First Week of Flying

WAHOO!!!! What a rush!!!! As Tom Petty sang, " Learning to fly, but I ain't got wings Coming down is the hardest thing...." is what I felt all week. I'm working on getting my wings and those landings are really taking a toll on my spinal column, but man am I loving it!!!!!

We finished our last exam on Monday and we were scheduled to fly later that day. It was hard to focus on the exam as we were all raring to get airborne........no worries the test went really well. Later that day it was time to get airborne and get to the fun part of the course!!! The flights are called Clear Hoods (CH) since this course is just a selection course to see if we can learn and function with the basics to being a pilot. CH being the fact that we fly during sunny, beautiful weather with no real large amounts of clouds, flying with visual cues outside not using instruments. During last week I flew all 5 days but Thurs being the only day where we couldn't accomplish what we needed to do as it was quite turbulent. CH1 was an intro to the plane and flying basics of climbs, descends and turns. Trust me, after the basics I was still vibrating long after the flight was over......this is an amazing plane!!! CH2 proved to be the same as the first one but adding in the departure sequence.......and this thing has some serious torque!!!! My instructor has been great in letting me get the full opportunities out of each trip and not wasting any valuable training time. As it works, we get 24 flights and only 6hrs as extra time in case you need to work on something that you didn't make the grade on. Needless to say, I'm using all the time I get for each CH to minimize the 6hrs of extra. CH3 was where we got into the more exciting things like slow flight and stalls. Hang on Mom.......stalls are just that........we slow the aircraft down until it is no longer flying and the nose drops because it has no more "lift" to stay airborne. We are taught this to recognise the signs and symptoms and taught how to recover so that we can do this if we ever get in trouble during the slower phases of flight like take-off and landing. All went well....it was a wild mini roller coaster ride that I didn't pay for!!! CH4 was all about arrivals and approaches.....basically getting the plane back to the airport and prepared for landing. We practised overshooting (when your approach doesn't work out and you have to go around and try the landing again) and the circuit pattern. Well at least my instructor is very patient. By the end I got the hang of it and got back down to the runway by the end of the flight!!!! Phew.....hard work.....earning my keep! Next week will be just as busy and hoping the weather gives us a great opportunity for learning again. Next lesson is the landings........will be working on my vertebras good then!!!!

End of Week 3

As another week of ground school passes, the anticipation of flying is growing! We all seem to be hoovering as the time for our first flight is coming soon. But first we need to deal with the rest of ground school, which has brought the final week full of exams, 4 in fact with the last one on Monday. First was the Meteorology exam, which would seem less of a challenge for us navigators, but proved to be a viable foe. It challenged our understanding of weather rather than the standard military testing of regurgitation of lists you memorized with silly acronyms. The rest seemed to be pretty straight forward of knowledge based exams on Flight Instruments, Aerodynamics, and Rules and Regualtions. We all prevailed!!

Friday night on the other hand was a different story. This was our welcoming party to Pilot Training and a chance for everyone to meet us new "kids" walking around in the blue uniforms (not flt suits!!). The object is to have the previous course parade us into the mess and introduce us in their own version as they see fit.......it was funny. After, we are to perform a skit of aviation background but nothing to do with Top Gun! Oh no worries there, ours was a mock version of David Letterman's Top 10 reasons to be (or not to be) a Fighter Pilot. Needless to say, not one of us desire to be a Jet Jock, so it was a hit!!!!

The rest of the weekend was made up of recovery and studying for Monday and the flying phase. As you get older those Friday nights are harder....that's for sure!!!!

End of Week 2

This week wasn't as exciting as the ones I had to date. We had Meteorology all week. Learning about windshear, temperatures and it's effects on heating, cooling and saturation, adiabatic and katabatic cooling, noctural inversions etc. You get the point........exciting!!!! On Friday night Peter Wright received his Wings and is now a Helicopter Pilot, Congrats Pete!! He's off to Comox to fly the Comorant! He invited me to his Mess Dinner for his class and things were pretty much under control...... quite civil for a Mess Dinner. Must have been because parents and friends were present! The weekend has been spent reading the extensive Met stuff as our test is tomorrow morning. It's not too bad for Tyler and I as we've seen this stuff over the last 9+yrs but a test is a test, and I forget to read the questions sometimes and get ahead of myself. But staying calm! Will let you know the outcome, wish us luck!!!

End of Week 1

As the rest of the week carried on, we were left more and more on our own to figure out what we are suppose to do or where to go! Hmmmm! As Tyler and I being the Capts; and apparently the ones that know everything, the rest of the class looks to us after each lecture to see what's coming next......Great...... As good Capts, we look back at them with tons of confidence and exude this aura of great knowledge...... then, after a long 'pause of power and greatness', we exhale and say "How the heck should I know?" As funny as it is, after each class, the instructors actually ask the same question when they're done teaching their lecture; "So what do you guys have next, who's teaching you next, or are you guys done?" Even they look at Tyler and I for the answers. Next Week we're actually going to say "we're on the flightline next", and watch the chaos and panic fly!
The classes seem to be pretty straight forward with plenty of time to get prepped for the next days lessons, even leaving time for some floor hockey and gym exercises. I think I'm going to loose both my big toe-nails, as I had both of them crushed and trampled while I crashed the net! Oh well, the price of playing like Holstrom (Detroit Red Wing hockey player)!
We had our first exam on Thurs, AOI's (Aircraft Operating Instructions, like your car manual), and it went very well, I'm still here! Thursday was a short day after the exam in order to get ready for a long Easter Weekend. I'm off to Stonewall for the weekend to spend time with Terry and Mike and the rest of the Bergthorson Clan.

Happy Bunny to All!