Another Slow Week

The past week was rather slow and boring. I had Monday off due to someone having a dream and then dying five years later. Then due to other students having to catch up and limited number of planes, I had Tuesday off. Wednesday saw me sitting at the duty desk to help the operations officer...basically answer phones and being a secretary for the squadron.

Finally on Thursday I was scheduled to fly. But, as so often happens here at "The Rock," things didn't happen as originally planned. Part of my crew decided not to show up for the flight and therefore they had to cancel my flight. I would have been somewhat less bitter if I hadn't had to roll out of bed at 4:30 am for that bit of news. Luckily, another flight took me on and I didn't get to fly for as long as I originally was going to, but at least I got a portion of my curriculum done. Friday was just as interesting. The weather was all shades of nasty with freezing rain, so they cancelled the low level portions of the flight (generally the first several hours done by students in the next phase of training) and had me go first. It was nice not to have to wait four to five hours to fly, so I was all excited just to have my emotions flushed down the toilet. We started with having to replace some leaking parts around the prop. Then we taxied and we lost some crucial gauges, so we had to taxi back for maintenance. After getting that fixed and taxiing back, we lost a generator which is normally ok if the weather is good, but now the weather was deteriorating to the point where we were required to have all five generators working. After taxiing around for over two hours, the aircraft commander called it a day when the freezing rain started accumulating on our windshield. Long story short, I got up at 4:30am twice for only a portion of the training...and guess what time I have to be there on Monday...yep, you guessed it...5:15 am.

You can put away your handkerchiefs and wipe your eyes dry because my life isn't all horrible and cruel. I actually have time for myself and time to rock out. One of my buddies left their Guitar Hero III at our house and I have been taking full advantage of the game. In other news, Candi hasn't worked but two hours in the last week because she can't pull herself away from the game either. She just sits in the spare room with bloodshot eyes, refusing to sleep or eat until she gets another high score.

For those of you that don't know what the game is, it is a game where you play cords on a fake guitar as they appear on the screen. They are all popular songs and you get points by playing the right notes and strumming at the right time. It actually takes a lot of hand-eye coordination and therefore I am not the best at this one.

So if it isn't getting up early or playing a fake guitar, we didn't do it this week. I did find time to go shopping on Saturday and added one more pair of shoes to my collection...in my defense they are slippers and not really shoes. I also got a cool brown jacket that was regularly 80 dollars for a whopping $9.98...NOW THAT IS A DEAL!

Flying The Real Deal and an Anniversary

This week saw me finally getting to fly the actual aircraft without having to simulate the fun. It was pretty uneventful and just like the simulator with the exception being that the last part of the landing phase is a little harder in real life...and since they think that is "important," they make us practice it. I got to fly four flights this week, with one letting me fly up above Kansas City and back before practicing my landings. We have already demonstrated proficiency in all other phases of flying the C-130, so all we do generally is take off, fly in a rectangular fashion back around, and land...then do it all over again about 20 times. It is fun while you are flying, but very boring when the other students are flying.

Candi and I also celebrated our 4th anniversary this past week. I had Friday (and this Monday and Tuesday) off, so we went to a little resort town about an hour south of Little Rock. For those of you in Idaho, it would be like going to McCall, only with a horse racetrack...which with my luck it happened to be opening weekend of the race season. We saw a lot of fancy cars, outfits, and hats. Candi and I stayed at the Embassy Suites and I got us a spa package. I was pretty fearful of getting a dude to give the massage, but fortunately it was a lady and I didn't have to rationalize that one to myself.

We had a very relaxing time and when we weren't getting felt up, swimming, or eating (most expensive steak to date) we spent some alone time with a few animals. Nothing says, "I love you and I am so glad I married you" like getting bit and headbutted by smelly goats. We went to an alligator farm and petting zoo to celebrate four years of marital bliss...I'm not sure what you should read into that one. Not too many people get to say they get to pet alligators, goats, deer, and monkeys on their anniversary...but WE CAN!

We are finally getting some cold weather and I don't say that because I was looking forward to it, rather it seemed strange running around in a Speedo in January...not that the Speedo is strange, but that it was warm enough to break it out in the winter. It is getting so cold that even Zoe has been wearing some warmer apparel.

In other news, I may be giving up the pilot thing for covert operations. One of my buddies from pilot training always comes over to get out of staying in a dorm room and he likes to play fetch with Zoe. The only problem is he has a knack for sending the ball over the fence into a huge Rottweiler's domain. Finally after three balls accumulated over there, I made him go get them. The first attempt should have been videoed because it ended with a dog on his heels and him jumping a seven foot fence like a two foot hurdle. Probably one of the fastest times ever posted by a twenty something, white male. The next attempt took more planning and strategy. It took some misdirection...

and some foritude when Josh soiled himself when the dog realized he was in "his" yard...

but it turned out the dog was all bark and no bite, but as you can tell I found that out from our side of the fence.

Other than that, we have Monday off to celebrate my main man, MLK and I wasn't scheduled for Tuesday so I have an extra long break. One last thing I would like to share is that it is peanut butter jelly time! Tell me this little tune doesn't reappear in your head for the next few days! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8MDNFaGfT4

On To The Flightline

Good news, I passed another checkride. After coming back from the Christmas break, we had four flights in the sim and then an instrument checkride in the sim. The checkride was the final step before they let us go to the flightline for a few flights before completing our initial qualification. We have six flights (we will do two a day) just to feel how the real airplane lands, since that is the only thing that sim can't quite replicate exactly like real life. Once we do those flights, they give us a three landing checkride that will be the final step to our qualification. Then it will be on to Phase II and back to academics in the classroom for a month or so. Peaches my roommate has already had one ride, but I am still waiting for my first real flight. I am keeping my fingers crossed for the first part of this week.

I am a bit nervous that I will get behind my class because the Idaho Air Guard hasn't issued my orders for Phase II. It means that I don't have a firm date for my next class to start so if they have to sacrifice someone's schedule so others can make it through this phase, it will be me. There is one other student in my boat and they already made it clear to him that he wasn't a top priority for this reason. All I can do is hope and pray my squadron back home gets their act together soon.

When I was not in class or flying, I found time to golf and and do yard work this week. Not the norm for a guy from Idaho to be raking and doing yard work in the first part of January...not to mention playing golf. I labored to fill 24 large bags to the brim of leaves that had collected along our fence lines during the past fall and current wind storms.

It was a pretty low key week after the checkride, so no real good pictures to share. We dogsat again and if you like dog pictures, I could probably give you something, but other than that I got nothing for you that need pictures to keep your attent-i-o-n...oh, look at that butterfly, how pretty...oh, sorry...back to the the pictures, I don't have any for you.

Candi has been working a lot of hours and when not working she has been scrapbooking all of these blog entries and their pictures. In order to keep her with a hobby, I might start posting entries daily and including ten plus pictures in each of them. Until the next time when I can find some pictures, C-YA!

Back in Arkansas

Well, you can't live in dream land forever and two days ago we woke up in Arkansas with the dream over. We had a good time at home in Idaho, but the only way to get back was to finish in Arkansas.

I finally got to fly with my squadron in Boise, two days before we left. It was a night flight in which we did low levels and assault landings (seperate runway which is a quarter of the normal size) under night vision goggles (NVGs). It was pretty cool and I would have taken pictures but two things would have happened. One, the flash would have blinded the pilots causing us to crash (not a good thing). Secondly, all you would have seen was black anyway. Instead of a picture, visualize black and then visualize flying into the black and only being able to see some green haze when looking through the NVGs. That is what the pictures that would have killed us would have looked like...not quite worth the risk just for something to put on my blog!

It was nice to see snow and get to enjoy it, as you saw in the previous entry. We saw snow out the window of the airplane for most of the trip (picture below is of Utah), but it went away before we landed in Little Rock. We found out why the snow wasn't in Little Rock and that was because it was over sixty degrees. Today it is over seventy and looks to stay that way for a week or so...just a little difference!

We made it home on Friday and I had a flight that night. Thankfully, we did not have any delays and made it to Arkansas on time. I hadn't studied or prepared for the flight (sim) we had that night because I was on vacation and I shouldn't have to study on my break. It just so happens that the sim instructor saw it my way and didn't even use 1 of the 180 minutes that we had to "discuss" our reading and study assignments. Instead, he had us get right into the sim and we were done and home before the 180 minutes of "briefing" was up. Long story short, we were done under three hours instead of the six to seven hour norm and it worked out perfectly for my lack of preparation.

Our pets were glad to see us home, although our dog picked up a couple of weird habits. When we got home our dogsitters had enough of their duties and gave us their dog in return (they went out of town). The time together made our only child realize that there were others in the world and she finally can get along with others.

Candi also has been busy with starting a new career. She is teaching a class here at Sherwood University. The class is an elective for the students and is called, "Get to know a Kitty 101." She only has one student enrolled currently, Remy, but she is hoping the online age will get her more students. In this curriculum, students learn how to handle hissing and paw swinging, while still being able to determine the scent of the new subject. There are no guarantees that students will not risk possible scratches and cuts, but they don't seem to mind as long as they can get some nose on experience.

Other than that, I have a checkride on Wednesday for my final sim of phase one and then we are on to the flightline for six flights (usually two a day) to complete the initial qualification in the C-130. After that I am on to air drop and specialty items with regards to flying the 130.

Thanks to all who let us stay at their houses, fed us, and entertained us while we were in Idaho. Candi and I appreciate it and if you want us to return the favor, our door is always open to you in Arkansas... not to be confused with it being open when we get back to Idaho. We don't have that policy there because you might actually take us up on it.