A little update from the Rio! Last I wrote I was just about to start UPT; so I will start back from there. I started UPT and had two days roughly full of briefings where everyone on base came and told us how they support us. At first the briefings seemed unimportant and a waste of time but it wasn’t until the life support briefing that I fully understood the importance of everyone on the base and how lucky I was to be in the position I am in today. If you need anything at all everyone is there to help….if you need a new mask, cool you got a new mask…..need a new visor, cool you got a new visor…you need help with studying or with anything else for that matter, everyone is there to help you! It goes to show that the Air Force takes care of their people, especially their pilots. Well after the two days of “pilot training” I headed up to home (Allen, tx) to see the family. Xmas break was great! I spent a few days in Allen with the family and then we all headed to DC to visit Uncle Will, Aunt Nena, and Kaitlyn for Xmas. To sum up xmas: plenty of drinking, eating/getting fat, getting presents, and spending time with family….everything I wanted it to be. We even got to get some snowboarding time in…..I have improved quite a bit from the last time I went but then again this time I tried to be a little more cautious due to the devastating repercussions had I incurred an injury. Either way, a well needed break before the start. After DC we headed back to Allen to hang out for new years! 2008! Wow I am getting old.
Now I am back in Del Rio and spooling up for the year of my life. When I first got back we checked in on a Thursday which was pretty sweet because it was a half day. We came in at 1:30 and said, hey we’re alive and then we got one briefing and went home. The next day was cool because of pictures, we put on our service dress and took a picture in front of a flag…I don’t know how it turned out yet but it will be interesting to look at years later or even at the end of this year; see how much hair I lost. This past week has been the first real week of pilot training where we actually learned stuff that applied to flight. The first part of phase I is Aerospace Physiology, where we learn everything from our survival equipment to how the body is affected by pressure (i.e. altitude). It is pretty cool seeing everyone interested in what is going on in class and the labs we get to do. We got to get suited up to learn how to strap into the ejection seat/cockpit correctly, we got to light off some signal flares, we got to practice PLF’s (Parachute Landing Falls), we got to practice the barany chair (a spinning chair that is used to disorient you, simulating spatial disorientation), and tomorrow we get to jump into the altitude chamber. The altitude chamber is pretty cool because it simulates being at altitude and shows us our specific symptoms of hypoxia (hypoxia: lack of oxygen to the brain; check out youtube for altitude chamber videos); we pretty much get to get drunk for free or better yet on your! dime. As for the actual academic part of it, its not that hard. We had our first test on Wednesday and 2/3 of the class got a hundred, myself included. Of course Aero Phys is the easiest part of pilot training….it only gets worse from here. This next week we have the FACT (Fighter Air Crew Test) which is a physical test that measures your strength and how well you will do in fighters….so they say (everyone has to do it); shouldn’t be to hard. We also have our Aerospace Physiology test and then we hit systems I….f^&* yeah! 1 ½ weeks down and 4 ½ weeks till we hit the flight line. Training Day 11 and still in pilot training!
