Solo Certificate

As you know, yesterday was our last day in T-6s, there was a bunch of odds and ends both the students and the instructors had to finish up. Among other things, one of them was handing out the solo certificates. I've posted a scan of the one they gave to me as I find it fairly humorous.

T-1s it is!

Hey just wanted to let my readers know that I tracked T-1s the Tactical/Strategic airlift and refueling track. You can read about it in my previous blog, see a photo and read about it if you click the Wikipedia link down there too!

I had my first day today and so far is seems pretty sweet. It flys much faster, higher, and longer than the T-6!

T-6 Complete!

So I've been slacking as far as updating this blog, but I promise where I've been slacking on the writing, I've been picking up in the flying. As of Friday, I'm all done with the T-6A Texan II which is what Phase II of the three phases is all about. Next up is Phase III, the final portion of pilot training before getting to pin on the pilot wings.

From here you have a "track" ceremony where you find out which of the four aircraft you go onto next. I've put down UH-1s (AKA Huey) first on my list which is a helicopter, I put T-1 Jayhawk second. T-1s are the airlift/tanker trainer which about 80% of the students will go to. Out of my class of 25, only 1 or at most 2 people will track to UH-1s, so I'm fairly certain I'll be going T-1s. The other two choices are T-38s, which usually tracks to fighters/bombers and T-44s which goes exclusively to C-130s. They were my third and fourth choices respectively.

If I were to go to T-1s, there would be no move for me as we have T-1s and T-38s here at Laughlin. If however, I do get UH-1s, I would be moving to Fort Rucker, Alabama where I would be training with the Army for the next 6 months.


Here's some photos and info of the top two choices:

UH-1- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UH-1_Iroquois

T-1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-1_Jayhawk

Having finished on Friday and not starting Phase III till Wednesday, I was able to enjoy the weekend without my conscious tell me I should be studying. Friday night I watched a movie with a few of the guys at the house. Then Saturday morning I took an ATV class on base that my good friend who works at the civil engineering squadron told me about. It was super fun! The first two hours were learning about the 4 wheelers and riding them around a track. Then after that we did practical "training" and went raging around the base, going into the brush, finding big mud puddles and seeing how much mud we could spay on each other. After that I went home, took a shower, and drove into town to go to a class BBQ/skeet shoot. The local business owners take turns sponsoring our class and throw events like this for us. Sunday afternoon Matt and I took out the jet skis with some other friends and had a BBQ at the lake.

I'll make another post tomorrow saying what a tracked! Hope everyone is doing well and feel free to drop me an email/call to say hi! 

Happy 30th Wedding Aniversary Mom and Dad!

Congratulations to my Mom and Dad who have been married for 30 years today :)