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.

Short day

After giving the morning brief, I sat through a standup, listened to a couple of war stories courtesy of our resident Eagle driver, checked my gradebook, studied a bit, and then we all left. Only four guys were flying, so we all had nothing to do. I swung by finance and changed my pay to get paid once a month, bought some milk and orange juice, and here I am now, about to get an early start on a much-needed weekend. I might go down to the lake today. It's been too long.

Sim Complete

I got pulled for "random" drug testing for the 5th time today, so I missed the morning brief and the standup. I'll probably get stood up tomorrow. I didn't fly, but I spent the day making maps, and I had my final T-6 sim this afternoon. Flying formation, even in the sim seemed pretty crazy. It feels so much different than the flying we've been doing, but it's really cool when you think about what you're doing - flying 10 ft off the wing of another aircraft, not that I was able to stabilize right at 10 ft!

Ground Abort

I was supposed to fly another low-level today, but the aural warning tones in the rear cockpit of our aircraft weren't working. Thunderstorms rolled in right after we aborted, so it probably wouldn't have worked out anyway. Instead we were treated to a standup. We'll try again tomorrow.

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.

T-6 solo hours = 0.5

Despite forecasted instrument conditions, a few more of us got to solo today. My landings were marginal, but I survived and completed the flight without a major incident. I successfully found my way back to the flight room with the help of one of the maintenance truck drivers. He dropped me off on the opposite side of the building where I quietly snuck in the back of the building right through the unlocked back door of the flight room. I was then summarily tossed in the solo tank. Awesome!

The highs and lows of pilot training are no more obvious than when you have a great experience followed by a terrible one. I got stood up for the afternoon standup EP and demonstrated the kind of performance that proper planning prevents. Well, now I know another of my weaknesses.

I ran it off with my neighbor, who I'm fortunate enough to have in my class, and who I hope will be able to put up with me for the next 45 weeks.

Pattern Only

Today I flew my last ride over again and made the standard for basic aircraft control and got a lot better at maneuvering appropriately in the pattern. I flew the outside pattern almost every time and still got 12 landings. Having a pattern only sortie really helped me out at IFS too, so hopefully this will be a good turning point. The two hours I spent in the sim this morning probably helped as well. Tomorrow I have another instrument sim and the start of a new block. We start real standups tomorrow too. That's never fun.