Survival, Sort Of...
Man, falling a bit behind here. Luckily my section has a flex day today so I have nothing to do but stuff like make my bed and fold clothes and post blogs.
We'll start with the nav school stuff as it's pretty brief. On Monday we headed into the altitude chamber for a spin, and that was good times. Initially one of my ears was giving me issues, probably as a result of the cold over the weekend. Eventually though after some prodding there was a satisfying pressure release (pop) and I had no problems for the rest of the journey up to 35,000 feet. Got some sweet pictures of myself in the helmet and oxygen mask, looking like a fighter pilot extraordinaire or something. There were all sorts of demonstrations that took place while we were in there, including a night vision one where we got to see what happens when we go on and off of oxygen and try to focus on text and colors. The funny part was the hypoxia demonstration, where one half of us then the other took off our masks at 25000 or so and then waited the three to five minutes for hypoxia to set in. Some people felt symptoms almost immediately and had to get right back on oxygen, but I ended up barely feeling anything for quite a while. A bit warmer and more dizzy than usual, and apparently I had some nice cyanosis (blue lips/fingernails) goin, but other than that I was still able to do math problems and whatnot even late in the period. You can definitely tell the difference when you put the mask back on though... Then it was the other side's turn and we got our chance to laugh at them and their symptoms. One of the typical ones is euphoria, so people suddenly get very smiley and giggly which is funny to watch.
Eventually we returned to earth and got ready for the second portion of the chamber, the rapid decompression or "rapid D" as they called it. Basically they put us in a separate smaller chamber at sea level and took the main one up to 16,000 or so, and then basically opened the door which caused the whole thing to equalize at around 10,000. They ran us through the steps of gangloading the regulator and putting on the "quick-don" as it's called, but then gave us some long boring information with the phrase "a rapid D could happen at any TIME" being the buzz word, after which the technician outside initiated it, which basically scares the bejeezus out of you because it sounds like a mild explosion that you're totally not expecting. We all got on oxygen in a hurry without any problems though, so I came out of the whole experience pretty confident with the equipment that I'll probably very rarely ever use.
The next day was spent entirely on survival, most of which was pretty boring, only because we'll have to go over this much more in depth when we go to Fairchild for land and Pensacola for water, and this was just a brief runthrough in case something happens to one of our T-43s. It's not like landing somewhere in west Texas would require living off the land for a month and instead we'd probably be found within the hour, but hey. We then had a test immediately the next day which was yesterday, and I managed to miss one again. Interestingly enough there was one almost half the class missed that I got right, but it might get thrown out which means there will be a lot of 100s, and I'll be stuck with having missed one yet again. It's amazing how long it has been since I've aced any kind of test. Well they only get harder, so I guess if I keep up the minus one pattern and everyone else drops, I'll be doing ok.
Still gotta blab a bit about the weekend, probably tomorrow. We start Aviation Preflight Indoctrination (API) tomorrow, so I hear it's a lot of memorization of regulations and whatnot, and the test is pretty tough. I've become my section's photographer, so I've got a site up with the guy from the other section with tons of pictures from the last few weeks, and it will be updated throughout the course. IM me if you want the link.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Birthdays in the Military...
I guess you have to get used to this sort of thing.
Massive brownie points to the one person outside my family and relationship who called me today to wish me a happy birthday without me having to tell them beforehand. I guess I haven't been doing as good a job keeping in touch with people as I thought, alas.
I spent the day sitting through classes, then did a bunch of loads of laundry, then sat around studying for another test tomorrow and waiting for the phone to ring, which it basically didn't. More later, didn't want to clutter up the pretty little May 4th on this post.
It happens.
I guess you have to get used to this sort of thing.
Massive brownie points to the one person outside my family and relationship who called me today to wish me a happy birthday without me having to tell them beforehand. I guess I haven't been doing as good a job keeping in touch with people as I thought, alas.
I spent the day sitting through classes, then did a bunch of loads of laundry, then sat around studying for another test tomorrow and waiting for the phone to ring, which it basically didn't. More later, didn't want to clutter up the pretty little May 4th on this post.
It happens.
Monday, May 03, 2004
All Sorts of Airtrains...
That's what I used to call them as a kid, pointing up at the sky, not knowing I was off by a bit. Okay so I've actually had somewhat of a life the past few days but that just means more for you to read today. Fear not, oh ye who are bored. Strangely I randomly clicked on my guestbook wondering why its been months since I got an e-mail saying someone had signed, and lo and behold there were a bunch of posts I hadn't read! I guess maybe that e-mail got shuffled to junk or something, who knows. Nice to see that those whom I slave away for to satisfy at least a few minutes of boredom every once in a while take the time to say hi. Keep hittin it up, repeat posters are extra special.
I'll update all the JSUNT related stuff today at least, got about a half hour before I gotta hit the shower and head in later than usually today for the altitude chamber. So last I left you was Thursday, the day of our first test. Well to get that out of the way I missed one. I really don't have an excuse for it either. I actually sat there for about 10 min staring at it, and eventually just went with what my first instinct had been, as they tell you to do, and it was the other one. So not exactly starting off on the perfect foot, although I'm better off than some. Bunch of 100s though, so I'm already not where I'd like to be. Optimstically however, the stuff I really excell at is the navigation and mathematics related to it and whatnot, so looking forward to getting into the sections that are apparently much more difficult so the pack can thin out a bit. We got our results right afterward which was nice, no waiting overnight or anything like that. We then had the rest of the morning off until we came back at noon for some of the emergency training for the T-43. They had one of those slides down from where the stairway normally is inflated, and we all got to take turns jumping off and doing what you always wanted to do when you read the safety card in a commercial airliner (at least if you're that bored) with some people getting interesting results. A lot of landing on people's asses instead of feet, it's sort of a strange feeling. Most slides you just sit at the top of and push yourself til gravity takes you, this one you actually have to jump out and away from the plane and land on it already movin pretty quick. Fun stuff. Then we got to put on the hood from the oversuit thing whatever it is that you'd wear in case of toxic smoke or gas or whatever which made it pretty tough to breath, when you were breathing you were fogging up the mask, usually there's an oxygen pack on the back that cycles it through the mask but this was just for practice. So then we went down the slide again, which was funny because you couldn't tell who was who so the people who really ate it escaped the usual torment. Then we went over to the other side and practiced exiting over the wing via a rope and sliding down the slats. I dunno about you but when I sit commercially over the wing I always look out the window and want to go play on it, so these opportunities were quite neat. Oh I forgot, prior to all this they showed us how to put on the oversuits or whatever they're called in class, and I was called on to volunteer to demonstrate... You're supposed to be able to do it in a minute, and I ended up only being able to get one boot in that fast... Alas that's why they train us, by the end of the class I had it down. Had someone snag some pics of it, they're "one size fits all" so that made some people's appearance pretty hilarious.
After all this we headed over to the pool at the OClub, where they'd set up a 20 man raft for us to have fun with. First we put on our life preserver things and you know how they always say on the airline "pull the red tabs" and you wonder how cool that would be to inflate something like that? Yeah it's pretty cool. We only got to do one because we had to practice manually blowing up the other side, but the side that we pulled was suddenly smooshed against our face, making it look like we had huge yellow cheeks. Quite hysterical especially once we got in the water. Off to the other end of the pool we went and eventually people jumped in/were pushed and we all got into a "life chain" basically linking arms or holding on in a circle or whatnot. Some people did their best to drown me but failed, not quite figuring out that if you just sink down low so that most of your weight is underwater you can float without even having to kick. We then made our way towards the raft, and practiced getting in. It's actually not as easy as you'd think, the sides are about two feet tall, so without the ramp on the side you'd have some problems. They had the first two people get on either side of the ramp, and basically you'd yank yourself up to where you could extend your elbows to them, and they'd just grab you and hurl you into the raft. I was one of the last in, and I basically got launched onto my head, so people found that to be pretty funny. We ended up with about 26 guys in a 20 person raft, so we were quite cozy. Then we worked with the various aspects of the raft, including the hot pink canopy that ended up making it about 100 degrees on the inside. I should mention we did all this in our full flight suits, which was quite a strange feeling when you're used to just swimming in bathing suits. Eventually we finished that aspect of training and were cut loose for the day, all in all a very fun day as training goes. When we're sitting in the classroom for hours at a time I'm sure I'll wish there was something else we could learn in the pool.
Friday was Command Day, which was not as cool as I was expecting, but still very cool. It was the briefings that sort of dragged it down, basically they had every airframe that had a representative there give like a 10-15 min schpeal on it. Unfortunately the majority of it was just the bios and stats of the airframe that most of us already knew, and not as much about life as a navigator on each of them. Some were more informative than others, but basically no matter what they're talking about if you're sitting in the same seat from 0700 to 1230 with a few short breaks, you're going to get bored. I spent some of the time text messaging the girlfriend, I think she could tell I was desperate for alternative forms of entertainment. Part of the problem was I had gotten sick that day, and by the middle of the day felt like a train wreck. I went home and took a nap, not being able to participate in some of the classified briefings because my security clearance hadn't been completed or something, but I can't say I missed out on much based on what other people said, just more of the same "we'll have the new WJERLSKJS2348923 next year, which will be state of the art" which doesn't mean a whole lot to us at this point. Waking up when my alarm went off I literally felt pretty horrible and wouldn't have gotten up for much of anything, with one of the things being worth it the fact that all the airframes were sitting out on the flightline waiting for me to go take a look. I snagged my camera and headed out there, nose imitating a faucet and all.
It was my first time seeing the vast majority of the planes, and I got to climb all over them, up into the cockpits, back around the main section, basically see everything there was to see. The only one I didn't get up inside was the B52, but I've actually seen one of those at an airshow and seen a lot of video of the inside so I wasn't bothered too much, given the line was like an hour long. It's also actually one of the few aircraft that based on what I've been pondering over the last few weeks is on my not preferred list when it comes to what I get on the way out of here. Honestly though, being in anything would be pretty awesome, just focusing on earning the wings at this point. The only other planes I'm not tremendously interested in are the RC135 and E3, both of which have large crews and focus more on the intelligence side of things, the former gathering signals information with a team of linguists and whatnot in the back, the latter being what AWACS uses to control battlespace, mostly by flying in circles or "orbits" as they refer to them as. Above them in order of preference is the KC-135, which does pretty much all the tanker work in the Air Force. They're pretty massive planes, but the briefer really made it seem like the nav's role really isn't that important, it was basically some lieutenant who knows his job is probably the easiest there is, and wasn't afraid to let us know. This leads me to think they'll probably phase the nav out of that airframe first, and the others might have better long term potential. The bases these along with the B52 are located at aren't ideal, and the mission just doesn't interest me as much as some others. What that leaves is the C-130, HC-130, EC-130, AC-130, and MC-130. Basically that won't mean a whole lot to most of you, but they're all variations of the same aircraft with the C-130 "Slick" being the base model. The HC refuels helicopters, the EC focuses on electronic warfare, the AC is the gunship that recorded most of those videos in Afghanistan of stuff getting blown up, and the MC has three varities all of which focus on special ops, one focuses on refueling while the other two drop guys off and pick them up, lots of low level in the dark stuff. I'd probably be satisfied on any of the varieties, so other than the bases they're located at, there probably won't be much to distinguish them for a while.
When it comes to the concept of EWO, I'm really not feeling the vibe at this point, although again I haven't had much to go by thus far. Just doesn't seem like as good a fit for me, and two of the five airframes that come out of there being the B52 and R-135 aren't on my desperate to get lists, so right now I'm leaning towards staying in the 562d. Took a load of pictures, including a bunch of the pair of F-15Es that were also there, my first time seeing them in person. For a long time that was my dream, but in hindsight given the whole depth perception waiver being passed through as we speak, I might have gotten rolled out of there anyway, I'm guessing it would be near to impossible to get a backseat slot there with that problem. It just goes to show, the world isn't over when you get the news at OTS, you might end up enjoying the job over here better anyway.
My spot in each of the 130s looked pretty comfy, nice fur covered chair or whatever it is, like those car seats that are oh so nice. I'm right up there on the upper level with the cockpit crew, so I'd be able to see out the windows, which isn't the case in some of the other varieties of airframe. So we'll see how things pan out. The good news is the C-130 base model is the airframe handed out to somewhere around half of each class, so if nothing else that should be available when the time comes.
Alas I have an appointment with the altitude chamber this morning, gonna get to put on one of those nifty looking helmets and oxygen masks you see in top gun and all fighter aircraft for the first time. Definitely gonna have to snag some pics. Had fun this weekend too, more later.
That's what I used to call them as a kid, pointing up at the sky, not knowing I was off by a bit. Okay so I've actually had somewhat of a life the past few days but that just means more for you to read today. Fear not, oh ye who are bored. Strangely I randomly clicked on my guestbook wondering why its been months since I got an e-mail saying someone had signed, and lo and behold there were a bunch of posts I hadn't read! I guess maybe that e-mail got shuffled to junk or something, who knows. Nice to see that those whom I slave away for to satisfy at least a few minutes of boredom every once in a while take the time to say hi. Keep hittin it up, repeat posters are extra special.
I'll update all the JSUNT related stuff today at least, got about a half hour before I gotta hit the shower and head in later than usually today for the altitude chamber. So last I left you was Thursday, the day of our first test. Well to get that out of the way I missed one. I really don't have an excuse for it either. I actually sat there for about 10 min staring at it, and eventually just went with what my first instinct had been, as they tell you to do, and it was the other one. So not exactly starting off on the perfect foot, although I'm better off than some. Bunch of 100s though, so I'm already not where I'd like to be. Optimstically however, the stuff I really excell at is the navigation and mathematics related to it and whatnot, so looking forward to getting into the sections that are apparently much more difficult so the pack can thin out a bit. We got our results right afterward which was nice, no waiting overnight or anything like that. We then had the rest of the morning off until we came back at noon for some of the emergency training for the T-43. They had one of those slides down from where the stairway normally is inflated, and we all got to take turns jumping off and doing what you always wanted to do when you read the safety card in a commercial airliner (at least if you're that bored) with some people getting interesting results. A lot of landing on people's asses instead of feet, it's sort of a strange feeling. Most slides you just sit at the top of and push yourself til gravity takes you, this one you actually have to jump out and away from the plane and land on it already movin pretty quick. Fun stuff. Then we got to put on the hood from the oversuit thing whatever it is that you'd wear in case of toxic smoke or gas or whatever which made it pretty tough to breath, when you were breathing you were fogging up the mask, usually there's an oxygen pack on the back that cycles it through the mask but this was just for practice. So then we went down the slide again, which was funny because you couldn't tell who was who so the people who really ate it escaped the usual torment. Then we went over to the other side and practiced exiting over the wing via a rope and sliding down the slats. I dunno about you but when I sit commercially over the wing I always look out the window and want to go play on it, so these opportunities were quite neat. Oh I forgot, prior to all this they showed us how to put on the oversuits or whatever they're called in class, and I was called on to volunteer to demonstrate... You're supposed to be able to do it in a minute, and I ended up only being able to get one boot in that fast... Alas that's why they train us, by the end of the class I had it down. Had someone snag some pics of it, they're "one size fits all" so that made some people's appearance pretty hilarious.
After all this we headed over to the pool at the OClub, where they'd set up a 20 man raft for us to have fun with. First we put on our life preserver things and you know how they always say on the airline "pull the red tabs" and you wonder how cool that would be to inflate something like that? Yeah it's pretty cool. We only got to do one because we had to practice manually blowing up the other side, but the side that we pulled was suddenly smooshed against our face, making it look like we had huge yellow cheeks. Quite hysterical especially once we got in the water. Off to the other end of the pool we went and eventually people jumped in/were pushed and we all got into a "life chain" basically linking arms or holding on in a circle or whatnot. Some people did their best to drown me but failed, not quite figuring out that if you just sink down low so that most of your weight is underwater you can float without even having to kick. We then made our way towards the raft, and practiced getting in. It's actually not as easy as you'd think, the sides are about two feet tall, so without the ramp on the side you'd have some problems. They had the first two people get on either side of the ramp, and basically you'd yank yourself up to where you could extend your elbows to them, and they'd just grab you and hurl you into the raft. I was one of the last in, and I basically got launched onto my head, so people found that to be pretty funny. We ended up with about 26 guys in a 20 person raft, so we were quite cozy. Then we worked with the various aspects of the raft, including the hot pink canopy that ended up making it about 100 degrees on the inside. I should mention we did all this in our full flight suits, which was quite a strange feeling when you're used to just swimming in bathing suits. Eventually we finished that aspect of training and were cut loose for the day, all in all a very fun day as training goes. When we're sitting in the classroom for hours at a time I'm sure I'll wish there was something else we could learn in the pool.
Friday was Command Day, which was not as cool as I was expecting, but still very cool. It was the briefings that sort of dragged it down, basically they had every airframe that had a representative there give like a 10-15 min schpeal on it. Unfortunately the majority of it was just the bios and stats of the airframe that most of us already knew, and not as much about life as a navigator on each of them. Some were more informative than others, but basically no matter what they're talking about if you're sitting in the same seat from 0700 to 1230 with a few short breaks, you're going to get bored. I spent some of the time text messaging the girlfriend, I think she could tell I was desperate for alternative forms of entertainment. Part of the problem was I had gotten sick that day, and by the middle of the day felt like a train wreck. I went home and took a nap, not being able to participate in some of the classified briefings because my security clearance hadn't been completed or something, but I can't say I missed out on much based on what other people said, just more of the same "we'll have the new WJERLSKJS2348923 next year, which will be state of the art" which doesn't mean a whole lot to us at this point. Waking up when my alarm went off I literally felt pretty horrible and wouldn't have gotten up for much of anything, with one of the things being worth it the fact that all the airframes were sitting out on the flightline waiting for me to go take a look. I snagged my camera and headed out there, nose imitating a faucet and all.
It was my first time seeing the vast majority of the planes, and I got to climb all over them, up into the cockpits, back around the main section, basically see everything there was to see. The only one I didn't get up inside was the B52, but I've actually seen one of those at an airshow and seen a lot of video of the inside so I wasn't bothered too much, given the line was like an hour long. It's also actually one of the few aircraft that based on what I've been pondering over the last few weeks is on my not preferred list when it comes to what I get on the way out of here. Honestly though, being in anything would be pretty awesome, just focusing on earning the wings at this point. The only other planes I'm not tremendously interested in are the RC135 and E3, both of which have large crews and focus more on the intelligence side of things, the former gathering signals information with a team of linguists and whatnot in the back, the latter being what AWACS uses to control battlespace, mostly by flying in circles or "orbits" as they refer to them as. Above them in order of preference is the KC-135, which does pretty much all the tanker work in the Air Force. They're pretty massive planes, but the briefer really made it seem like the nav's role really isn't that important, it was basically some lieutenant who knows his job is probably the easiest there is, and wasn't afraid to let us know. This leads me to think they'll probably phase the nav out of that airframe first, and the others might have better long term potential. The bases these along with the B52 are located at aren't ideal, and the mission just doesn't interest me as much as some others. What that leaves is the C-130, HC-130, EC-130, AC-130, and MC-130. Basically that won't mean a whole lot to most of you, but they're all variations of the same aircraft with the C-130 "Slick" being the base model. The HC refuels helicopters, the EC focuses on electronic warfare, the AC is the gunship that recorded most of those videos in Afghanistan of stuff getting blown up, and the MC has three varities all of which focus on special ops, one focuses on refueling while the other two drop guys off and pick them up, lots of low level in the dark stuff. I'd probably be satisfied on any of the varieties, so other than the bases they're located at, there probably won't be much to distinguish them for a while.
When it comes to the concept of EWO, I'm really not feeling the vibe at this point, although again I haven't had much to go by thus far. Just doesn't seem like as good a fit for me, and two of the five airframes that come out of there being the B52 and R-135 aren't on my desperate to get lists, so right now I'm leaning towards staying in the 562d. Took a load of pictures, including a bunch of the pair of F-15Es that were also there, my first time seeing them in person. For a long time that was my dream, but in hindsight given the whole depth perception waiver being passed through as we speak, I might have gotten rolled out of there anyway, I'm guessing it would be near to impossible to get a backseat slot there with that problem. It just goes to show, the world isn't over when you get the news at OTS, you might end up enjoying the job over here better anyway.
My spot in each of the 130s looked pretty comfy, nice fur covered chair or whatever it is, like those car seats that are oh so nice. I'm right up there on the upper level with the cockpit crew, so I'd be able to see out the windows, which isn't the case in some of the other varieties of airframe. So we'll see how things pan out. The good news is the C-130 base model is the airframe handed out to somewhere around half of each class, so if nothing else that should be available when the time comes.
Alas I have an appointment with the altitude chamber this morning, gonna get to put on one of those nifty looking helmets and oxygen masks you see in top gun and all fighter aircraft for the first time. Definitely gonna have to snag some pics. Had fun this weekend too, more later.
