation solo this afternoon after a good flight this morning. Flying around in formation is pretty sweet. Subtract the instructor in the back seat and I'd say it gets even better. The clouds were pretty, but they made the air a little rough. Even more to practice now that I'm moving on to tactical formation.

Short day

My sole duty for the day was to show up for the morning brief. I am now on my way to Austin.

More formation practice

Today was the end of block ride for basic formation, but I hooked it so I'll be repeating it on Monday. I'm scheduled for nothing tomorrow, so I can relax over the weekend and look forward to a good ride on Monday. I improved a little today, but I just need to be a little better at correcting my position in fingertip without making gigantic corrections and getting unsafe.

Fair

Faired my ride today. Just can't get stable during the wingwork in fingertip. I'm kinda all over the place. On the formation takeoff as lead I forgot to give the run-up signal to wing and left him sitting in the dust when I pushed up the power...at which point it was no longer a formation takeoff.

Hopefully I can relax more tomorrow and fly some good fingertip and good echelon turns.

High Area

Formation is a little more difficult in the high areas. I found that out by experience today. The prop just doesn't have as much bite in the thinner air. The hot weather doesn't help anything either. This translates to bigger power corrections and more frustration. On the plus side, the recovery was pretty smooth. Double turning formation rides again tomorrow.

Banana orange smoothie, smoked bratwurst, and cheesecake for dinner. Yeah, I'm not going to win any awards for my great dinner combinations.

Exhaust Stacks and Position Lights

I double turned formation sorties again today. Lots of practice, lots of work, lots of brain cells fried. I just hope I'm learning fast enough. I flew my first formation landing today. That was cool. I was concentrating so hard, it hardly felt like I actually landed...kind of like when you're driving somewhere and you arrive surprised that you don't really remember the last 15 minutes of your driving because you were thinking about something else. More practice tomorrow.

The stuff we're doing in formation is getting really difficult to describe. I hope that just means it's very specific to military flying and not that I just don't get it.

Wx Cnx

Low clouds and heavy rain cancelled all our flights yesterday, but we stuck around for tactical formation academics. We learned just the very, very basics of the maneuvers fighter aircraft most commonly perform during a typical mission. Even though we just scratched the surface of what air-to-air combat is all about, the whole thing was highly motivational. We were all reminding each other how most people, even within the Air Force, think that air-to-air combat is just Top Gun, like a video game where you just point and shoot. With todays most modern aircraft it's true that sometimes it can be like that, but dogfighting has roots in highly sophisticated tactics developed over many, many years that involved complex geometry, energy rates, 3D physics, and far more than just, "Too close for missiles, I'm switching to guns." For now I can look forward to chasing around other aircraft as soon as next week playing follow the leader in the sky.

Double Turn Form Rides

Today I flew two formation sorties and got stood up for a formation EP. It was a full day. The weather was interesting, with thunderstorms building the whole day and clouds invading our area during the second sortie. It's always fun to flying around the clouds though, even when you're not looking at anything but the exhaust stacks on the engine of the other aircraft, trying to stay in position on the wing. I flew my first wing takeoff too, which was pretty cool. Now I just have to get good at it.

On to Form

I finally wrapped up low-level today with another FPC. This one was requested special, because I spent both of my progress checks on the mid-phase contact block. Thankfully I passed, and I get to move on to formation. I actually had to fly it twice, since the first one was cut short due to weather. My check IP flew the recovery. The weather later in the day cooperated and allowed me to finish the sortie without too much trouble. I had to weave my way through a few clouds, but it worked out.

It seems you learn good things from going to the edge and back. Seeing as how I've been there twice now, I should know quite a few good things, but I'd like to put an end to these shennanigans. I'm getting too old for this.