18 June, 2003

            Well, another week has passed, and not without excitement.  Even though I am close to my Transition check-ride (the 1^st of 3 check-rides in the T-1), I am still learning new things.  Getting prepared for the check really sucks because we have had people in our class hook already, and it was for things that I probably would have hooked for, if I hadn’t learned from their mistakes.  Either way, I am scheduled to go to check flight on Tuesday of next week, which gives me one last weekend to get my shit together.

            Last week was eventful, because there were some scheduling conflicts that made everything seem a bit more confused.  For one, I was scheduled for a simulator last week, and I showed up at 0530, which was the scheduled time to show, however, after going to the sim, there was a problem and it had to be cancelled because the sim was broken, well, the scheduler tried to put me into a later sim even though I told him that I did not have the proper crew rest (crew rest is a mandatory thing here, you cannot be at work one minute past 12 hours).  Well, they scheduled me anyway, and then when I went to that sim, the instructors over there wouldn’t let me do it, so I got sent back, and it made me look like I had come in too early for a sim, which of course, I didn’t because I was originally scheduled for the first one.  Whew, did you understand that?  Me neither.  Anyway, it was hectic.

            On Thursday of last week, I was sitting jump seat first (my flying partner was flying first) and we went to Midland, where it was absolutely crazy.  We have closed 2 out of our 4 transition bases due to birds, runway closures, NAVAIDs down, etc etc.  Well, Midland was packed, and we ended up just saying forget it, and leaving, which “incompleted” me for the sortie.  At one time we counted 19 different jets in the visual and radar patterns.   The controller was working his ass off.   So, we couldn’t get any really good training, so we left and I had to wait until Friday to fly my scheduled mission.

            Friday was a day to remember.  First of all it was a “Sup-ride” (Pronounced “Soup”), which is when you are scheduled to fly with a flight commander.  They aren’t a bad thing (or meant to be anyway), but they are so the FC can fly occasionally with students, but not actually belong to any students, like a regular IP.  For example, with most IP’s you would fly a string of 3 sorties with them, so you get some continuity in training (ie learning their techniques).  The “Sup” however, is way to busy to have to fly 3 days in a row and just flies when he/she can.   Well, we got tapped to go on a “Sup-ride”.

            So we step to the jet and I get in and start all the before take-off crap, and after about 10 minutes, my flying partner and the Sup come in and get strapped in and we go.  Well, I could tell the Sup seemed slightly pissed (Which is never a good thing), and I come to find out, much later, that it was because he had been asking my flying partner questions about the walk-around (what you do to make sure the plane is flyable from the outside) and my “pahdna” totally boned it up.  So he was pissed about that.  Also, the flight had to be re-planned to a different base because the weather was crappy, with continued crappy expected.   Little did we know just how crappy and how it would effect us in the air with little fuel left.  But that comes later.

            So we set off for Roswell, New Mexico, to do some pattern work.  As we are flying, we check the weather radar (It’s a gadget that shows us weather in front of us) and it doesn’t look so good.  Almost immediately we have to call and get clearance to deviate around some nasty looking thunderstorms in our path.   It got a little bit bumpy and so we slowed to our thunderstorm penetration speed (basically so if we hit turbulence the plane doesn’t get overstressed).  So we flew around one of the major thunder cells and saw a glimpse of clear air, and we made right for it.  All was fine and good, until we got about 80 miles out from Roswell.  There was another line of thunderstorms, so again we had to deviate around them.  All the while, we were just taking more and more time and fuel.  About half way around the storm, the Sup decided that it would be better if I was the only one to fly and my flying partner would incomplete, just like I had done the day before.

            We made it through to Roswell and stared to do my approach and pattern work, the only problem was that it was appearing to get worse between us and home.  We shrugged it off and said that if it was too bad, we’d just return to Roswell, and land.   So, the patterns went mainly uneventful, except for the fact that I was boning stuff up that I usually don’t (Always with the Sup right?).  Anyway, there’s nothing else to report there.  

            So, we pick up our clearance back to Laughlin, and get headed back that way.  Well, sure enough we run right into that line of thunderstorms that we had to dodge on the way into Roswell.   We flew along the outside until we were able to get through in a small hole in the clouds.  Looking back on it, it may have not been the best idea of the day.  Now, we are in-between 2 thunder-cell lines with our backup base (Roswell) and our home base being on the other sides of those thunderstorms.  Not my favorite place to be.  We immediately see that getting back home is not going to be easy, so we call and get a weather update, which of course, gets worse rather than better, and Ft-Worth Center (air traffic control) is not letting us climb any higher due to traffic.   We are stuck.

            A quick note about thunderstorms, they are dangerous and very bad for flying (ie you want to avoid one at all costs).  But another side of the thunderstorms that day was their beauty.  It was very awe-inspiring to be flying around them.  I was constantly amazed by the shapes that were building right before my eyes.  Thunderstorms look very ominous and imposing from the air.  It was like having great gigantic walls being built right next to you, by nature.  The power that they convey in the air is drastically different than on the ground.  On the ground, I have only seen a handful of storms that were as interesting to watch.   I was impressed, and excited to be flying with the storm all around me.  It was a great experience.

            Well, we ended up having to divert to San Angelo, because at the time, that was the only place that didn’t have active thunderstorms overhead.  Besides, we didn’t have enough fuel to be flying around and hoping for it to get better rather than worse.  So we landed without incident, and went inside to see if we were gonna be able to go home that day.  To make a long story short, no, we wouldn’t be able to fly home.  So we grabbed some Chinese food and talked about the flight and what we were going to do to get home on a Friday night.  Well little did I know that driving home also meant the Sup had an extra 3 hours to grill us on our general knowledge of the T-1.  Yahhh!   Wahooo!   It was a long ride home and I was very tired when I got home, 11 hours after we had taken off from Laughlin. 

            I ended up having to study quite a bit over the weekend, because I thought we were going to check this week.  And that’s it, that was my story for last week.