Best Christmas Break Yet

On New Year's Eve I asked my lovely girlfriend to marry me, and she said YES! I am now engaged. I know my blog doesn't usually cover my personal life, but this was much too important to exclude. I look forward to writing about our exploits around the world for years to come!

Back to flying...

After an excellent and much-needed Christmas break with my wonderful family and lovely fiancée, I got back to ground school today. We covered the weight-and-balance forms for the T-44 and most of the performance charts in the back of the NATOPS (flight manual).

In the afternoon, my wingman and I signed up for a prof sit in a sim, a time to get to know the switchology of the aircraft and run through checklists. We took the whole 1.5 hours and made some progress, but it still seems daunting. One of the guys who was getting in the sim after us told us it gets much better though, and that it's really not that bad. We'll keep practicing, but hopefully he's right.

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.