It occurred to me, laying in bed the other night, that I have given very little information about the actual program of UPT in my writings.  I meant for this journal to be less of a day-by-day account of what the program was doing to me at any given time, and more appropriately just record the highs, lows, and some basic info about UPT.  Well, in order to balance the personal assumptions out, here is what has been happening in the program thus far.

    You start out when you get here by basically tying up a bunch of loose ends for a week.  You visit a bunch of different organizations on base, and be assured, you will need about 25 copies of your orders.  Everyone gets a set, it seems like.  You visit the flight doctors, get another Flight 1 physical (it does NOT matter when you got it last, a guy in my class had one, 1 week prior and STILL had to get one again).  Don't worry guys, this is not the "full" physical, luckily you don't get Le Fingre eu de tey Bootis, which was my main concern when they told me that we had to get another physical.  I know, I know, adults shouldn't have such a phobia, but gimme' a break, I don't like things up my rear, sue me.

    You continue to visit all of the Base-ops type establishments (MPF is always fun).  At the start of the next week, you start (or should I say "we") Aerospace Physiology, and that lasts for 2 weeks.  During those 2 weeks you learn about the effects of flight, altitude, decompression, etc on the human body.  You also learn about Land Survival.  Basically, 2 tests, both easy to fail if you don't study or pay attention, but easy on the big scale of things.  A test that you have already taken and passed, is always easier after you have taken it.  You will also Para-sail and sit in the Altitude Chamber (4 of Spades).

    After Aero phys. we started T-37 Systems.  Ahhhh, how I loved it.  I am not a systems-guy, but I busted my hump, paid attention, drew all of the systems out, and passed with a 100%.  Another hint, study.  If you don't study, you're screwed, SIE now.  (Self Initiated Elimination).  You came here to get your wings, so study.  I know the football game is on, but I promise you, you don't get your wings, and you don't have to worry about football games, cause you'll be home every Sunday, waiting for the week to start again as you go to whatever job you get after here.  Being a pilot, to me anyway, sure beats the best football game that I have ever seen. Systems is interesting, and you truly do need to know about the tweet systems to be a better pilot.  You will learn about the hydraulic, electrical, fuel, and Air Conditioning systems.  Those will be the major ones anyway. 

    Then, after you ace the systems test, you start on Flying Fundamentals.  Basically, it's everything they want you to know before going on to flying, that they couldn't find anywhere else to stick it.  Some VOR stuff, some land performance, and a bunch of other crap, that I can't remember.  It's funny, cause I had the test about a week ago and I am drawing a blank about what it was over.  Take-off/Landing data charts are on there too.

    Then, after you ace and forget the Flying Fund. test, you start Aerodynamics.  Fun stuff, alot of stuff you basically already know, but need to polish up on.  Camber, Angle of attack, spins, stalls, etc. 

    Then, you start on Weather, while mixing in some stuff called P-missions.  I am still in Weather right now, so I'll let you know how it goes later, but P-missions are basically just a briefing by an IP or two, who lets you know about Local stuff, like patterns, auxiliary fields, checklists, etc. Kind of interesting, kinda like watching paint dry.  It's not terribly fun for the IP's either because they are briefing you something that you don't understand and that they know is the most basic stuff in the world.  Whatever, it will come to us in time. 

    After Weather, we are slated to hit the Flight-Line, meaning no more of this bull-oney 6 hour days crap, we will be confined, caged, and locked to the flight rooms for a minimum of 12 hours each day.  I will surely write about it in future submissions.  But for now, it is only speculation and I don't wanna write about it, cause I could very well be wrong in what I have heard. 

    So, that would finish off Academics, sort of.  We get a weeks reprieve from "classes" while we adjust to the flight-line and then we start academics up again, with Instruments, Ground Training, or Advanced Instruments.  I don't know which comes first, but I am willing to bet that instruments, comes before Advanced Instruments.  Call it a hunch.  We start simulator rides, late next week.  Should be fun to finally get going in the jet.  I may have less time to write in the journal but infinitely more stuff happening in life.  Sweeeeeet.

Peas out!