Week 10

Another week down and this one blew by, which is what actually happened the whole week. The wind blew here and it blew so hard that they had to quit flying one of the days. Other than that, I had a lot better week. I did not fly this week for many reasons and one being the anxiety that I get before flying. One of the IPs overheard me talking about it and now I am suppose to see a shrink on Tuesday. Hopefully that will go well and that they will think everything is normal...which will be hard I know...but seriously, if they think some thing is wrong then I might be fighting an very tough battle to stay. I should'nt have opened my big mouth about it to one of my classmates. However, just because I did not fly, doesn't mean I had the week off. I had simulators, classes, and even a tour in the control tower...that is one crazy place with 30 different jets up in the area.

The class had a Halloween party Saturday night at one of our classmate's homes and it was awesome. There was some real thought put into the costumes...except for mine. I dressed up with overalls, a General Lee shirt, mullet, and put in some nasty teeth and people around here invited me fishing with them. Nobody knew I dressed up because I looked like a local and most thought they had seen me earlier being a greeter at Wal-Mart. Of course, everyone thought I was rocking typical Idaho threads...which was really confirmed when another guy from Idaho wore a similar outfit.
Even Capt. Jack Sparrow took time off from shooting the next Pirates of the Caribbean to visit the party. This was the most realistic costume I have ever seen...maybe why this Portuguese student spent over $200 for his first time to experience Halloween.

There were some great costumes from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to guys that borrowed our sim instructor's uniforms and went as crusty old pilots that can't do anything but come back to Del Rio to teach. These guys are for the most part old, out of shape, and ready to tell you a story about how it use to be in the Air Force. And of course what would a party less than a mile from Mexico be without the Border Patrol and her illegal alien? No joke, the border patrol (which is every where down here) actually came by during the party.
Oh, I also went to a Del Rio High School football game on Friday night. It was alright, not quite like most other Texas high school football experiences or so I am told. It is a bigger deal in Texas as opposed to here in North Mexico. It was though, the first high school game I have been to where they had reserved seating, vendors walking up and down the stadium selling Pizza Hut and beverages, and where the marching band had over 150+ individuals and could actually march while playing.

Overall a good week, although there wasn't much to it. I am still hanging on and giving it all that I have. I even got a 100% on a test this week! Thanks to all that have sentbirthday cards and presents...I kind of opened most of them a tad early. I even got a cake, however, 1700 miles isn't a cake's best friend. This is how it looked when I got it, but it still tasted like one of grandma's cakes. THEY ARE THE BEST! Thanks everyone!

Week 9...and still alive

One more week come and gone...and am I glad this one is gone. This past week was the roughest week of my life. Granted I have had a sheltered life, but I was knocked down by this last week. I have recovered with the help of friends and family back home, not to mention the two days off for the weekend.

The past week I learned that I really can't fly a high performance aircraft, not to mention I got sick again and that meant I got to go see the spin doctor. I had to go sit in a chair that they spin real fast and then make me perform flying maneuvers while going around and around. The actual name for the chair is the Barany Chair and if you have time go look it up. You start off with your head straight ahead and then you move it from there. You may have to lean to the right, left, down, up, over the shoulder, etc. It is when they told me to climb (head up and back) or pull closed (a maneuver when we pull a high bank off the runway and roll out going the opposite direction) that my food passes my teeth for the second time, but in a new direction. I "get" to do that three times before they let me go back and resume my daily activities with a severe headache. I was then treated to the chair for the next three days after each flight.

Add that with the fact that I am struggling to fly a new plane the way they want us to fly it, I failed two tests, and we were there 12 hours each day...I had a bad week. Oh, not to mention the harder it gets the more homesick I get.

So that was my week! I don't want everyone to think I am just a whimp or a sissy...although I am...but I am just telling my week as it happens. I know I should see the big picture and that I am getting trained to be a pilot in the best Air Force in the world, but at times it is hard for me to see that big picture.

I don't like it when I am down, because that isn't me. So I am trying to be as positive as I can be and the weekends really help. Saturday I went wakeboarding and it was awesome. It is weird to get sun burned, while swimming in not cold water, in the middle of October. It is things like that which energizes me for the upcoming week. Thank God for the weekends...he knows I need them. I am counting down the days until I get to come home for Thanksgiving.

Congrats to the Warriner's on their new baby boy, Justin. Good work, Jason. I am sure you went through a lot! Were you there or hunting, during the birth?

Thanks again to those that post on my site and to the few that e-mail me. I now know who my "real" friends are. My list of who I am getting Christmas gifts for has shrunk, but on the good side, I will be saving money this year. Thanks to all you "wanna be" friends, I will have a lot more walking room around my tree this year.

Week 8...and gone country!

Well another week has come and gone. This week started off real tough and got a lot better, then it tanked. The week started off with me having to take Candi back to the airport and I tell you what, that drive back from SA after dropping a loved one off has got to be the worst. The next few days were pretty rough emotionally and it still isn't great, but it is better.

I have finally got to the place where I didn't fill a Hefty bag each flight. Thursday was the first day I actually kind of enjoyed flying. There is just so much pressure to do well, not to mention I don't like screwing up, that I am a nervous wreck before each flight. I am pretty sure that stress doesn't help me from purging myself of impurities, when it is piled on to the motion sickness thing.

So there I was with my first feelings of maybe this IS what I am suppose to do with my life and then...(sounds of screeching brakes)..I decide to brain dump some knowledge. Unfortunately for me, that little release of brain pressure didn't quite coincide with the time period AFTER my tests. I had two different tests at the end of the week and I FAILED both of them. I am now the remedial student and got some "coaching" from our flight commander. Yes, I am that kid. You remember the one that sat in the back of the class and only did certain functions with the class because he or she was "special" and had other "special" classes by themselves? I am that one...

It wasn't because of lack of studying; I can't study anymore than I do unless I find more hours in the day. Although, if I did find more, I am not so sure I would spend them studying. I am trying my hardest and now after failing, I am more motivated than ever not to fail out. However, I only have as much brain power as the x and y parental chromosomes allowed me. So if I don't make it...BLAME MY PARENTS.

Overall, things are going pretty good, I am just paranoid of failing...and there are many opportunites here for that. I am looking forward to getting more comfortable with flying so that it becomes more and more fun each time out. Even when I am stressed about how it is going, flying upside down at a couple hundred miles an hour, still isn't that bad.


I went to Dallas this weekend to get away and help a buddy move some family. Good times, however we had to study the whole trip, so it wasn't that much of a break. Although, I put my new boots to use and learned the "Texas Two-Step" from some of the locals. Watch out Idaho, you will have a new cowboy in town when I get back. I have gone country...ok, not really.

Week 7 and I am flying

The day finally came where I got to fly...and it was horrible. I have never been so sick in all my life. I puked the first three flights I took. It makes it hard to learn to fly when you have your face in a ziplock bag. If anyone wants a stock tip, buy shares of Hefty Bags.

If you can see this picture very well, I did the customary "thumbs up" for the camera...what a cornball.

Anyway, my third flight was cut short because a screw was loose. Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't just the person in the front seat (me). We had to come home shortly after doing only a few maneuvers, so I didn't get sick. Then yesterday, I took my first long flight (1.3 hours) without spewing. I felt sick most of the time, but I didn't have "active" airsickness. I have to go to the flight doctor after each episode and supposedly on Tuesday they are going to start spinning me in a chair to get me over this stuff. They spin you until you throw up and then do it three more times until you puke each time. Then they do that for three days in a row and if that doesn't cure you, then it is time to start thinking about a new career.

It is so much harder than I ever thought it would be, that I can't even explain the level of pressure here. It is like having to cram for finals, just to find out that you have finals the next day and then the day after that and so on. We have to memorize a lot of stuff and do a lot of studying, then there is this little event during the day called flying that you also need to study for and accomplish in a certain way. I could just study for months on how to fly, make radio calls, navigate, and perform certain maneuvers...not to mention all the performance and procedural data...and they want you to know it all in one week. They say it won't be long before it gets hard and hectic...so I am really looking forward to finally having something to do.

However, the one life saving thing happened after all this. Candi came to visit. It couldn't have happened at a better time. I really don't know if I would have made this last week without thinking that once it got over I would get to see my wife for the first time in seven weeks.

I really don't know if I will make it the whole time here, I just have to give it my best shot. I think for sure I am the dumbest one here and the fact that I have to fight being sick each flight, doesn't help my performance in the plane.

However, the plane is incredible. You think of the other planes I have flown...Cessna's and Cherokee's 142, 150, 152, and 172...that is their horsepower. This plane has over 1,100 horsepower. You barely move the stick and you are there. It can climb straight up and turn on a dime...not quite like the Cessna. It goes a lot faster, so you don't have near as much time to make decisions. Not to mention you are in this bubble of a cockpit, so it is like you are hanging in midair when you are upside down. I think that once I get the hang of it and I don't get sick each flight, that it will be a blast. All of the other guys are doing some pretty awesome maneuvers, but I wear a skirt...according to my Instructor Pilot. He says we can do those maneuvers once I get my skirt off and quit being a baby about getting sick. Right now, all it takes is pulling the stick back and performing a climbing turn at 3 Gs and my esophagus separates from my body and ends up in a Hefty bag.

I will keep you up to date on how things progress, but with the increase in studying and the fact that it will get harder soon, they might not be a often. However, keep the comments and e-mails coming. See the top of my site for the address. Later.