The Final Countdown

So the time has finally come for my last few flights in the T-6 Texan. This week could be my last time to fly it, it will definitely be my last week of formation and my last checkride of this phase. I only have six total flights left including my checkride. I am getting pretty stoked about getting these last few rides knocked out because I am ready to move on to bigger and more complex aircraft. This final push will also let me have some much needed break time between phases. I could have as much as four weeks of down time with little more to do than read books and show up in the morning for attendance. I might even get to take some leave and go get in some great fishing somewhere down here in the south. I am trying not to get too far ahead of myself, this checkride is not going to be a gimme but I think that I can buckle down and focus on this for the next few days. Rachael will like having me T-6 complete because it will mean no more excuses for a while about my limited house work. I am also trying not to jinx myself about getting to go to corpus and train with the navy. I am still in a pretty good spot to have a good say in my aircraft destiny but stranger things have happened. I am pretty excited about seeing our entire drop. It will be cool to see what my classmates get. Some of them don't feel very strongly about what aircraft they fly, but there are some who know what they want and I hope that they get it. It will be interesting to see how it all shapes out. The other cool part is that the families will get to com in for a day and see what our normal day was like in this phase. They come in for a formal brief and stand up/ep. After that we all have a big breakfast that we prepare for everyone. Then they can take a tour of the different agencies around the base that really effect the flight training for the students. There will be a static display of a Texan and maybe the aircraft that we could move on to. The night concludes with Track Select which is going to be a pretty fun event. It should be pretty raucous and funny. We have been working on this for the last week or so, and we still have several weeks to get it honed out just right. When it goes down, the whole day should be a pretty fun affair. Well, that's it for now.....more after my checkride/last flights.

Late Shows

There really isn't much to say about the last week or so. I am kind of getting slow rolled so that I can have at least the minimum required flights over the last twenty flying days. I have done a lot of sitting and waiting. The one time I was scheduled to fly, the runway was wet and the winds were out of limits. So, this morning I am sitting at the house waiting to go into work. Most of the flight showed up at 0530 but I have to wait until after 8 so that I can stay later and work in the RSU. That really sucks because I am basically going to sit around all day so that I can go sit in a little building and write down take off times for the younger classes. The nice part is that I wont have to go in to work until after 8 for the next couple of days.
In other events, we are getting closer and closer to track select. Every day that goes by gets me that much closer to actually have a little clearer picture of what is going to happen with the rest of my Air Force career. It also gets us that much closer to having an assignment that is going to last more than a few months. Not that I don't like the money we make off of being moved around, but it would be nice to have a place that we could actually live and get established in for a couple of years instead of just being "transients".