Week 1, DONE!

My first week in UPT has now come and gone.  Overall, so far it isn't too bad.  This first phase of training is all academics and everything is scheduled for you.

For the first 7 training days you are with the Aerospace Physiology department on base.  These people specialize in the medical effects on humans in the flying environment.  So the last 3 days of the week, we spent with them (day 1 was all intro briefings).  We learned all about the different hazards in the air that we may encounter to include, hypoxia, spatial disorientation, and Gs.  It was all classroom type stuff learning and whatnot.  On Friday morning we took the first of seven academic tests in phase 1.  Minimum passing score on all these tests are 85%.  Needless to say, I passed.  After lunch we did the FACP assessment which is a physical assessment that lets you know how tolerant you might be in a positive G rich environment.

We also learned how to do an Anti-G Straining Maneuver, or AGSM.  It involves tensing of your entire lower body and controlling your breathing to keep as much positive pressure in the chest area as possible.  The idea is that because everything is tensed up it will be more difficult for blood to pool in the lower areas of your body because when that happens your brain is starved of oxygen and you can no longer remain conscious.

Anyways, that's pretty much all for now.  Next week we get to do the fun stuff like basic survival, and ejection seat training.  The most fun thing however will be done tomorrow, which is the altitude chamber where high altitudes are simulated and you feel the onset of hypoxia before putting your oxygen mask back on.  Be on the lookout for my next post, it should have some fun pictures, and maybe a video or two.

For now, here is an older video from a Pilot training base and a demo of what happens when you become hypoxic.  Hypoxia - UPT altitude chamber

Initial Flight Screening

Sorry for such a long break without a post, but for the past month I have been in Pueblo, Colorado for Initial Flight Screening, or IFS for short.  It is a screening program designed to mimic the Air Force pilot training environment and is condensed down into a month of flying general aviation aircraft at a facility run by civilian instructors under the supervision of Air Force officers.  This post will tell you a little bit about my experience at IFS.

Travel:
From Laughlin AFB most Lieutenants drive rather than commercial air travel because of a few reasons, it is cheaper for the USAF to pay per diem and mileage for 2 driving travel days than it would be to fly, SAT is the closest commercial airport which is 3 hours away in the wrong direction, and if you do fly you will not have a car to use during your month long stay at Doss IFS.  So almost all 11 of us drove from Laughlin to Pueblo.  Due to the distance being around 750 miles away we had to take 2 days for the drive.  So on day 1 we drove to Amarillo, TX.  We got there around 7 pm, ate dinner and then retired to our rooms.

At about 11 pm I was awakened by the tornado sirens going off in the town and went downstairs.  Turns out that a tornado was coming.  Well, to make a long story short, the tornado did not hit our hotel, but there was a lot of golf ball sized hail and my car was pretty badly damaged by the hail.  No glass broken or anything so I continued driving it and I am planning on taking it to a body shop in Del Rio tomorrow.  Anyways, here are some pictures from that night.

Above is the hail mound that piled up near the door of the hotel

Here is a view of the parking lot.  This is Texas in May, not Buffalo in January

It is kind of hard to see in the pictures, but there are little dents all over every metal surface of the car.

Moving on, we made it to the Doss building about 2 pm mountain time and got checked into our hotel rooms which most people share with another guy.  In each room there are 2 twin beds, 2 desks, a TV, closet, and a bathroom.  After we checked in we had to get in our blues uniform and go show our medical records to the medical tech that works in the small clinic in the building, then we had to have a picture taken by the security company and we were given a badge holder with a card that gets us in the front gate and access to the building which we had to slip our military ID into and wear the badge on the outside of our clothing whenever we were in the building.  Then we had to pic up our laptop which contained all the study material and quizzes.

Then we were instructed to go to the cafeteria and eat during the posted meal times.  For the rest of that night I looked through the practice quizzes and practiced my boldface and ops limits stuff, which is things about the airplane that we have to memorize.  Bold face are actions that need to be done in case of an emergency.  These things must be recited or written verbatim when given a test or asked to state the bold face.  Ops limits are numbers that correspond to limits of operating the plane, like certain airspeeds, how much oil it takes, and wind limits.

So the next 4 days were filled with academic sessions from 6 am to 4 pm with an hour of physical training scheduled either in the morning or afternoon.  During these academic sessions we wore our blues uniforms until our whole flight passed the bold face/ops limits test at the same time.  For us that took the second try.  Our first try was on the first day of academics, and our second was on the 3rd day.  From then on we were permitted to wear flight suits which is also what we wear while flying.

So then we started flying, the first flight in the plane is called the dollar ride because at the end of the flight you are expected to present a dollar to your instructor, decorated if you are so inclined with whatever you want.  It is called the dollar ride because that is about the worth of the flight for you because you are unfamiliar with the plane and the instructor basically has to do all the flying so you pay them a dollar for their services.

Each flight lasts about 1.3 hours and during this you practice some landing patterns, and maneuvers in the air such as steep turns, stalls, slow flight, and ground reference maneuvers.  The flying is broken up into blocks, C100, C200, C300, C500, C600, C700

I'm not going to lie, I'm getting kind of tired at this point (I did drive 13 hrs in the past 2 days) so I'm going to refer you now to this link on baseops.net so you can learn more about the program so I don't have to type it all out myself.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE GENERIC IFS STUFF!

That will tell you all about what goes on generally at IFS, and now getting back from the program, it is pretty much right.  The days are very stressful, and the flights are stressful too.  Much more than going down to your local civilian flight school and learning to fly.  But at the same time all the instructors are top notch and ready to teach, and here you're getting paid to fly and there is no point after the flight where you have pull out your credit card and drop $200 on your 1.3 hour flight.  Plus you get to wear a cool green bag with your name on it and be called Lieutenant.

Now of course we had off on the weekends, so generally everybody spent Friday afternoon/evening drinking in what amounts to the squadron bar which is a lounge inside the facility with some tables, couches, TVs, Xboxes, and stuff.  Then usually we found someone sober to drive or called cabs (they're cheap in Pueblo) and went downtown.  There are a quite a few bars in downtown Pueblo and festivals were also going on pretty much every Friday night during the summer so we had a lot of fun.  Saturdays we usually did something outside.  One weekend we went to Pike's Peak and the Air Force Academy, and another we went out to a nearby lake, and other Saturdays we just kinda hung around and maybe went to see a movie.  It is really good to get out of the Doss building because chances are during the week you probably never left or even went outside unless you were flying.

Here are some pictures from Pike's Peak and the AF Academy:

Here is what my view in a DA-20 is

This is a picture of the smoke coming from one of the Colorado wildfires

Downtown Pueblo

Lake Pueblo

And finally here is a picture of my solo certificate.

That is all I have for now.  Pilot training here at Laughlin will be starting on the 23rd of July so look for more posts in the near future

My Living Situation

For those who do not know about military lifestyle, I am going to break it down just a bit to give you a better understanding of how things work.

-Enlisted persons under the rank of E-4 must always live in dormitories on base in which they have a room and have to share a bathroom with at least one other person.  Kind of like a college dorm room you may have lived in as a freshman.  That is unless they are married.

-Officers on the other hand can live off base as they choose, especially when you are a junior officer that is single because typically there are not really any Unaccompanied Officer Quarters available on Air Force bases.  When you live off base you get Basic Allowance for Housing which varies by location.
HOWEVER, officers attending pilot training are required to live in Unaccompanied Officer Quarters or the officer dorms at their pilot training base unless for some reason none are available or they are married and have brought their spouse with them.

-When you live on base you do not get any BAH, however you never have to pay rent or an electricity or water bill.  You do however have to pay for your own cable/internet/phone bill if you choose to get those services.

Now that I have given you a general overview of things I will go into my situation.

I arrived on base on 29th of April, on the 30th I went to the housing office to see about getting me moved into the officer dorms.  The manager had me fill out a few forms and told me to come back the following afternoon to assign me a room and give me the key.

So the next day I went back to his office and signed a few more forms, standard stuff when you move into an apartment or dorm room and he took me over to my unit.  The units here are pretty much like studio apartments, which is pretty much enough for one person living here for a year or a little more.  Overnight guests are never allowed due to the liability of leaving a non military member on base unaccompanied and such.

I have a small open concept kitchen that is open to a breakfast bar and the main room, complete with a refrigerator, small range/oven, and dual basin sink.  No dishwasher :(

The main room is good sized for a bedroom and comes with a full sized bed with large cabinets that flank it that serve as the main closets, a large dresser, desk, and entertainment center.

Off of the bedroom there is a bathroom which is open to a sink area with mirror and medicine cabinet and then there is a standard tub/shower combo and toilet.

Also included is a outside storage locker which is pretty large, I think, in a small room just outside my door.  To access this you must enter a small room and there are 4 lockers for each unit on the floor.  You must provide your own lock.

Here are some more pictures after I moved most of my stuff in/rearranged the room a bit.

The Journey thus far

At this point it has been a week since I left Charlotte, NC.  I made the ~1400 mile drive to Del Rio, TX in 3 days.

-Day 1 and half of day 2 my brother rode with me and then in Houston, TX he got on a plane and flew home.

-The first day was the longest, the goal was Mandeville, LA where my Uncle lives.  We left our house at about 8 am with 420 lbs of my stuff (clothes and some electronics and such) in the trunk and back seat of the mighty Civic.

This first picture is of the now infamous Peach in Gaffney, SC made famous earlier this year in an episode of the Netflix series "House Of Cards"

After sitting in traffic on the outskirts of Atlanta we stopped in downtown Atlanta for some food at the legendary drive-in/eatery called The Varsity just outside the campus of Georgia Tech

 After this we endured another 5 hours in the car traversing west Georgia and all of southern Alabama, which on 85 and 65 is pretty darn boring, there is some excitement around Mobile with a bridge or two over some swamps, but other than that it is pretty much just pine forests.  Once we made it to Biloxi I decided to stop at Keesler AFB because I needed to get something at the military clothing store and I wanted to make sure I got it before I got to Laughlin in case they didn't have it (Laughlin is a relatively small base).  Well military clothing sales on Keesler closed early so Sam and I headed to the Beau Rivage Casino for about an hour.  Once we departed there we got some food and drove the final hour and twenty minutes where we arrived at my uncle's house in Mandeville, LA some 700 mi or so after departing our house.

-Day 2:  We woke up and were on the road at about 7:20 am, Sam had to catch the flight from IAH-CLT at 1:45 and Houston is a 5 hour drive from Mandeville so this was pretty much the latest we could leave.

It rained hard on I-12 about 20 minutes after we left until we made it to Baton Rouge and where we crossed the Mississippi.  After Baton Rouge there is a stretch of highway about 20 miles that is on elevated bridge over the swamps of Louisiana that lasts pretty much until you get to Lafayette, LA.

After that we pressed on finally seeing the sun come out just before crossing into Texas, where the speed limit immediately changed to 75.  Eventually after seeing some crazy driving we made it to Houston Intercontinental Airport at about 12:50 pm.  I dropped my brother off at the door after a quick good bye, handshake and hug.  I didn't want to quite leave right then and went and got gas and food because we had not eaten lunch yet and we didn't really have time to do so before I dropped Sam off.  Anyways, I found out that the parking garage on top of the terminal where US Airways departs from is a good place to see the activity at the airport, so I headed up there to hang out for a bit.

Here are a couple shots of the mighty Civic after about 1,000 miles of driving in 2 days. (On top of the IAH parking garage)

And here are some more shots of the planes I saw while I was up there:

 I finally left the airport around 2 pm and headed for San Antonio.  It took like an hour just to reach the outskirts of Houston because of how spread out that city is.  Eventually I had to stop a little over an hour outside of San Antonio to use the bathroom and while I was there I decided to change my original plan which was to stay at base lodging at one of the bases in San Antonio, to stay right in the city so that I could explore it a bit on that Sunday evening.  I found a room for $63 and booked it.  The Air Force pays about $124 per authorized travel day to cover per diem and lodging, and I was authorized 4 travel days, so I should come out on the positive side of that one.

Here is a picture of all the bugs accumulated so far:

So I drove into San Antonio and checked into my hotel and the girl at the desk was very friendly and told me of some good Mexican restaurants and that the last day of the San Antonio Fiesta was going on, which is a big 2 week long festival in the city, so I walked down to where she said the festival was happening and it was packed, lots of food vendors, beer, and live music.  After strolling around there a bit I headed to River Walk and took a peek at the Alamo while it was still light out.  Then I found a pretty empty Mexican place on the River Walk to get a bite to eat and a couple beers.  The food was delicious but after I finished it, the tiredness set in from driving for 2 days and I headed back to my room at about 8 pm.

Here is a picture of the Alamo

I woke up pretty early the next morning and headed to the hotel's free breakfast where I found a waffle iron shaped like Texas, so naturally I had to eat a waffle on this Monday morning.

Then I headed to a truck stop to gas up and get a weight of my car full so I could calculate the weight of the stuff in it, because the AF pays me per pound I can move and then they move the rest with movers.  Then I decided to tool around Randolph AFB which is called the 'showplace of the Air Force' and it is true, probably some of the nicest buildings I have seen on an AFB there.  I also went to military clothing and got the items I needed and a haircut too while I was there.

Then I departed San Antonio around 1 pm and headed straight to Del Rio.

Here is a sign in San Antonio:

 The trip on US 90 to Del Rio is long and boring.  US 90 varies from 2 lanes to 4 on the 150 mile trip and the speed limit is pretty much 30 or 40 mph in the small towns, and 75 mph outside of the towns with step downs before each town.  In the 150 miles that separates San Antonio and Del Rio there are only 4 towns between.  Going from San Antonio they are; Castroville, Hondo, Uvalde, and Brackettville.  Once outside of San Antonio things start to look a lot more like the desert and the roads start accumulating sand on some parts.  In between each town is NOTHING but some entrances to ranches that people mainly use to hunt on.  At one point there is a Customs and Border Patrol inspection station, so they can try and catch immigrants and drugs headed inland.  You also know you're getting close to the border because you start seeing more Border Patrol trucks on the road.  I even saw some bad-ass border patrol Ford Raptor trucks too.

 Anyways, I arrived on base at Laughlin just before 4 pm and checked into the hotel on base.  I rested for a little while and then headed out into the town of Del Rio to check it out.  It is pretty small but it isn't too bad. There is a Walmart and a movie theater and a large lake just 10 miles outside of town, so what else could you need?

I found this in town:

Anyways, that pretty much wraps up the 1400 mile journey of mine and I'll write another post soon that will include pictures of my dorm room/apartment that I was assigned on Wednesday.

First Post

First Post

Here is the obligatory first post to a blog...
I am starting this blog to let everyone know about my upcoming experiences in being an Air Force officer in Pilot training.  For now here is what you need to know:

-I am

stationed/training at Lauglin AFB, TX which is just outside Del Rio, TX (google maps).  As you can see it is the middle of nowhere, about 2.5 hours west of San Antonio, TX and is right on the border with Mexico on the other side of the Rio Grande

-My first phase of training is not scheduled to start until the later part of May, so in the interim I will probably have to preform various random duties and I will likely have a lot of time off, but I will try to chronicle this time as well

-Once my training starts it will take a little over a year to complete the main chunk of training.  After this I will have to attend other various shorter training courses on things like water survival and SERE-- Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape training in Pensacola, FL and Spokane, WA respectively

-I don't yet know what aircraft I will be flying for the bulk of my Air Force career

-Here is a picture of the gate to Laughlin AFB