Long time Coming

So once again I have gone over a month without updating my blog. But I have very good reason for it this time. I have been flying pretty much every single day and when I am not flying I have to study my ass off for the next flight or sim that is coming up. When you start flying in the Navy, you fly your first seven flights with one IP, this phase is called your "on wing". This phase is really important because it lays the foundation for the rest of your time. The flights in your on wing time are also really long. We are up there for around four hours every time. The C-12 is pretty easy plane to fly. My favorite part so far has been the VFR pattern. For some reason I really enjoy landing. Another cool part about the navy training is that you get to do actual emergency procedures in the plane. We even shut down an engine in flight, twice! In the pattern they are constantly giving you problems like propeller failures, flap failures, engine failures, engine fires, and a whole bunch of other stuff that makes you have to be really efficient at handling emergencies in the aircraft.

This is me sitting in the observer seat while Doug and Capt Shearin are flying.

This is a picture of the engine shut down in flight. It really feels weird...




I actually had my last day contact ride yesterday and I passed my checkride. Now I am in the Instrument phase of UPT. Instruments and emergencies are pretty much the focus of this navy training. They want to produce pilots that can handle themselves in any situation in any kind of weather imaginable. The instrument phase takes up about 70% of the flights that we have in this program.





On the other side of things, Rachael and I celebrated our one year anniversary on the 28th. We went to San Antonio (really just to get out of corpus) and had a nice little leisure weekend. We hung out by the pool at the hotel, got Rachael a new bathing suit, ate a really nice dinner, and went and saw a chick flick after we ate. It was really nice just to be able to get away and relax. Our friends watched the dogs for us and that was nice as well. Rachael has been really busy making lots of new friends. She mainly hangs out with two or three of the local wives, but she is being mrs. sociable with about every wife on the base. She is constantly setting up outings and gym trips for all of the wives to go on so they aren't too bored while we are studying or flying. It is really nice that she is making our friends for us.





Well that is about it for now, until next time!