Around and Around He Goes...

Today's classes were markedly more interesting than the previous. We had one on acceleration, all about the G straining maneuvers and whatnot to keep blood flowing to the brain, and got to watch cool videos of people in centrifuges and so forth practicing proper technique, and then some guys that didn't and the different results.

We also had one on spatial disorientation, which is common while flying, and how you can recognize it, and even learned about those types you can't recognize and what you can do to prevent them. They had this little chair with a circular bar around it that we used for some of the demos, and we'd sit in it and get spun around at great speed and then once we were used to the motion would have to try to lift our head or sit up straight or do things our body would eventually not appreciate us doing very much. Lots of good pics from that one, fun stuff, reminded me somewhat of the teacups at Disneyland.

After that we had the night vision class and I volunteered to be one of the people wearing this really nifty red goggles (cept not really) for a half hour prior, which made the whole world look quite strange during that time, but eventually when we had the class in total darkness, they had us take them off and we were able to see much more than the rest of the class much sooner when it came to the dimly lit slides projected on the wall. We could easily distinguish patterns, most people couldn't even tell there was anything there. Some other cool examples too about the different aspects of flying at night and how long it takes for your vision to recover from light and fully adapt to the darkness.

I'm ending up with barely any pictures of myself doing any of this, I'll have to start passing around the camera for some stuff to get my ugly mug up in there. We then had a test review and finished the day early, so I snagged a haircut and some insoles for the new jump boots we were issued. I should also mention they moved all the T-43s (the plane we'll be flying) over to a section of the flightline very near one of the roads I take on the way to the squadron, so I'll be getting some good exterior shots tomorrow morning on the way in. I'm guessing this is because the main section of the flightline will be used for all the planes flying in for Command Day on Friday, probably mostly tomorrow. I might just go out and sit near the runway with a book or something when we're done for the day and see what I can catch a glimpse of as they come in. I'm sure I'll hear them wherever I am, that's for sure.

Now it's studystudystudy for our first test tomorrow, 25 multiple choice, should be pretty basic. In other words, if I get 100, I'll be happy. And I just won't say anything else.