homepage Forums SimHQ Community Community Hall Pilot Training

All the best Sim.

Great news Sim.


Wheels

Best of luck on your flight today Sim.
I'm really enjoying this thread.

It finally happened. First flight was with instructor. We did break out, then go around and two touch n goes followed by full stop. Entire sortie lasted a little more than .5 hours. I taxied to park and shut engine down. IP jumped out and did a walk around. Crew chief hooked up cart and I did an engine run to cool it down. Then I started her up and taxied to run up area. After run up I taxied to hold short and said "Number one, Wings40, patterns, two pins stowed" Then I had to wait for what felt like 30 minutes just to get clearance to take off. I kept looking around cockpit thinking I forgot something. But other than IP in the back, everything was fine. Clearance received and off I went. I still can't believe they allowed me to take her for a spin. There was no drama in pattern. When I was coming to first landing, they for some reason waved me off. No idea what for as it looked right on profile, but I heard "On final, go around". Power max, counteract torque with rudder, gear and flaps up and climb to 500AGL. Next touch-n-go, I touched only with left gear and went around. Next pattern after I touched down and and took off, I heard two clicks on a radio. I'm not sure if that was directed at me, but usually that means either good landing or "roger". Finally, I landed and taxied to chocks. Nothing unusual happened there. My GPS showed FLT = 22 minutes.

I tried to sneak back into flight room, but guys caught me quickly as I stepped into our building. So flight mates took me to kiddy pool, I removed my flight gear and got thrown into horribly dirty tank with water color of flight suit.

Major upcoming event - mid-phase check flight. Next week - Area Solo!!!

Congratulations Sim.

Another member of a very small club.

Where are the pictures.

Nice...and yep, the solo pool is scummy!

Congrats!

FC

WTG Sim, and congrats!

I hope there were showers nearby, that water looks really bad.

Good thing he didn't have any hair or he would still be trying to get that slime out of it.
Congrats.


Wheels

Grats!!!

Thanks guys.


Today I had an instrument sim with GPS Approach followed by PAR and ASR. Cool! Since it's instruments, It is logged into flight book

I especially enjoyed PAR. PAR is like ILS but with verbal guidance by controller who uses precise radar. "On Glide Path - On Heading".

Baby Acro! Depart by West Point one Departure to West MOA. Recover by VOR-B. Broken Clouds from 1100 to 2200.

Aileron Roll - At 180-220 Knots with max power, pull 25 degrees nose high, pause and give full left without applying any pitch. Roll rate is fast. Stopping is dead on without need to stop roll by giving opposite aileron. I tried to stop ahead of wings level, but that was too soon. Stop exactly by wings level.

Spit-S - At 120-140 and power less than 80%, Pull to 25 nose high and do half aileron roll, pause and pull back on stick. Getting into stick-shaker and 3-4Gs is good.

Loop- Start at 230-250. Pull back on stick at 4Gs, apply rudder as needed. (Nose tries to go left) During pull, look at both wings and ball to see if wings level. Relax a bit while upside down due to speed of only 100-120. Continue as with Spit-S.

I'm one flight away from mid-phase check ride. Yesterday, I double-turned on flights. One flight right after another. Today, I double-turned on instrument sims. Tomorrow, I do a pre-check ride. Monday and Tuesday weather is not looking good. Wednesday is a holiday. That's a lot of time between not flying and getting evaluated....
After mid-phase, I'm one / two rides for area solo! That means I get to have over an hour of having fun in a plane that has similar performance as of P-51

Sounding great.
Good luck.


Wheels

Congrats on the solo!

Monday I have a midphase check ride. The weather is not looking too great so it might be pushed back. After which, advanced acro starts such as cuban-8 and cloverleaf. Area solo is next ride after.

Today we had a career day! Different pilots brief us about their planes and missions. Also, some bring their jets as a show and tell.


Black T-38 flown by U-2



Steam gauges!



Yes, airforce does have whirly birds

More steam gauges! And I think I saw a bullet hole patches from Vietnam. lol



They had display of C17, C130J/H?, 135, F-15, F-16 and others.

Awesome Sim!

Jason

Great photos Sim.


Wheels

Good stuff Sim, thanks.

Ah....my last active duty unit...love that paint scheme!

Don't you know, that's "T-38 Classic"...with a side of clip on GPS...ultra sophisticated!

[Crusty old gray beard IP]
Don't need no fancy GPS, back in my day we did fix to fixes with a pencil, didn't have tails on bearing pointers, only one radio, no TCAS, no RALT, no glass...you youngin's don't know how good you have it...
[/Crusty old gray beard IP]

Speaking of which, you guys at CAFB will be getting one of the oldest active duty T-38 IPs I've ever seen....instructing him right now. Fifty-seven years old...his total flying career is damn near double the amount of time I've been flying...and I can retire next year!

FC

PS Go with meat-eaters...you can do herbivores anytime.

Sim, for the Air Force having Whirly Birds it reminds me - you know, going that way (or C-130) is a way of possible ending up with AF Spec Ops (flying an Osprey, Gunship, Combat Talon or Combat Spear). While an F-15C is a nice ride (the Raptor even more so) these are the guys actually doing the business right now, for real. Of course if you go fast jet on a Viper you can also expect to drop some iron, but nothing is as close and personal as an AC-130.

For me, one of the possible most fascinating jobs in the USAF would be 6th Squadron 1st Special Operations Wing. I visited them a year ago: http://www.milavia.net/specials/afsoc-hurlburt-field/

They are flying a ton of foreign gear and training other nation's Air Forces on it - both in CONUS and on deployment to the host nation. They are seeing a lot of deployment, so it's rough on that end, but you're unlikely to get shot at, and likely to meet a lot of interesting people and fly a lot of interesting stuff.

The guys at Hurlburt are currently collecting bigger yearly budgets while the Raptor got cut, and with the reshaping of the US Force structure towards Asymmetric Warfare, I expect this to stay true for a while yet.

Just some information which not that many people are aware of. If you don't make a fast jet, these are IMHO the next most exciting jobs, much better than flying a Tanker or a standard C-130 on endless cargo trips.