James and I finished up advanced flight training yesterday.

Man, does it feel good!  Qualifying at the boat was a great feeling, but then we had to come back to Kingsville and finish up our remaining flights.  We had about 15 ACM flights (air-to-air combat for the uninitiated) to do before we could pin our wings on.  They were challenging and exciting flights, but I honestly wanted to just get through them and finish up.  The last 5 flights are 3-plane events where James and I (in our own separate jets) fight against a single instructor.  There is a huge learning curve when you add an extra plane to the mix.  Once you figure out how not to kill yourself, it’s pretty cool to be up there with your buddy fighting someone else.

Even though James and I were “killed” numerous times on our last flight, we still did fairly well.  Coming home on that last flight was a great feeling.  A military aviation tradition is to “wet down” a pilot when he finishes his last flight at a command.  The wet downs at the training squadrons are particularly important, because you get your “soft” wings (your name patch with wings on it) for the first time.

Quite a crowd came out to spray us down with fire extinguishers.  Some to show their support, others because they couldn’t pass up an opportunity to spray water on a pair of knuckleheads like us.  Regardless, it was a fun event.  Shannon made it out (just in time) with Faye to see me get soaked.

Now it’s just a waiting game.  I should find out this coming Wednesday or Thursday what I’ll be flying and where I’ll be going.  Then a couple days after that I’ll get to pin on the real wings of gold at our winging ceremony.  Stay tuned for all that info.

The moment of truth has come and gone now.  I successfully qualified aboard the USS Eisenhower last week.

Without a doubt, this was the most exciting thing I have ever done in my life.  I could go on and on for hours about how amazing this experience was, but I’ll try and just stick to the highlights.  If you really want to skip to the good stuff, check out my pictures in the photo gallery.

Most CQ detachments for the training command happen in Jacksonville, but due to the colder water temperatures in the winter, we had the benefit of heading to Key West for ours.  Let’s just say that having us sit in Key West for 4 days before we went to the boat wasn’t completely beneficial to our training.  It was great for my social life, but difficult on my wallet and my liver.  Regardless, we were able to maintain focus long enough to have a 100% qual rate for my squadron.

I had some mechanical problems with my first jet, and I thought for sure I wasn’t going to be able to make it out to the boat in time to get my full number of traps to qualify.  Luckily I was able to switch out with an instructor and head out to the boat at the last minute.  I did 2 touch and go’s on the boat and then boltered (missed the wires) on my first hook-down pass.  I was starting to thing I would have to fly back home since I was nearing a low-fuel state.  Well I pulled it together and trapped on my next pass.  They spun me off the landing area and then shut down flight ops for the night. 

I hadn’t realized what had just happened until about 10 minutes later, when I met my buddies in the chow hall for dinner.  They had been there all afternoon getting traps and cat shots, while I was just happy to be aboard the ship.  After some chow, a freezing cold shower, and some relaxation time, my nerves were back to normal and I was looking forward to heading out for the next day. 

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The moment of truth is soon approaching.  I have spent the past two weeks getting ready for my first trip to an aircraft carrier.  Actually, I’ve been spending the past year doing that, but the past two weeks are the official work-ups.  They are all solo flights, flying the same pattern we will fly at the boat, landing in a small box painted on the runway that is the same size as a carrier deck.

I will leave this weekend for Key West and then it’s one more practice before we do it for real.  Unlike most training here, we do it for the first time all by ourselves.  No instructor in his right mind would fly in the back seat with a student on his first trip to the boat!  It’s really not as crazy as it sounds, since every landing I have done since I got here a year ago has been in preparation for landing on the boat.  I feel well prepared and I am very excited about it.

I will be gone for about a week.  During that time I will be completely out of touch.  Partly because of logistics and partly by choice.  A lot of what goes into your first trip to the boat is mental, and I want to have a clear mind.  I promise I will let everyone know about the outcome in a timely manner.  So, short of a family member being abducted by aliens, don’t bother calling (I mean that literally – only call if you are on your way to Mars).

Dad and Helene were in town last weekend and Dad got some nice shots of one of my practice periods.  You can see more of the photos in the photo gallery.  There are also some great new shots of Faye.

I have without a doubt, the coolest job in the world.  I don’t mean to brag… but I do get paid to play with some very cool toys.

It wasn’t all that long ago that I was riding in the back-seat to get my thrills.  Now I’ve got my license to drive.  Right now I’m doing formation flying, which lends itself to some great photo opportunities.  Thanks to my flight school chum, James, we were able to get some great pictures of my last flight.  You can see more of them in the photo gallery.  All the shots of plane #239 are of me in the front seat at the controls.

On a side note, I apologize if I’ve been bad at returning calls & emails lately.  After a brief period of sitting around, I’m back to two flights a day and have been quite busy.  Once things settle down, I’ll be sure to catch up with everyone.

Another big accomplishment for me today.  I soloed for the first time in the T-45 Goshawk.

It was an uneventful, relaxing, and fun flight.  The only problems I ran into were with non-mission gear (i.e. my camera).  I had things all set up so I could (safely) take some photos & short movies during the flight.  I normally think of myself as a pretty decent photographer, but I proved myself wrong with my performace today.  The cramped quarters, bright light at altitude, and noise in the cockpit aren’t too conducive to operating a tiny digital camera.  To make a long story short, I have a lot of great 2-minute movies of my lap and the floor, but none of the aerobatic maneuvers I performed to perfection

Of the 5 or 6 photos I (thought I) took, I managed to return home with this gem.  It’s kind of cool if you look real hard at the reflection in the visor to see out the front of the cockpit.

Otherwise the flight went great.  There was little to no other traffic in my working area, so I had plenty of room to play in.  I did some fun stuff up high (loops, rolls, etc.) and then came back home real low under the clouds for a bunch of bounces back at home field.  It’s still a little hard for me to believe that the government trusts me to take a multi-million-dollar plane out for a spin all by myself!

I’ll be off on my cross country soon (more instruments) and then I’ll start to learn formation flying all over again in this jet.