Phase II Entries

This last week was cool. It went by real quick. Really this whole thing seems like it’s flying by. The days seem long but when your doing the same thing day in and day out the days blur together. When you look back it doesn’t seem like you’ve done much even though you’ve done a lot. This last week, I did a lot. We finished with phase I on Thursday morning with our last phase I test. I was disappointed because I missed a question and it happened to be the one question that I forgot to review before submitting the test. Oh well, I guess I did pretty well overall in academics. I could have done better, but I could have done a lot more. Over all, there were only three tests that I missed questions on so I can be proud of that. The week in academics was spent learning about instrument flying and preparing us for hitting the flight line. As soon as we got to the flight line on Thursday we were thrown into the real operation of things. I had my first Simulator flight (Sim) that morning. We didn’t fly on that ride. Just went through ground operations and checklist procedures. The Sim is real cool. It’s not as realistic as some simulators the military has, but it still gets the job done. It can get pretty close to simulating real flight. It is full motion, although it can’t go upside down or anything. It can make it feel like your accelerating or climbing by tilting back, banking by tilting sideways, or diving or slowing down by pitching forward. The worst thing about the Sim though, is the seat. After about 30 minutes of sitting in it I can’t feel my but anymore. After I climb out I have to check back inside to make sure I didn’t leave it behind. Takes about 10 minutes to get any feeling back. On Friday I had my dollar ride. My first flight in an Air Force jet. It was quite an experience. There is way too much going on up there. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t feel way behind after that flight. I have never been totally without situational awareness (SA) the way I was up in the jet. When the instructor gave me the jet to fly around, I made a few turns and then just told him, “Sir I have no idea where I am.” I really didn’t have any idea what I was doing either. It’s just a totally different environment up there. It takes a while to get used to and then a little while to catch up after that. All in all, it was a blast though. I had a great time. The funny thing is, though, it really didn’t seem that fun until I got back on the ground and had time to think about it. When you’re up there flying the jet, it doesn’t really feel like flying. Everything is so procedural that it feels more like performing surgery than flying. Your constantly worrying about doing everything right, staying at a certain altitude or heading, setting the proper power setting, or just trying not to upset the IP by doing the wrong thing. To make it all worse, you really don’t know what the right thing is since you’ve never done any of this before. In the end though, it is way more fun than it is stressful. I’d rather be doing this than anything else and that makes the rest of it worth it. This next week will only be a partial week since we have Thursday and Friday off. I get the entire week after that off. I have to be back on the 2^nd. Monday the 3^rd is a fly day and we’ll be getting right back into the swing of things. I’m excited about seeing everyone over the break after missing Thanksgiving. Well, I’ve got three more days of flying before I get there though, so I had better get back to studying for Monday. I hope everyone is doing well. I’ll see you all soon.

Journal Entry 14- 9 January 2005

Well, first of all, I apologize for not writing an entry for so long but there was good reason. The week after the last entry was only a partial week so I didn’t have much to write about and I’ve been on break from then until this last Monday. So this last week was actually the first full week of phase two training that I’ve had. Well a lot has gone on since my last entry but since I was home for most of the time, I’ll try to focus mostly on what’s gone on this last week. The break sure was nice. I really enjoyed seeing everyone. I was really starting to miss everyone. I didn’t get the studying I needed to do done, but I don’t think anyone really did. I really didn’t want to come back. I was enjoying myself so much not having to think about flying all the time. Now that I’m back though, I’m glad I’m here. The more time I spend in the jet, the more I realize that I really do want to do this. I know I told everyone stories about how hard it is and how tough life is in UPT, but the bottom line is that I’m doing what I’ve always doing, I’m enjoying it, and even if I don’t I’ve still flown a jet at the end of the day. That’s cool even if it isn’t always fun. The break was absolutely what I wanted it to be, all until the last day. Michelle and I came down with some sort of awful illness that had us down for about 24 hours. I had to go to the hospital to get some fluids back in me and since Michelle would have been there anyway, she decided to get treatment as well. I’m glad we did because it helped a lot and made the rest of the time a little easier. I had to delay driving back to Columbus a day until I could get some rest and some strength back. I made it back Monday evening and started class back on Tuesday. I was DNIF (duty not involving flight) for two days so I all I did was sit around the flight room and study for two days. Even though I hated getting sick, I guess it turned out to be a mixed blessing. It gave me time to catch up on studying and it I had an extra day of vacation too. I was ahead of everyone on flights too so now I’m back where everyone else is. I wouldn’t have gotten sick if I had the choice, but I won’t say it didn’t help me out either. The weather since we’ve been back has been pretty horrible. Half the jets for first period on Thursday didn’t fly so I wasn’t really prepared to fly that afternoon like I was scheduled. Turns out we did fly and I didn’t do as well as I should have. I could have done a lot worse considering it was my first flight in two weeks. But I didn’t really prepare for the things I could have and it showed. I got downgraded for mission planning which should never happen. You can’t always control how well you fly but you can always control how well you do on the ground. I did get a chance to have some fun with the jet though. We had some extra gas so the IP gave me the jet and said, “do what you want.” I asked about restrictions and all he said was “be safe”. I didn’t do anything worth writing about but it was just nice to fly for a bit, not thinking about doing it right. The next day was much better and I actually enjoyed the entire flight. Usually I only have fun for a little bit of the flight. The rest of the time I spend just thinking about what I’m doing. Not that you can’t do both, I’m just not there yet. I think the biggest reason I enjoyed Friday’s flight was not because I was doing everything right (I didn’t), but because I’m starting to get comfortable in the jet. We got our new name patches Friday. Mine says T. Maverek Bagley, so now everyone is going to know. I just didn’t like going by Troy. Before I could even put the thing on though, some IP in another flight was making a big deal about it. I understand the big deal about it, but don’t people think I’ve heard anything they can say more than a few times before. Every time some idiot introduces himself as Goose, I let the turd know he really is the first person that’s ever thought to do that. I mean, c’mon, its my name, so what. Anyhow, enough about that, I got to go to another assignment night Friday night. Those things are definitely one of the highlights of UPT. I would really hate to have to miss one of them. This one was just like the rest, lots of fun. Our class played a lot of Crud. We like to brag a lot since we always win and the one time we lost was bogus. A rematch would prove the fact. If you don’t know what Crud is I would be glad to tell you but it would take up a lot more space than what I’ve already written and I’ve written a lot. So much that I think I’ll stop. I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays as much as I did and I wish everyone a blessed new year.

Journal Entry 15- 17 January 2005

There really isn’t much to write about this week. Out of five training days, I only flew twice. It made for a real long week. Sitting there in the flight room just studying can get real boring. I flew on Monday and did ok. Still in the first stages. Not too much is expected of us yet as far as flying. I feel like I’m picking it up pretty fast though. I was very excited about flying on Tuesday but got bumped off. It was supposed to be my last flight in the block and we were going to do spins. I was very well prepared for it and was very disappointed that I didn’t get to go. The three days I didn’t fly were tough. Wednesday and Thursday were cancelled due to the weather. On Thursday I failed our first real emergency procedures quiz (EPQ). These things test pretty much anything. Any information in our pubs is fair game for these things. That’s a lot of information to process each week. Failing it was doubly bad because I had to do extra studying that night to pass the re-test. I didn’t have time to do it all so I chose to study for the EPQ rather than prep for my flight. It should have been ok since I was scheduled to fly second period. I thought I would have all first period to prepare. As it turned out, I was scheduled for an instrument sim that morning and I had little time afterwards to prep for my flight. I still did ok. I could have done better, but procedurally I made big improvements. My flying will catch up soon enough. My IP gave me a compliment that made me feel better about the flight. He said that my hands are very good, meaning I am flying the jet very naturally. I passed my re-test, barely. I enjoyed the weekend. I made the trip up to Athens to see Michelle. Both our parents went to Michelle’s meet and spent the night in Athens. I got to spend time with all of them as well. Our parents met at the gymnastics meet and then we all had lunch the next day. It was nice to be away for the weekend but now I’m back in Columbus getting ready to go another week. It should be exciting. The weather looks good and some of the students in our class should solo by the end of the week. I think I may get there by early next week, but you never know.

Maverek

Journal Entry 16- 23 January 2005

Even though this week was shorter than last week, in some ways it seemed much longer. I had a pretty tough time this week. I flew on Tuesday and did horribly. I missed a few things on the ground and in the air I forgot to do nearly all the in-flight checks and I butchered a few radio calls. I got an unsat (unsatisfactorily) overall grade. Our training is divided into blocks. There are certain requirements you are supposed to meet by the end of the block. I met all the requirements but then I slipped back to below one of the requirements for the previous block on this flight so it was an automatic unsat. That’s never good. I flew on Wednesday and didn’t really do that much better. I still did ok though. I prepared for each of these flights real well and chair-flew a lot but it just didn’t catch on as well as I needed it to. Wednesday evening was especially stressful. I had just flown two bad missions, scheduled to go in the morning the next day and I also had to study for the weeks EPQ that would be given the next morning. I didn’t do near the studying that I should have over the weekend and because of my performance, I spent all my time preparing for flights rather than studying earlier in the week. Well, I ended up passing the test, again just barely, but there’s a story there too. I actually ended up having more time to study Thursday morning than I should have. We busted crew rest so we were restricted from any official duties for the day. No flying, no sims, just sitting in the flight room studying all day. Another of those blessings in disguise. It was rough having to sit there all day, but it gave me the break I needed to mentally catch up with were I should be at this point. The whole crew rest thing should have never happened though. We were scheduled to start academics on Wednesday at 3:15 for a 2.5hr block. We got out of there at 5:40 and were scheduled to show up at 5:30 in the morning. Someone should have notified the flight commander of the mistake but it didn’t happen. When they found out the next day they were not pleased at all. Air Force policy requires that all aircrews get a minimum of 12 hrs crew rest between official duties and 8 hrs of uninterrupted rest during that period. If you don’t meet these requirements then by the book you are not allowed to fly the following day. Not many of us ever meet the second requirement but the first is meant to be absolute and I’d say we all understand that clearly now. The academics that we’ve started this week is all about instrument flying. There is so much information to cover on this stuff. I’m going to have to study quite a bit to understand what these guys are talking about. We have a couple of students in our class that are certified flight instrument instructors and there’s some stuff that they don’t even understand. We were scheduled to have the test on it this week but thankfully our instructor stepped up for us and got it pushed back to next week. The positive note to all this stuff is that I flew on Friday and did much better. It was my first time flying with the instructor so he didn’t really appreciate how much better I had done. I didn’t get graded as well as I thought I should have but it doesn’t really matter. I felt great about how I did and the important thing is that I’m learning and getting better. It was a nice way to end such a rough week. You definitely live week by week here. Going home on Friday is always a huge relief. I spent most of the weekend moving out of the dorm. I’m moving off base to a house. I decided to move a while ago. It just came down to economics. I would rather stay in the dorms. I really like it here, but I am going to be getting much more money from my housing allowance that I don’t get while I’m on base. I will be all moved out today but it will take a while to get set up and all. I’ll post my new address on my home page as soon as I have my address changed. Well, it has been a full week for sure. I’m not sure if I can handle all this excitement again this week. No one has soloed yet but we will have some this week and I might be one of them. I’ll be sure to write all about it if I do. I’ve got a lot of preparing to do for this week. I guess that’s all I have for now. Hope everyone has a great week.

Maverek

Journal Entry 17- 30 January 2005

This week was long, tough, but extremely rewarding. By the end of it I had flown 5 times on four flying days, scored a 95% on the EPQ for the week, aced the advanced instruments test and soloed my first jet. All in all it was a great week. All the flights this week were pretty exciting. Monday I spun, went to the local divert field and came back for more patterns. It was a very busy flight. Tuesday I flew a pattern only sortie. That means I didn’t leave the airport vicinity. We just stayed up there the whole time practicing takeoffs and landings. Usually for every pattern you fly you have one takeoff and landing. It was so busy up there though, that we flew about eleven patterns and only got about six landings. The most exciting thing from the flight was on the last pattern we came within 5 or 6 feet of hitting a huge turkey vulture. Neither my IP nor myself saw this thing until it was right off our nose. It gave both of us a good scare as we pulled back on the stick at the same time to avoid hitting this thing. Bird strikes can be real dangerous. Especially when you are flying as fast as we do and the birds are that big. There have been some major accidents in the past for the same type of thing. Everyday we are briefed on the bird condition. It’s either low, moderate, or severe. Usually the condition is moderate meaning bird activity in the area is moderate and to be watchful. The condition was moderate that day but I was laughing at the controller when he gave the bird condition over the radio before we landed. Wednesday I didn’t get to fly but I did have an instrument sim. This thing was mind numbing. All I did was stare at my attitude indicator the whole time, occasionally looking at my airspeed and altimeter. Your simulating instrument flight so you don’t have a visual on the screen. Your whole time is spent looking inside the cockpit at your instruments. It’s rough, but it does build good habit patterns. During the week I got to help dunk several of our guys as they soloed. It’s a lot of fun because the game is to try and make it back into the flight room (our flights classroom) before you get dunked. If you do then everyone owes you a drink. So if your on the ground your objective is to guard the flight room and make sure the person coming back from soloing gets wet before getting into the flight room. Thursday was a hard day but it was fun. I got to fly twice. I did well on both flights. It was a bit hard to fly that much in a day but they were trying to fly us a much as possible while the weather was good. In Mississippi, the rule is, if you aren’t ahead, your behind. We get so much bad weather here. We had great weather all week until Friday though. We had our EPQ for the week on Thursday. I was worried about this one because I didn’t study too much for it. I actually changed two answers during the test and didn’t know one or two others. I lucked out though and made a 95% on it only missing one question. Friday was a huge day. I was scheduled to fly first thing in the morning. I was a bit worried about the weather because it was supposed to get bad and I was trying to solo. The weather held out all day though. I went up with the IP for the first half of the flight. We had to accomplish a few things before he could get out of the plane and let me go. We got that stuff done and landed. We taxied back and he got out of the jet. Before he left, he lent me his wings. Its an air force tradition that you fly with your IP’s wings on your initial solo. I thought it was real cool. They weren’t mine, but I still had a pair and was flying by myself. The flight was awesome. I never imagined it would be as fun as it was. I felt a lot more comfortable in the jet by myself than I do with the IP sitting there. I was able to concentrate on the plane more and on how I was flying. I had an awesome time. I got back on the ground and almost made it back into the flight room. I had it staked out and was just waiting for one more person in the hallway to go back in the room when some idiot from another flight saw me and ratted me out. I made a dash for the door but was met by the entire flight. I fought pretty hard but in the end it was on against eleven and I got wet. That water was so cold. I mean it hurt it was so cold. I got dried off though and back into warm clothes. Later on that day I got the chance to go sit in the control tower and perform spotter duties. My job was to listen to the radio calls and confirm the configuration of the landing aircraft with binoculars. It was a bit boring but fun too. It was interesting to have that kind of view of the pattern. It was fun to watch some of the landings too. Some of the guys were new and just learning (like me two weeks ago). They were landing extremely hard. Its hard to believe that these planes have been flying as long as they have given that kind of treatment. We also took our instrument test on Friday. I was a bit worried about this test earlier in the week but by Friday I didn’t really care too much about it. I knew I was prepared and I was. I made a 100 on it. After that I went home and started the weekend. Besides everything I did at work this week, I have been getting things done around my new place as well. I got all my stuff out of storage on Monday and I’m finally all settled in. The address for the place is on my home page. Michelle was supposed to come see me this weekend but she got iced in with the rest of you in Georgia. We were disappointed but we both decided that it wasn’t worth fighting the weather. This next week is going to be another big one. I will possibly have my first check-ride. That’s where you go up with a check pilot who grades you very intensely. A check pilot isn’t one you fly with normally. All they do every day is fly with students in the entire squadron and evaluate them. Its pretty tough and it counts for a lot more than your daily flights. I’ve got a few more solo flights scheduled as well. Sorry this entry was so long but it this week was one of the bigger and more important weeks I’ll have in training. I hope everyone is doing well and thawing nicely. Look for another entry next Sunday. Maybe a little shorter next time.

Maverek

Journal Entry 18- 7 February 2005

Well, like I said last week, maybe I won’t have so much to write about this week. I didn’t. This week was way too long. I know, 7 days is 7 days, but they go by faster when you are actually doing something. This last week was the worst week of weather I’ve seen since I’ve been here. The only days we could fly were Thursday and Friday. Thursday morning wasn’t even good. Monday through Wednesday were spent in the flight room doing nothing except studying. That can be good but work sucks when you can’t fly all day, especially when its more than one day in a row. I did get to fly finally on Thursday afternoon. I was very rusty since the last time I flew was on Friday of the last week when I soloed. After not seeing the sky for a week it was cool to bust through the top of the cloud deck and see the sun. Flying out of, into, and around clouds is one of the neatest things about flying. It puts a smile on my face each time I get to. I didn’t do as bad as I could have but there was a lot of room for improvement. I did much better on my next flight Friday morning. The weather was finally clear so it was real nice to get out there on a good day. I’m starting to get into aerobatics this block of training. It’s a lot of fun to do loops and all. Not as fun as it could be though. No matter what you do here, your always thinking about the proper procedures and techniques for everything. Making sure you have the right airspeed, altitude, and doing the maneuver properly. There’s no other way to do it, but it’s just not as fun up there as when you think about it on the ground. I did get to solo again on my second sortie Friday. I’m still limited to staying in the pattern for now. Pretty soon I’ll be able to fly to the practice areas solo. It’s a lot of fun just to be in the jet by yourself but it will be real cool once I’m finally out there on my own away from base. I’m studying pretty hard right now. I’ve got my mid-phase check coming up this week if the weather holds out. This check ride is the first of four during T-37’s and a lot of people say it’s the toughest. Anyhow, hopefully this week will be fuller than the last. I should be careful of what I wish for though. Look at what happened this last week. Hope everyone is doing well.

Maverek

Journal Entry 19- 13 February 2005

This week was pretty tough. I got to fly five days out of five and four of those rides counted. The weather still hasn’t cooperated very much. I didn’t expect the weather to be as bad as it is here. Not at all like Georgia’s weather in the winter. It is a whole lot wetter here. We did finally get some good weather Wednesday afternoon through Friday. Monday’s flight went well enough. I saw some things I needed to improve on but for the most part thought I was pretty well on track. Tuesday the weather was pretty bad but my IP thought it might be possible to get the flight accomplished. We tried but got up there and the weather dropped out. The ride was an incomplete so it wasn’t graded. It was nice to get the free ride though. Wednesday’s flight was pretty bad. I wound up getting an unsat overall. I was really upset with myself afterwards. There wasn’t one big thing, it was just a lot of little things that added up to make a really bad flight. The trend for the week was that flying with a different and much tougher IP showed me that as good as I thought I was doing there were a lot of little things that I should have been fixing and I wasn’t. I was just accepting the little mistakes. I should have been shooting for excellence or at least showing it in my attitude. I wasn’t and after being shown that and given a pretty stern debrief I decided I had a lot of thinking to do that night to prepare for Thursday. Thursday was my chance to prove that I had made a change and was ready to do my check ride on Friday. I didn’t do as well as I thought I would but I guess I did well enough because I was cleared to check on Friday. Check rides are tough. You fly with a check pilot who has never flown with you before and they don’t talk unless required to the entire flight. They just sit there and write stuff down, evaluating the flight. Some aspects make it easier though. The fact that he’s not chattering away like most IP’s do on regular flights, means that you can listen to the radios better and concentrate more on what you are doing. I flew pretty well but I couldn’t help my nervousness coming out. I just forgot a lot of little things here and there. I didn’t fly as well in the pattern as I should have but I flew the departure and in the practice area better than I have been. I did go outside the area boundaries though and I was sure that I had failed the check-because of it. I finished the flight pretty well though and was able to put my mistakes out of mind. When I got back on the ground I had about 20 minutes to just sit outside the briefing room and think about the flight and the fact that I thought I had failed. That was tough, but I did well in the debrief and demonstrated the knowledge that I had been studying fairly well. At the end I was very shocked to learn that I had actually passed. My overall grade was a 9 downgrade Good. The way grading goes for check-rides is you start out with all excellents and each mistake you make is downgraded for that category. If you make the same mistake again or if your one mistake was pretty big its an another downgrade. The grades are excellent, good, fair, and unsatisfactory. A good overall doesn’t mean much except that you passed. What counts are all the downgrades. Of all the items I was graded on 8 were graded good and one was graded fair meaning an total of 9 downgrades. The other categories were all excellent. The pass rate is only about 50% and a 9 G is a little above average for passing grades. I’m not as pleased with the grade but I am very happy that I passed.

Other than flying, I haven’t done a lot this week. I did get to take a little fishing excursion this weekend. I went with a buddy in my flight. We didn’t catch anything but had a lot of fun and almost sank the boat. We spent most of our time just riding around, drying off, and bailing out all the water. Not a productive afternoon but an enjoyable one and we got some hilarious stories out of it. I talked with my parents after the check-ride Friday. It made me a little homesick to hear that they were at my grandparents and planning on going fishing the following morning. It got me thinking about what I’m doing here and what I’m missing out on by choosing this life. I know for sure that flying for the AF is what I want to do and I’m know that I haven’t had near the troubles or experiences or had to sacrifice near what others have had to do before me. I do not regret my situation nor do I feel sorry for myself for what I have to give up. It is something I felt like writing about though. A lot of times I would like to have the freedom to go fishing whenever, or see my family when I want to. I would like to be closer to them and my girlfriend. I have thought often if choosing a simpler life would be more rewarding. There is a side of me that would simply like to have a job, live in a town near my family, and lead a normal life. Moving around all the time, being away from friends and family, and dealing with the stresses that come with this job all make a person think about this stuff. It will be tough on my future wife and family as well. It’s something Michelle and I have talked about quite a bit. No matter what though, I am confident that these things and more are worth giving up. For one, I really love flying. More than that though, I chose to lead this life because I want to serve. Serving means sacrificing even if it is small things. Serving a cause larger than yourself makes it easy to give up the little things and gives meaning to what you’re doing. All in all, even though I do have to give up certain things, I guess I am happier where I am.

Maverek

Journal Entry 20- 20 February 2005

This last week was another tough one. It was enjoyable though and I learned a lot including a few lessons not to be repeated. First of which is to always be ready when its time to brief for a flight. I wasn’t prepared for one of my flights this week and got into trouble over that and a few other things. I got a zero time unsat, meaning I was unsated for mission preparation before flying and didn’t get to fly that mission. Not a good thing at all. Monday was ok. I got to fly some of the new aerobatics that we’re supposed to learn. Not too many flights left where I can do that stuff in the T-37. I’ve got to enjoy it while I can. If I track to the T-1 I won’t do any more aerobatics in an AF jet again. I did unsat the ride though. Not for anything that happened in the jet though. I’ve been struggling with practice Emergency Procedures during my debriefs. During the debrief the IP will give a mock scenario and give you some sort of emergency where you have to analyze the situation and pick the best course of action to take care of the emergency. The process is very tedious and very procedural. Step by step sort of thing. Even if you know what to do, it may not matter if you don’t discuss how you would do it properly. The idea is to put the student under stress on the ground to simulate what it may be like in the jet if something were to happen. That way, when we are by ourselves, we’ve had training on how to deal with emergencies if they were to come up. Anyway, I’ve been having a tough time with them lately so I’ve been put on the Commander’s Awareness Program (CAP). It’s not a punishment thing. Its designed to get you back up to speed to where you out to be. Right now I’m doing a five day program and at the end of it, I’ll have a ground eval with the flight commander to see if I need to stay on CAP or if I have performed well enough to get off of it. It’s not a bad thing to have happen if you are struggling because it can help you out, but it is still something that should be avoided. Hopefully the program will help me out and this will be my only time being on CAP. Thursday was ok. The weather was a bit better this week and was especially nice on Thursday and Friday. I was much more prepared for my flight on Thursday and got a lot out of it. I’ve got myself into a little hole so I’m having to work extra hard to get out of it and show that I really am trying hard to succeed. Thursday was a step in the right direction. Friday was a very nice day for flying and I got to fly twice by myself out to the practice area. It was a lot different being out there by myself. It is a bit easier to push yourself through a profile when the IP is there pushing you and evaluating you. Flight discipline is a little tougher by yourself because there’s no one there to make sure you’re on task. I did my best to make the most of the time I had out there and I think I’m getting pretty good at most of the aerobatics. It sure is fun out there flying loops, barrel rolls, Cuban eights and such by yourself. We were given President’s day off so the three-day weekend was nice. I got to go to Athens for a visit. It’s nice to get away from Columbus every now and then. Seeing Michelle and my parents was nice too. Michelle’s parents came up as well so we all hung out for the weekend. The only exciting part of the weekend was a trip to Atlanta to see the circus. I’ve only been to the circus once when I was very young so it was a lot of fun to go and see it again. Well, I’m back in Columbus now so it’s back to studying and getting ready for next week. We are finishing up the contact (looking outside) phase and starting to get into instrument and formation flying. Just when you think you’ve got the hang of it, it gets harder. Oh well, just go to keep at it.

Maverek

Journal Entry 21- 27 February 2005

This week was a shorter week than usual due to the three-day weekend that we had. It went by even quicker than I thought it would. Really this whole thing is flying by. I never imagined it would progress so quickly. Everyone told us coming into it that we’d hardly have a chance to catch our breath and its true. Just as soon as you think you have a handle on what you’re doing and think your doing it well, it’s time to move on to the next thing. This week a lot of us had our first instrument rides. I didn’t but as soon as I have one more instrument sim then I’ll be able to. I did have my first formation ride. It’s a totally different way to fly. Entirely different mindset. It has to be to be flying that close. In formation, we’re flying with only 3 feet of wingtip separation. That sounds close and believe me, it feels even closer when you are up there. I didn’t do very well and I wasn’t expected to either. The first form ride is meant to just show you how different it is and to get you oriented to the new flying. It was a lot of fun though. I didn’t get to fly on Tuesday but I did on Wednesday. Thursday was when I flew formation and Friday I flew by myself out to the practice area. That was a lot of fun again. I only get one more of those. I got off CAP this week. Wednesday was my last day on it and I had a ground eval with the flight commander. We went over everything I’d been studying and he gave me a few EP’s to see how I’d do. I did well and he determined that I had progressed far enough to be taken off the program. It’s nice to feel caught up again and not to have to study so much extra every night. Friday we had our solo party. We finally got all the students in my class through solo and found a suitable Friday to celebrate. It was a lot of fun to hang out with the IP’s and the rest of the class without having to be formal all the time. Afterwards we went to the assignment night at the club and had some more fun there. So for the most part it was a good week. The last half of Friday and yesterday were down days for me though. I found out Friday that we lost a member of our class. He failed his 89 ride and is being eliminated. We’ve got a guy whose flying his 89 ride on Monday as well. Then I found out Saturday that a friend of mine who graduated with me failed an 89 ride on Friday too. The way it works is if you unsat a check ride or if you unsat three rides in a row you have an 88 ride with the Flight commander. If you fail that you then go to an 89 ride with the Squadron commander or one of his immediate subordinates. If you fail that ride you are usually eliminated from pilot training. When you go to an 89 ride the evaluator is looking at your potential to finish the program in the amount of time that has been allotted to do so. If he feels that you are unable then you unsat the ride and get eliminated. It’s something that I haven’t even thought about and I really didn’t expect to lose anyone. After spending as much time with your classmates as you do here, you become a team and it is tough to see anyone on your team fail. One, because you want them to succeed, and two, because its not hard to sympathize with them. You want it just as bad as they do and can’t imagine it being taken away. I guess everyone isn’t cut out to do this stuff but I didn’t want to believe that. These guys aren’t the ones who have bad attitudes or anything. They are great guys and have been trying just as hard as the next person. You want to believe that attitude and work ethic are enough to get you through but this has made me realize that its not and that you’re never more than just a few days away from being sent home. There really isn’t any room to slack off. It’s hard to see this happen to a friend and I can’t imagine what it would be like personally. I’m not worried about it happening to me but I also know I’m not invulnerable.

Maverek

Journal Entry 22- 6 March 2005

This week flew by. I flew every day and the last two days I flew twice each day. Flying a lot makes the day go by real quick. Sure does make things tough though. Monday was fun. I flew my last contact solo. I get to fly solo again in the Tweet but it will be formation. I had to make it a pattern only though. Didn’t get to go out to the practice area. I didn’t mind though. I needed the practice on my patterns. Tuesday I flew exceptionally well. I was glad that I did because Wednesday was my second check ride. Final contact is the last flight in the contact block and is the second of four check rides in the T-37. I was ready to go and was flying great. I hadn’t flown better patterns since I started Tweets. Then I made a really stupid mistake. I forgot to retract my gear on a touch and go. The IP had to take the jet and I was sure that I had hooked the ride. I pretty much thought that after a mistake like that the instructor’s hands would be tied as far as passing or failing me. People have hooked for far less serious mistakes than that and I knew that he had to fail me. I didn’t let it affect how I flew the rest of the mission though and when I got done with my debrief the instructor told me that I actually passed. He said that I had performed so strongly for the rest of the flight that he didn’t see a need to hook me and send me to an 88 ride when he knew I didn’t need one. I got an 8 downgrade G. 5 of those downgrades were from leaving my gear down. If I hadn’t done that I would have received a 3 E. Granted I didn’t do all the aerobatics and other stuff that everyone else had to do. But it would have still been nice. I can’t complain though, I’m just lucky that I didn’t hook. Oh well, lesson learned; never make the final call yourself. Let the evaluator evaluate and just concentrate on flying the rest of the mission. You never know what the outcome will be. It’s happened to me twice. Two check rides and I was sure that I had failed twice. Then I’m told otherwise in the debrief much to my disbelief. I’m sure that’s a lesson that can be used in almost any area of life. Thursday and Friday were the busiest couple of days I think anyone has ever had in pilot training. I flew four formation rides in two days with the absolute minimum time between each flight. It was tough even getting a bite to eat between preparing for the next flight. It was good training though since that’s pretty much how Air Force flying goes. I wasn’t too happy about it at the time but I know it will make me a better pilot in the end. I’ll try to remember that this next week since it appears that I’ll be scheduled to do the same thing pretty much every day this week. It has been a nice weekend. The weather has been great and I’ve tried to enjoy it and relax some. In pilot training you live for the weekends. It helps to get through each week if you try to take it one week at a time. If you look to far forward you can get bogged down and it may seem overwhelming. We are starting to see the light though. Two check rides down and only two to go. I expect I’ll have my next on in a week and a half or so. I know I’ve got a lot left but it seems to be going by so fast. I don’t mind at all though.

Maverek

Journal Entry 23- 13 March 2005

This week went by very slowly. Monday was a no fly day. The weather just wouldn’t hold out for me to fly when I was scheduled. The weather was beautiful on Tuesday but I had a double turn in the simulators. It sounds like a raw deal and it is tough but it helps to get those things out of the way and you learn a lot while you’re there. It does suck that I had to do them on a day where everyone else flew. Wednesday turned out to be ok for flying just not during the period I was scheduled for. I had RSU duty that afternoon when it was ok to fly. RSU stands for runway supervisory unit. The RSU controls the traffic pattern. At normal airports the tower controls it, but at Columbus with all the traffic that we have and the different standards being used on the different runways, Pilots in the RSU generally control the pattern during normal visual conditions. If we have to use instrument flight rules then the tower is in charge. The RSU is a smaller tower closer to the runway where pilots run the pattern. My job when I’m out there as spotter is to tell the guy in charge whether or not the plane about to land is safe to land and using the configuration that they called out. It can get pretty busy but a lot of times its pretty relaxed out there. Thursday I finally got to fly again. Since it had been five days since my last flight, I got an 86 ride. It’s designed to get you back to where you were before you had the break in training. Usually you don’t get one unless you’re well into the current block of training. It’s an overall no-grade flight but each part of the ride is graded normally it just doesn’t count. Pretty much a free ride that’s supposed to help students out. Mine went ok but it was obvious that I did need the ride. I was very rusty. I didn’t get to fly Friday even though it was a beautiful day. The winds were very strong and gusty all day. Even though there weren’t any clouds, you can’t take off if the winds are unsafe. It was the same story on Saturday. I was scheduled to fly Saturday. It not very common but it does happen. I was actually kind of excited about going. It would have been a lot of fun and I didn’t have anything else planned. The winds were even worse. At the airport we were using it was a 90-degree crosswind gusting to 32 knots. That’s well beyond the limits of the Tweet. It was a beautiful weekend though. I tried to enjoy it as much as I could. Michelle came in town Saturday to spend what spring break she gets here. She has to be back on Tuesday so she doesn’t get much of a break. Overall it’s been a nice week. I didn’t get to fly as much as I would have liked. I did stay busy though. This week should go well. I’m not sure what’s all in store for me but I’m going to do my best to be prepared for anything. I have to be ready now for an instrument flight, formation, or an instrument sim all at a moments notice. It takes preparation to do that. That’s why the weekends are so nice.

Journal Entry 24- 20 March 2005

This week just like the last has gone by incredibly fast. I can’t believe how quickly all of this is passing by. I don’t mind at all though, especially after a tough week like this one. Everything started out well Monday. I flew well and everything went pretty well. Michelle was here for a little while earlier in the week since she was on Spring Break. She didn’t get much of a break so she had to go back on Tuesday. We had a great time together. Having her here during the week was great for support. I can’t imagine what it is like for the married guys to go home to a family every night. I know there must be ups and downs. In the end I wonder if it evens out or if it is an advantage or disadvantage. I guess it depends on the person. Who knows. Tuesday was when this week started getting tough. I’ve had a few problems throughout training with being prepared being ready to do things that I’m tasked to do. I’ve been working on it and my instructors have been pretty tough on me trying to get me to improve. This week I made a few more mistakes and had to face some consequences for them. Pilot training isn’t supposed to just make you a good pilot. The goal is to graduate pilots who can not only fly but also be trusted with a lot of responsibility and handle the duties that go along with being a military pilot and officer. That’s the end goal and that’s what I’m working towards. The instructors want to see all of us succeed in this program and become successful military pilots. Some people in this program need extra help with their flying abilities and others need instruction in other areas. So I can look at my situation in many different ways. The way I’m looking at it is that I have an opportunity to improve in certain areas. I’m glad that I’m given the opportunity to improve while I’m in a training environment than to be in the operational Air Force and have this stuff affect me. Pilot training is an artificial environment. The stresses are real but they aren’t induced by the mission or other operational factors. The stress is induced by our goal as students to be successful at something that is very difficult. My personal goal for pilot training is to graduate as a professional, responsible, disciplined military pilot. It can be hard keeping that goal in mind all the time, especially when you have to face the consequences of your mistakes. It is easy to focus only on the consequences and how rough your week is and just how much you wish it was the weekend or that you were done with this stuff. I have to take a step back though and realize that those consequences are really incentives to get me to where I need to be. The biggest things is I have to keep a positive attitude throughout all of this and remember that it is all designed to help me meet my goal. Every aspect of this training is difficult. It is difficult by design though. If it wasn’t difficult I would never become a professional, responsible, disciplined military pilot.

On a lighter note, I decided what I want to fly now. I would like to fly the C-130 Hercules. I’ve been thinking about it for quite some time now and I’ve decided that it is the best plane for me. I’ve always thought I wanted to fly fighters but after actually seeing what flying is really like in the military, I know I don’t want to do that kind of flying. I’ve talked to a few IP’s who have flown it and it sounds like a really fun plane. There are so many different ways you could go with it too. There are more variants of the C-130 in service than any other aircraft. I especially like the Combat Talon. It’s a variant that is tasked with low-level insertion/extraction and re-supply of special operations forces. Even if I flew the basic version though, it would still be a lot of fun. Who knows what I’ll end up flying. I’m sure that I’ll be happy no matter what I fly but for now that’s the way I’m wanting to go.

Journal Entry 25- 27 March 2005

This last week was enjoyable. It was like most other weeks. Not much worth noting really went on for the most part. The highlight of the week was flying solo in formation. After flying a couple of times earlier in the week, the IP I was flying with felt that I was ready to go solo with him flying lead. It was a blast. Formation solo is one of the highlights of the T-37 program. There aren’t many things more fun than that in the Tweet. Formation flying is so much tougher than other types of flying. It is so much more exacting and requires such a light touch. During contact flying it’s ok to jerk the jet around, but when you have another aircraft only feet away from you, you have to be much easier on the controls. Flying lead takes a lot more brainpower too. The three responsibilities as lead are to clear the flight path, plan the flight, and to monitor your wingman. Doing all of that at the same time can be difficult. It’s a lot of fun once you get the hang of it. I was a bit nervous at first. Flying with an IP is like flying with a safety net. He’s always there to take the plane if you get into a situation beyond your skill level. Obviously, students have to show quite a bit of proficiency to be trusted as a wingman, but it’s still a little nerve racking knowing that you’re on your own. If you mess up there’s no one else there to fix it and there’s not much room for error flying that close. I don’t mean to make it sound that dangerous. There’s always a safe way out of any situation. I just sometimes get nervous knowing I have to rely on myself to know what it is. I’m flying instrument flights now as well. That’s a lot more challenging mentally. It’s not as hard physically because you’re flying very smoothly but it takes a lot of pre-planning to stay ahead of the jet. Flying is flying and I still think that all of it is fun but flying professionally is so much different than flying for leisure. I think a lot about how much fun it was getting my private license and flying solo cross-countries where all I had to worry about was getting there. There’s a freedom involved with that kind of flying that I sometimes miss here. Not that I’d rather be doing it that way. Getting paid to fly is much more rewarding.

Maverek

Journal Entry 26- 3 April 2005

I’ve gone from being way out in front of most of the flight to having everyone else catch up with me. I expected it to work out this way though. You fly a lot for a while and then you don’t fly as much while everyone else catches up. I don’t mind because I didn’t want to be the first to have my formation check ride anyway. It’s never fun to be the first at anything here. The last person to go, even though he or she is way behind, actually benefits the most because they gain from the knowledge and experience from everyone else who has already completed it. This last week was very slow. We had some bad weather move through and when we did have good weather I wasn’t scheduled to fly. There were quite a few days where I didn’t do anything or just had a sim ride. It would have been ok if we were still on informal release. I could have left and done other things when I wasn’t scheduled for a training event. I was on formal release nearly the entire time the rest of the flight was on informal release. That meant that they could come and go as they please while I had to stay in the flight room all day when I wasn’t scheduled for an event. I was really just glad that our flight commander didn’t punish the entire flight for my mistake. But, I have been improving a lot throughout this whole ordeal and my flight commander noticed and decided Monday night that I could be back on informal release with the rest of the class. The next morning a student in the flight was late for a class that we were scheduled for and our flight commander decided that we needed to be put back on informal release as a class. So I didn’t even get to enjoy it for a day. I’m not really complaining because the rest of the flight is in this with me. I just think the situation is a little ironic. I also can’t complain because I’m a little lucky that it wasn’t me that was late for the class. I didn’t hear the announcement on the answering machine the night before and I had a feeling the next morning that I should re-check the message. I’m glad I did. I was headed into town and got there with only five minutes to spare. It’s little things like that that make this process interesting. Like this week when the weather was iffy and we briefed a dual ride when I was scheduled to have my second formation solo. Right after we finished the brief the status changed and would have permitted me to go solo. But it was too late to change the plan and I lost my chance to go solo. Again, not complaining, just pointing out the irony. Things just work out that way sometimes. I only flew on Monday and Wednesday last week and flew twice in the simulator. Friday I didn’t do anything. That was a long day and I’m glad that we got sent home early because we wouldn’t have been doing anything if we had stayed. The weather here is tough to schedule around. My flights are coming along. I really like formation flying and instrument flying is starting to click. Its not so hard if you stay ahead of the jet and think ahead. The key is hitting all the steps and running all the checks at the right time. The second you get behind it snowballs. If your still doing something you should have done a while ago, there is now way you can catch up because there is always something else that you’re supposed to be doing right now. I’m glad we get so much practice in the simulator. I’ve never done anything real unsafe, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be there for some of those flights in a real jet. This next week is looking interesting. I should have my formation check ride. This weekend we are having a career day for student pilots. It’s really just a private air-show to display the different aircraft that we could fly. It helps everyone make the decision on what they would like to fly after this. I don’t have much flying left. Only two flights until formation check-ride and four flights until my instrument check ride. I still have to do my cross country which will take a weekend and I should have my instrument check ride after that. I’m looking at being done with the T-37 in three weeks. Not a bad prospect. I still can’t believe how quickly everything has progressed. From everything I’ve heard I expected it to go by much slower. Even after T-37’s I’m only halfway there but I can’t imagine being done in the same amount of time from now.

Journal Entry 27- 10 April 2005

This week was quite a long week. It had its down points, but there were a few high points as well. I flew Monday and Tuesday. Both were formation flights. Monday’s flight was relatively uneventful. The only thing worth noting was that it was very challenging. You don’t always fly against the same student and different people fly differently and use different techniques. Sometimes it can be challenging when you fly off of someone who flies differently or uses different techniques than what you’re used to. Tuesday’s flight was awesome. I didn’t fly it quite as well as I should have but it was definitely the most enjoyable flight I’ve had since I’ve started training. I was leading and had to stay at a certain altitude. The cloud tops were right around that altitude and some tops were a bit higher. My wingman was to far away from me for us to go into the clouds so we had to do the best we could be dodging the clouds. Flying in and around them was an awesome thing. I was shown a few techniques like barrel rolls to get back in position and lag rolls. There was a lot more that went on that made it such a fun flight. I can’t clearly explain everything but the point is I really enjoyed it. It was my last instructional formation ride in T-37’s and I couldn’t have asked for a better ride. I didn’t fly Wednesday or Thursday which made the week longer than it would have been. That was tough since my next ride was my formation check-ride. Its tough to sit around on a check-ride. There’s only so much preparation you can do. After a while you’re just ready to get it over with. Friday I had my check-ride and did very well. It was my best check ride so far. I got a 5 downgrade Excellent overall. I wanted to do a little better but I am quite content with the outcome. Friday was a fairly interesting day. Not only did I have my check-ride, but we also had a reunion for the members of the 41^st from WWII. The 41^st is the squadron that I fly in. The squadron also flew in WWII and Korea. The WWII vets decided that this would be there last reunion and we were fortunate to host it. They were walking around the hallway on Friday and had a reception in our heritage room. It was real neat to see all of them. That afternoon after flying, we performed a retreat ceremony for them where the national anthem was sung while the American flag was lowered. A speech was given and everything was followed by a missing man formation flyby. All of this was a real treat to be a part of. My dad came up to visit Friday night and Saturday. We had a real nice visit. We had a career day planned for the weekend where a lot of different aircraft flew in so that the student pilots could look at them and talk to the pilots. The goal is to orient us with the many different missions out there and to help us make our decisions on what we want to fly. It was open to family so I thought my dad would enjoy seeing all of it. It was neat to show him around some of the planes. We both enjoyed listening to the briefings and learned quite a bit.

Now that I’ve had my formation check-ride, I won’t be flying quite so often. I’m a good bit ahead of where I’m scheduled to be with the syllabus. I’m scheduled to go cross-country this weekend. I’m really looking forward to that. It will be really nice to see a different side of flying. All we do here is fly local missions. It will be nice to finally get out and fly away from Columbus for a while. There’s a lot of planning to be done and I’ll have to stay real flexible, but I’ll be sure to write all about it as soon as I get the chance.

Journal Entry 28- 17 April 2005

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were very uneventful. I think I might have had a simulator or two and besides that I didn’t do anything. There just isn’t much flying to be done when your ahead and the rest of the flight is being caught up. I tried to start planning for my cross country early but gave up when my plans kept changing every day. I didn’t really mind it, but it would have been nice to know what I was going to do. There were quite a few people who had an entire trip planned out when they got there Thursday or Friday morning and were told to scrap all of it. I was glad I wasn’t one of those people. I had a basic idea of what I wanted to do but other than that I didn’t go to far into it. The big downer was the fact that I had to leave on Friday instead of Thursday like most of the class. For some reason which I don’t mean to question, the IP’s decided it would be best to send the entire flight cross-country this last weekend. There was no way we could get twelve jets on Thursday so we had to send four students on Friday. I was pretty bummed over the idea to begin with. You can’t help but feel like you got the short end of the stick. Once I got going though, I didn’t really think about it anymore. I still got to see all my family and visit with Michelle like I planed to. I didn’t get to fly into Athens though. That’s something I really wanted to do. Two of my flight mates left on Thursday and were able to make it there on Friday. I was a bit jealous to hear about the good time they had but glad to hear that they enjoyed themselves. I was also a bit proud to hear all the nice things they had to say about the greatest college town in the country. I really enjoyed my trip though. It was real nice to see everyone and spend time with family. It made me feel special for everyone to come over to my parent’s house for the occasion. Well, the main focus of cross-country is the flying aspect and I did plenty of it. I flew twice every day I was away. I flew plenty of different approaches and went to some really nice airports. The coolest thing about it was just getting away from the Columbus atmosphere and seeing what flying is like outside of training. It gives you something to look forward to. Now that I’m back I have to focus on instrument flying and getting ready for my last tweet check-ride. It should be too far away now. Its time to buckle down and finish strong and pretty soon I’ll be flying a different aircraft starting all over again.

Journal Entry 29- 01 May 2005

We’ll it seems I have upset a few people by not updating my website last week. I apologize and always one to please, I felt obliged to let everyone know what has been going on. I didn’t write for good reason I believe. I’ve already typed more just now than I could have last week. I haven’t flown hardly at all since coming back from cross-country. In two weeks I’ve only flown 5 times. A very large shift from flying 4 times in two days sometimes. The worst thing is that for the most part there’s nothing to say about those flights. I’ve entered into a very boring part of training. Instrument flying, although probably the most important part of training is also the toughest and least fun of the other two. Contact and formation flying were both a blast. Instrument flying is just mentally taxing and monotonous. I did get to fly one flight that is worth talking about. I flew a low level mission. The idea is to simulate an airdrop or bomb run in hostile territory where being close to the ground is safer due to air defense threats. The goal is to fly the entire mission 1,500 to 500 ft. off the ground and navigate by landmarks. The mission is a success if you fly over your target (a set ground point) on time. It was a lot of fun. We were flying about 260 mph only 500 ft. from the tree tops and sometimes lower by accident. You have to be very watchful both to avoid obstacles as well as to stay on track and inside the corridor. The plane I want to fly, the C-130, does a lot of those kinds of missions. I’m very sure that I want to fly it now. I will find out whether or not I will get that chance on the 13^th when we have our track select. Hopefully I’ll be going to Corpus Christi for phase three of training, but I guess I won’t be terribly disappointed if I have to stay in Columbus. I really want to fly the Hercules though. Even if I stay in Columbus there’s still a chance I could get one, its just not as likely. I was expecting to be completely finished with the Tweet by now. A few of my classmates have finished up. I will be done this week but it has been getting far more strung out than I thought it would be. If I had kept going at the pace I was at, I could have been finished the week after cross-country. I’m trying to make the most out of the extra time though. I really need to do well on this next check ride so I can have a chance of getting what I want. I’ll be sure and write an entry this next week and let everyone know how my last check-ride goes. Wish me luck.

Journal Entry 30- 16 May 2005

Well, I’m done with the tweet now. I had my last check ride Thursday of last week. I flew twice that week and then had my instrument check ride. Both my flights went very well and I got a 2 downgrade excellent on my check-ride. I was very happy with the outcome. There was a point in the flight where I thought I had failed the check-ride but the instructor threw me a bone because of some funny stuff going on with the student air traffic controller at the time. I was told to level off at 2,000 on a missed approach and swore I heard 3,000. I blew straight trough 2,000 and leveled off at 3 like a champ. The instructor controller then piped up and advised me to descend to my assigned altitude. I was sure then that I had hooked and had thus earned another ride in the tweet. I was wrong though. Three out of four check-rides in Tweets I sat on the couch outside of check flight after the ride thinking that I had busted and I wound up passing all of them. For any of you reading this who may be off to training some day, always remember to put your mistakes behind you as soon as they happen and focus on the remaining flight. You never know what grade your going to get and you’re always harder on yourself than the IP is when he’s grading you. If you fly the rest of the mission well, he’s likely to overlook even a large mistake. After my check-ride on Thursday I was done until track select night the next week. There wasn’t much going on last week. The squadron was busy getting ready for the operation readiness inspection that’s going on right now. It’s a big thing for the base and means a lot for the leadership to guage how we are doing at Columbus. Since we were all done as a class, we became the cheap labor around the squadron doing all kinds of odd jobs so that the Squadron would shine for its inspection this week. Friday came around and it was time for track select. Red carpet day was a lot of fun. All our families came out and got to taste what student life is like here in pilot training. We put on a mock brief and stand-up. I got stood up and subsequently sat down as a joke. My mom was in on it too. She was given the proper response to the emergency that I was given and correctly stated the solution after I was sat down. It was all pretty funny. We got to go and tour the flight line and the RSU (runway supervisory unit). I think every one enjoyed that part. The RSU is pretty close to the runway and provides a really up-close look at how we do business out there. The coolest part was the red carpet sims. We got to take our family members in the sim and let them fly around and see what the Tweet is all about. I had to sit in the instructors seat to make sure everything ran as it should. I don’t know how those guys do it. I’ve heard that most IP’s would rather sit in the right seat but I had a horrible time trying to read the instruments from the other side of the jet. I did ok though and I tried to let everyone fly some but they kept trying to crash it into the ground. Not that anything would happen if we did, it being the simulator and all, but we were given instructions not to crash the sims. We also got to walk around the aircraft on static display and take pictures and show our family the aircraft that we flew up close. No one was exactly sure which aircraft we would be going to but we tried to show our families the planes we expected to wind up in. Five o’clock rolled around and it was time to find out what we had in store for us. I was a bit nervous and also excited. I didn’t really feel confident about getting my first choice but I thought I had a descent shot. I was one of the first called up there since it was done alphabetically and I took my roasting well. I don’t think my mom enjoyed hearing all those negative things said about me but it was all in fun. We’ve pretty much lived with each other for the past six months. I’ve spent more time with these guys than they’ve spent with their families. We’ve gotten to know each other pretty well so we know how to push each others buttons. I don’t think anyone is ever mean about it but we all know how to make fun of everyone else. Well, I took my roasting and then it was time to find out what I would be flying for the next six months. I got the T-1 so I’ll be staying here in Mississippi for the rest of my training. I was pretty disappointed and it may have looked like I was upset but I wasn’t. I’m actually pretty excited about flying the Jayhawk. It’s always hard not getting what you want and what you tried to plan on. I did have the weekend to think everything over. I didn’t have to think about it too much, but I concluded that it really doesn’t matter, I’m still going to get my wings and I’m still going to fly for the Air Force and have a great job that I love. T-1’s were my second choice and I do still have the chance of getting a C-130 out of here. The chance is not that great though. If I had to put a percentage on it I’d say about 20%. Anyhow, I’m done with the Tweet and I’m sure that I’ll miss it. I really enjoyed flying the plane. I didn’t enjoy Phase II and I’m hoping Phase III will be better, but I will definitely miss the Tweet. This is the last journal entry for Phase II. All my journal entries until I graduate and complete this journal will be in Phase III entries. I won’t be flying for a month or so, so I may not write weekly until then, but expect weekly updates once I hit the flight line. I hope everyone has enjoyed following me through the first two phases. Now its on to the last, most difficult, and most important phase of training. Phase III in the T-1 Jayhawk (TONE).

Maverek