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.