Though not a cockpit assignment in the truest sense, I put it high on my preference worksheet for a multitude of reasons… family, friends, time to get my master’s degree done, hockey, snowboarding… not to mention that UAVs are really the future of the Air Force. So good times. I’m going home. Get up for it!

The original plan was for us to spend the first night in Houston at Ellington Field and then head to Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City for the second night. Weather rolled into Houston on Saturday that pretty much trapped us there. So we gave up on Tinker and instead chose to eat, drink and be merry. Good times were had by all… all those that were drinking, that is.

There are only twelve flights before the first checkride and the majority of the class is about halfway there. I’ve been on seven flights thus far and have had weather conspire against me on three of those forcing the sortie to end before the training was complete. An incomplete ride goes into your gradebook as a “No Grade” and does not count for anything. That means free training! I’m currently resting on four complete rides and have eight to go before going to the Check Flight chopping block.

Daily flightroom operations suck. 0430 showtimes, standup, shotgun questions, TOLD definitions, PFPS, morning briefs, a wretched computer system, EPQs and NNTs together make it far more stressful than it ever was in the T-6, but my class was graced with a good collection of instructors who have great personalities and a genuine interest in our progression. We have a few FAIPs, a number of Captains with at least one tour in an MWS, a group of Reservists at our disposal and Major Eylander who shows immense interest in educating us without kicking our balls in. There is a lot of experience for us to draw upon and a lot less flightroom immaturity to deal with which is greatly welcomed.

This coming week I expect to get a minimum of three complete rides which should get me through the first half of Transition and that much closer to my checkride. I was stood up on Friday so I should be safe from that for the week and I’m expecting a couple tests… an EPQ and an NNT. But the showtime is going to be around 7:00 AM all week! It’s crazy that two years ago I wasn’t using an alarm clock, making twice what the Air Force is paying me and now I’m praising a 7 AM start to an intensely stressful workday. Shouldn’t things be going the other direction as I get older? Haha.

After taking our first morning brief in about a month, Adam Mogel, my partner for the flight, and I sat down with our IP and briefed for the sortie. The weather was lousy all across the region. Columbus AFB was experiencing layered cloud decks starting at 400′ above the airfield and going up to about 10,000′ while all of our standard outbases were the same or only slightly better. So our options were limited, but we chose Millington, TN as our destination and pressed on. After grabbing the weather and NOTAMs for the various airports in the region, we stepped to the desk, got our aircraft assignment and hopped onto the crew bus.

Rumbling down the flight line at a paltry twenty miles per hour, the bus drove past all of the T-6s I used to fly and a feeling of nostalgia came over me. Despite the stresses and hits to my self-confidence I experienced during that phase of training, I look back at the plane and honestly miss flying it. Loops, aileron rolls, 6-G turns… all things I may never experience again. But I had no time to reminisce. I was about to go on my first flight in a new plane and had to focus on the procedures for that. I could ill-afford to waste brain bytes on T-6isms.

“Tail number 044, the 48th FTS jet,” the driver called out signaling that it was time for me and my crewmates to get off the bus. I grabbed my gear, disembarked and started the short walk to the plane. As you walk towards the jet, you should already be starting the preflight checks. From a distance, all you can really do is inspect the general condition of the plane, but having an overall view is important to getting a good preflight inspection. Are the tires flat? Is the landing gear sagging on one side? Are there any plugs still installed in the inlets? Upon getting to it, Adam climbed inside the aircraft and began running through some checklists to get the interior ready for flight while my IP and I checked over the exterior. Door seal, pitot static system, wings, engines, fire bottles, so on and so forth. Preflight complete, we boarded the jet, closed the door and got to the business of getting airborne.

The sortie itself was fairly uneventful and doesn’t warrant many details here. Some things I did notice… Flying the T-1 is considerably different than the “Sixer.” You’re sitting side-by-side in the cockpit versus the tandem configuration of the T-6. You can’t see the nose of the plane from the front seats and the engines make almost 5,000 more pounds of thrust. The 5,800 pounds the two engines provide makes climbing out at 4,000 feet per minute standard and a real eye-opener. We’ve performed takeoffs in the simulator numerous times, but not having motion really takes away from the experience. Consequently, that initial takeoff surprised me as the plane screamed into the air like a banshee. The rest of the flight, however, was right on par with my expectations. The concept of having a crew and utilizing your co-pilot to accomplish tasks is something I need to get used to, but it shouldn’t be too long before I have that and him on lock. “Co, call the FBO and have them order me a sandwich” (or something like that). Ha!

After a quick stint in the MOA to accomplish some training on basic maneuvers and some approaches at Millington and me at the helm, we headed back to KCBM where we flew an ILS approach to the 2-mile-long center runway for the full stop. The weather enroute was clear and sunny which made that segment perfectly serene. Being up in the sun and knowing that it’s gray and gloomy down on the ground is something of an strange feeling. You really are in a different world and the transition through the clouds is like descending down to another planet. When breaking out of a solid cloud deck and seeing the runway lights ahead drawing my eyes to the runway’s touchdown zone, I always think to myself how fantastic my job is. Ultimately, I believe that feeling will diminish as I become a salty and experienced mobility pilot, but there will always be days that remind me how lucky I am to be flying for a living. I could easily have been sitting at a desk today in an office with a window that overlooked a “U-Store-It” or something equally dreary. Instead I was above the clouds, bathing in the sun high above the rain and mist that was darkening the rest of northern Mississippi and getting paid for the privilege. Now that is what you call one hell of a job.

Per Wikipedia (and well known amongst Air Force pilots):

U.S. Air Force ace Robin Olds became celebrated for a flowing handlebar moustache he grew while commanding the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing “Wolfpack” during the Vietnam War, and, when forced to shave it by his superior, became the source of an Air Force tradition known as “Mustache March”.

It has been one two four weeks and those who can are sporting some decent moustachios… myself included. As of week four, only ten of the fifteen guys in the class had the balls to keep their hideous whiskers intact. As of week four plus two days, only eight ’staches remained. Check the last picture for that…

In an effort to give back to the parents/wives of students, the Air Force has Family Day on the same day as Track Select. The day begins in the morning with a breakfast social followed by formal brief. The families get to see what we go through every morning… shotgun questions, stand-up and the formal brief itself. Following that we had a brief with LtCol Hamilton who simply talked about our accomplishments and then handed the floor to Capt John Ryan who briefed us on the CAFB mission and the base’s history. Following that we got on a bus and headed out to a static display of the base’s aircraft and a short tour of the RSU. Mom enjoyed it a lot and was all smiles. It’s unfortunate that Dad couldn’t make it. He would have loved it. The highlight of the day was probably watching mom in the sim trying to stay centered on the runway during takeoff and subsequently trying to do loops and such. She was all over the place, but she had a blast. I got into the sim after her and showed her how it was supposed to look. Mr. Herring printed out the groundtracks of both flights… mine was naturally better. Mom kept both.

Later:
Track Select was at 5:00pm. It was a pretty spectacular night for a lot of people. Capt Nick Krajicek, the Doolittle flight commander, really went to bat for his flight and got three helos and three T-44s. That’s unheard of! The best part of the night was seeing the joy on Mitch Clapp’s face when he was given his first choice, a UH-1 to Fort Rucker, AL. He was something of a long-shot for it as he didn’t perform all that well in the T-6, but it happened and he was ecstatic. It was really heart-warming and I was truly happy for him. It made my night. I got my first choice, but that was something of a given. Not because I flew awesomely (haha), but rather because the T-1 Jayhawk is the easiest one to get into. I’m pretty excited for it. It is a really capable aircraft and will get me into some cool flying in the future… hopefully a C-17, KC-10, et cetera. There are a lot of options out of this track and time will tell what will be available. Either way, I’m excited to be going to the 48th FTS. Class starts tomorrow!