One More Week Until Wings

No, I don't plan on going to Hooters next week. Friday I will be getting my Air Force Aviator Badge or "Wings." Basically, next week I will be an official pilot according to the Air Force, in spite of some of my best efforts to screw it up during the last year.

Here, it was another nice week with minimal work. I had a few co-pilot flights and a few days off. I also had to take a physical fitness test. I found out that I wasn't in as good of shape as I was when I got commissioned. My mile and a half run was almost a minute slower (10:29) than when I was at AMS. The tedious schedule still left time to golf, surf, and ride motos. I also don't want to forget some air-soft wars. Jaime hit me in the eye with one shot (despite wearing eye protection) and gave me a bit of a swollen eye. I have since switched to wearing my motorcycle goggles.

I finally had enough time to get to the dirt track and ride my dirt motorcycle. The track was sketchy at best, but at least I got to ride. The people that ride around here don't quite have as much money as the ones back home. Here is one example of a homemade toy hauler...for those of you in to RV trailers, this isn't quite of the quality. It looks as if they got it from the carnival.

I am sure these people are the same that you see at sports events and establishments that bring their own bottle/can cozy or insulator or whatever you call it. Only in South Texas do you see people try to bring their own beer can insulators into restaurants and ball games. That is how they roll down here!

The weather has cooled off a bit and we are seeing high 80s and low 90s. The humidity has gone down and the evenings finally start to cool off. This week was the first time I have walked out in the early morning and thought it actually felt like morning time...versus middle of the day on the sun. I guess it is always day on the sun, but you get the point.

The upcoming week will be filled with a lot of last minute things to do to get out-processed and graduated, not to mention getting ready for family to come into town. Tomorrow I am scheduled to take an FAA test to get my commercial pilot's license, instrument rating, and multi-engine rating. I know some of you are thinking, "why is he into farming," but that is the Future Farmers of America, not the Federal Aeronautical Administration. Although I am in Texas, I did buy boots, and I do have a cowboy hat, I am not really changing career paths.

Candi is still working right along. She is getting a bit nervous that the Guard hasn't given us a date to move to Little Rock, but she is managing. She has been busy working on real work and creative work. She made some "real nice" arrangements with sea shells and then put together some memorabilia from my last year of training. She does very good work, you all will have to see them when we get home in six...seven...eight...or however long it takes for us to get back.

Lastly, if you have ever heard someone say, "cotton picken," they were probably talking about the mascot for Robstown High School. I wish I had gone there...not really!

Enjoying Being Done and a Drop

TWO POSTS IN ONE WEEK...I obviously don't have enough to do. I had two days off this week after completing. I wasn't completely off, after sleeping in on Thursday and going to the beach, they gave me "Navy watch." I had to make sure no one took the building for six hours on Friday. After that barrel of monkeys Candi, Peaches, and I went to Smell Rio (Del Rio) to see my buddies drop their aircraft (when they find out what aircraft they will fly after training). I realized why I hadn't missed that town before we were even in it for five minutes.

The drop was a great one. Every T-38 guy got an F-16 except for Paul Baker and Jason Reighart who will now be instructor pilots for the T-6 and T-38, respectively. My boy Big Country (John Strube) got his first choice of the F-16.

It was great to see everyone and most were leaving on Monday for their new assignments. Some of my former classmates had already left for the next phase of their life, but I got to see several of them one last time. Congrats and good luck guys, you worked hard for everything you got.

Other than that, not a lot going on here. I have been involved in some highly dangerous air-soft gunfights with Jamie (aka Wyatt Earp). The guns are basically welt makers and hurt...hence the protection that I don. I look similar to a knight in shining armour...and my outfit matches. Nothing says manly like guns, danger, and matching outfits.

Peaches doesn't quite have the stylish armour that I was blessed with.

Thursday evening Candi and I went to Port Aransas for dinner and dolphin watching. It was incredible, we saw more than fifty dolphins and a great sunset...not to mention that the seafood is always great there. Port A is about twenty minutes up the island and the dolphins are usually found in the channel that allows the ships into the Corpus Christi bay.

Tomorrow I have a co-pilot flight with an instructor just for his practice. It is better than watching buildings, but it still cuts into my beach and golf time. Candi and I are starting to try to figure out where we want to live in Little Rock...now I just need my orders. They told me I should get my orders in the next few weeks, which would be nice since I will be done by then. I guess I am just supposed to hang out without orders if they don't get them to me by then. Well, I will keep you informed as things develop. C-YA

DONE...with T-44A Training

I was waiting until I was done to write my next entry and here it is...for those of you that haven't had a full pot of coffee yet, this means I am DONE!

The last week has been a lot of work. We have been flying low level flights and simulating dropping supplies and troops at 500 ft above terra firma to get us familiar with how we will make a living in the C-130 world. We have to plan, chart, and prepare for these flights, which takes six times more effort and work than normal flights. The work is not hard, it just takes a lot of time. When you are flying two flights a day that take up to ten hours from start to finish and then throw planning on top of that, it makes for some pretty long and busy days.

However, the flights are awesome. Half of the flights were normal low levels and the other half were tactical formation low levels. We were able to find some actual hills in Texas (NW of San Antonio) and fly through them and into some canyons. Flying below mountain tops is pretty cool, not to mention we were in a three ship formation. Next to one of my formation flights in T-6s, this was my second favorite flight.

Yesterday was my tactical formation checkride. They really aren't graded (except pass/fail) but that didn't mean that I wasn't a touch nervous. Everything went fine. I forgot my camera, but I got a few pics on my new cell phone. Hopefully, some of the other ships will send me the pics that they took. Seeing two ships in front of you banked at 90 degrees (don't tell anyone in the squadron because we are only suppose to go to 45-60 degrees for training) between canyon walls is pretty cool...and I was actually flying that part.

Now, I am just helping out around the squadron until we wing in two and a half weeks. I will be filling in as a copilot for sims and solo flights, as well as doing the gay Navy watch thing. The Navy thinks that they need to have people watch things all the time, so they make positions for us to come in and sit, answer phones, and watch the building so that the enemy doesn't take the building when no one is "watching." Of course the day that I am actually done, the weather changes from beautiful to a big poop sandwich and is suppose to stay nasty for another week...I am jacked about that.

Lastly, I just wanted to thank all of you for your support and prayers through this process (especially those you supported with sending cookies and little surprises;-)). I know I still have a ways to go and Little Rock won't be a vacation (its Arkansas after all), but you all have helped me through the hardest part. I especially want to thank my wife for her support and understanding. I know I couldn't have made it without her encouragement, prayers, and help taking care of everything from bills to my stomach's needs. THANK YOU, CANDI! I LOVE YOU!

DONE...well, almost!

I have been a slacker again, but it was on purpose. I wanted the next entry to be a joyous one that proclaimed I was done with my graded flights...but it took a little longer than I had hoped. The wheels kind of fell off at the end for me. I had a couple of bad flights, one of which I had to do again, and the whole process ended up taking a week longer than I had expected. The flights at the end (review stage) are everything you have learned thrown into four flights. The IPs try to find your weaknesses (I would give them high marks on their efforts) and then exploit them. They turn up the pressure to see if you can handle it. They turn off engines at the most inopportune times (some would argue that turning off a good engine at anytime is inopportune) and give all sorts of emergencies while you are supposed to fly normal procedures. Long story short, after those four flights they give you a checkride (which I did my best to mess up) and then a navigation solo. I passed the checkride on the prayers of many and moved on to my solo. I flew with another student to College Station (GIG 'EM AGGIES...that was for Strube) for lunch and then back. Here is a picture of me smiling because no IP was taking one of my engines away for a whole flight and then one of Corpus Christi Bay, with the aircraft carrier the USS Lexington, when we were flying back home.

The nav solo was the last flight that we had to get done for the syllabus, so I am technically done. The Air Force pilots have seven low level/tactical formation flights to complete after the solo. They are to get us ready for the C-130 mission and get a taste for flying low, but they are not graded. I completed the first one on Friday and it was a blast. They take a lot of work to plan and prepare for, but it is worth it.

So after all of that, I took Candi for a sun filled vacation to South Padre Island. We live on Padre Island and so we went south to South Padre Island. The actual town of South Padre Island is obviously south of where we live on this island, but you have to go into the main land then down and back over to the coast. It is about a three hour drive, but we just had to see what it was all about. We drove three hours to see that it is like wondering if your front yard looks like your backyard...and since you used the same grass seed, landscaping, and fertilizer...it looks almost identical. There were more tourist shops and higher condos, but everything else was the same. See for yourself.

We didn't actually get to see the sun, but we made the most of our time and didn't let a little rain dampen our spirits. On the bright side, we had the nature walk to ourselves. Unfortunately, the birds and wildlife were trying to stay out of the weather as well.

Other than that, not a lot has been going on for the Presley's. I have been studying a lot for those last few flights, so I haven't been doing much else. I did take the dog for a kayak ride, which lasted until a fish jumped and then we both went into the water. The dog after the fish and I capsized.

Well now comes the fun part...YOU ARE ALL INVITED TO MY GRADUATION! It is September 28th and it is pretty much the biggest thing in a pilot's career because without graduation, you never really become a pilot. I expect you all to be there or have a really good excuse...like you can't make it because it is in Corpus Christi and you aren't made of money and you don't have the time even if you were made of money. I will be sending out an announcement soon and I hope to have a link from my blog, so check back soon. If not, I will send it out through e-mail, so if you want a copy and you weren't on my e-mail list (because you never send me an e-mail) just send me a quick line to the e-mail at the top of this page. Until then, I will be flying low and chasing cows.