C-5 RTU

    Now that I've left Del Rio and had a little break from training it's time for me to go out to Altus, OK for a couple of weeks to start my C-5 training.  C-5 school is about 3 and half months long but I'm falling into a weird situation where I'll start my training up at Altus and finish it in San Antonio, TX.  The reason being is that the school house in Altus is being moved to San Antonio, so for you future C-5 guys you'll never get to experience the wonders of Altus if you've never been.  A lot of people complain about how there's nothing here in Altus, but after living in Del Rio for 13 months Altus is a metropolis by comparison.  There isn't really too much I can say about my training so far.  All I'm doing here is my academic portion.  Sims won't start until another month and I won't even fly the plane until the last week.  So I won't have anything posted until something worthy comes up. 

                                

Altus, OK

RTU at San Antonio

    Okay.  I've spent a month at Altus learning nothing but the massive systems of the C-5.  Then I went back home to spend a few weeks waiting while the AF moved the school house from Altus to San Antonio.  Now it's time to get back into the groove.  We have more academics lined up but the good thing is that me and my flying partner have started sims.  The simulator for the C-5 is the most realistic sim I've been in yet.  It's a huge box that sits on hydraulic legs that move around when you move the controls so you actually feel motion when you fly it.  Also they upgraded the graphics in it and so the scenery is very detailed.  The way sims are run in this course is different than the ones at UPT.  Flying a sim here is an all day event.  You have a 2 hour prebrief of the mission, sim for 4 hours with a small break in the middle, then an 2 hour debrief at the end.  All in all we have 16 sims total, not including the CPTs (Cockpit Procedural Trainers).  CPTs are kinda like a sim to train you for the sim.  It's basically a box that has the cockpit set up in it.  All the lights and gauges work, but there is no visual and as a pilot you don't fly it.  It's basically used to help students find their way around the flight deck and familiarize themselves with where all the switches and buttons are.

This sim is so big you have to enter it from the second floor.

        Sim complete.  After taking 3 tests and 16 sims it's time to hit the flight line.  We have 5 flights and then a checkride.  Here's what I've done so far.

	Numerous planes waiting to be flown
	It's a lot bigger than it looks
	This is the view from the copilots seat.  Imagine trying to taxi this    around sitting 3 stories high.
	There's way more leg room here than the T-1.

Click here to see the C-5 taxi

    Checkride, C-5, and all of pilot training complete!  It's been a long, tasking, fun as hell road that has finally come to an end.  All I can say is that it's been a dream come true and well worth all the effort I've put in.  Along the way I've realized that this isn't the end, only the beginning.  There is always something to be learned or something to be studied.  It's almost been 2 years since I started all this.  For those who are pursuing this career field good luck.  For everyone that's kept up with this I hope ya'll enjoyed it.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.