DONE...with Phase II

I am finally done with T-6s. I can't believe that I made it through this phase. It was due to a lot of prayers, support, and miracles...but I made it. The past week was a crazy, full week. Monday saw me take a 4.5 million dollar aircraft by myself into the air and fly it with reckless abandon, 10 feet away from another aircraft, just to hurl the piece of levitating metal at the ground multiple times...and walk away with a smile. It was fun, but during the flight I was more tense than normal because I had someone else right there, as opposed to my other solos. You would think having someone close by would provide some type of security, but I didn't feel that way. I also got to experience going nearly a hundred over the "speed limit" over the airport and going inverted at the end of the runway...not that that means much to most, but it isn't the standard. Of course it was all IP demo and not me flying without regard for life.

Then after multiple flights each day, I finished on Thursday with a "Good" on my checkride. The ride wasn't my best formation flight, in fact it actually was one of my worst flights in some regards, but I still passed. I did better overall in formation than in any other stage of training, but I think it was mainly due to just being more experienced in the jet. I found it really challenging, but fun. I received better daily ride grades in that phase than any other phase, so it was nice to end on a positive. I really didn't want to end on a checkride bust! I use to get nervous before games/meets in high school/college, but it is nothing like inversion of the stomach that I get before a checkride. When your future can be altered by one flight, it seems to have a bit more of an effect than does whether or not the chicks are going to see your name in the lights.

Anyway, I am done and we have a ton of administration things to get done this next week. My plan is to get done, go find a place in Corpus, come back to move my stuff down, and then go home to get my wife. I am so jacked that she is going to live with me in CC. There are a lot of things to be figured out between now and then, but I will just take it one day at a time...it seems if that is how the days come any more. One right after the other, weird.

Well, I am off to get some of those things done...right after I go wakeboarding and play a round of golf. Maybe I won't get things done, but I think I deserve a bit of play time. Thanks to all for your support and to my retarded classmates (which I was the head tard) that read this now for putting up with me. I will try to update this while I am transitioning, but I will definitely have the blog running full AB (after burner) when I get to the carbon copy. Kick the tires and light the fires, time to fly...SEE YA!