Electrics

Today we studied the electrical system. Coincidentally, there was an electrical storm all morning. It rained hard! The lessons were very minimal, and we only had 3 CBT's, but I think they covered everything. I just have to study and memorize all the information. First CPT tomorrow.

UPT Complete!

Finally finished today after canceling two days in a row for weather. We took off and immediately regretted the decision. The weather was a lot worse than reported, but we picked our way through the clouds and got out to our low-level route using some hybrid IFR/VFR navigation techniques. The route went alright and we found the DZ, but as soon as we started the next route we saw weather up ahead. We continued, because it really didn't look too bad. It looked like our visibility would deteriorate a little, but nothing serious. We were wrong. One minute we could see lead, the next we couldn't. It was just like that...POOF! In the clouds. We both did 180's to get out of the weather and we reformed with some good flying, good comms, and good spotting on the part of the IP's. We ended up having to return to base via separate IFR clearances and PAR's. Crazy day of flying and quite the wrap up to 15 months of pilot training. I learned a ton from that flight, and I'm glad to be done for now. I'll have a bunch of admin to do and a move to coordinate between now and Little Rock. Stay tuned for further information.

CX for T-Storms

We canceled for weather again this morning. Here's the radar picture of the area. Our planned low-level route goes northwest from Corpus Christi (center of image), west of San Antonio (left of Victoria). You can see the definite line of thunderstorms rolling in from the northwest. I think we made the right call. Tomorrow the weather should be a lot better.

ILS to Mins!

Yesterday we flew down to the Valley. I flew one approach there - radar vectors to an ILS final which went ok, except for the fact that my IP took out the glideslope, so I had to transition to the LOC, but he also took out the heading indications, so I only had the course indicator. I'd never done that before. It felt really weird. We flew back to the local area and I shot a TACAN approach at International. We didn't break out of the weather at all on that one. In addition to the actual instrument conditions, all of these approaches were at night. The effect of flying over an oil refinery at night is an eerie glow from the lights on the oil towers lighting up the low-lying clouds. It gives the cockpit a very strange glow. Anyway, we didn't break out, so we continued on back to the homefield and shot an ILS. We planned on a PAR following, but the aircraft in front of us barely made it out of the weather, so we elected to make it a full stop. We finally broke out at around 250 feet. The minimums for the approach are 200 feet. It was a great experience for me, because I've never flown an approach to mins like that. Good training. The weather looks similar tonight.

First RI

RI's are Radio Instrument flights. They're just instrument flights, but that's what they're called down here. I had my first one today. There were two other students on the flight with me, so it was a long day. We started in the local area to knock out my approaches, an ILS, a VOR/DME at CRP, and two radar approaches at Kingsville NAS. One of the other guys got in the seat and flew down to McAllen on the Mexican border where we ate lunch. We then flew back and landed. We were done by about 3pm. I got up at 3:30am for the 5am brief. Very early day. My earliest in a very long time!

My flight went ok for the first instrument ride. The weather was actually IMC, so it was cool to get some actual instrument time. My first transition to land was kind of questionable. I made a really steep descent when I probably should have just gone missed approach. I flew the PAR really well. I intend to continue that trend. Tomorrow will be more instrument approaches.

Night Flight and Basic Instrument Sim

Yesterday was my first T-44 night flight. It was relatively laid back. The IP got delayed, so we didn't take off until it was already late. The night flying environment is always less crowded, and we had the aux field completely to ourselves. It was nice and peaceful. I planted the first one like I was landing on a carrier, but that's pretty common at night. I fixed the problem and subsequent landings were much better. He pulled an engine on a few passes, but the fog started to roll in and we had to head back. The fog got so bad that we barely had the mins to fly the approach. We finally saw the runway approach lights right at the mins (200' - 1/2) when the IP was about to waveoff. Craziest approach yet.

Today I had my first instrument sim. The first four are all just turn patterns and standard highwork on instruments just to get your crosscheck working quickly. I pretty much nailed everything and got a good preview of what's coming. It was a really good sim for me.

Tonight we had a little get-together to hear from the IPs about the different aircraft they fly. Afterward, a few of us cornered the Air Force guy who talked about C-130s and asked him a ton of questions. Very informative.

Slow week

Tuesday's flight was more of the same, single engine practice, trying to trim the airplane out to ditch smoothly, and building up my leg strength with the rudder fully deflected in the SSE landing pattern. We flew over to KCRP for touch and go practice, because of a runway closure at the aux field. It was interesting to see, but a little inconvenient, because they kept switching us from one runway to the other seemingly for no reason at all.

Wednesday we canceled for WX. On instrument ride went up, but they didn't break out of the clouds until 200 off the deck, which is actually minimums for precision intrument approaches. The clouds went up to 9000'.

Today I didn't fly, because I had a flight physical, the annual checkup for military pilots. I was poked and prodded, mostly in the eyes and veins, all morning but there were no med issues thankfully. I was sent home with dilated eyes, which always amuses me.

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.