Week Twenty-Five: T-6 Complete!

Well, the day finally arrived. I am now T-6 complete and awaiting track select! It feels pretty good to be done with this phase of training, though I still can't believe how fast it's gone. It's still weird to think that I most likely will never get in a T-6 again (but it's possible).

I had only my two low levels, so after a couple days of waiting, I got to fly those. They are very low-threat as far as grading goes, and they're actually pretty fun. You basically fly along a pre-planned track going from point to point. You're trying to get to those points at a certain time, so you have to adjust your power to try and hit the point as close to the right time as you can. At the end of the route is a target point. You have a Time on Target (TOT) that is published and it's your goal to get that time. These are introducing us to the low level world of flight, and the operational aspect of that with respect to heavy and fighter aircraft. For fighters it's pretty easy to see the connection: we want our bombs to hit the right target at the right time. For heavies, there are combat drops that are performed in the C-17, as well as paratrooper drops that have to be in the right area at the right time. So there are many ways low levels affect flight in the operational Air Force.

Overall I enjoyed my two low levels. The first one went really well, and I managed to hit my target at exactly the posted time. So that was pretty sweet. The other one we had to abort the route due to intense thunderstorms and rain that were gathering on our flight path. We ended up heading back to base early, which gave us some time to hit up an area one last time with some aerobatics and also for my IP to do an instrument approach. I was joking with him that all we needed was for one of the solo planes to break so we could fly chase ship for him and we'd have done all four phases of flying in one flight. But we just came back to the pattern and I got my last landings in the T-6. They were good ones, so I was happy to leave it on a good note. When I got out of the cockpit and made sure it was good to go, I gave the plane one last pat on the nose cap. It's been an amazing T-6 experience, but now on to bigger and better things.

So now I wait! Thursday is the big day, and since I'm done flying for now, there's really not much to do. Yeah we have some administrative things to take care of, but they haven't taken up that much time and overall I've been able to peace out of work really early the past couple of days.

This upcoming week we will get end of phase feedback, give our feedback to our leadership, finish up any last things we need to accomplish, and also welcome the new class into D flight. This is crazy because it seems like yesterday that we were being welcomed in by the senior class and shown the ropes of life in our flight room. Then of course, track select.

My next post will say where I'm headed, so be sure to check it out! I'm pretty stoked and can't wait to find out if I'm heading to the 38.

Either way, I'll still be flying, so you can't beat that.

Take care!

~ Dakota

Week Twenty-Four: Instrument Check

Well, we're getting close to the finish! A couple of my buddies have finished all of their rides in T-6s, and overall everyone's going to be done in a very short time. I flew the last of my instrument rides this week and am also now Check Ride Complete!

I started out the week coming straight off the weekend and cross country, so flying was very fresh and there were really no problems getting back under the hood and in the back seat. I started to fly check ride profiles pretty much exclusively, meaning the flights were planned according to the four possible instrument check rides. One of them goes to Oklahoma City, one to Wichita, one to Wiley Post (near OKC) and one is a local sortie with approaches flown at Woodring.

So I rotated through each of the profiles, finishing up with the Woodring sortie. And luckily enough, I ended up drawing the Woodring check ride. So that was pretty cool. It was pretty sweet, the weather was actually kind of crappy, so for some parts of the flight we were flying instruments not just in name. My MOA work went really well and my approaches were all well-flown too. Even when I got pushed into the holding pattern, it didn't mess things up for me. Naturally with any check ride, you over-analyze everything you think you did wrong. So the mistakes I made turned out to be less bad than I thought.

I got an E on this one, so I went from a U to a G to two E's on my check rides. Finishing strong!

Now I only have two rides left in T-6s, and they're pretty low threat. It's crazy how fast things have gone. Now to just finish up with these low levels and wait for September 26th!

~ Dakota

Week Twenty-Three: Cross Country

Haven't forgotten about this, just didn't get a true weekend. I flew cross country so I got back Sunday night. The cross country was pretty awesome, I chose to fly to Colorado so I could visit home and also fly around in the mountains. It was very cool overall and I'm glad I got to do it.

First off, you have to plan out your route extensively, making sure to plan for which airports you're going to, getting ramp space and gas, places to stay and things to do. Since I was heading home, it was pretty easy to find a place to sleep, but the other stuff was the same. You also have to fill out a couple of forms saying where you'll be headed, which both authorizes your trip and also serves as a means to get paid your per diem when you return.

Friday was the big day, so we brought in our bags packed with clothes, our large amounts of publications we'd be using in-flight, and the rest of our normal gear. I was in 3716, a green-tail T-6, so I started getting ready as usual with the small exception of throwing my stuff in the small baggage compartment. We were headed to Garden City, Kansas for our stopover point before flying on to Centennial Airport in Colorado. What's cool is it's about 10 minutes from my house, so my family and close friends were able to swing by and check out the jet and take a bunch of pictures and stuff. It was really good to be home again after quite a while away, and Colorado was really great compared to Oklahoma.

We (me, my IP, and my family) hung out that afternoon and night which was pretty sweet. The next day we had planned a VFR trip up to Grand Junction. Flying up into the mountains was very cool, it was a perfectly clear day and we could see everything below us well. It was pretty quick hop up to Grand Junction, and we passed many of the common skiing destinations on the way up. Though they were quite devoid of snow at this point in the year. Still, the scenery was great and we enjoyed turning from side to side to catch better glances of stuff as it passed by below. After shooting a couple of approaches to Grand Junction, we landed and refueled. Right as we landed a couple of helicopters flew up and landed close by, and it turns out they were Army choppers (but didn't really look like it). So we got a chance to chat with them in the planning room and catch a quick glance at the college football games that were on that day.

Then it was back in the jet and off to Centennial again, though by a different route. We fly over to the Black Canyon near Gunnison, which was pretty phenomenal to see. A river wound its way through a massive gorge with steep slopes on either side. Pretty awesome. From there we flew from lake to lake until we were once again out of the mountains and in sight of the field.

We had planned on catching most of the Air Force football game that day, but there were plenty of delays, so we caught only about the last third of the game. Not too bad to see some old friends who were still at the Academy and also to see my dad. He had driven up from NM that day to watch the game and see me, and we chatted for quite a while at dinner that night, which was really good.

Back up to the Denver area that night for one last night out, then in the morning we set off for Amarillo after some goodbyes at home. The flight over was mostly straight, so there was plenty of time to relax (kind of) way up at 27,000 feet.

Amarillo was pretty bumpy and busy, but we got some good approach work done. What really sucked was when I was opening the canopy on the ground, my helmet bag (with my wallet and phone in it) got caught in the opening struts next to my seat. I kept trying to open the canopy, but it was stuck... on my phone and wallet. So I moved the bag and got out without realizing. But when I reached in the bag to grab my stuff, I saw the damage. My phone was crushed beyond functionality, so now I'm without a properly working phone, though I think the data and stuff still works. Just the screen is destroyed as hell. So that's a big bummer.

We had a LONG flight back to Vance, stopping quickly at Oklahoma City for some last approaches and then flying home. We landed and departed 3716 Green for the last time that weekend, making sure all our stuff was accounted for.

I really enjoyed my time, though it does kind of suck not having a true weekend to relax. As you can imagine the whole experience was a bit draining, and I'm definitely less-rested than usual. But hey, the real thing to be happy about is the fact that I'm only 6 rides away from T-6 completion!

~ Dakota

Week Twenty-Two: Sim Complete and Night Rides

Man the time seems to just fly by! I can't believe I'm less than a month away from track select. It really has gone quick...

This week was a pretty good one! Well, it started out kind of crappy but ended up being pretty cool. I DID get sick over the weekend, so that sucked. Just your normal cold-type symptoms, runny nose and all that. I ended up going DNIF, which means I couldn't fly until I got cleared to by the doc. So on Monday and Tuesday I simmed which brought me to having only one left! I knocked that one out too, so now I'm sim complete, which is a really good feeling. No longer do I have to go over to that building and listen to old geezers vent about how easy we have it with GPS nowadays... oh wait, yeah I do because there are still sims in phase three. Oh well, done with them for now.

I did start to feel better and got back on flying status, and then it was time for my night rides. All this week we've been showing up at about 3 pm, which is pretty awesome. However, if you are on the schedule to fly at night, you don't end up leaving work until about 11 pm. The plus side is that night flights are pretty sick.

The big difference is obviously that there's no light. This isn't a big deal while flying (well, sort of) but for ground ops it makes things interesting. Setting up the cockpit the way you want it is a bit more difficult when you're holding a flashlight in your mouth to see what you're doing. Fortunately, there are plenty of instrument panel lights to help you out, but the initial set up is frustrating.

You also have to change up the way you do your outer lights. We have four sets of lights: nav, taxi, landing, and strobes. The nav lights are the little green and red ones on the wingtips, so they're not too bad. The others can be a bit bright though, especially the flashing strobes. Typically you'll leave them off until you're well clear of other people, even other planes.

Taxi-out is the same, only you have to keep a larger distance between you and other planes. The same goes for landing. You need 6000 feet of clearance between planes as opposed to the daytime limit of 3000 feet. For our runway, this means that no one can be on it in order for you to touch down.

Once you're flying though, things get more familiar. Yes the cockpit is darker and there are lots of glowing panels and such, but the flying is the same as any other instrument flight. Outside you've got really no view, except when you're over a city or something. Then it's pretty cool to look out and check out the lights. It's pretty weird, like you're flying in this big black void where there's no sky or ground. That's what can be dangerous in mountainous regions: imagine thinking you're flying toward open air, when really there's a mountain in front of you!

I enjoyed it. I flew down to Oklahoma City for my first night ride. It was also my first time flying down there. It was pretty busy! There are a ton of radio calls you have to make, and this time you're playing with the big boys. This is an international airport, not just our training base. You really don't want to mess up there and cause a runway to be closed or something. That's a lot of money down the drain for those airliners, and the Air Force doesn't need a bad rap. But I did alright and got in a couple night landings as well! It's only about a 20-minute flight to OKC from Vance, as opposed to the 2-hour drive (more on that later...).

My second flight was to Wichita and that was cool as well. That fills my quota for night flights. Now I don't have to do one on my cross country, which frees up a lot of time.

So, I tried to go home this long weekend. Unfortunately it didn't work out. I drove down to OKC to try to catch a flight, but since I fly standby it isn't always a sure thing. So my flight was all booked up and that was the last one of the night. Major bummer... So I had a choice: to stay in the city and try and find something to do alone and someplace to stay, or make the trek back to Enid. I ended up going home and still had enough time to hit up Callahan's with some friends. My car was pelted with insects (seriously, it was disgusting, I hate the bugs here) so I gave her a fill-up and a nice carwash haha. It was a sucky night, but you can't win them all... Hopefully I can fly to Colorado next weekend, only this time the plane won't leave without me: I'll be flying it!

Stay classy,

~ Dakota

Week Twenty-One: Form Complete! On to Instruments

Hello again,

It's been a pretty good week! Once again I've been double-turning almost every day, but mostly the focus this week was getting to my Form check ride and knocking that out. After flying through the last rides of the formation block, I was ready to go on Friday for my check. What's cool is they schedule you for the last three or four flights with the same student on your wing, so you really get a sense for how they fly and vice versa. My check ride buddy and I flew pretty well together, which definitely makes a big difference.

Anyway we prepped up well with some final studying and chair-flying, and went in on Friday ready to go. The ride went very well for me, from first to last. I was on the wing on the way out and then led back. Overall everything was well-flown on both sides, and as I drove around the traffic pattern for my landing I knew I was good. When I greased the landing that confirmed it. I came out of that check ride with an Excellent! My buddy was nervous because he forgot an important checklist on the ground (the one where you remove your ejection seat's safety pin) but got a Good. So that was awesome, the first two form checks in D Flight and they were both passes.

Funnily enough, both him and I were scheduled for instrument sims right after our check ride, so we went off to those. I was pretty tired by that point, so my sim didn't go perfectly, but overall it was fine too. Sims really are dependent on who your IP is. Most of them are pretty old dudes who are caught up in their old glory days, and sometimes you get a sim IP who is just absolutely awful. There are four or five who when you see you're scheduled with them you just want to curse profusely... But other times you get a really good IP and it's much better.

Right now I am three sims away from being T-6 Sim Complete and I am now only about 17 T-6 rides away from completion! A lot of these rides will get knocked out over our weekend cross country coming up on the 6th through the 8th. Time-wise, we are a month away from track select as of tomorrow. So we're on schedule to complete T-6s and find out our next aircraft.

Starting this week those of us who went form first will be moving solely into instruments, just like the guys who went instruments will now be getting more form rides. I am also scheduled for two night rides tomorrow and Tuesday, so that should be pretty awesome! Even if there are no cloud layers to deal with, when you fly at night you HAVE to fly off your instruments since there are no visual cues available at all. Plus you're dealing with lighting issues in the cockpit, since the sun isn't around to light up what you want to see. It should be a pretty cool experience.

I am feeling slightly under the weather, so hopefully I won't have to go DNIF (duties not to include flying) tomorrow... But I'd also rather not mess with my sinuses by exposing them to higher altitudes and possibly end up with a sinus block. Not fun, plus I'd not be finished with UPT on schedule at all. One of my classmates had that happen to him. He's a 1st Lieutenant now since he waited an entire year before he could get into another class. A year in Enid, not flying?? Yeah, no thanks.

Take it easy!

~ Dakota

Weeks 19 & 20: Low Level, Nav, Form Solo

Well, it's been awhile since my last post, but I've been quite busy!

The past two weeks have gone pretty well, but they've definitely been packed with lots of events, both sims and flights. I'm still rolling pretty heavily through both form and instruments. I've been double-turning almost every day, simming in the mornings and flying in the afternoon. At first the transition between formation flying and instruments was a bit difficult, especially in the same day. But now it's pretty much the norm.

Form has been going extremely well. My inclinations at the beginning of this block of training were right, and I feel confident that things will turn out well come track select. Speaking of which, we're only about one month away from that! I'm two rides away from my form check ride, so by Friday I'll have that complete.

My form solo was also last week! This was one of the coolest things I've ever been able to do in my life. This is a huge milestone for any pilot. It definitely hit me mid-flight that I was 10 feet from another aircraft and that there was no one else in my plane who could help me out. But the solo went perfectly and I had an awesome time. I even got in a little lag roll just before we started recovering to Vance (when you're in Fighting Wing position, which is really wide and far from #1, you have a big area to move around in, meaning you can barrel roll around #1 to get to his other side). It's kinda hard to explain... haha but it's pretty sick to do.

They threw me into my Low Level sim, as well as the string of three Navigation sims. Those have been interesting. The Low Level block of flights are usually the last in T-6s, and they're pretty cool so I've heard.

Ok... so we won't be THAT low.

Navigation is big, since soon we'll be going cross country over an upcoming weekend. It's actually pretty cool flying along jet routes from airport to airport along a planned-out route, you really get a sense for how quickly you can travel in the air. 102-mile legs just go by like that when you're cruising at 300 knots groundspeed. I am looking forward to cross country, hopefully we'll plan a route to Colorado and some other cool destinations.

Really, there's not too much to tell from the past two weeks (which is kind of sad haha) but they have really just flown by, and before you know it two weeks have gone by with no blog updates. The apartment stands semi-furnished, and finally I will be getting my full housing allowance next pay period so that will be pretty sweet.

That's about it, but I've got another good joke:

When I was in elementary school, I used to just sit around and look out the window all day. My teacher would get really mad at me, saying that I'd never go anywhere in life if just looked out the window all the time...

WELL I GUESS I SHOWED HER.

Stay classy.

~ Dakota

Week Eighteen: Form

Well, it's been everything I thought it would be and more.

I love formation flying, it's the coolest thing I've ever done and I can't wait to keep doing it. I can't really describe the adrenaline rush you get from being THAT close to another plane while flying your own. It's amazing. Both flying wing and lead are fun, in their own way, but you really have to adjust your mindset when you're flying form.

As lead, you are responsible for the flight. So all of the radio calls, navigation, and decision-making are on you. Since Number 2 is flying off of your wing, you have to also be sure that you are flying a stable platform. Basically you need to be smooth and controlled when you start a turn or anything like that, so #2 isn't thrown wide/high/low without enough time to react. You're also very directive as #1. One of the funniest things you say as #1 is the call to tell #2 to get away from you as if he had lost you in the weather. It goes: "Axle, go practice lost wingman." I like it because it's basically like "Get the f*** outta here" haha. Axle is just one of the formation callsigns. We have to sign them out the day of our flight, so that no one else can use it. Otherwise it'd be disastrously confusing if there were two Axle flights flying at the same time. But the lost wingman thing is pretty important. On my first form ride (the form dollar ride, because we didn't fly too much) we quickly got into the weather. We STILL have to fly in formation, even in the clouds, so you've got to be really diligent and not lose your wingman in the grey haze. It's pretty crazy to see.

As Number 2, your biggest job is to not hit number 1! Your other jobs are backing up #1 on the radios, helping to clear for other planes, and trusting #1. I like flying wing more than leading actually. Your skills are really tested when you have to stay in a position that's set for you. It's difficult, because you have to adjust your spacing in three dimensions using the stick and power control lever (PCL). The stick moves you laterally and vertically with respect to #1, and the PCL moves you forward and aft. You are constantly moving them; there is no rest or break in adjusting the controls. As lead, you just set your power and trim up the aircraft to fly level (or whatever), but as #2 you are constantly fighting to get into position and keep it there.

At first it's a bit discouraging because you suck and you're flying all over the place. But as you get better and better, you get more stable and start to stay right in position.

The comms are a bit difficult at first, because you not only have to communicate with outside controlling agencies, but also with your wingman. So there are just more things to say. We also use a lot of visual hand signals which are pretty cool. You are so close to them that hand signals work really well. Think about that!! Some of the signals involve individual fingers sticking up to indicate numbers and such. Think about how close to someone you have to be to see individual fingers. Now imagine that distance but now you're both in two different aircraft!

Anyway it's amazing. It's also really cool to be up there with my fellow flight-mates and classmates. I've only been up with an IP in the backseat, but now it's another student and his IP. I think it's really cool to see that.

I also got thrown into an instrument ride, my first one ever. You have to wear a little hood thing while flying to restrict your vision of the outside. So you just have to fly off your instruments and hope you know what you're doing. Overall I didn't do too badly, but seeing as how it was my first one ever I was happy even with the mistakes I did make. But you have to sit in the back seat, you don't get to land at all, and you barely do any maneuvers. So form is much better!

That's it for this week, we're getting close now! September 26th is our track select and I'm getting stoked for the end of T-6s and the beginning of bigger and better things.

~ Dakota