Starting Class Again

The past two months have been...pithy. I got married, my wife and I had a honeymoon roadtrip with stops in California at Yosemite National Park and Lake Tahoe, I went through survival school, drove 1800 miles in two days, moved from Texas to Little Rock, AR and inprocessed at the base.

The base is pretty nice. The red-brick buildings look new. The Little Rock area is very green, and trees and well-kept grass line the road that enters the base. The greenery surrounds the base and makes it feel very comfortable. It's also bigger than my previous bases and definitely has a more operational feel. I see at least one C-130 in the air at any given time.

After a bit of something different for the past two months I'm about to start C-130 school on Friday. When this is over, I'll know how to fly the C-130 and hopefully how to be a good copilot.

Slicks to Pete!

Today we had our drop, and I found out I'm going to Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs where I'll be flying C-130s. I finished exactly in the middle of a class of 09 Air Force students. This is what the drop looked like:

D/O - 328 to Cannon AFB (Surprise! This is the specops version of the Dournier - 328 commuter)
C-130J to Dyess AFB
C-130J to Ramstein AB x2
C-130 to Peterson AFB (me)
C-130 to Yokota AB
C-130 to Little Rock (will probably get MC-12 + deployment first)
C-130J to Keesler AFB
C-130J to Dyess AFB

All of us except the guy who got the D/O - 328 will go to the schoolhouse in Little Rock for about 6 months and then on to our assignments for 3-4 years.

The View from the Right Seat

Yesterday I flew my right seat rides. All the Air Force students get two extra right seat rides in preparation for years of flying copilot in the C-130. The rides are low threat, but it really felt weird sitting on the opposite side of the cockpit. I flew two of the cross country flights from the right seat, but yesterday still felt weird. It may take more time for me to really get used to it. I've become much more comfortable in the left seat. My landings were a little rusty, but other than that both events went ok. I couldn't wait to get back though, because my wonderful fiancee had made dinner for me - lemon pepper chicken with potatoes and squash.

No flight today, but I start review stage tomorrow. Review stage is pretty much what it sounds like - a comprehensive review of instrument flying complete with multiple malfunctions and ambiguous scenarios. So close!

My final instrument checkride should be next week.

Change of plan(e)s

My last 4 flights were good memories. They were low-level Out-and-backs to Oklahoma City on Monday and Lawton on Tuesday. I flew my last two with the IP who gave me my dollar ride. The weather was just unbelievable, we flew the whole thing in 2-ship tactical formation and ate Chick-fil-A while stopped in Lawton. Can't ask for much better than that. T-6s ended well.

I had known for about a week that I might get re-tracked to fly T-44s down at Corpus Christi NAS because I struggled so much in T-6s, and I found out for sure yesterday from my Flight Cmdr. I have awhile before the move, but this curveball from life should actually really work to my advantage. The Navy training is a little more self-paced and laid back. I also have a much better shot at actually flying something that being a UAV operator. I'm excited to start something new and live somewhere else, despite the negative. At least Someone sees the big picture. It's lookin' up!