Canceled for Maintenance

Didn't get to fly today. I was sitting observer waiting to fly when we got a call from another plane telling us base wanted us back immediately. I tried to go again later that day, but the IP said he wouldn't do it, since it wouldn't be fair to me. He said for this ride, the toughest of all of pilot training in his opinion, I should be at the top of my game, and waking up early and then waiting to fly all day wasn't exactly the best recipe for success. I respect that, and thank him for it. Early brief tomorrow.

Intro to Review Stage

We canceled for lack of aircraft yesterday, but I finally got my first taste of review stage today. We flew down to the Valley and shot an ILS, a LOC Backcourse to an opposite circle, and a VOR approach with a point-to-point. I was single engine on the back course as well as the VOR, but I landed them all ok. On the return I flew a PAR while simulating smoke in the cabin, and I had to wear the oxygen mask. Terrible! Can't see anything when it fogs up. I had to take the comms at the end, because we simulated a copilot radio transmit problem. On top of that, I was single engine. Thankfully, that was a full stop. Welcome to review stage.

Fuel Logs and CRM

Monday was a great experience. My IP and I were in sort of a mini-airshow to commemorate the anniversary of naval aviation. The irony of my Air Force-ness was subtle but present. We just took off and flew over to one of the civilian fields in the area and waited to be called back for a low-approach followed by a landing. We were fifth, following a Stearman, a T-34, T-6, and a TC-12. The P-3's followed us and the Navy's newest aircraft, the P-8, followed them. I flew the initial break entry and the low-approach, and the IP took the landing. Fun time flying without the evaluation.

Our trip back was hampered and slightly delayed by a massive squall line stretching from the Gulf all the way to Canada. We had to wait for it to pass Jacksonville before we left. I had planned for 60 kt headwinds at altitude and a fairly lengthy leg, but actual 80 kt headwinds forced us to land early in Gulfport, MS. We got some food and gas and made the final leg past Houston and over the Gulf with no issues. I flew the visual back into Corpus and was glad to be finished with a long trip.

Today I had my final sim in the T-44 simulator building. We had multiple emergencies and several ambiguous situations were introduced. For example, I had a wavering propeller RPM, which is not in the book, followed by a flameout on the right engine, and a fuel crossfeed light. The final approach was done without radio comms, because both radio circuit breakers were popped. The point of all this is we're getting into the phase of training where big picture analysis and decision-making comes into play. It's no longer, "My right engine has failed, and this is the procedure." It's more along the lines of, "I'm getting some bad indications from one of my engines, but the weather is terrible and the winds are gusting into the 30's, I'll keep it running for now, because I need the power." Less cut and dry, more ambiguous.

It's good to be done with instrument sims for now.

The airfield is closed this weekend for the Blue Angels airshow on Saturday, so I won't be flying.

Way to start the week

Flew another low-level today, which went pretty well besides the part where I kinda got lost...not what we aim for when flying 500' above the ground, but I got lucky and found the next turn point even though it was probably 2 miles to the left of where it should have been if I'd been on course. Live(fly) and learn. I departed the route corridor and went for an practice emergency landing pattern at one of the nearby airfields. I made a great position report only to look down and see, as my IP was reminding me, that I was transmitting on the wrong frequency. HA! Wasn't the first time, probably won't be the last, but embarrassing nonentheless. I came back to the pattern and flew some patterns that could use some clean up, but weren't awful. I was just happy, because I was landing the plane like it was my job...which it is. Awesome.

Formation sim tomorrow - I'll be sim complete! Also awesome.

Flying is Hard Work, but Flying is Fun

I'm pretty tired after a full day. We're only flying once a day, but it's definitely tiring. I love it. I have so much to work on. The area work went well. Power on stalls, the stability demonstration, and ELP stalls were pretty straightforward. Might have been better to have stuck my foot in my mouth today in the pattern before I talked on the radio for all the IRTs I had, but I was able to read back all the vectors approach gave me on my recovery from the MOA. I forgot some confirmations in the pattern as well. Gotta quit that. Tomorrow after the Instruments 1 test and Instruments 102 I go to the aux field, Hacker for some more pattern work.

Radio Calls, Oh Radio Calls

Today's sim went well. I knew most of the challenge and response and the call-outs, and my instructor could tell I'd been running through the checklists. (My neighbor and I chairflew the checklists last night.) We did the 45 min brief, went over to the sim, I strapped in (g-suit and all) went through the checklists, taxi and takeoff, and then hydraulic failure and emergency gear extension, and a straight-in landing. (Wearing a helmet and mask for an hour and a half really let's you know if it fits well. Never thought I could get so sweaty in a low-stress sim.) I struggled with the radio calls the whole time, but I that was a tough thing at IFS for me, so it's to be expected. We haven't really studied them much yet, but that's what I need to spend my time on. He gave me a few good intros to good mneumonics and checklist flows, so I'll try to learn that stuff soon. I picked up a kneeboard finally too. I've been just carrying around my checklists and IFG in my binder. Same thing tomorrow along with starting aerodynamics. Gotta keep chairflyin'.

The afternoon Flying Fundamentals review was a pretty brutal 2.0 hours of staring at blue screens, but we got through it.