When I last posted on this blog I had just started the instrument phase of flight so that is where I will pick up with this post.
Instrument flying is how pilots fly in bad weather, at night, when visibility is limited, etc. This is done solely by looking at and relying on your flight instruments and not using any external references at all. In order to simulate this we wear a funny looking hood on our helmets that keeps us from seeing all outside references and forces us to focus on the instruments. Instrument flying is very slow, very methodical, and almost completely opposite from contact flying. This is, in many ways, extremely boring and is based on lots of procedures and step by step lists to follow. While the flying itself is pretty boring, the instrument phase is when we actually got to leave the confines of the Sheppard AFB bubble and fly out-and-backs to other airfields.
A large part of the Instrument phase is cross-country where we take the weekend and fly somewhere about 600 miles away from Sheppard for the weekend. For my cross-country I went with 4 flightmates up to Denver, Colorado. On Friday we flew to Denver via Lubbock, TX and we flew back on Sunday via Amarillo, TX. On Saturday we got to fly VFR (basically just navigating from point to point with no set flight plan or directions and not under the control of any air traffic control authority) through the mountains of Colorado. For those who know the area, we flew from Denver, down south past Castle Rock and Monument, past the Air Force Academy, around Pikes Peak, through the Royal Gorge, around past Buena Vista and Breckenridge, and landed at Eagle County Airport in Vail. It was the coolest flying I had done thus far.
After the Instrument phase we move on to Advanced Contact (where we
get to do loads more aerobatics) and Low Level. The Advanced Contact
phase includes area solos, where we get to go out and practice our
aerobatic maneuvers by ourselves with no IP in the back seat. That was really cool and super exciting; I still can't believe I get to do this and get paid for it.
Low Level is designed for us to practice point to point navigation by flying prescribed routes at 500 feet above the ground and 210 knots. It was really cool flying that low and that fast and it was fun to get to dodge towers and birds and aim for reaching our "target" as close as we could to the planned target time.
Today was my first Formation ride. In T-6 we do 2-ship formations and fly, at the closest, a mere 10 feet from the other aircraft! It was pretty terrifying but absolutely amazing!! I'm told that formation gets easier really quickly, which I hope is true because staying in the proper "fingertip" position for even a few seconds was pretty difficult, but I guess thats what practice is for! Within only 7 or so more rides I'll be doing my formation solo, taking the jet out in formation by myself!! Craziness.....
I'll probably not update again until after T-6 is over (which is going to be super soon which blows my mind) but if you have any questions about what I'm up to, don't hesitate to ask!
My class, 13-05
Instrument flying is how pilots fly in bad weather, at night, when visibility is limited, etc. This is done solely by looking at and relying on your flight instruments and not using any external references at all. In order to simulate this we wear a funny looking hood on our helmets that keeps us from seeing all outside references and forces us to focus on the instruments. Instrument flying is very slow, very methodical, and almost completely opposite from contact flying. This is, in many ways, extremely boring and is based on lots of procedures and step by step lists to follow. While the flying itself is pretty boring, the instrument phase is when we actually got to leave the confines of the Sheppard AFB bubble and fly out-and-backs to other airfields.
A large part of the Instrument phase is cross-country where we take the weekend and fly somewhere about 600 miles away from Sheppard for the weekend. For my cross-country I went with 4 flightmates up to Denver, Colorado. On Friday we flew to Denver via Lubbock, TX and we flew back on Sunday via Amarillo, TX. On Saturday we got to fly VFR (basically just navigating from point to point with no set flight plan or directions and not under the control of any air traffic control authority) through the mountains of Colorado. For those who know the area, we flew from Denver, down south past Castle Rock and Monument, past the Air Force Academy, around Pikes Peak, through the Royal Gorge, around past Buena Vista and Breckenridge, and landed at Eagle County Airport in Vail. It was the coolest flying I had done thus far.
My jet at Centennial Airport, CO
Eagle County Airport, Vail, CO
Cross-country Crew
Low Level is designed for us to practice point to point navigation by flying prescribed routes at 500 feet above the ground and 210 knots. It was really cool flying that low and that fast and it was fun to get to dodge towers and birds and aim for reaching our "target" as close as we could to the planned target time.
Today was my first Formation ride. In T-6 we do 2-ship formations and fly, at the closest, a mere 10 feet from the other aircraft! It was pretty terrifying but absolutely amazing!! I'm told that formation gets easier really quickly, which I hope is true because staying in the proper "fingertip" position for even a few seconds was pretty difficult, but I guess thats what practice is for! Within only 7 or so more rides I'll be doing my formation solo, taking the jet out in formation by myself!! Craziness.....
I'll probably not update again until after T-6 is over (which is going to be super soon which blows my mind) but if you have any questions about what I'm up to, don't hesitate to ask!
