Sunday, September 24, 2006
Birds, Weather, Virus, back to Weather
That is in chronological order of why I couldn't fly the last two weeks. Of the ten flying days, I got one. That's right, one. Not that I'm not greatful for that one flight, but at this rate, I'll be here till Doomsday.
Thankfully, I am over my cold, and the weather looks A LOT better. Speaking of weather, I have a Meterology exam tomorrow, I'm pretty sure I'll have had harder eye exams. Met is silly easy, foolishly easy, and we like it that way. The other class we take is Instrument Flight (IF). You remember back in Junior High when you learned how to do math in your head? Well thats IF. Sadly, there are usually two equally right answers depending on which way you're pointing. If you can do the math (Calculate true airspeed(TAS)=Indicated airspeed*4*times your height in 1000's, then Calculate max drift=windspeed/(TAS/60), then calculate actual drift=Your heading minus wind direction when its 0-15degrees use a 1/4 of max drift,15-30=1/2,etc, apply actual drift) and you actually GET the right answer to calculating "actual drift" you have to pick left or right. This is the easy example, we're not even trying to arc around a radius (which causes the wind to shift in relation to you every few minutes) or go point to point (which, as defined my insturctor, is a Black Art).
Im not worried though, Im good at math, or I will quickly find out to the contrary.
IF is a big part of this course, a full third of all my flights (plus a lot of Simulator rides) is IF. All of a sudden being able to do mental math is a bonus. I have to write Mr Donally a thankyou letter.
The new course came in a few weeks ago, so we (my course) welcomed them. We bought 144 beer, 4 26's of HARD alcohol (no less than 33%), and some eggs. No, they did not eat the eggs, they had to carry them. whenever they dropped them, they took a shot. Now they didn't just run about, they had obstacles. I was at the crawling station. You had to crawl under a table, many people dropped their egg. My 26 was Hot One Hundred, a lot of people prefered it over the So Co earlier in the course. So we started at about 5:20, finished about 6:20, and not one of them was sober. They wore their waffle white long underwear (just like we did) and we got them all wet on the slip and slide (no pudding this time), and everyone had a good time. They got changed into dry clothes with enough time to go to hungarian night. It wasn't that fancy, but the food was good. They brought in some Hungarian Dancers, who stayed, much to the delight of about 70 drunken single guys. Normally the ratio is about 10:1, this time it was maybe 4-5:1.
I spent the most I ever have at the mess, about 12 dollars. I got a little buzzed, but not too bad. We snuck in mickey of Hot 100 so that helped with cost.
Next Week? Cobra welcome party. I've been told to not making any plans for saturday, my liver hurts already.
Thankfully, I am over my cold, and the weather looks A LOT better. Speaking of weather, I have a Meterology exam tomorrow, I'm pretty sure I'll have had harder eye exams. Met is silly easy, foolishly easy, and we like it that way. The other class we take is Instrument Flight (IF). You remember back in Junior High when you learned how to do math in your head? Well thats IF. Sadly, there are usually two equally right answers depending on which way you're pointing. If you can do the math (Calculate true airspeed(TAS)=Indicated airspeed*4*times your height in 1000's, then Calculate max drift=windspeed/(TAS/60), then calculate actual drift=Your heading minus wind direction when its 0-15degrees use a 1/4 of max drift,15-30=1/2,etc, apply actual drift) and you actually GET the right answer to calculating "actual drift" you have to pick left or right. This is the easy example, we're not even trying to arc around a radius (which causes the wind to shift in relation to you every few minutes) or go point to point (which, as defined my insturctor, is a Black Art).
Im not worried though, Im good at math, or I will quickly find out to the contrary.
IF is a big part of this course, a full third of all my flights (plus a lot of Simulator rides) is IF. All of a sudden being able to do mental math is a bonus. I have to write Mr Donally a thankyou letter.
The new course came in a few weeks ago, so we (my course) welcomed them. We bought 144 beer, 4 26's of HARD alcohol (no less than 33%), and some eggs. No, they did not eat the eggs, they had to carry them. whenever they dropped them, they took a shot. Now they didn't just run about, they had obstacles. I was at the crawling station. You had to crawl under a table, many people dropped their egg. My 26 was Hot One Hundred, a lot of people prefered it over the So Co earlier in the course. So we started at about 5:20, finished about 6:20, and not one of them was sober. They wore their waffle white long underwear (just like we did) and we got them all wet on the slip and slide (no pudding this time), and everyone had a good time. They got changed into dry clothes with enough time to go to hungarian night. It wasn't that fancy, but the food was good. They brought in some Hungarian Dancers, who stayed, much to the delight of about 70 drunken single guys. Normally the ratio is about 10:1, this time it was maybe 4-5:1.
I spent the most I ever have at the mess, about 12 dollars. I got a little buzzed, but not too bad. We snuck in mickey of Hot 100 so that helped with cost.
Next Week? Cobra welcome party. I've been told to not making any plans for saturday, my liver hurts already.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Twas the Night Before the Flightline
All through the barracks, not a creature was stirring, not even the locals bedded by yet another Moose Jaw Pilot.
0607 was tucked in their beds, snoring loudly, shaking off what they imbided the night before.
Tomorrow I show up for Met brief, 0730hr, for a flight at 1620 late that afternoon.
There is a stack of Manuals/Orders I was to have read, which I have read maybe...half. Regardless, I am excited. Friday morning, I had my fourth early morning Sim. I had my checks cold, and recieved another superior, it was like I actually knew what I was doing. Naturally I was scared shitless, and still fucked up now and again. The sim instructors are all civilians, they want you to pass, the flight instructors want qualified pilots. The flight insturctors will be a tougher sell.
One step closer to wings(only two years to go!), its exciting. Im doing what they pay me for...madness.
Yesterday, to celebrate, we did a Tac Eval (Tactical Evaluation). We bought a bunch of beer, hotdogs/hamburgers/steak/chicken/pork chops, our own BBQ and showed up on a coursemate's lawn.
The coursemates lawn in question were the Hungarians. Up to this point, they had not come to a lot of our functions, so we decided to bring the function to them. We basically invited ourselves to their place for a BBQ. You can't do this in the civi world, and its too bad.
About 30 minutes into the BBQ the Hungarians realized we were there and came out. We supplied them with Beer and Chips and food. We BBQ'd 'til about midnight, cleaned up our mess and wheeled the BBQ back to the house is belonged. It was like we were never there. We had some Hungarian Alcohol...it was awful, but aparently a deliciacy out there. There were honest to God PLUMS at the bottom of the bottle. Which someone ate and nearly got sick. These Hungarians, they are special guys.
So the course is healthy, we're on the flightline, and Im cleared for T/O...now if I can only remember what the go button is....
0607 was tucked in their beds, snoring loudly, shaking off what they imbided the night before.
Tomorrow I show up for Met brief, 0730hr, for a flight at 1620 late that afternoon.
There is a stack of Manuals/Orders I was to have read, which I have read maybe...half. Regardless, I am excited. Friday morning, I had my fourth early morning Sim. I had my checks cold, and recieved another superior, it was like I actually knew what I was doing. Naturally I was scared shitless, and still fucked up now and again. The sim instructors are all civilians, they want you to pass, the flight instructors want qualified pilots. The flight insturctors will be a tougher sell.
One step closer to wings(only two years to go!), its exciting. Im doing what they pay me for...madness.
Yesterday, to celebrate, we did a Tac Eval (Tactical Evaluation). We bought a bunch of beer, hotdogs/hamburgers/steak/chicken/pork chops, our own BBQ and showed up on a coursemate's lawn.
The coursemates lawn in question were the Hungarians. Up to this point, they had not come to a lot of our functions, so we decided to bring the function to them. We basically invited ourselves to their place for a BBQ. You can't do this in the civi world, and its too bad.
About 30 minutes into the BBQ the Hungarians realized we were there and came out. We supplied them with Beer and Chips and food. We BBQ'd 'til about midnight, cleaned up our mess and wheeled the BBQ back to the house is belonged. It was like we were never there. We had some Hungarian Alcohol...it was awful, but aparently a deliciacy out there. There were honest to God PLUMS at the bottom of the bottle. Which someone ate and nearly got sick. These Hungarians, they are special guys.
So the course is healthy, we're on the flightline, and Im cleared for T/O...now if I can only remember what the go button is....
Monday, September 04, 2006
AA is for Quitters!
Good Morning everyone,
I woke up early today. I decided to be "responsible" and try not to sleep in past noon. Every part of my body wanted to sleep in, but NAY, I fell gracefully out of bed (bouncing my head only slightly off my nightstand) promptly at 0700hr (that's 7am for you civilian types). There was no REAL reason for me to get up early today, but tomorrow I have to be AT WORK AND READY TO GO at 0615. One would think I was in the freaking army! This is the Airforce, where everything is free motels and casual Fridays. That's what I signed up for, luxury and speed (the aircraft are fast too, not just the women), not this early morning brief stuff. Wednesday is worse, brief is at 5:40.
The upshot is, these briefs are for the simulator. I'm gonna play around in the multimillion dollar sim, wee! The sims are going to teach me the "white pages". The routine, every day, checks that you need to fly this thing. So that's what I've been doing this weekend. Trying to memorize the steps, and what they mean. A good start-up takes 5 minutes I'm told, I'm averaging 17+minutes...to read through the checklist. Thankfully I won't have an instructor behind me screaming to finish my checks faster, that's next week. 6 more sleeps 'til I can slip myself into the Mighty Harvard.
To prepare us students for this week, and next, we had three exams and one practical egress test. So on Friday, we were all smiling and VERY glad to be done. The last exam I completely screwed up, but I didn't care, I was DONE for the week. I figured that was enough, that I wasn't going to drink that Friday. Oh how naive I was. It started up innocently enough, drinking my Pepsi, a coursemate asked I wanted a little hooch in it. I agreed, you don't turn down free booze, its just rude. One drink isn't bad, in fact they recommend some alcohol now and again. Who is they? I'm not entirely sure, but I think they wouldn't have enjoyed how many drinks I had AFTER that first one. I would have been fine had I just gone home, it was maybe 8 or 9 at this time. Instead we went to the mess, aka Cheap Booze Palace.
I didn't get home 'til after 2, and didn't go to bed 'til 5 (I'm not sure why I thought it was necessary to chat totally blitzed on "Dr. Peppers"). We got kicked out of mess...not because we were rowdy (though we did start singing traditional singaporian folk songs at the top of our lungs, and saying Cheers in mandarin) but because it was last call. Did we despair? NAY! Did we stop drinking? Nay! Did we steal bikes to ride around the base...yes. Turns out no one locks up their bikes here, so 5 of us were peddling around looking for house parties to crash. Turns out the only crashing was done by our Fighter Pilot Capitan, I managed to keep my balance (one hand on handle bars and one hand holding beer). After the Capt crashed a second time, we decided to replace our stolen merchandise. It was at this point I figured it was time to pack it in. Maybe I was starting to sober up and realized I was in company with some HEAVY drinkers, maybe I just had to go to the bathroom, I don't totally remember.
I came to a few conclusions when I woke up...that day. I am apparently very susceptible to peer pressure, and I kinda like the taste of beer now. Having realized these two points, the Mess on a Friday might not be the best place for me.
I think further study is required though.
In all seriousness, I am staying sane and staying a head of the curse( er I mean course...right). I will see you all on beach.
I woke up early today. I decided to be "responsible" and try not to sleep in past noon. Every part of my body wanted to sleep in, but NAY, I fell gracefully out of bed (bouncing my head only slightly off my nightstand) promptly at 0700hr (that's 7am for you civilian types). There was no REAL reason for me to get up early today, but tomorrow I have to be AT WORK AND READY TO GO at 0615. One would think I was in the freaking army! This is the Airforce, where everything is free motels and casual Fridays. That's what I signed up for, luxury and speed (the aircraft are fast too, not just the women), not this early morning brief stuff. Wednesday is worse, brief is at 5:40.
The upshot is, these briefs are for the simulator. I'm gonna play around in the multimillion dollar sim, wee! The sims are going to teach me the "white pages". The routine, every day, checks that you need to fly this thing. So that's what I've been doing this weekend. Trying to memorize the steps, and what they mean. A good start-up takes 5 minutes I'm told, I'm averaging 17+minutes...to read through the checklist. Thankfully I won't have an instructor behind me screaming to finish my checks faster, that's next week. 6 more sleeps 'til I can slip myself into the Mighty Harvard.
To prepare us students for this week, and next, we had three exams and one practical egress test. So on Friday, we were all smiling and VERY glad to be done. The last exam I completely screwed up, but I didn't care, I was DONE for the week. I figured that was enough, that I wasn't going to drink that Friday. Oh how naive I was. It started up innocently enough, drinking my Pepsi, a coursemate asked I wanted a little hooch in it. I agreed, you don't turn down free booze, its just rude. One drink isn't bad, in fact they recommend some alcohol now and again. Who is they? I'm not entirely sure, but I think they wouldn't have enjoyed how many drinks I had AFTER that first one. I would have been fine had I just gone home, it was maybe 8 or 9 at this time. Instead we went to the mess, aka Cheap Booze Palace.
I didn't get home 'til after 2, and didn't go to bed 'til 5 (I'm not sure why I thought it was necessary to chat totally blitzed on "Dr. Peppers"). We got kicked out of mess...not because we were rowdy (though we did start singing traditional singaporian folk songs at the top of our lungs, and saying Cheers in mandarin) but because it was last call. Did we despair? NAY! Did we stop drinking? Nay! Did we steal bikes to ride around the base...yes. Turns out no one locks up their bikes here, so 5 of us were peddling around looking for house parties to crash. Turns out the only crashing was done by our Fighter Pilot Capitan, I managed to keep my balance (one hand on handle bars and one hand holding beer). After the Capt crashed a second time, we decided to replace our stolen merchandise. It was at this point I figured it was time to pack it in. Maybe I was starting to sober up and realized I was in company with some HEAVY drinkers, maybe I just had to go to the bathroom, I don't totally remember.
I came to a few conclusions when I woke up...that day. I am apparently very susceptible to peer pressure, and I kinda like the taste of beer now. Having realized these two points, the Mess on a Friday might not be the best place for me.
I think further study is required though.
In all seriousness, I am staying sane and staying a head of the curse( er I mean course...right). I will see you all on beach.
