Systems Test Complete

I passed the Systems test this morning without missing a question. We finished up for the year with an intro to the weight and balance forms. No class no duties until 3 Jan. Yay!

Aircraft Tour and Review

After yesterday's information firehose repeat, today's review was a welcome relief. We closed with an aircraft tour after lunch. I'm off to a review session in about 15 minutes. The test tomorrow should go well.

The Firehose

Today (after 2 hours of the computers not working) the instructor brought in an information firehose and turned it on full blast. I'm currently drenched in a flood of data. My flightsuit is soaked in engine data, my car is still sopping wet with prop system numbers, and I have wet footprints in my apartment that I'm fairly certain are the liquid intricacies of the fuel system. I feel like I'll be up to my eyesballs in data for at least a few months.

T-44 Systems

This morning I passed the Federal Rules and Regs test with no issues. Before lunch we got briefed up on the sims, which we should start when we come back from Christmas break. They have motion! Fancy. After lunch (Southern BBQ from the BX) we started systems with the general characteristics of the aircraft and then got into the electrical system. It got pretty detailed. Systems knowledge is a big deal down here, and it's gonna take some serious studying, but it's entirely doable.

Evidently we're supposed to have a clue when we have our first sim event, so they made sure we knew how to sign up for much-needed sim time. The switchology of an aircraft is one of the most repetitive and time-intensive parts of learning a new aircraft. I have a little better idea of what to study now, so hopefully this should continue to go well.

One week down

I passed my instrument review exam this morning. In addition to a ton of questions from FAR/AIM, it had lots of RMI problems asking how to enter holding in different scenarios and questions about ATC clearances and instrument approach procedures. After the test we reviewed Navy specific flight rules and operating restrictions found in OPNAV 3710.7, and the instructor released us early. Not a bad first week.

AVIATION TRIVIA: The only difference between a straight IFR flight plan and VFR-on-Top is flying the VFR hemispheric altitudes on a VFR-on-Top and maintaining VFR cloud clearances.

The T-44A Up Close

Today after academics, one of my buddies and I went out to the flight line just to hop in one of the T-44s and familiarize ourselves with the cockpit layout. We were surprised to find that the aircraft actually feels even older than we thought it would. It's going to take some getting used to, but the little bit of exposure to the actual aircraft that we got today was well worth it. We just read through the checklist, tried to find all the switches, and ran through basic ops. It's going to take some solid chairflying and checklist runthroughs, but it should be fun.

It is weird having a toilet in the back and an actual door into the aircraft.

PIREP - It's cloudy and I want to fly

We opened up this morning with a review of weather and a practice test. The weather instructor tells lots of stories about flying in and around the Pacific, especially the Philippines and Indonesia. They're good ole war stories and usually pretty amusing. We reviewed clearances, standard radio comm, initial calls to ATC, and lost comm procedures in the afternoon and I finished up the instrument review CBT. This GPS is really different from the one in the T-6 - no map display, just a readout of the next waypoints! We're kickin' it old school. I really think they should have made the keyboard standard qwerty as well, but they decided to make it completely non-standard. At least the letters are in alphabetical order. I'm really learning to appreciate how Gucci the T-6 was.

Four of us sat around afterward to work on the CBTs and reminisced about the T-6 and told our best stories.

Wx test tomorrow, then more instrument review.

PIREPs are pilot weather reports.

Whether there's weather

We started academic lectures this morning at 0800. Not bad for an Air Force job. The morning was devoted to meteorology with special emphasis on thunderstorms, icing, and meteorological threats to aircraft and how to use the available resources like pressure charts, wind charts, weather radar, and text-based forecasts to flight plan effectively. We got into the requirements for alternates, the requirements for filing VFR (1000' AGL and 3 SM vis), the definition of MVFR, and I learned a lot more about weather this time around. Hopefully I can keep soaking it up, because we only have tomorrow morning and then the test on Wednesday. The afternoon was devoted to IFR review. We went over the IFR environment, airspace, special use airspace, cloud clearances, and all the different kinds of NAVAIDs. It will be interesting to finally use a TACAN and maybe an NDB for approaches in this aircraft, since the T-6 didn't have that equipment. I dove into the CBTs after the instructor left, and I gave myself a good review of instruments, along with a confusing introduction to instrument procedures in the T-44. It's difficult with no cockpit context to precisely understand the way I would fly a procedure turn in the T-44, especially since the Navy has different rules and a new mnemonic for remembering the procedure. Worked out afterward, so I'm feeling good. Hopefully the rest of the week goes this well, and I stay this productive.

Day 1

This morning started off my time in advanced training. We arrived at 0700, a few hadn't quite got the word, but they eventually arrived and the flight commander and associates gave us all the standard start of training briefs - Sexual Assault Response, Expectations, Chain of Command, leave routing, etc. We got a tour of the squadron, which is actually in a hangar - weird for us Air Force guys. The day was over by 1030, and we have our first class starting tomorrow.