FYI
In the next few months it is likely that I will be attending the Air Force’s land survival and resistance training school. While there I will be treated as a POW to train me for the possibility that I may one day be captured by the enemy. The instructors there are notorious for finding personal information and trying to use it against you during the interrogations and imprisonment phases. Consequently I will be taking this website offline in the next week or so to keep the personal information to a minimum. Just FYI.
Atlantis Comes Through CAFB
Space Shuttle Atlantis made a stop-over here at Columbus AFB on the back of its 747 carrier today… just a quick stop to get some gas before continuing on to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Here are my pictures of the event… nothing spectacular on my part. The last image is a panorama stitched together from five pictures by a program called Hugin. It’s not perfect as I could have optimized it a bit better, but it was really more a proof of concept than anything else. As for Atlantis, there’s a post about it coming through Columbus on NASA’s website. Read more…
Cross Country to Houston
Air Force UPT is a pretty sterile flying environment. We fly what are essentially pre-planned missions to a select number of airfields and with the same air traffic controllers day in and day out. So things don’t change much. We don’t deal with class B airspace (the really busy airports… LAX, Dallas-Forth Worth, et cetera), strange airfields or many other things that can throw wrenches into our plans. But that’s all by design. Can you imagine trying to learn the ways of flying while half of your brain is wrapped up in radio calls? Walk before you run, right? However, a student does need to experience the raw environment. Consequently, AETC mandates that we get one cross-country weekend in each phase of training. I did one to Shreveport, LA while flying the T-6 and last weekend I was part of a crew that flew to Houston for the weekend. Below are some pictures. Read more…
More CAFB Sunset
We get a lot of weather here in northern Mississippi and it’s an easy subject to photograph. So as I slowly continue to hone my photography skills, I tend to take a disproportionate number of pictures of interesting weather phenomenon. Unfortunately I don’t get out much for the purpose of photography. And for those of you wondering why I shoot pictures of the airfield as often as I do, what can I say? It’s quick, nearby and the most open area within fifty miles or so. Trust me, I wish I had more opportunity to explore the area for photos, but meh… I get what I can. Maybe one day I’ll get up early enough to catch a sunrise. Enjoy my two latest. I’m actually considering getting a print of the first one and hanging it on my wall.
Transitioning to the T-1
The first phase of training in the T-1 is called Transition. Its goal is to get the new student spun up on how to fly the T-1 and to squash/forget all of the “T-6isms” that were learned in the previous four months of UPT. There are new systems, techniques and procedures that need to be learned in a very short amount of time. Ground operations, crew resource management, TOLD, flying with multiple engines… all of these are different or new and more complex when compared to the relatively simple T-6. The learning curve is STEEP and daunting, but certainly not impossible. Read more…
A CAFB Sunset
This first one is definitely one of my favorite pictures up to this point in my photography career. It’s another HDR of my truck. I took this one at the departure end of runway 31R here at Columbus AFB. It was something of a rush to get out there for the picture before the sun set completely, but it turned out really well. The second picture is just a small demonstration of what Photoshop is capable of.
Natchez Trace Parkway
Between Natchez, MS and Nashville, TN runs a 444-mile-long road called the Natchez Trace Parkway that is listed as one of the most scenic roads in America. The entire length of the Trace is a narrow two lane road and it features towering trees on all sides, open fields, swamps and other landscapes. Naturally, Wikipedia has a much better description of it so I suggest you read up on it there. I got onto the Trace at it’s nearest approach to Columbus, took it south to Jackson, MS and took pictures along the way. At one point I about got stuck in mud… two hours from home and without a tow rope… but my truck was able to pull out of it after kicking it into 4H and slinging mud everywhere. Pictures below. Read more…
Experiments in HDR (Updated)
I’ve done a lot of reading about HDR photography in the past and have always wanted to see what I could do using the technique. The only problem was that I hadn’t owned a tripod (pretty much mandatory for this sort of work) until yesterday. So today I took off on something of a sight-seeing tour of northern Mississippi. I took a lot of pictures, but most didn’t turn out nearly as I had intended. Consequently, I’m only sharing the four above. The first image was taken along US-45, the highway that runs through Columbus on down to Meridian, MS and then to the coast. The other three were taken on the west bank of the Stennis Lock and Dam just west of Columbus. Read more…
T-1 Dollar Ride
In the early days of aviation, barnstormers would often drop into county fairs and charge people “a dollar a ride” for the opportunity to sit in the front seat of the aircraft and experience the thrill of aviation. That slowly evolved into what is commonly known in military aviation as the dollar ride. The basic premise is that the student is given a no-threat introduction to the plane he’ll be flying for the next phase of his career, it’s handling characteristics and it’s general performance capabilities. You really just break the ice and the instructor’s expectations of the student are almost nonexistent. Upon the completion of the flight, the student owes the instructor pilot a dollar for the privilege… and the student should decorate the bill somehow.. choice phrases, names, dates, et cetera. Some squadrons have expanded the tradition to include the donation of a bottle of the IP’s favorite alcohol (as the 48th FTS has), but that is probably the exception to the rule. Today was my first flight in the T-1A Jayhawk, my second dollar ride and certainly not my last of either. Read more…
