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Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training |
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Phase III
So I've been in Phase III since July 21 and things have been great. The T-1 is a really cool airplane to fly. It's a lot more complex than the T-6 but that's kinda the point. Because after I leave here I'm going to learn how to fly the giant C-5. I don't have many pictures right now because we're not allowed to bring cameras with us on the planes and to be honest there isn't that much to see. I'll try to get a picture of the cockpit or something to show you how different the plane is compared to the T-6.
I'm in the Transition phase of T-1s now. It's basically 15 rides to get used to the aircraft and then we have a check ride. Before we hit the flight line, we had a month of academics, which for the most part were refreshers of procedures we learned in the T-6. The weird thing is that we only had 2 sims before our "handle" ride. The "handle" ride is the same as a dollar ride except we're supposed to buy a handle of booze instead of making up a dollar. My IP that gave my "handle" ride isn't much of a drinker so me and my flying partner have a creative plan. So if anyone knows where I can get a hold of some C-130 spare parts, fire me an email for the details. That's another thing that is way different than T-6s. In the T-1 you fly with another student and an IP. So there's 3 of you in the cockpit instead of one on one. So me and my partner swap off who flies first every other trip. Trips are usually 3.5 hours or less on average, but I'm not flying the whole time. And we hardly stay in the Laughlin airspace either. We're always flying off to other airfields, which is nice to see something besides Del Rio. A normal sortie consists of departing Laughlin, going out to the practice area to do steep turns, vertical S's, traffic pattern stalls, slow flight, and unusual attitudes, then off to another airfield to shoot some instrument approaches and some VFR patterns then back to Laughlin. So as of now I have about 6 rides left before my Transition check ride.
On a side note, our class patch finally came in. Every pilot training class designs a patch and is allowed to wear it once it's approved by all sorts of people on base. More PC red tape crap to follow. Our patch was the biggest goat rope on trying to decide what it should be. Aside from people being offended just to be offended it took us forever to settle on one. The ironic part is that after everything was said and done, the patch idea that was approved was the first idea to begin with. And to make the headache even bigger, after we paid a butt load of cash for the damn things, we didn't get the amount of patches we ordered and the color came out all wrong. So here it is:
Yep, that's right. It's powder blue. It's supposed to be the color of the website background but instead it's powder sissy blue. But it's too late in the game to try to correct it now. So like it or not, that's our class patch.
Here's what the inside of the T-1 looks like:
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Here's the latest update. I had my first T-1 check ride a few weeks ago. I passed, but it wasn't my best check ride that's for sure. But that's ok. 1 down and 2 more to go. My next check ride will be here before I know it and from what I've been told it's going to be "the hardest check ride you'll ever have in your career." So I've been preparing for it now by studying every book I have. It's supposed to be really knowledge intensive which makes it harder. Flying the plane is the easy part. So now that I'm in the navigation phase of training with the nav check ride looming in the horizon, here's what I've been doing. Now we take off and fly to different bases, land, stop for lunch trade seats and do it again back to Del Rio. So everyday is something different.
I just finished up my cross country trip yesterday. It was a really good time. I was partnered up with some cool people and a great instructor. A lot better than my T-6 cross country that's for sure. We left Del Rio and flew up to Oklahoma City stopped for a late lunch and then on to Colorado Springs for the night. On the way to Colorado we climbed the airplane to the highest altitude in my career: 40,000 ft in the sky. It was even cooler because it was a clear night and we could see everything. From where we were sitting it looked like the Big Dipper was right in front of us. We spent the night in Colorado and then flew down to Phoenix, Az and spent the night. On the way the weather was great and we decided to fly VFR (visual flight rules) where we could navigate ourselves and pick what altitudes we could fly at. It just so happened that we were flying over the Colorado Rockies. Here's some of the stuff that we saw.
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The T-1 parked on the ramp |
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One of the highest peaks in the Rockies |
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Colorado Springs airport |
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It was this kind of scenery for most of the leg |
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Coming in for landing |
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This is an approach plate. It's basically a map with directions on how to land at an airfield with an instrument approach. |
Now I'm just flying around to different places preparing for the Nav check.
After the Thanksgiving break, my Nav check was near. A few nav rides and low levels left and then the time came. I ended up spending around 18 hours the day prior to my check ride planning everything. I had to plan 3 different scenarios depending on what the weather was doing that day. At first my check was scheduled on Friday. But the weather was so bad all over the state of Texas that I couldn't fly no matter which plan I tried. So I ended up doing my ground evaluation on Friday and tried it again on Monday. Monday's weather wasn't that great either, but it was enough to go fly. So naturally "Murphy's Law" was in full effect and there was giant cloud over the airfield I planned all my approaches at and the weather was barely where it needed to be for my low level mission. But I flew the check ride and I passed. So now it's all down hill from here. After the Navigation phase of training is the formation phase. So far it's been real fun. The first 4 rides are just flying up to the practice area to do formation maneuvers. Formation in the T-1 is different than the T-6 formation. First off we don't get as close. Second we don't do aerobatics, so basically we practice flying next to each other and procedures if we were to lose sight of one another. After the initial formation we alternate missions doing simulated formation air drops on low level routes and simulated air refueling. There are 4 flights of each and as of right now I have 3 flights left in pilot training counting my last check ride. So as long as the weather holds out I will be done flying Thursday. The light is definitely at the end of the tunnel. Here's some pics and videos of what airdrop and air refueling look like. For some reason when I took the pictures the airplane looks farther away than in real life. So we fly closer than what the picture do it justice for.
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Here we are flying formation about to enter the low level route, when we fly low levels we fly 500 ft above the ground at 200 knots through different types of terrain. It's pretty fun. |
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This is the offset position. Here the wingman stays farther back to help keep an extra set of eyes out for civilian aircraft or the biggest hazard on a low level.........birds. They're everywhere and I'm not talking about little sparrows either. Turkey vultures can make for a really bad day. |
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As we approach the drop zone the wingman moves in closer to the other airplane. This position is called the visual position. We stay in this position throughout the rest of the route after the escape. |
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This is the simulated air refueling. We practice these maneuvers anywhere from 18,000 to 31,000 ft above the ground. The higher we go, the more challenging this is. This is the pre-contact position. We stay in this position until we're cleared to the contact position which is about 4 ft below the other airplane. |
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This picture was taken while we were moving into the contact position. We get a lot closer than this. |
I took some videos of some different maneuvers we do but I didn't realize that these video files would be so large. So I recommend clicking on the link and giving it some time to completely load before watching them or they will be broken as they play through.
Moving to contact from pre-contact
So this is all I have for now. I'll try to have some stuff up for the drop and graduation in the next couple of weeks. It's all going to depend on when my stuff is going to get packed up and shipped back to Memphis. My time is almost done here and I definitely ready to move back home. If you can't tell I'm really anxious to graduate. It's going to be great!
Pilot training complete!!!!!! It's been a long 56 weeks but the end has arrived. I had my last check ride over the formation stuff and passed without any problems. Now I have to get my stuff packed and ready to move back home. I'm still here for another week and a half. Graduation isn't until next Friday so I have time to get everything done administratively. Even though I'm done with pilot training, I had one more test to take today. I just completed my FAA military equivalency test. With all the training I received over the past year I was able to take a test and get my instrument, multi-engine, and commercial ratings as well as type ratings for the Mitsubishi 300 and the Beechjet 400. The guys that went T-38s were also eligible for these ratings except for the type ratings. Well worth the fee to take the test. Last week was an exciting week for everyone else in my class as well. Last Friday my class had our drop. Drop is when all the active duty people find out what airframe they are going to get and where they are going to be stationed. I'm not going to go into the details of how many people got what airplane and to where but here is the rundown of the types of planes people were assigned:
First the T-38 guys got:
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B-1B bomber |
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B-52 bomber |
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F-15C fighter jet |
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F-16 fighter jet |
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T-6 instructor pilot. Also known as First Assignment Instructor Pilot or FAIP |
The T-1 guys dropped these aircraft:
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C-17 cargo plane |
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C-21 passenger transport plane (military Learjet) |
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KC-135 air refueling plane. |
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RC-135 reconnaissance plane |
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E-8 reconnaissance plane |
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KC-10 air refueling plane. Kinda like a DC-10. |
The graduation and banquet have finally come around. My family and girlfriend are down here now so I'm playing tour guide for them. It's nice that they get an opportunity to get a glimpse of what I've been doing for the past year first hand. The banquet is a formal dinner where everyone has to get dressed up and have a nice meal, then awards and presentations are done. It's the very last thing I have to do before I pack up my jeep and leave Del Rio never to return.
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Finally receiving that well earned diploma |
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Candice pinning on my wings on the freezing flight line |
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Me and Keith in our mess dresses ready for the banquet |
Now it's off back to Memphis for a few weeks before I have to start C-5 school.
